Korg AM8000R

I found it really easy to get to grips with. The whole editing scheme is menu based and once know you way around (a day or two tops) you can fiddle to your hearts content. Sound level stuff is done with knobs on the front (always good). The only real complaint is that routing is sometimes not imediatley obvious. I remember the manual being good when I first got the unit but since I no longer know where it is I think we can assume I've learnt what I need to know about it.

I play industral ambient sort of stuff (think Zoviet France,Dead Voices on air, Autechre) and I find it supereb as a sound design tool. I suspect it wouldn't be that great as a straight forward effects unit - it has far too much character of its own. Its pretty clean but you can make noisy settings if you aren't paying attention. Its being used as a send/return off my mixer right now and it gets used on 90% of my recorded output. One of the things it is great at is modified effects - seems like most effects types have an LFO lurking in them. It also has some great guitar/distortion type stuff - I can get a combination of it and my Waldorf pulse does a scarily good electric guitar type sound. My mate was around the other night with his acoustic and I discovered a whole lot of other things it could do as well.

No problems so far - couldn't imagine gigging without it right now.

Never tried

I love this box - its not a straight forward "this is my only effects box" kind of unit though. If you are into sounds (texture quality) then this is worth a look. The presets it comes with are good quality and I am glad they are in ROM - they make good starting points for programming it. I would certainly buy it again without question. The only improvments I would make would be to make the routing a little clearer but its not a big issue.

You know, every review I have ever read about this machine has been very good, except they always talk about the user interface being cryptic. Well, this is bullshit. At the very outset it was confusing, but if you simply glance at the manual for half a second, it becomes very easy to use and edit. No problem. Poo on you, reviewers!

I have my AM in my mixer's FX loop. NO noise at all, the FX are awesome! I have a Korg Trinity synth, and the FX in the Trinity are the exact same ones in the AM, I'm sure it's the exact same chipset. I bought this unit to be my all in one multi-FX unit, with an emphasis on delays and heavy phasing. I wanted that deep barfing Boss phaser sound, and I have been able to tweak the AM to do the same thing. All of the FX are kick ass, sound great, there's so many of them. Weird stuff like ring mod and talking modulator, and you can set the flangers and phasers to a sample/hold LFO, which really f**ks stuff up good. The great thing is, these are the kind of FX you use to totally destroy a sound, they are not just complimentary FX like Lexicon stuff...

Well, I did blow my power supply (wal wart, not internal) the first day I had it, but I believe that was due to a power spike. I bought a power conditioner, and have had no problems since... I use everything I own without a backup. Come to think of it, I hadn't ever thought of the concept of backing anything up until I started reading these reviews? I mean, who can afford two of everything?...

I was promptly sent a new power supply, but other than that, I have had no need for any support. Like I said before, the thing is easy to use.

I play space rock and techno, and this unit is perfect for me. It makes my effect-less Korg Mono/Poly explode in cosmic super-nova fury. I mean, the thing has 3 expression pedal inputs and MIDI control. If you don't think it has enough control, you're on crack. The only other machine I would liken it to is the Boss SE-70. If you get a Korg AM8000R, you will love it.

The Operating System is basically simple. There are only two operating knobs: Function (parameter) and Value. Value scrolls patches and parameter values, and Function opens up and scrolls thru parameters. As it scolls thru the list of all the editing options (like MIXER, for example), it often displays a little logo that means "press the knob to see a new list of related sub-parameters" (like, in MIXER, the level and pan of each tap); press again to return to the main list. For whatever you're parameter you've scrolled to, the Value knob will change the values, obviously. Press the Value knob to save the setting or compare. That's it. Surprisingly, the AM is much easier to use than the identically-configured DL8000R (also reviewed...), because even tho it has many more parameters and options, there are far fewer top-level options: PreEQ, fx1, fx 2 (both can select from the complete list of fx), fx3 (onmly dedicated delay/reverb options), routings, and mixer. I found you can get around much more easily, and get the map in your head faster.

Clean, HI-FI, Sounds great... I think it's an EXCELLENT noise partner once you've got the basics covered. I suppose it's fine, too, as a basic chorus/reverb/delay, but I'd probably go for a Lexicon MPX100, if all I needed was meat'n'potatoes fx. If you want to explore freely-configurable routings, unique sample-hold filter blips and sweeps, multiple spiralling pitch-shifts, clanky phasing and resonant flanging, lo-fi multi delays, ring modulation, Doppler sweeps, and vowelly formant filtering, it's a poor-man's FireworX (minus the synth and vocorder). It's even a lo-budget Eventide, IMHO. I've got a GTR4000, and this little guy can match many of the 4000's more delightful delayed-pitch effects, with no obvious glitching...and it's WAY easier to program. One really cool effect I've found is to set the step-phaser to slowly click up and down thru several distinct resonant pitches and apply this to an external rhythmic delay loop (the delay times in the AM max at 511ms, or 1023ms in mono, so you can't do much looping "in-house"), so it sounds like the loop is cycling thru a kind of always-related chord progression. It's a definite sfx power house, hampered in my opinion by having no global lfo. There IS a dedicated lfo built into some of the fx modules, but almost every parameter can be modulated, so it's a shame there aren't more built-in, always-available controllers, beyond MIDI and the 3(!) control-pedal jacks (and the front-panel "warp" knob, which is essentially useless if you're playing an instrument at the same time). btw, Korg swears you need KORG EXP-2 pedals for these jacks...
I've far from fully explored the range of all the fx blocks, but so far the Doppler effect and Talking (formant) filter both seem pretty tame...not as dramatic as I'd like, and the ring mod is a little one-dimensional, but everything else is very impressive and can get seriously out of the "normal" range. I'm not a critical fan of analog-type, lo-fi delays, or of rotary simulations, so I can't comment on these features, which are obviously things the designers hoped would impress about this piece. The mixing options for the 3 blocks and the global pre-EQ are very comprehensive, once you get 'em figured out; looks like you can set up every shade between total series and total parallel routing, and completely separate the left and right paths.

No problems in the first month.

Easy to get thru to Korg tech Support by phone, but haven't needed to with this product yet...

I LOVE it, for effecting loops and my guitar and VG-8 based free improv's. Best Special FX under $400, for sure, as far as I can tell.