Korg AX3000G

I had absolutely no trouble getting great tones from this multieffects unit. Editing and making your own patches is easy. The manual for the AX3000G explains how to use everything, how to use the ESS and assign steps for it, etc. The unit is very good and easy, and the manual is just as good, and easy to understand.

I can get the sound of probably any artist from this unit. I haven't tried everyone out and try to get their tones, but it's really good for Death, Thrash, Power, Black, and Speed Metal. The cleans are also very good. The only effect I don't like at this point because of the presets on the unit (and thus haven't messed with it yet because of my dislike for it) is the Synth. All of the other effects were very nice and impressive to me. I really loved how warm all the effects were. They weren't cold at all, but I'm sure you could get cold from it. I use an Ibanez SZ320 Goldtop or Hamer Vector Flametop flying V for guitars. I tune these from Eb-C standard, and I use a Peavey Rockmaster 120w Tube head. If it is noisy, that just means I don't have the Noise Reduction unit on, in which case, it is turned on, and properly set up so it doesn't sound unnatural. The effects are generally great, but Synth does sound weak, perhaps I am not using it right. I'll have to mess with it a bit. In the loop, I put my Ibanez Weeping Demon Wah, DS1, Rocktron Metal Planet and Rocktron Rampage sometimes for different things. I may assign the expression pedal to something other than a wah, then I've got it in the loop. Also, I've got a DS1 for overdrive, and I've got the other two distortions for if I bypass the Drive/Amp model, or use a cleanish or slightly overdriven model. Then I can have a variable dist depending on how it's setup. Very versatile for my uses and purposes of the pursuit of as many tones as possible.

I'm not entirely sure yet, we'll have to see how it runs in the longrun.

I have yet to deal with the support, but I think I might ask them something and see how they respond/how long it takes.

I play metal, and the unit does it amazingly. But, I had a blues/rock guitarist play with it, and he also liked it. I could get a few jazz tones, amazing cleans, so it's quite versatile. I'm sure what you put into it, and what it puts it's signal out of have a lot to do with tone, I bet. If it were lost or stolen, I'd definitely buy another one, especially if it was more moderate in price (from making another one more than likely.) I love all of it's features, all the models and effects, the noise reduction, the headphone jack for quiet practice, the 'individual' mode so that programs act like a separate rig like a line of stompboxes, and I was especially amazed by the expression pedal/Expression Step Sequencer system. Like said above, I don't like the Synth as of yet, and hopefully with time, I will figure it out and atleast find it useful for one thing. I compared this with the AX1500G, Behringer V-amp Pro, and Line 6 Pod 2/FloorPOD. I considered these others because of at that price range, they were the best. I later got the $70 more for the Korg AX3000G, and I'm glad I chose this.
I wish it had drum patterns or a metronome, to play to in rhythm. This helps me play music because I don't have to keep messing with knobs to get my tones. I just change patchs, and maybe go to Individual, switch on/off a mod or reverb, turn on the insert loop. Everything is very useful and the unit is very musical and warm without being muddy.

Generally very east to get to grips with and a decent manual to let you know about the more advanced features

personally i didn't buy this for use with a guitar, and as such its pretty horrible. I've never been a fan of 'modelled' effects anyway, and this is no exception. the distortions in particular have a very digital 'hiss' to them which to me sounds very unnatural. The reverbs and delays fare much better, but these are traditionally very well created digitally anyway. Most of the effects are fairly extreme and is thus great for routing synths and samples through which is what i bought it for. Great for experimenting with new ideas and adding new layers of sound, and often pleasantly unexpected results. Used in this way the effects sound great, not dissimilar to the effects you get in other korg gear such as the electribe sx.

So far!! I've not had it long, but it feels very solidly built. The parameter knobs are a little shonky though...oh yeah, and korgs power supplies are awful

Korg are a pain in the arse in my opinion when i've dealt with them in the past. To be fair they've fixed things pretty efficiently (but then claimed there was nothing wrong, so i never found out what the problem was to rectify it in the future)

I bought this because I wanted a floor based midi controller, and this cost me the same (as behringers) with a rather good effects unit thrown in. Not bad, and overall i'm very pleased with it

This unit is well worth the cash I spent! All the sounds are top notch and easy to use. Editing could be a little more detailed but, I'm Anal! The manual is fine if needed however, I have found that experimenting with the unit gives better insight to all its potential.

I find most all the sounds and tones very good.I am a classical guitar major with a minor in classical piano so the ESS is a little out there for me.I am however not bound to classical music alone but enjoy smooth jazz,rock,metal,ect.I am using the AX3000G through a Crate GT200DH head with 4x12 cab flat as it gets! Primary Guitars are Schecter C1 Classic quilt top,Schecter Omen 6, Ibanez custom Iceman with DiMarzio XL's, cheap strat copy (This unit makes this guitar sound great!)and Two hand made classical guitars one is accoustic/electric.

I do depend on it at church as I am on the worship team and as for gigging with it, I trust it completly!

N/A

I am a guitarist of over 20 years and have found this unit to be well suted to my needs. I don't hate anything about this unit but not all functions are useful for me.The other products IE Digitech,Boss ,POD,ect just didn't have what I needed. It does take a little time to experiment as I said before but well worth the time spent! If you take the time you will find what you are looking for!!!!

I bought this unit as my Boss GT3 is getting iffy, after about 6 or 7 years of faithful service. It's been a great processor, but I figured I would try something different. I've tried Line 6, Yamaha, Tri Ac, Digitech, etc, in my search for a replacement. This new Korg has some good amp sims, editing is very easy, the manual is easy to follow and informative. But as far as a replacememnt for GT3? NO WAY! The Boss is miles ahead of the Korg, and now that I have made it past the learning curve, the Korg jsut seems inferior. It felt like somewhwere between an instrument and a toy. Although, some may like it as it is very easy to navigate and does sound good.

I'm not trying to copy any particular artist with whatever processor I use. I've been playing for 43 years, and have used some good amps. As far the effects on the AX3000G, they are good. The reverbs are limited, but you can find something useable. The choruses are lush and sweet, and the delay is very good. I didn't try any of the more exotic effects, so I really can't comment. But I found the meat and potatoes effects are decent. I play with NO amp. I always go PA only, so a good amp and speaker sim is vital. What bothered me the most about the Korg, is that EVERY amp sim on it has a kind of simulated tube noise or hiss that seems to be built in. The noise gate only makes it go away in between music or when not playing. As soon as you hit a note, there's the hiss. NO GOOD! The reason I use processors in the first place is the get a good PURE sound. Not possible with this unit.

The unit seemed trustworthy, but part of it is plastic, the power supply is the wall wart type with a skinny cord, unlike the Boss and Line 6 products that are very sturdy and solid. It didn't seem as solid as my GT3 which, as I stated before, has given me 6 or 7 years of faithful service.

I haven't dealt with Korg on product suppot, so I couldn't say.

I play a bluesy edgy rock style like the more raucus side of Clapton on a Tele. I've been playing for 43 years, and cut my teeth on The Beatles, Stones, Cream, Hendrix. I own several processors, and have tried most of the popular brands. Compared to the Boss products, the Ax3000G is limited and toy like. I would not try it again.

First of all, I'm from Germany so don't worry bout the grammar... maybe it's bad in some sentences.

Well, the first day I owned this gear I already got a killer sound out of it. It's VERY easy to create your own style: cycle throug the sounds, put up to 5 different effects together, manipulate them a bit and save them on one of.. erm... forgot how many slots there were, but I think around 100. The manual - never really needed it. If you know what words like "delay" or "reverb" mean you surely won't need it either.

The pedal has an extra bar with lamps that show in which position the pedal is, so if you want to keep it in aq certain position you just need to remember the lamps and you can exactly put it back in that position, which is also helpful on gigs where the stage light is not very good. Also there is a tapping function for the delay effect, so if you have a song and want to make the delay sound in a special speed you just need to tap in the right speed on that button and can start immediately, which I think is very cool.

If you wan't sounds in the Metal/Rock/Punk - direction, I can give 10 points. The only thing that the AX300G needs bit more fine tuning in is some kind of "smooth" jazz or blues sound, it can happen that it sounds a bit too strong, but it's really not too annoying. I use a Hughes&Kettner triplex and haven't had any noise problems yet, just the high gain settings of course are a bit noticeable once in a blue moon.

I definetly depend on it, it is very solid-built and there are no plastic parts except the buttons. I think I would use it without a backup, but my amp also has some effects so I can't honestly tell ;-)

One time my AX3000G broke because of an electrical accident in my home town, so the gear is not to blame for this. I contacted Korg and sent the gear to them to prepair it and got it back fast in as-good-as new condition.

If you play heavy music I can only recommend to buy it, but if you want to play Jazz for example you should test it before. Yes, I would buy it again if it was stolen, because I just love the distortion and the delay sounds. I also love that it that is easy to use and that ist is very solid. It is really built for live performances, but if you mainly do studio work I don't think this is your number one choice because it has not as many extra things do experiment with as others have. But still it has many many features which should be more than enough for every gig.

Lets start with the interface : It was very easy to create sounds, well,I had a GSP 2101 from digitech and it was hard to make programs, so I'm really happy that the toneworks is so easy to use. I've read the manual and I've found easily ''what to do and how to do it''.

For the sound, well depending of the setup you've got, It can be long...with my setup, its took a couple of hours of testing and playing, till I have obtained ''the sound'' with my toneworks, my valvetronix and my other gear...

It sounds so good : no noise, a very good sustain,models sounds good,really cool cabinet emulation,...

You can put the gain to 10,on the Metal distortion and you will get all the sustain you've ever wanted and thus, no noise!!

Models sounds great. Its sounds great when you have found the right sound, but its long, believe me, its worth the time I've took on it to find my sound.

I use it with a Vox Valvetronix(AC15 preset) with a Vox bryan may special to boost the distortion(for extreme music,you will need a little punch more), I play black metal alike Immortal,Burzum...etc.

I used the following presets on my gear:
Toneworks: metal distortion with AC15 cabinet
Vbm1:full gain
Valvetronix:AC15 preset

with the presets like this, it sounds totally great,no noise;except when stop playing,but while playing there is no noise.

I'm not really into effects but, the wah is really great,very easy of use, and I prefer it to my crybaby... The reverbs sounds great,they're really reproducing well the contexts wich they are reproducing.

It seems solid, well, like every piece of gear...I think you must be careful with it. I'm not afraid of carrying it with me everywhere, I think its enough solid.

I've got it today, never buyed something from the company...

Well, I had a GSP 2101, I was waiting for it, till it get fixed but my dealer couldn't get the part to fix it so, they gave me this one.At first start..I was not sure if It was good or bad,I never read reviews about it,never heard the sounds it produces,etc. So I was happy cause it was a well complete processor with amp and cab emulation; something I was searching for on a processor...Well now I'm really happy of having this one,I would exchange it for nothing else. Its definitely better than a GSP2101, so it was a good deal.It can do all styles I think, but, me , I play alike norwegian black metal, and It can do the job well.
You will need to play a lot with it to get your sound but it worths the hours spent on it, for the sound i've obtained in result.

This review is only for players that like the ?old? tones and are for example into Jazz or Blues.
Now I play guitar for over 30 years, which doesn?t mean I?m a good player, but I developed some ears for sound (I own a small recording studio to)
So If you are into hardrock, punk or rock and you like the modern distortion sounds of today, then don?t use this review.

First after putting all settings right (line out instead of amp simulator) and putting all effects of and tweak the volume setting so it has the same output as if you would play without te pedal you notice that it really takes of far to much of the original amp sound. I play Fender tube amps and for blues I use a kitty hawk tube amp. It?s not a little bit that disappears IT?S A LOT!. If you like your original sound and you depend on it, then you will not like this pedal only for that reason to start with.
All the nice tube ?twinkling? is gone. High disappears, and both amps don?t sound ?open? anymore. A true bypass switch (which none off all the multi- effects I ever used, have) would solve this problem.
By the way, complaining by users for years and years (all kind of brands) does not seem to help. Most multi-effects have that problem, but this for a starter is far below the acceptable and noticeable more then other multi-effect pedals.

Second, if you are into recording and you like to use it in pre-amp mode(it has 3 ?amp? settings that only work if you use the cabinet simulator to), forget it. The pre-amps suck.
Forget recording directly in your mixing-console or soundcard. (You get a kind of bumping sound with it, high not well balanced and bumping in the low mid) I compared it with a Yamaha magic stomp that I bought 1 year ago (thinking of only using it for it reverbs, which by the way aren?t that good as reviewers said it would be). But by accident I found out that this baby (the Yamaha) really has ?killer? preamps for that job, from clean to warm and jazzy to a Texas blues sound.
So no direct recording with the Korg AX3000g, if you are into serious recording sound wise.

Now the good part
If you forget the preamps (including cabinets and distortions) this unit really shines with some effects, specially the good ?old? ones with that nice analogue warm sound, they are top notch and better then the same effects in many other multi-effects I ever heard.
My favourites are:

The filtron (a kind of autowah) is 10 out of 10 (in sound and in the way you can tweak it too your liking) Use it for the old Herbie Hancock stuff or funkstuff with that old 60/70 sound. (Meters, Parlement, George Clinton), or the new modern poppy jazzy songs that need that little bite to it

Chorus is a 9 out of 10 (really warm, a lot of tweaking possibility?s and a lot of different tastes, no digital art effects what so ever, if you like chorus, you will not be disappointed.

Flangers en Phasers are 8,5 out of 10 same comment as the chorus. (If you like Hendrix, you can make a very nice sounding univibe with it ).

Tremolo is a 8 out of 10, if you own a twin or an other fender amp with tremolo you probably use that, but if you don?t have it, it?s pretty oke. Not that real thick, thick stuff of the original, but fairly close and now digital art effects (the sweep from low amplitude to high has a little bit of a square touch to it. Hardly noticeable but that?s why I give it an 8 and not a 9)

Delays: 9 out of 10
All delays are very very good, although I miss the option of tweaking the low ends of the feedback.
Fairly said, also no digital art effects, and you can make nice analogue delays. (Each feedback-sweep takes a little bit more high-ends away).

Wahwah (voxsimulation) 7 out of 10.
Much better then the ?cheese thing? of the Korg Ax1500g, which was completely useless if you are familiar with the real stuff.
You can tweak the maximum opening of the filter (pedal in flat top stand) and you can tweak the maximum closing of the filter (pedal in maximum downstand), with this options you can make a decent wahwah, though you can not tweak the q- factor nor the frequency of the filter and that gives it a 7 instead of an 8.
Fortunately the frequency and q factor are well chosen.
Anyway you can make a decent nice warm wahwah that has no harshness to it, so it?s not a real Vox (fairly close), but a very nice wah with it?s own character, good for mellow warm stuff.

Reverb
Now hear I?m a little bit confused and don?t know really what to say about it.
All reverbs when you dial them in are with to much low ends. (Compared with the spring reverb of my fender which I like very much) Now you can tweak that and also the high-ends but if you do that you will find that even the longest reverb is not that long.
They are still long enough, like the springreverb of my fender but then you will find that you want to tweak the mids also (to much mid to my liking and compared with the real stuff) and that is not possible.
Still I managed to make a couple of reverbs that are very useable on stage and they sound good and very clear and ?open? (not fender though) No hissing in the tail or strange sounds or frequencies in the tail which problems you often find in a cheap reverb . Korg has had always trouble with the reverbs in all of there multi-effects and this is the best one I ever heard from Korg (much better then the ax1500g or older pedals)
So I give it a 7 out of 10, because it has a little bit to much mids and the maximum reverb time is to short.

Octaver: 9 out of 10
Good tracking, and fairly growling sound (a bit like the old boss octaver)

Pitchshifter: 8 out of 10
If you want to play the solo from ?Owner of a lonely heart? (Yess - Trever Horn) you can do it with this thing. Good tracking.

That?s about the sounds. (I?m not going to comment the specific hard rock things this pedal can do, read the other comments for that)

Then there?s a guitar tuner, which does what it supposed to do (good tracking, also the high thin strings), although I?m pretty sure that if you play in the daytime outside and the sun is shining, you will not see a thing on the display.

The way it?s build. Well I did not open it yet. These days most electronic devices the way they are built use a print as basis and they solder everything to it, including plugs and knobs.
That means that if something breaks (your input for example) it?s a pain to repair.
At least they used the Fender type in and output plugs, although not in metal but the plastic ones. No friction with this type of plugs (normally) or making bad contact after a while.
Although make sure nobody will step on the jackend of your guitar cable where it goes into your Korg. If the inputs and outputs are soldered to the print (and I bet, that they are) they will break or more likely, you will damage the inside electronics. (Tip, use angled jacks on your cables where they go into your Korg)

For the rest, very well built (much better then the ax1500g for example) nice control pedal (very heavy built, with a nice sweap), it feels like it will last. And it looks gorgeous in black, with all that little lights which all by the way have there useful functions.
This also brings me to the last part.

This pedal is very easy to tweak, you can use the software, but after reading the manual (for some small basic things that you have to understand) you are dialling in your own sounds in minutes and store them. If something is tweakable while making sounds the lights will show which knobs are there for tweaking and they blink after you changed values. Very very well done (in fact they already started with this concept in earlier tone works pedals, but here the concept became close to it?s final stage)
Must give it a 10 for that.

What I like also, is the fact that you can use it stompbox wise. In other words if you choose a program, with one click of your feat you can change it?s behaviour and put it in a different mode where you can switch of or on the five main effect blocks.
1 pr fx, which holds for example the wah and octaver.
2 Drive/amp, which holds distortions and cabinets (I probably will find one effect in this section that is useable for crunch, although I don?t like this section for a bit, as said before)
3 Modulation
4 Delay
5 Reverb

If you want to use it like that, the trick is to tweak all effects till you like them individual as well as in a certain chain. When you are ready, then put off all individual effects and store your program.
Now if you choose this particular program and go into ?stompboxmode? you have five different boxes you can switch on. (and off)

Final conclusion.
As mentioned before, there are some serious problems.
To much loss of the originally sound of your amp (way, way to much).
No good pre-amps (I know what I?m talking off)
Very, very weak distortion section if you are Mr. (Or Mrs.) Analogue.

On the other hand, it has a lot of real shining old sounding effects if you are Mr. (Or Mrs.) Analogue.

I?m waiting for the Korg Ax4000g, which all the improvements it needs (yeah I like to record without an amp, and I need at least one good distortions in a multi-effect, this one has none for my needs)

I give it an overall mark of 6 (I know that that is low), because those pre-amps, the distortion and lose of sound in ?bypass? mode. In fact I?m not sure I will use it on stage for that last reason, because I like to play my amp clean as well. So or I?m going to built a kind of a/b switch, so I can bypass this unit or I will drop it on E-bay and tell potentional buyers to look on Harmoney Central for reviews, hoping they don?t read this one and know it?s me they are buying it from.
Come on Korg you are almost there, I prefer to pay 50 dollars more for the ultimate, then ending up with this mixed feelings.

The guitarman.

Intuitive, absolute ease of use. Edition of patches is trivial. Most intuitive interface i've ever seen. The manual is OKAY, but u will seldom need it.

i use standard USA stratocaster and fender twin reverb amp. This fx processor is not noisy at all. Besides, it includes a Noise Gate, which i have never needed. most of the effects sound great. rich, high quality.
you can get the sound u wish, from pink floyd to radiohead, from led zeppelin to red hot chilli peppers, jazz, funky, metal, whatever you want. it has total wide sound spectrum at max quality. maybe extreme metal fans would need an enhanced distortion kit...

its solid, reliable. i dont think you can damage it easily.
i use it with no backup.

korg is a serious firm, their support is always ACE. And there is a yahoo group for their community to share patches and so on.

http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/korg_ax3000G/

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ax3000G/

perfect way for the users to be connected

i play a wide spectrum from jazz to indie pop/rock and classic rock. i've been playing for more than 10 years, and i really love this unit. if it were lost, i'd defo replace it. its the best fx-processor ive seen, for its price is excellent. better sound than BOSS units. this unit has an ESS sequencer, which is a strange and weird feature in the beginning, but useful if u learn to use it.

it's not so easy to use, to get the sound you need you have to sit on it for about 30min or so.

the patchswitch ist not easy, you have to selecht your patchnumber, and then you have to selecht a patchbank.

Im using an ESP M250 and a peavey poweramp.

THis pedal sucks fpr metal, meta dist, US Modern oder Uk Modern sucks a lot, not good for metal. very fuzzy...

For blues and rock ist good enough.

cleanund the whole cabinetshit sucks also, the EQ ist not effektive enough.


noise gate ist good, but makes your sound shorter. if you want to hold the sound fur 5 sek, the noise gate will short the sound down to 2.3 sekonds.


the VOX wahwah ist the only thing that i enjoy at this pedal, its like a VoX wahwah pedal.

ESS , modulations, Echo und reverb aber also very good.

i give it an 7, because has good modulations und ESS work well,noisegate make the sound shorter and because its good vor rock blues, pop, punk etc... but not for metal.

If you want a metal sound go and buy a randal or a engl preamp.

You know ist not bad..but you can have the same sound with an g1 oder RP80.

300€ to much for this pedal. for 350 you get an randall and sounds much better than this pice of ....i don't know how i shout name it

Extremely easy to get almost any sound you want in a very short time (best with the computer SW for editing). Depends on your guitar, used amp and speakers. Very intuitive and simple. Manual contains clear and short info - all you need.

I play Strat copy with mid class pickups H-S-H and I was pretty surprised with the sound - I had POD2 before and I thing that AX3000G models are far far better (to my ears:) The point is NOT to use standard guitar equipment (tube amps,boxes etc. - as described with PSA1 and other modellers). The best sound you get with combo for an acoustic guitar (as I do) or with any "flat" PA amp and speaker - let the modelling do its job. I use the Trace Acoustic combo (which is the smallest 50W in the world, I think :) and all the sounds from crystal clean to "metal apocalypse" are amazing.

It looks pretty solid and heavy - designed for stage. No problem. Only the PSS is a crap for nothing - the parametric EQ (for instance)should serve MUCH better.

Don't need

As for the value/money ratio I give 10. This time it would be hard to find such a sound and simplicity for this money. Howgh