Korg AX30G

This machine is quite easy to use after a few uses. It has the IPE editing system so that all effects can be edited "idiot proof" on the spot.

The distortion is extremly good, along with the Flange, Phaser and misc. effects. You may find however that if you turn the chorus on full your guitar will sound out of tune. The noise reduction feature is particularly cool. The wah pedal is a little strange and unnatural if you are used to Crybabys.

Like how others have said, it IS made out plastic. Nuff said.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Overall this thing is great. I'd buy it again in a second. The only thing i don't like about it is the fragility of it.

The unit is a foot pedal mulieffects unit with 50 factory presets and 16 user presets.
50 preset patches allows the unit's full capabilities to be utilised. Many of the presets are outrageous sounds and although cool are not very practical. User patches are easy to operate, 16 in all, arranged into four banks of four effects. Scrolling through the factory presets is easy with the datawheel. Editing programs is straightforward although parameter details are not shown on the unit other than when selected ( Unlike the Boss ME-8 or the Digitech RP-6 etc. The manual is clear and coherent.

Sound quality is excellent. The harmonizer effect is especially powerful and a wide range of distortion sounds is available. The tap delay seemed to lack some volume on the echo although this may have been down to my setup. and the wah was not as distinctive as a 'CRYBABY' but this would not be expected on a mulieffects unit.

The unit is very reliable and it's compactness is a big asset. It is much smaller and lighter than similar units with similar capabilities. Korg seem to place emphasis on size, e.g the pandora box of tricks is amazingly small.
The main LCD display can be viewed at all angles, unlike some such as RP-1 but if all six possible effects are chained together in a programme, only four are visible on the display. The other two have to be scrolled across to using the data wheel. As a stage unit, it would be excellant although the pedals are plastic and will probably not withstand great force.

I would definitely purchase an upgrade to the unit.

The compactness and verstility of the this floor effects processor is it's attractiveness. The sound quality is good and chaining and editing effects is simple. The unit offers a unique IPE editing feature ( idiot proof editing ) allowing beginners to experiment with sounds without the detail of specific parameter settings. some of the presets provided instant inspiration for new ideas but I found myself simplifying effects chains on some of the more 'way out' sounds !!

Programing's a bee-atch if you try to use the manual. Like talking to a Vulcan. Figure it out on your own- it's easier. Once you get the hang of it (which takes all of 10 minutes), it's easy as hell

This is truly a musicians unit. The effects are amazing. Can't imagine a better pedal for the price I paid for it. It's absolutely mind blowing!!!

Plastic-'nuff said

Not applicable

Awesome. Pressure pedal works great, wah is great, the whole thing is great!!!!!!!!!!

Bit tricky to start off with, especially if you are new to the world of processors. Effects are made up of chains, you have to sort of work around these chains to get the overall result you want (it can be done), Once mastered it does allow you to have a LARGE amount of control over parameters.
To be honest I found the manual, at times, to be frustrating. Hard to get to grips with, but makes sense and is easy to use when you know what you are doing.

Great!
I was primarily looking for the reverb in a unit. The Korg allows you a lot of choice, you can (if you want) have anything up to completely saturated reverb. Generally all the effects are of good quality. I would however be pushed to find a use for the HYPER RESONATOR.
The AX30G has input, and output controls. I compared this unit to the Zoom 3030, and felt that the Korg let you have much finer controls over the effects. The Zoom did not allow for a fully saturated reverb sound.

cannot comment here, only had it a while

have had no need

The AX30G has come down a lot in price. #220 was the result of some negotiating, and payment in cash! Good quality effects. Versatile, will allow volume and expression pedals to be fitted. The unit feels more like a serious musicians device rather than a toy (like some others). Would be great with a few more user memories (only 16). LCD is good, you can also name patches.
Everything in this price range is a compromise. I overlooked the RAM limits for good quality sound, and serious versatility. The Korg can compare favourably with individual effects pedals (soundwise)

Pretty easy to use. Very easy to set up 16 presets, a little more time consuming to get to the 50 Presets, but well worth the effort. Chromatic tuner is easy to use. Just step on one pedal(unlike RP5 where you need to step on two at the same time).

Superb. When I first brought it home, I sat down to check to see if everything was working, and I got up three hours later. Great distortion. Good whammy effects and pitch bending. Chorus left a little to be desired, but has some out of this world spacy effects.

Seems to be reliable, though case is plastic and pressure pedal is a bit stiff. Not to easy to use pressure pedal on carpet at home. Needs a solid base to sit on to use it to it's best effect. Would like to have an on/off switch.

Absolutely incredible for the price. I'm a big Stevie Ray fan, and I was thrilled to find a preset named Crossfire that simulates SRV's ballsy blues sound. Pretty close! Love the multiple distortions, also Put it in a metal case with an on/off switch and a better chorus and charge twice as much and it will be a steal!

This unit is very easy to use with two modes of programming, one similar to the AX30's sibling the G3 where you can make small but efficient tweaks, and a second, more detailed mode. The manual is sufficient and explains some features that are not immediately obvious. Presets are good but ultimately for me there is not enough user ram to store patches. You only get 16 spaces.

The unit is very clean and fooled several people I know who saw me using it live. They thought it was a controller pedalboard for a rack unit which says a great deal for the quality of sound. I wish they would have reinforced the case more. It is a little plasticy and creaked a few times in perfomances. Also, the power supply needed external strain relief, nothing that some wood and velcro can't fix. The distortions are very impressive and range from a liquid like sound to soft tube-like amp distortion. The basic chorus, reverb, and so on are all reasonable for the price. I've even used it direct into a mixing board when I needed a distorted vocal track. It stayed noise-free. Lastly the resonant effects are fun but of limited use to most players I used them for some avant-garde music but wondered if they couldn't have implemented better flanging and chorus functions without it. The pitch effects are nice too.

Used it at gigs, was concerned every time I did but nothing bad ever happened.

no need for support

As much as I enjoy it I feel more confident using something more sturdy. For home use it is fantastic. Compared to its competitors I can't think of a unit that sounds better or is more flexible in programming. Also, when used with continious controller pedals you can get very expressive with your sounds. If you can't afford to put a setup together for less than around $750 then this is a very good way to go. The only caviat is how important storing your patches is. And it would have been nice to have midi ports if only to store patches. Highly recommended.

This unit is very easy to use. editing parameters on each effect are a a snap. When I first plugged it in I was at first overwhelmed with the amount of parameters that I could adjust. But after a brief overlook of the manual I was making sounds ranging from downright dirty distortion to warm and clean tones.

This thing makes gives my Strat an attitude!!! I love the distortion, there are 5 different types(Classic,High Gain ,Crush,Hash and Studio) I esecially like the hash distortion. When the gain is turned up to 50 with lots of bass I sound like Billy Corgan.
Flange, Phaser and Chorus sound pretty good too.
But what sets this unit apart from the others that I have seen is that it also has some unheard of effect which I think are really cool Things like a Hyper resonator, Sweep Modulation, Stereo Modulation, and other things that i just cannot remember right now. Your just going to have to check it out yourself. The presets PLANET X, HYPER ZONE best illustrate these "new age" effects.

I'm kind of worried about the pressure pedal. The whole unit is plastic and in order to press the pedal the whole range requires a good deal of force. I haven't had any problems with it but I wouldn't reccomend on using the pressure pedal too much. I'm going to buy an expression pedal as soon as i can in order to bypass the pressure pedal.

I really like this processor. I started playing guitar a year ago so i'm relatively a beginner when it comes to guitar so this unit not only makes me sound better but it also helps my creativity when i'm just messing around. I run the AX30G with a Fender Champion 110 and a Dunlop Crybaby Wah. I think it's the best setup for me right now.

Easy to get at the preset sounds - if you program them into the user 'pedal' banks (you can't access the presets from the pedals). Otherwise you have to twiddle the big knob (ooer) which takes too much time in a gig. Editing is nice and easy. So much so that you know really need the manual much at all. If you do, it's better that a lot of others I've seen.

I use it with an electric guitar, so I can't really say how realistic a sound is. It's been used in a studio once, with a guitar (which was d/i'ed into the desk)- and the engineer said the sound was very "amp like". It's not too noise apart from the flangers and phasers whien you tune the resonance up, but that's to be expected. There is a noise reduction control that you can use to part eliminate this. Distortions/wah are cool (through the violin). The only half bad sounds I would say are the reverbs which are a bit unrealistic.

It's never gone wrong, but the power supply has. (wonky plug).

I'd buy it again, if I wasn't getting an RP10. It's cheap, sound really good, has a built in tuner and pressure pedal. I havn't compared it to anything else really so can't comment.

The AX30G is very easy to use whether it is your first time using it or if you've been using it for years. It has 50 presets to help you get started with your sounds. After that you can modify and create your own 16 sounds. The editing mode is instinctive. I did read through the manual once, but I haven't touched it since.

Sound quality is top-notch. I was impressed that such a tiny little box could put out such high quality sound with little or no noise (The noise reduction is superb). The distortion is really impressive! Usually in these multiple effects units the distortion sounds really cheesy, but this distortion has... shall I say it?... BALLS!

Haven't had a problem yet.

For the price, I don't think that any product on the market can compare. I really like this product because as my musical needs change, this unit can handle the changes I want to make to my sound.

The AX30G is a well-designed processor for straight "out-of-the-box" playing. I didn't have to do much in the way of looking at the manual (which I hate, I love just diving in with both hands). I bought it primarily over anything else because it had solid distortion. Being only exposed heavily to Digitechs before this, I was surprised. I loved the distortion.
Editing the patches on this unit is very intuitive. Sure, it took 30 minutes to get all the menus and such down, but after that I was flying around in those menus. No problem with the editing style. In fact, it's one of the easier learning curves I've had to deal with when it comes to processors.
The manual is decent. There were some things I had to look up (like effects I'd never used before, and the "Individual Mode" which simply eludes you if you don't read the manual), but besides that I read through it once and never touched it again.

Sound quality is excellent. I have done everything from high-gain stage work to a direct-in "space music" type sound right to tape. It sounded great.
I don't like the chorus. My other processor (yes, my *other* processor) is a Digitech RP-1, and my amp is a Fender Ultra Chorus, so I'm very picky. The distortion sounds more like a dedicated detuner/oscillator (which is really what they are) than a stereo-space simulator and a sound widener (which is what it should *sound* like). Like I said though, I've had no problems because I'll just run it mono through the Ultra Chorus in a pinch. But the chorus is really my only complaint on sound.
The delays are really nice. I'm a delay freak and I absolutely love them. The "ducking" option is really nice (ducking controls leakage of delay while you're still playing and lowers the volume of the delay until you stop playing). The ability to change delay tempo with the Pressure pedal is also an excellent idea. I also love the random step filter. I won't really be able to apply it unless I become the next Trent Reznor, but it's nice to have that headroom. :-)

The power transformer is flimsy and I worry using it at *home*. Seriously, before playing out a lot with it I'll probably find a way to reinforce it. Besides the power cable, the only backup I'd want on stage is the distortion/chorus stompbox that came with my amp. But I can reliably use it without worry, and I have.

I was very excited to get this processor. I love it. It very rarely lets me down in any way, and it's got a lot of features that I'd just written off *ever* being in a processor after seeing other ones. I wish it had a better chorus, then I could sell my RP-1 ;-). It actually has helped me ochestrate pieces of music better than just sitting around with an acoustic. All in all, a great little processor. I'm currently recommending the AX30B to my bass player.