Is the pocket POD decent?

[stevoc]

I also have one and like others say, it's good for playing around the living room or you bedroom when you don't want to disturb others. I find many of the tones somewhat muddy though. Also, I found manually editing the pocket pod patches to be quite cumbersome, but the editing software is very simple.

I personally like the korg pandora px4d. It has some great sounds, plus built in rhythm tracks to play along with. The downside to it is that there is no usb port, so all editing is manual. But, the editing on the px4d is super simple.

I had a px5d and returned it. They took away some of the simple manual editing features and found the software to be difficult to work with. Plus, I just liked the sounds of the px4d more.

Overall, I think the px4d is better build, (doesn't feel like cheap plastic like the pod) has better clean and high gain sounds (clear, not muddy) and is easier to edit. It also has a mp3 in port to play along with your favorite tunes. It has what's know as a phrase trainer which allows you to change the pitch of the song from your mp3 without changing the speed. It's ok, but not great.

My vote: the korg pandora px4d. They're going for a buck fifty now at most online stores.

If anyone's interested, earlier this morning I wrote a little comparison for another site regarding this same topic:

http://forum.thestompbox.net/showthread.php?t=6870&page=2

I'll post it right after this on a new window.

Thanks

[stevoc]

Taken from the link in my previous post:

Similarities:
All three units have and mp3 input, headphones output, simple user interface, built in patches that can be edited. All units also run on four batteries, either AAA or AA. All units also offer a wide variety of effects, such as chorus, flanger, wah, noise gates, etc. They also offer different modeling amps and cabinets.

Patches:
Both the pp and the px4d have similar sounding patches. I think the px4d patches sound a little crisper through headphones, however. The px4d has more preset and user configurable patches. The px5d patches sounded more muddy to me than those of the px4d.

Connectivity:
The pp and px5d both have mini usb ports for connection to a pc. The px4d does not have a usb port.

Editing and software:
I will break this down into two catagories, manual and software editing...

Manaul editing:
As far as editing the patches on the units themselves, the px4d is the easiest to edit hands down. Changes on the px4d are easily made and the process flow is straight forward. The pp and px5d manual editing is somewhat cumbersome, actually quite difficult.

Software editing:
This is where the pp really shines. The software for the pp is very easy and straight forward to use. Although there is a little bit of a learning curve to it and the manual should be read, once learned, editing is simple. The px5d editing software, however, is another story. It is quite difficult to use and understand. I gave up on it within a few hours. The px4d does not offer software editing.

Built in recordings:
The px4d and px5d both have back up rhythems installed to allow practicing to different beat styles. Many of the recordings can be chained to allow for longer playing. The pp offers no built in recordings.

Issues:
Here are some of the things I found with the different units I didn't like:

pp: as mentioned, manual editing is quite difficult. If for some reason you should not be able to edit your patches via the usb conneciton, you're pretty screwed. Also, the pp seems to not remember volume levels when changing between patches. The volume is always maxed on the new patch and needs to be adjusted by adjusting the external volume knob when changes are made.

px4d: again, no usb port. This isn't a huge deal since editing patches directly from the unit is very simple.

px5d: alot of the built in patches sounded muddy to me. In know they are suppose to be the same as the px4d (with additions), but I just didn;t care for them. Also, I think with the addition of the usb port, korg has taken away some of the ease of manually editing patches or changing amp and cabinet models.

All in all, I don't think you can go wrong with the px4d or the pocket pod. They both have alot in common and both have different things they offer. Because of this, I kept both. I have returned my px5d because of the muddiness and the difficulty of using the software. It just didn't offer enough change from my px4d to keep it.