| The Korg AX30G Page How I Programmed the Korg AX30G |
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The Korg ToneWorks Ax30G was a Digital Multi-Effects processor and semi-proto "Amp Modeler" released by Korg in 1995. It features 50 pre-made presets, and 16 user presets. It also is one of the earliest multi-effects processors to have amp modeling built in in the form of "tube types" for the distortion, and one of the earliest with a built-in expression pedal (in this case, a spring loaded, normally full up potentiometer pushed by a spring loaded footswitch that matches the rest on the board).
Patches can only be edited manually, as there is no USB or MIDI Support built in. It also features the ability to plug in 2 potentiometer-type expression pedals for volume and parameters, output to an amplifier or headphones in mono or stereo, and an auxilary input (with hardware loopback) to allow playing along with tapes/cds/records without boethering anyone through headphones, or possibly sending devices through the amplifier clean through it (like cheap keyboards). It also features analog volume and input gain controls that are global allowing for analog, real-time editing of the I/O signals without having to resort to the patch editor to do it. It also has a green, backlit LCD, and patches can now be named with text characters rather than just patch/bank coordinates. It uses a "Grid System" type storage like the ME-6, Behringer V-Amp, and HD500 do. I personally used one of these from 2001 to 2003 in the Montgomery/Opelika based Nu-MEtal band Lithium. The AX30G took over as my primary distortion unit after I got it added to my rig. Both pedals were presents from other members. I used it till it died in early-mid 2003 from cat pee (it was replaced by a DigiTech RP-200A), after doing a modification that allowed it to use regular pedal-style footswitches for patch changes (I should have rehoused the unit at that point). It was most notably used for the Wah Wah effect on "Babylon".Modifications At one point my mom's cats peed in the unit I had, and while it still worked, I used it for awhile with a modified set of footswitches attached to plastic plates bolted to the top of the pedalboard. In some ways, I wish I'd revised this and made it more live-worthy and kept the pedal. Seems this might be a way to go with some of these older multi-effects units if they have non-working footswitches and you don't have any surface tactile switches, or the traces are chewed up and you want something more robust and easily replaced (if you play in rough dive-bar places like I have). Editing Presets Almost all of the presets are edited using the huge Jog Wheel to navigate, and an enter button, plus the push buttons underneath the display. Preset Management & Glitching The User/Presets to get more Patches The AX30G consists of 16 User Patches, and 50 Factory Presets total. The idea I think, was to maybe save a few bucks in the execution of this product by offering a reasonable amount of space for the user, but making the pre-installed patches unreplaceable so if you were to sell the unit, they did not need some huge recovery ROM. DigitTech did this practice with their devices as well. However, there was a way to glitch the system to save presets. I think it was done by selecting a user preset, editing it, and then managing to roll the jog wheel back to one of the built-in ones while saving, and save as those. However, it was not always reliable. I think I had a total of about 26 user presets on mine that way. It may have been an easter egg installed by Korg though, to aid in adding more presets, so I usually left a user-preset patch free so I could do this. Effects Glitches One of the things I did a lot with these early MFX devices, and kind of a key to my sound when I was in Lithium, was glitching out the presets so I could get crazy noises. Some of these may be inaccurate as I'm recalling all of this from memory as I no longer have tha AX30G. At the most basic, there was a Random Step Generator effect that I had. It sort of sounded like the Electronics Level from Donkey Kong Jr (bleepbloopbleepybloopybloopbleep) - except the cool thing here was there was no actual rhythmic integrity when I set it a certain way....and hitting the guitar strings made it go nuts! I threw a ring modulator on top. This patch was nicknamed "Kick R2-D2" - because one time I kicked this up at rehearsal on some crazy thing we were jamming on and he said "dudeness...sounds like you kicked R2-D2 and now he's mad!". And hence, "Kick R2-D2" was born. Throwing that Ring Modulator on it made it sound even crazier....like the same sound, but on shrooms', and a bit more nightmare-esque....either that or Han spilled his scolding hot coffee on R2, LOL! Another patch from memory that I had that was really cool, but never really got to use, was a really cool "Space Echo" patch I came up with using the Reverse Delay. On the AX30G, you could glitch the "Reverse Echo" effect out by slamming the front end with a lot of compression. Obviously, this was a way to reproduce the Crystal Voices sound from the ME-6 on the pedal, but it turned out to be something else that was awesome. It basically sounded like someone getting sucked out of an airlock into outer space and into a black hole, lol. I don't think I ever found a use for this one, it was just that cool though. Preset Matrix
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