Linux support for the Korg Pandora PX5D USB Midi

Yay! Great news for PX5D users running Linux! Thanks to the great developers of the ALSA audio sound system, the Korg Pandora PX5D will have full USB-Midi support in Linux Kernel 3.0! If you don't know about the Pandora, I've added a description at the end of this article.

The Pandora comes with a composite USB Audio interface that already worked out of the box in Linux for audio, but the MIDI USB interface failed to be recognized, thus Linux users were not able to use MIDI on this device (the USB-Midi is used by the sound editor on Windows). I provided some testing for a patch recently that corrects this issue, and that's great news, USB MIDI for the Pandora now works! This means that you can send MIDI notes to the Pandora to control it's drum machine, and you can also run the Pandora's Windows Sound Editor via Wine to edit your programs with a nice GUI application. Now, we only have to wait for the next Linux Kernel release, this patch will be included in Kernel 3.0.0 (at time of writing, it is marked RC1, so, it shouldn't be long. In the meantime if you know how to patch and install from the alsa sources, you can find the patch on the alsa mailing list archives).

More about the Korg Panadora PX5D

The PX5D is simply the best guitar/bass pocket amp I've ever used! It comes loaded with features that every praticising musicians will find usefull, check it out:

• over 30 amp models simulations, including different speaker configuration, as well as guitar synth and guitar pickup simulation
• tons of effects, including the usual chorus, flanger, auto wah, weird but fun talk effets, delay, reverb, noise reduction, octaver and YES! scale-based harmonizer!
• a chromatic tuner
• a great sounding drum machine, which includes basic metronome modes (including odd-meter), as well as tons of drum patterns for different styles of music
• hey, the drum machine includes a bass part, so you can set a bass rythm for any key, major and minor
• it also has programs and simulations tailored for bass guitar!
• it has a USB interface, that can power the Pandora (no more wasting batteries when you're home), and can be used as a sound card, which means you plug the USB into your computer, plug your guitar in the Pandora, plug your headphone in the Pandora, and you'll hear the sound from any app on your computer in your headphones.
• it has USB-Midi which allows you to control the drum/bass machine from a sequencer
• it comes with a nice Sound Editor, which is much easier to set up the programs, directly from the computer, and save/backup presets.
• it has 20 chain-banks, where you can chain up to 16 patterns in each to build backtracks. so if you want to work on a 12-bar minor blues in C, you can program it in chain mode. It also has 2 song banks where you can upload 2 midi files if you want.
• it is fully compatible with Linux (routing the output to another sound card works like a breathe with Jack), but do not expect a very low latency on this one, it's not an M-Audio sound card.
• ... and much more cool stuff!

So, isn't this the ultimate tool for practising, and recording demos ? I definitely think it is. Of course, there are issues too. The Pandora runs on 2 batteries, which will probably won't run for more than 3 or 4 hours. It's cheap, and though it doesn't look like it's gonna break at any moment, it's still made of plastic. So, I woulnd't use it live, or for rehearsals (though it can be a cool backup solution). So, my final word is: the Pandora it the best thing you can get for pratising at home, or on travel, it's great for recording demos. I'd definitely buy another one should this one break!

Check out the official Korg web site for the PX5D.