Review : Joyo PXL-Live - Yeah that's a NO
I have an awesome Cusack Pedal Board controller. The only downside is that it’s pricey so when I wanted another one, I went out on the web to do some research and after poking around for some time, decided to try the Joyo PXL-Live.
Web reviews were all over the place on the Joyo, but it was relatively inexpensive and was coming from Amazon Canada so I would be able to return it if things didn’t work out. In concept anyway. Unfortunately the packaging and alleged documentation got put into recycling by accident even before I had time to set the thing up.
Joyo is vaguely clear that this device is a bank switcher, although Amazon describes it as a pedal switcher or loop switcher. If those latter items were true, you would be able to define programmed banks of effects, and / or use it as a proper loop switcher to manually switch pedals in and out of the chain, just like on the Cusack unit. Even Joyo’s website calls it a pedal switcher. Nope.
Wrong again honey. It’s a bank switcher only. And not a particularly intuitive unit either. The docs are not as bad as some reviewers suggested but if you need a 20 minute video to get this thing set up, there is a problem in there somewhere.
When I finally got it all connected up, it worked as a bank switcher. It does not work as a loop switcher. Joyo support would need to improve dramatically to achieve the level of completely sucking. If you buy one, you’re on your own mate and good luck with that.
The unit is well built and the switches are both reliable and quiet. I did not encounter any of the popping noises that other people mentioned. There is a tuner out that does not use up a loop, but access is goofy requiring multiple button presses. Intuitive it is not. There are MIDI ports that I did not use and trigger ports to allow you to ostensibly use the device to switch amp channels. Did not try those either because I have no need for such a thing. I have the foot switch that came with my VOX to switch reverb and tremolo in and out, and it works, so why complicate matters?
Switching banks is always a two press at minimum process. You select your bank and then you select the preset in the bank. Don’t think about fast switching in the middle of a song, because that’s not going to happen. Nor is there any way to kick a single pedal in and out once a bank is active, which means if you want to kick in a boost for a solo, you need to do the tap-dance to switch to a different bank preset. Marking that down as mostly useless.
The one upside to the device is that it can be two separate sets of four loops or a single set of eight loops. This configuration is as simple as determining if you are using the four cable method. If you are, you get two sets of loops so you can run one set in front of the amp and another set in the send/return section of your amp. That one part I thought was awesome but it was outweighed by the challenges in using the device otherwise.
Because the packaging got tossed, there was no return option. It lasted on my Vox board for about eight days and once the frustration hit the high water mark, I pulled it off and rewired everything. Everything works but the pedals are not on isolated loops any more.
If I could find a proper pedal switcher that supported two separate chains, one into the front of the amp and one into the send/return that would be ideal, but this critter only gets me part of the way, so I will look to trade it in towards something else as another musician might find it ideal for his or her use cases.
On the note of finding an alternative, I have. Joe from TheGigRig advised me how to use one of their awesome QMX pedal switchers to have some of the loops go in the front end of an amp and the remainder in the effects loop. QMX-10, here I come!
Joyo PXL Live? NOT recommended
