Panda Audio Future Impact I.

The Panda Audio Future Impact I. is a digital bass synth pedal that revives the sound of the sought-after Akai Deep Impact, a bass synth that Akai produced in the mid-1990s and later discontinued¹. Rather than an exact-to-spec reissue, it uses DSP technology to bring what Premier Guitar called "the thick and wild sounds of the original pedal into the modern era"¹. It reproduces all nine of the original's tones and adds many more abilities, including 99 programmable presets, MIDI, and a desktop editor¹.

The pedal came about after an enthusiastic member of the Talkbass forum tracked down Andras Szalay, who had designed the Deep Impact for Akai, to ask whether he could reissue the discontinued pedal². MusicRadar described the result as promising "Moog-esque synth sounds with a big low-end"³.

A DSP bass synth inspired by the Akai Deep Impact

Panda Audio says the Future Impact circuit combines large effect processing blocks with an extensive set of synthesizer blocks, including oscillators, filters, and envelope generators, to create classic Moog-type monophonic synthesizer sounds⁴. It is digital, and the maker says its state-of-the-art processing performs operations more than one hundred times faster than the Deep Impact, whose oscillators ran at 32 kHz⁴¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found this gave a much clearer signal than the Deep Impact's 32 kHz¹.

Beyond synth sounds, the pedal includes an effect section with time-modulation effects such as reverb and delay, plus a foldover distortion feature⁴¹. Later versions of the Future Impact can also function as an octaver, chorus, flanger, phaser, distortion, envelope filter, traditional wah-wah, and tremolo⁶.

The controls and footswitches

The pedal houses four knobs, for governing input and output levels, choosing your program bank, and selecting one of 11 parameters for editing in your selected program¹. Pressing down on the edit knob cycles through the program banks¹. There are two footswitches: one for on/bypass and one for program stepping¹⁷.

There is also a PC and a Mac editor for the sounds⁵.

Presets, MIDI and power

The Future Impact I. has 99 program slots that are fully programmable with the desktop PC editor⁴; Premier Guitar described these as 99 variations arranged in 10 banks¹. Pressing down on the edit knob cycles through the program banks¹.

Unlike the Deep Impact, the Future Impact is equipped with MIDI IN and MIDI OUT⁴, with quarter-inch jack ins and outs alongside the MIDI jacks⁵. Sound parameters are controllable via an external MIDI controller and some internal controls⁸. The pedal is also listed as a supported device by Disaster Area Designs, whose MIDI controllers can integrate it into a larger pedalboard⁹.

Power comes from a standard 9V stabilized supply, with a 70mA draw; Godlyke recommends the PA-9 Power-All⁴.

History and versions

The Future Impact 1 was announced in October 2016 as an upgraded remake of the discontinued Deep Impact, priced at $499⁵¹. Gearnews reported at the time that it "sounds on the money" based on the demo video, with a synth tone that can sound "squelchy, funky or downright dirty"⁵.

The line developed through several versions:

• Future Impact V3 (2019): The third iteration, with an expanded virtual analog engine, MIDI control, editor software, and a soundset of 99 new patches⁸. Delicious Audio noted it was originally made for bass but works well with most instruments, with four oscillators and two filters¹⁰.
• Future Impact V4 (2024): Bass Magazine reported 32-bit ultra-low-noise analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters¹¹. The V3.60 update of June 2021 had exhausted the available code space, requiring a move to new hardware and a new firmware structure².
• Future Impact V4 - VIP (shown at NAMM 2026): Retains all the features of the V4 and adds oscillator sync, where VCO2 can sync to VCO1 for more harmonically complex sounds¹².
• Future Impact V4.5 firmware (2026): Adds an FM sound engine with 99 Yamaha DX7-compatible FM programs on top of the existing 99 VA (Virtual Analog) sounds¹²⁶. The FM library draws from iconic '80s and '90s recordings made with the Yamaha DX7 bass, including "Take on Me," "Smooth Criminal," "Take My Breath Away," and "Broken Wings"⁶.

The later versions are covered on the Panda Audio Future Impact V4 page.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar's 2021 review found the Future Impact I. "sounds astonishingly similar to its inspiration"¹. The reviewer's pros included:

• Outstanding analog-synth replication and wide-ranging filtering
• Infinitely tweakable and programmable
• Endless fun¹

The cons were:

• No polyphony
• PC connection is MIDI only
• Power supply not included
• Expensive¹

On tracking, the reviewer found it "quite good" with choppy staccato playing and careful muting, miles better than vintage triggered synths like Korg's X-911, though rare glitching was present and went away with a compressor pedal placed between the synth and bass¹. The envelope filtering "had an impressive range of subtle quack to vowel-like whomp, coupled with a respectable amount of touch sensitivity"¹.

Videos

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Questions