pandaMidi Future Impact v3

The pandaMidi Future Impact v3 is a guitar and bass synth pedal: it takes the signal from your instrument and turns it into synth bass sounds. It is the third iteration of a pedal line built on the design of Akai's Deep Impact, a mid-'90s bass synth pedal that has long been discontinued and has become highly collectable¹². The v3 was reported as available in February 2022, at an introductory price of €299 until 15 December, after which the unit costs €359³.

What it does to your sound

The Future Impact v3 renders your guitar or bass signal as a synth bass. MusicRadar's Jonathan Horsley highlighted features "such as the foldover distortion and square LFO-driven octave modulation for rendering your guitar signal as a synth bass"³. Under the hood, Delicious Audio's buying guide describes a pedal "originally made for bass but works well with most instruments and features four oscillators, two filters and deep functionality"⁴.

That means guitarists are not shut out: the tracking and sound engine were designed around bass, but the pedal responds to most instruments, which is unusual among bass-oriented synth pedals. It sits alongside other instrument-to-synth designs such as the Source Audio C4 Synth and the Electro-Harmonix Bass Mono Synth in the wider field of synth pedals⁴.

Controls and editing

The v3 keeps the panel layout of its predecessor and adds deeper editing³⁴:

• Two footswitches, for on/bypass and program³
• A rotary dial for selecting the effects parameter³¹
• An edit knob used with the Parameter knob for deep functionality⁴
• Bank-up/down control¹
• Input and output level controls¹
• A minimal LED display that shows the current preset¹

Beyond the panel, sound parameters are controllable via an external MIDI controller, along with some internal controls³. That opens the pedal up to MIDI switchers and editors in a way the panel alone does not allow.

Where it came from

The Future Impact v3 stays close to the pedal that came before it: aside from revised artwork, MusicRadar's own announcement notes it has "a very similar enclosure setup to its predecessor"³. It carries two footswitches for on/bypass and program, and launched at an introductory price of €299 until 15 December, after which the unit costs €359³. On the top panel there is a rotary dial for selecting the effects parameter, input and output level controls, and what gearnews.com called "a handy yet minimal LED display that shows the current preset"¹.

Buying one

Shipping internationally is free, but gearnews.com cautions that "you still may be liable for customs charges"¹. The introductory price of €299 runs until 15 December, after which the pedal costs €359³. Those prices are given in euros as reported; no US dollar price is given for the v3.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load