Sonicake Pocket Master - Detailed Review: Is this the perfect practicing tool?

[@GiveThemHorns]

This is amazing for someone that travels a lot and wants to bring along an electric. What a time to be a guitarist, so much cool and affordable gear.

[@Dr_Bounty_guitar]

Nice review, and Leo, your song is really nice! I liked the very subtile voices in the background especially! It’s exactly the right volume. Makes the song more interesting, does not disrupt the guitar parts

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Thank you so much...when you like my music...I'm super happy! Yes, you are right about the votes....they are inspired by Nana Vasconselos who play drums and sing in the Pat Metheny group album "Travels"....such a great album....

[@TheProducers]

@@LeoGibsonGtr @Dr_Bounty_guitar is right, this is another great song, and there are worst musicians to take some inspiration from than Pat Metheny and Nana V. But you really did it your way. Great stuff.

[@scottbecker3485]

Nice of you to cover this inexpensive piece of gear. I noticed you didn‘t directly comment on the quality of sound as you perceive it, nor on how responsive it is (which would obviously have something to do with latency). I understand that testing this for latency might be overkill for such a cheap device not intended to replace any of the bigger, better units. That said, I have the Pocket Master (got it 2 days ago) and am delighted with what it can do - not just for practice, but - in my special case - also for live. Why? Because I am a solo singer and guitar player who plays about 80% acoustic and 20% electric guitar at gigs. I needed something small, all-in-one and easy to use for basic electric guitar tones, these being good enough for my audiences (who don‘t care about tonal perfection, but more about singing, emotional impact, fun, etc.) I am running it after my TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme. It is plugged into the „Thru“ (untreated) output of the VL3X so that it‘s not in the signal chain for my acoustic guitar. This is especially good because the VL3X only has a global (!) cab sim on/off setting that cannot be stored by preset, and I don‘t want the frequencies of my acoustic guitar getting colored by a „cab sim“ kind of EQ. Thanks to the Pocket Master, I can route both instruments into the VL3X (via a simple Mooer AB/Y) switch so either one serves as the basis of recognizing the key I’m playing in, for the purpose of auto-generated the right vocal harmonies. The electric goes through untreated, and the presets on the VL3X make the acoustic sound great. The electric gets all its good sound on the way out of the VL3X, and then goes to the PA. This makes for a very simple setup…and when I choose to do a gig without electric, I can just leave the Pocket Master in my gear box. By the way: Your review says the PM has „no foot switches“. This is technically true, but the two rubber switches can quite easily be used by foot. Just be careful not to stomp on it too hard. You can also easily press on both to mute and tune. The tuner works great, even in my standard tuning, which is C# standard.

[@marcdelauttre9538]

Hi, i've buy ampero 2 stomp last month and for the price the sounds are realy great. I have pleasure to prépare New presets. It May be an option for you !

[@planzed.2]

Love the demo tune Leo 👌 hope you’re well!

[@TheProducers]

Leo, To your question about praticing tools, I use Mainstage on my M1 mac through a VOLT 476 audio interface with a pair of Yamaha HS-50 speakers. The guitar software running in Mainstage is NAM or AMplitube / Tonex. When I am away I simply plug into a small 5 watt VOX practice amp that I've had for more than 10 years now. It runs on batteries so I can play (quietly) outside.

[@BlazonStone]

Interesting unit for some occasions! Can't wait to see the latency measurement!

[@torrezani]

Hey Leo, did you test the Mooer GS1000 ?? waiting your video about it

[@zinou187]

Thanks Leo for the Demo. I use for practicing Mvave Blackbox found in AliExpress which is in the same price range but it takes amp captures, audio Bluetooth streaming and has foot switch the only thing missing is a looper. In terms of sound quality, no much difference with tonex one, I used to convert quad cortex and tonex captures to Ann profiles and they sound pretty good, the IR that it takes seems to be 2048. May be worth reviewing

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

You are welcome and thank you so much for sharing your practicing tool! Yes, the mvave is another unit I need to check out....I'm not able to find the time...

[@joaquin8637]

I'm using my new Headrush Flex Prime for practice with a small bluetooth speakers, after some tweaking, it sounds really good! The bassman model has me impressed. The looper is great, the pc editor is simple, some weird effects are actually usable and the bluetooth/wifi connectivity is great for cloud presets and managing the audio of the computer. No compains yet. The only thing is that the new GS1000Li has me impressed also with the battery and size, but I don't really profile amps, it has the same 14 blocks and it doesn't have expression pedal. I will probably buy one to use it along the flex prime on the gigboard so I can have a ridiculous amount of effects. About the Pocket Master. I think is absolutley great, it's minusculus, has touch screen, Ir, great modern digital modeler quality sound, it has battery and it's only $65, even if you don't really need it, you can buy it no problem. I want to get one ASAP and attach it with a 3d printed stand on an Edwards mini les paul custom with incorporated amp (and replace the stock amp with a jbl mini speaker or something). The perfect traveler electric guitar. Also my 2 cents. I saw on a post here in youtube that the new update was supposed to have Sonicake's Sound Clone technology, but they decided to wait because it was not stable enough yet. They also announced that the pocket master will have midi controllability soonish. I wish more companies would get on board with NAM with dedicated hardware that it's on the computing level to run it to it's max potential like the Dimehead. Specially after you comparisson video. Great video as always. I'm looking forward to NAMM 2025, the Joyo Gem Box K8 and the rumours about a new bigger ToneX pedal!

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Thank you so much for sharing your findings!!! All interesting stuff! Let me just give a little correction: the pocket master does not have a touch screen. Thanks!

[@joaquin8637]

@@LeoGibsonGtri have no idea why i asumed that XDD still great unit

[@Slavetskiy]

Thanks for reviewing, Leo. Btw, i have two units for practice: Nux mighty plug pro and m-vave blackbox.

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

You are welcome and thank you so much for sharing your practicing devices! I also use the Mighty plug pro... Thanks!

[@laptoples]

This kinda reminds me of the Moore Prime 1 (which myself a few of my friends got) Then one day, they all just stopped working (connecting to the phone app) after they came out with the upgraded model. Not sure if I'd trust Moore after that move, as we all felt scammed. I just saw Moore came out with a new pedal....the GE1000. Even though I feel like the company burned us, I'd be curious what you thought of their new pedal, as I like to watch music related product reviews. As always Leo, it's lovely to just hear you play regardless of the product !!! I really enjoyed your song in this video, and, ehhhhh, maybe for $65 bucks, I'd consider this to replace the Moore P1 pedal. I'd be cautious now of things company's can shut down, like an app that a pedal relies on to function. Thanks for the review !!! Have a great day Leo !!!!! 👍😁👍

[@Smudger654]

Hi Leo, an excellent, well structured and informative review, as ever. Really enjoyed the demo track! How does the overall sound compare to the larger Sonicake Matribox units? Would you be happy to use it as a practice tool (aside from the 16-bit audio interface)? Shame about the latter, especially as the rest of the internal processing appears to be 24-bit. Obviously a cost- cutting measure, but perhaps not a wise one.

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Than you so much, I'm really happy that you appreciate the video and especially the demo song!!! Yes, it is a good option as a practicing tool!

[@dfwmetal]

Hey Leo. Not to derail the comments on this, but I'm really hoping to see you do a video on the Mooer GS-1000. The feature set looks pretty great for the price. I'd be super interested to see how it stacks up technically vs Tonex / QC. Keep up the great work.

[@mCKENIC]

This is great, thank you Leo! I might get one for my nephew who is just starting guitar! Actually I use a nux mighty plug for practice and might get one for myself - I wonder if it works with the M-vave chocolate BT footswitch... that could be a lot of cheap, silent fun!

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

You are welcome! Yes, I think that it could a nice, inexpensive device for someone who is starting his guitar journey and...by the way...good luck to your nephew...I hope guitar will be his dear friends for the years to come!!!

[@Andrey.Balandin]

For practice I use Nux Mighty Space. It has decent speakers, it is battery powered and portable, it has a 30 sec looper with a drum machine, it has a smartphone app to control all parameters and play background tracks via blue tooth, and the modelling is really good. It is the complete and perfect practice machine. I only wish there were more drum patterns, or that they were programmable, and the looper was longer (30 sec is not enough for a 12 bar blues at reasonably slow bpm). Also for looping I wish it had a bass guitar emulation by means of octave down pitch shift, for which I am forced to use either Digitech Drop or my Headrush MX5 (both of which work fine). I am hoping for a Mighty Space MkII with these features included.

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Thank you for sharing Andrey! Yes, that's another interesting tool!

[@jcoulter43]

This looks like a great practice tool or a first "amp/processor" for a new guitarist so they can learn totally silent in their room. I have the Matribox II and really like it. Sonicake is on their game for sure! Thanks for the great review as always! God bless and rock on 👍😎🎸

[@manfredworner8528]

I purchased the new mooer 150 pro Very happy with my purchase The fact that you can down load captures of other amps is great and they sound really good Only complaint is that you can’t move blocks but for a basic good sounding multi effects it’s great I have mx5 took me along to get a good sound but the mooer wins for easy use and sound set up

[@gennarozaino5146]

Ottima recensione come sempre Leo, ma ha lo streaming bluetooth per suonare su una backin track ? Se non ha questa funzionalità mi sembrerebbe una grave lacuna

[@eminsaneyan]

7/8 beautiful

[@marcdelauttre9538]

Hello. I'm looking for a small gear to practice in my office with a steinberger guitar. This will be a god tool for me and the price is ridiculous. Thank's from France Léo !👍

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

You are welcome and thank you for sharing your findings!

[@niccologrfoni]

Grazie Leo! Per colpa tua lo comprerò. Scherzi a parte . Cercavo qualcosa per costruire delle patch da replicare poi nella Valeton Gp200 per non stare a collegarla tutte le volte. Volevo qualcosa che mi facesse sperimentare delle combinazioni da poter poi " ricopiare" sulla valeton. E mi sembra perfetto per il prezzo. Mi pare bene anche la qualità dei suoni e degli ampli .

[@Shadowjimmy]

Hi Leo, does the pocket master allows you to change tunings? I noticed a pitch option on the fx block, if so, how good is it? Thanks

[@Alex_Martz]

No latency test?

[@marchettiguillaume]

Nice tamagotchi

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

😀

[@dvaoa2910]

Workflow aside, it sounds damn good!

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Hi, yes...it is similar to the matribox units....

[@SkepticalSkeptism]

Is it better than nux mighty plug pro?

[@ibanezprestige5964]

Why lately you never reveal the latency of any unit sir?

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

Hi, I typically do separated videos with the latency, for instance I have just release a video about the latency of the Sonulab Stompstation. I try not to overload you with latency videos...and you know...the measurements take work and time. Furthermore, I thought that for a device like this, practicing oriented, latency was not such an important measurements. Thank you!

[@robertodepetro1996]

ne venderanno a palate!

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

credo anche io...

[@CL_Audio_Tuning]

Hahaha that is cute Leo!! You should compare it to the Boss Pocket GT!

[@LeoGibsonGtr]

😀...yes, that would be an interesting comparison...

[@GreenHoleSun]

For this price you can't expect nothing more...nevertheless I think that the internal (non repleaceable) battery is just planned obscolescence: once exhausted, you know, everything is going to go to the dustbin...

[@joaquin8637]

i think you can replace it with one from aliexpress and such

[@GreenHoleSun]

@joaquin8637 maybe, but you have to open the device (if possible), then you have to locate the battery, remove it (if possible) and then solder the new one that you have ordered (if it works), and close the encasement, hoping not to destroy everything in the process...who is going to do this for a 60 dollars device?

[@Andrey.Balandin]

@@GreenHoleSun As long as you can open the device without destroying it, and if it is possible to order a battery with the same specs, battery replacement can be done either at home or by a smartphone service shop.

[@GreenHoleSun]

@@Andrey.Balandin I have just answered to a similar post, just read what I have written.