IK Multimedia TONEX Pedal

thecolourbox

@octatonic hope you don't mind a direct question, but I know you know what you're on about so hoped you might be happy to answer. I've seen you've mentioned that you use a Tonex as an acoustic preamp - Are you just using the compressor and an IR or do you use a capture of an acoustic amp?

adamino

Im pretty blown away with my Tonex.Its loaded with DI Captures and sounds fab through my Marshall Origin 50C input return.

nero1701

I've had a load of DIY at home and finally moved back into my office/guitar room. 

Plugged the tonex into a laney lfr 2x12, really nice quality sounds. I was on the fence around keeping it, but now, it's going on the pedal board for a newish build.

DiscoStu

I really want to love this pedal but the software is doing my head in. I've got it connected to my laptop, it's set to Interface mode, and I'm using the ASIO driver. 
It keeps cutting out, goes silent, and 'USB connection error', requiring the pedal to be disconnected and switched off before reconnecting. 

See if they made the UI fun, they'd sell an absolute ton of these things.

thecolourbox

I've plumped for one finally this week as I've had a few extra piano gigs which has more than paid for it. I've mostly only gone through the presets so far, though have downloaded some free ones off Tonenet or whatever it's called - a couple of overdriven fender twin ones which sound decent but more importantly for me, a capture of a Fishman Platinum Pro pedal for acoustic. I'd been trying to use my HX Effects with IRs and compressors and stuff and found that to be a massive time suck and I just ended up with an IR, reverb and compressor, so having seen Octatonic mention the Tonex could function as an acoustic preamp as well I thought I'd just go for that given it has compressor and reverb built in, and if I couldn't find a capture of a preamp type thing then I could just load an IR and off we go.

The Fishman capture sounds the nicest and most natural out of all the ones I tried on there and nicer than the HX Effects method also. I'm going to use it on Saturday where I have a singing + guitar gig so hopefully it works in that scenario but I don't see why it wouldn't. The Fishman Platinum Pro itself seems to cost almost as much as the Tonex was so I suppose although the capture won't be as flexible as the real thing, it's already sounding good so I'm going to take that as a win.

I'm, not having any real problems with the software by the way - Just seems to be drag-and-drop onto the pedal then you can edit easy enough on the pedal for the most part? Admittedly I've not had to edit the effects very much so far and that seems fiddly on the pedal, and seems like you have to go back to the main page on the software to edit anything, but that doesn't seem too bad. 

I'm willing to admit that I'm weird though as I really don't like the Helix Native interface (although even that is a million times better than the HX Effects pedal interface), I get really annoyed with the Helix interface, really fiddly and for somebody who apparently uses the scroll wheel on the mouse a lot it's not great as you end up changing loads of attributes without even realising and there's no Undo...

champ222

looking forward to getting one of these now ive sold my amp and cab.

guitarcookie1

thecolourbox said:

I've plumped for one finally this week as I've had a few extra piano gigs which has more than paid for it. I've mostly only gone through the presets so far, though have downloaded some free ones off Tonenet or whatever it's called - a couple of overdriven fender twin ones which sound decent but more importantly for me, a capture of a Fishman Platinum Pro pedal for acoustic. I'd been trying to use my HX Effects with IRs and compressors and stuff and found that to be a massive time suck and I just ended up with an IR, reverb and compressor, so having seen Octatonic mention the Tonex could function as an acoustic preamp as well I thought I'd just go for that given it has compressor and reverb built in, and if I couldn't find a capture of a preamp type thing then I could just load an IR and off we go.

The Fishman capture sounds the nicest and most natural out of all the ones I tried on there and nicer than the HX Effects method also. I'm going to use it on Saturday where I have a singing + guitar gig so hopefully it works in that scenario but I don't see why it wouldn't. The Fishman Platinum Pro itself seems to cost almost as much as the Tonex was so I suppose although the capture won't be as flexible as the real thing, it's already sounding good so I'm going to take that as a win.

I'm, not having any real problems with the software by the way - Just seems to be drag-and-drop onto the pedal then you can edit easy enough on the pedal for the most part? Admittedly I've not had to edit the effects very much so far and that seems fiddly on the pedal, and seems like you have to go back to the main page on the software to edit anything, but that doesn't seem too bad. 

I'm willing to admit that I'm weird though as I really don't like the Helix Native interface (although even that is a million times better than the HX Effects pedal interface), I get really annoyed with the Helix interface, really fiddly and for somebody who apparently uses the scroll wheel on the mouse a lot it's not great as you end up changing loads of attributes without even realising and there's no Undo...

There's a free model on Tonenet of a Fishman Loudbox that I'm using with my Acoustasonic that sounds pretty decent.

Agree that the software seems simple to use if you just drag & drop new models into the pedal.

thecolourbox

Yes i did see that one, it did sound decent but with my acoustic it sounded better on the Fishman - the electronics in the guitar also happen to be Fishman so that could make sense. 

Very useful piece of kit, hopefully people pick up on some of the less obvious uses of the capturing and more things like that start to appear. Notwithstanding the potential moral grey area of capturing stuff like that i suppose

FarleyUK

I'm very tempted to get one of these to capture my new amps, and to use as a backup to my AFX 3; is the general consensus that the direct AMP captures - not amp and cab - are better on the Tone X vs the Quad Cortex, for example?

I've watched a few vids, and the general consensus seems to be 'yes', but I'm interested in real-World opinions, and not someone on YT.

Would likely pair it with a TC Plethora X5 via Midi.

jpttaylor

Also interested if anyone could chime in regarding how they've managed the input trimmer with different pickups/captures. I had a play around with the free version of Tonex on my laptop last week and was really enjoying the sounds but had to keep on fiddling with the input.

Admittedly this might be exacerbated by my (admittedly crappy) audio interface so I'm wondering whether this isn't as much of an issue with the pedals.

kennedydream1980

jpttaylor said:

Also interested if anyone could chime in regarding how they've managed the input trimmer with different pickups/captures. I had a play around with the free version of Tonex on my laptop last week and was really enjoying the sounds but had to keep on fiddling with the input.

Admittedly this might be exacerbated by my (admittedly crappy) audio interface so I'm wondering whether this isn't as much of an issue with the pedals.

I tend to stick to Amalgam Captures and they sound about right around +8.5 on the input trim. The gain control is also the same as the input trim and can be saved per preset. The input trim is global so a bit more restrictive if using captures from different vendors.

kennedydream1980

FarleyUK said:

I'm very tempted to get one of these to capture my new amps, and to use as a backup to my AFX 3; is the general consensus that the direct AMP captures - not amp and cab - are better on the Tone X vs the Quad Cortex, for example?

I've watched a few vids, and the general consensus seems to be 'yes', but I'm interested in real-World opinions, and not someone on YT.

Would likely pair it with a TC Plethora X5 via Midi.

Karlis from Amalgam Audio has been quoted as saying his DI captures pared with his IR’s sound and feel closer to the actual amp being captured. Having used both his cab baked in captures and DI + IR captures I tend to agree as well. Whether that’s the same for other vendors I don’t know.

adamino

kennedydream1980 said:

jpttaylor said:

Also interested if anyone could chime in regarding how they've managed the input trimmer with different pickups/captures. I had a play around with the free version of Tonex on my laptop last week and was really enjoying the sounds but had to keep on fiddling with the input.

Admittedly this might be exacerbated by my (admittedly crappy) audio interface so I'm wondering whether this isn't as much of an issue with the pedals.

I tend to stick to Amalgam Captures and they sound about right around +8.5 on the input trim. The gain control is also the same as the input trim and can be saved per preset. The input trim is global so a bit more restrictive if using captures from different vendors.

8.5 is way too high

adamino

kennedydream1980 said:

FarleyUK said:

I'm very tempted to get one of these to capture my new amps, and to use as a backup to my AFX 3; is the general consensus that the direct AMP captures - not amp and cab - are better on the Tone X vs the Quad Cortex, for example?

I've watched a few vids, and the general consensus seems to be 'yes', but I'm interested in real-World opinions, and not someone on YT.

Would likely pair it with a TC Plethora X5 via Midi.

Karlis from Amalgam Audio has been quoted as saying his DI captures pared with his IR’s sound and feel closer to the actual amp being captured. Having used both his cab baked in captures and DI + IR captures I tend to agree as well. Whether that’s the same for other vendors I don’t know.

Amalgam DI captures are excellent to use with a power amp or fx return through the cab however I'm not too convinced with IR/Cab simulators for DAW playback.

NAM is better with cab sims,ownhammer etc, however its just my personal opinion for my vintage modern ears.

kennedydream1980

adamino said:

kennedydream1980 said:

jpttaylor said:

Also interested if anyone could chime in regarding how they've managed the input trimmer with different pickups/captures. I had a play around with the free version of Tonex on my laptop last week and was really enjoying the sounds but had to keep on fiddling with the input.

Admittedly this might be exacerbated by my (admittedly crappy) audio interface so I'm wondering whether this isn't as much of an issue with the pedals.

I tend to stick to Amalgam Captures and they sound about right around +8.5 on the input trim. The gain control is also the same as the input trim and can be saved per preset. The input trim is global so a bit more restrictive if using captures from different vendors.

8.5 is way too high

Karlis from Amalgam has stated himself that’s where he sets his input trim on his pedal, Fabian Ratsaks who does most of the Amalgam demos has also said he sets his input trim on the pedal to around +8.5. That’s good enough for me.

Heartfeltdawn

kennedydream1980 said:

Karlis from Amalgam has stated himself that’s where he sets his input trim on his pedal, Fabian Ratsaks who does most of the Amalgam demos has also said he sets his input trim on the pedal to around +8.5. That’s good enough for me.

In the video below for amp pack 1, Fabian says between 6 and 8.5. It's all in the intro. Now that is Tonex software so whether he uses different levels for the pedal, I am unsure. 



When I'm using Tonex SE, I put the input level of the software at 6. If I want a little more gain, I can then choose to use more level 'virtually' or use a little bit of gain from my audio interface. 

adamino

kennedydream1980 said:

adamino said:

kennedydream1980 said:

jpttaylor said:

Also interested if anyone could chime in regarding how they've managed the input trimmer with different pickups/captures. I had a play around with the free version of Tonex on my laptop last week and was really enjoying the sounds but had to keep on fiddling with the input.

Admittedly this might be exacerbated by my (admittedly crappy) audio interface so I'm wondering whether this isn't as much of an issue with the pedals.

I tend to stick to Amalgam Captures and they sound about right around +8.5 on the input trim. The gain control is also the same as the input trim and can be saved per preset. The input trim is global so a bit more restrictive if using captures from different vendors.

8.5 is way too high

Karlis from Amalgam has stated himself that’s where he sets his input trim on his pedal, Fabian Ratsaks who does most of the Amalgam demos has also said he sets his input trim on the pedal to around +8.5. That’s good enough for me.

You are Effin right.Just set mine from 0 to 8.5 and lowered the gain and its very very refined and not at all spongy anymore.Thanks for that I wish I could send you a beeer.

thecolourbox

Has anybody with the full fat Tonex pedal found that it seems very easy to scuff? The marks seem to rub off but then end up with greasy finger smudges on it. I'm wondering whether I need to seek out some kind of protective casing as it's annoying me and feel like it's just going to get damaged

Can only see screen protectors so far, but hopefully will find something for the pedal itself, was hoping there was a sort of clip on see through plastic type thing

nero1701

https://reverb.com/item/71016841-ik-multimedia-tonex-polycarbonate-protection-cover-knk-shields

thecolourbox

nero1701 said:

https://reverb.com/item/71016841-ik-multimedia-tonex-polycarbonate-protection-cover-knk-shields

Thanks yes I saw one like that but it doesn't cover the bit where the jacks are which is where the problem is occurring for me. Might have to see if I can make my own with vinyl on the Mrs' craft machine I think