IK Multimedia TONEX Pedal

fnpt · April 2023

@kennedydream1980 ; Thanks, I'm having a hard time integrating the pedal with my existing pedalboard and pc. It sounds good but it's a nightmare in terms of usage.

And for whatever reason I can not use it as a full plug in in my DAW (Garage Band), I can only access the free version with limited tone models and no ability to create/ use my presents.

Can't also use any pedals after the Tonex because of the lack of fx loop. If I want to play it independently of a pc, the monitors must be connected directly from the pedal, so any additional pedals must go in front.

If I connect a delay pedal after the Tonex then it needs to go into another interface and then pc and this has two problems: 1) I always need the pc on 2) there is no sound unless I start the plug in and then the pedal plays simultaneously with the plug in. T

And you always have to go to deep editing to change from interface to Live, depending on the way you use the pedal. Typical IK Multimedia mess.

With the Helix LT I would simply connect the helix into my interface and then monitors. No pc required unless I wanted to use the editor or record. The editor would also fully integrate with the pedal, any changes made in the editor or on the pedal would affect the other.

kennedydream1980 · April 2023

kennedydream1980 said:

So after using the pedal for a few weeks the biggest tip I can give to any users is to set the Input Trim in the global menu to -10.

I was getting frustrated with the sound of the majority of the Tone models, mainly as a lot of them had far too much gain. I mainly use my PRS DGT SE which has low output pickups. This guitar seemed to be overloading the pedal, especially in the lower frequencies.

I actually asked a vendor of 3rd party tone model’s regarding this. They actually went away and did some play tests. They came back to me and confirmed for their tone models to sound accurate they recommend setting the input trim to -10.

I imagine that this is the case for the majority of tone models on ToneNet and all other 3rd party tone models.

It makes a huge difference and I really think that IK Multimedia should mention this in the manual.

IK Multimedia have now addressed this in the most recent firmware update. Setting the input trim on the pedal to 0.0 is now unity gain.

Kebabkid · April 2023

fnpt said:

I don't think you can. I've ordered one and will integrate it in my pedalboard with delay after the Tonex but then into my Focusrite. My concern is that it will ad a bit of latency but we'll see.

Another option is to put it in the loop of a multi Fx such as the HX.

@fnpt ;
Hi,
Can I ask what the FX Loop gizmo is and do you have a link?

Thanks

fnpt · April 2023

I've ordered a Tonex Pedal, apologies for not being clear.

kennedydream1980 · May 2023

Pete Thorn has put up a vid of his Tonex Pedal demo. Can’t wait for him to release this amp pack!!

https://youtu.be/aXIRAHes6Ps

Bats_ · May 2023

Just ordered one of these from Amazon. They have them at £375. Bit rude not too.

I’ll try it out on It’s own first to see if I get along with it, then might put it in the loop of my HXStomp and use this set up for everything.

drwiddly · May 2023

Just looked on Amazon and they're £411.50 now. That's nearly a 10% increase!

Voxsupertwin · May 2023

Tried one and to be honest there’s all that choice but who really needs so many ……and there isn’t a great difference between any of them really …..

Vibetronic · May 2023

Unfortunately I'm going to sell mine....purely on the basis that having a toddler and having enough free time to learn to use a new toy are not compatible. I think I've spent about 2-3 hours with it overall. Shame, as it's a great little unit!

willo · June 2023

Hi - if I wanted a live set up of:

Overdrive pedals > Tonex > Modulation pedals > Seymour Duncan powerstage 200

Would there be any way to easily connect this to my laptop for recording? The powerstage has a DI output - could this be plugged into an interface that has a DI input?

Otherwise I don't see a way to record any post-Tonex pedals directly into the laptop?

roberty · June 2023

That little thing is making my stack of tube amps look a bit silly tbh, especially at the price. There's a fine line between hobby and madness

Bats_ · June 2023

willo said:

Hi - if I wanted a live set up of:

Overdrive pedals > Tonex > Modulation pedals > Seymour Duncan powerstage 200

Would there be any way to easily connect this to my laptop for recording? The powerstage has a DI output - could this be plugged into an interface that has a DI input?

Otherwise I don't see a way to record any post-Tonex pedals directly into the laptop?

Get yourself a DI box or IR loader. Put this at the end of your chain and run straight in to your interface.

You don't need the SD for recording.

fnpt · June 2023

I've never had such immediate great tones without tweaking anything, just adjusting the volume or tone control in my Tele to clean up or when the capture is too bright. It's really that great.

My only gripe is the lack of an fx loop which would make my life so much easier - dirt pedals into the tonex, delay/ mod pedals into the loop and USB out of the Tonex into my DAW and stereo out into my monitors.

As it is, I have to put the delay/ mod in the front of the Tonex which really messes up the sound in the higher gain captures.

The alternative would be to put the delay/ mod pedals after the Tonex but that would mean going into my scarlett interface and that ads latency and means that I need a PC at all times (not ideal for a quick playing).

Jota · June 2023

fnpt said:

I've never had such immediate great tones without tweaking anything, just adjusting the volume or tone control in my Tele to clean up or when the capture is too bright. It's really that great.

My only gripe is the lack of an fx loop which would make my life so much easier - dirt pedals into the tonex, delay/ mod pedals into the loop and USB out of the Tonex into my DAW and stereo out into my monitors.

As it is, I have to put the delay/ mod in the front of the Tonex which really messes up the sound in the higher gain captures.

The alternative would be to put the delay/ mod pedals after the Tonex but that would mean going into my scarlett interface and that ads latency and means that I need a PC at all times (not ideal for a quick playing).

Get an HX Stomp. Put it in the Loop and you're done.

fnpt · June 2023

Jota said:

fnpt said:

I've never had such immediate great tones without tweaking anything, just adjusting the volume or tone control in my Tele to clean up or when the capture is too bright. It's really that great.

My only gripe is the lack of an fx loop which would make my life so much easier - dirt pedals into the tonex, delay/ mod pedals into the loop and USB out of the Tonex into my DAW and stereo out into my monitors.

As it is, I have to put the delay/ mod in the front of the Tonex which really messes up the sound in the higher gain captures.

The alternative would be to put the delay/ mod pedals after the Tonex but that would mean going into my scarlett interface and that ads latency and means that I need a PC at all times (not ideal for a quick playing).

Get an HX Stomp. Put it in the Loop and you're done.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Or the GT1000 core which I believe will ad much less latency. But that, plus an expression pedal, means that the overall cost will put me almost in Kemper stage territory.

willo · June 2023

Bats_ said:
Get yourself a DI box or IR loader. Put this at the end of your chain and run straight in to your interface.

You don't need the SD for recording.

Excellent - thank you

fnpt · June 2023

I’ve bit the bullet - gt1000core on its way + exp pedal. You only live once. And I’ve had some nice red wine. That may have had something to do with it.

roberty · June 2023

fnpt said:

I’ve bit the bullet - gt1000core on its way + exp pedal. You only live once. And I’ve had some nice red wine. That may have had something to do with it.

That's the way to do it

Fortheloveofguitar · June 2023

I’ve just ordered one of these today, arriving tomorrow

I had a QC but didn’t use half the features and at £1650 I couldn’t justify keeping it.

The ToneX has only cost me £379 so if I can get what I want from it at that price I’ll be very pleased.

kennedydream1980 · June 2023

Fortheloveofguitar said:

I’ve just ordered one of these today, arriving tomorrow

I had a QC but didn’t use half the features and at £1650 I couldn’t justify keeping it.

The ToneX has only cost me £379 so if I can get what I want from it at that price I’ll be very pleased.

Checkout the captures from Amalgam Audio. For me they are in a different league.

https://www.amalgamcaptures.com/tonex

Fortheloveofguitar · June 2023

kennedydream1980 said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

I’ve just ordered one of these today, arriving tomorrow

I had a QC but didn’t use half the features and at £1650 I couldn’t justify keeping it.

The ToneX has only cost me £379 so if I can get what I want from it at that price I’ll be very pleased.

Checkout the captures from Amalgam Audio. For me they are in a different league.

https://www.amalgamcaptures.com/tonex

Ooh thanks. I’ll check those out

champ222 · June 2023

Ok, so ive been tempted by this. I just play at home (occasionally at the moment) I have an egnater Rebel 30 and and orange 2x12. and a bunch of pedals on a board. I dont gig or anything. Ive been tempted by the quad cortex, but couldnt justify the price.

This could be cool to replace the amp and cab on a desk. Id have a desk and speakers anyway, but how much does one need to spend on some monitors to make this sound convincing in the room? In the Andertons video where they compared a real amp against Tonex, QC, and kemper, and they were raving about their Genelecs, but they are £800 EACH i think.

Could i run this though some hifi speakers and be done with it? i wouldnt need "monitors" for anything else as i dont do any recording. I'd use the speakers for listening to music and gaming, so they just need to sound nice, not be "studio monitors" as such.

Thanks

kennedydream1980 · June 2023

champ222 said:

Ok, so ive been tempted by this. I just play at home (occasionally at the moment) I have an egnater Rebel 30 and and orange 2x12. and a bunch of pedals on a board. I dont gig or anything. Ive been tempted by the quad cortex, but couldnt justify the price.

This could be cool to replace the amp and cab on a desk. Id have a desk and speakers anyway, but how much does one need to spend on some monitors to make this sound convincing in the room? In the Andertons video where they compared a real amp against Tonex, QC, and kemper, and they were raving about their Genelecs, but they are £800 EACH i think.

Could i run this though some hifi speakers and be done with it? i wouldnt need "monitors" for anything else as i dont do any recording. I'd use the speakers for listening to music and gaming, so they just need to sound nice, not be "studio monitors" as such.

Thanks

You don't need to spend a whole lot to get nice sounding monitors.

The Presonus Eris e3.5's sound excellent and a relatively affordable.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/presonus-eris-e35-active-studio-monitors-boxed-as-a-pair?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=CjwKCAjwm4ukBhAuEiwA0zQxk8EgvYTj92r5uEAaiXWgosIleNCyr4i46EonAc1y4ayLO5_AWeVsGxoCVI0QAvD_BwE

champ222 · June 2023

Ill check that out. Thanks

Fortheloveofguitar · June 2023

It’s arrived!

Straight out of the box I’ve disabled the preset cab sims globally as I run through a power amp and cab.

I’ll be honest in that they sound really poor. I’m hoping some third party captures will be much better.

Wazmeister · June 2023

champ222 said:

Ok, so ive been tempted by this. I just play at home (occasionally at the moment) I have an egnater Rebel 30 and and orange 2x12. and a bunch of pedals on a board. I dont gig or anything. Ive been tempted by the quad cortex, but couldnt justify the price.

This could be cool to replace the amp and cab on a desk. Id have a desk and speakers anyway, but how much does one need to spend on some monitors to make this sound convincing in the room? In the Andertons video where they compared a real amp against Tonex, QC, and kemper, and they were raving about their Genelecs, but they are £800 EACH i think.

Could i run this though some hifi speakers and be done with it? i wouldnt need "monitors" for anything else as i dont do any recording. I'd use the speakers for listening to music and gaming, so they just need to sound nice, not be "studio monitors" as such.

Thanks

The Genelecs are amazing though, but the 8010s are pretty cheap

kennedydream1980 · June 2023

Fortheloveofguitar said:

It’s arrived!

Straight out of the box I’ve disabled the preset cab sims globally as I run through a power amp and cab.

I’ll be honest in that they sound really poor. I’m hoping some third party captures will be much better.

I think most of the presets on the pedal have the cabs baked into the captures. Meaning the amp and cab were captured together. I think the general opinion is that these don't fare well when you disable the cab part of the capture.

You need to get some DI profiles which are captures of just the amp (No cab).

Fortheloveofguitar · June 2023

kennedydream1980 said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

It’s arrived!

Straight out of the box I’ve disabled the preset cab sims globally as I run through a power amp and cab.

I’ll be honest in that they sound really poor. I’m hoping some third party captures will be much better.

I think most of the presets on the pedal have the cabs baked into the captures. Meaning the amp and cab were captured together. I think the general opinion is that these don't fare well when you disable the cab part of the capture.

You need to get some DI profiles which are captures of just the amp (No cab).

That’ll explain it then. I assumed that they had DI’d then added a cab.

Currently looking at that link you sent me. Think I’ll get some Plexi captures and load them
in tomorrow morning

Fortheloveofguitar · June 2023

Right I’ve bought the Plexi pack from Amalgam and it’s like night and day now. These are really really good captures. They sound great through a power amp and cab setup.

It’s a shame as he doesn’t have any high gain amps on there. I’ve tried free samples from other providers but again they’re really poor yet charging money for them

kennedydream1980 · June 2023

Fortheloveofguitar said:

Right I’ve bought the Plexi pack from Amalgam and it’s like night and day now. These are really really good captures. They sound great through a power amp and cab setup.

It’s a shame as he doesn’t have any high gain amps on there. I’ve tried free samples from other providers but again they’re really poor yet charging money for them

He has the Mesa MkV.

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