IK Multimedia Group Buy 2025

[Sascha Franck]

Tone.net sucks .. geez too many connections.

I guess half the world is downloading their groupbuy goodies. And as many of them are samplebased, the servers are getting hammered.

 

[dean701]

Tone.net sucks .. geez too many connections. ToneX says I'm not logged in when I am. Is this how it's always been?
Do I really have to have Product Manager and the website open to use the collections?

only the first time when adding packages.
open product manager, add the serials. close product manager.
open tonex choose account, restore purchases. product manager will re-open.
it will take a few minutes and then the new collections will be locally saved.
I stay off tonenet as much as possible. only if I need to be connected to try new things. Otherwise I just use local

 

[jmcecil]

only the first time when adding packages.
open product manager, add the serials. close product manager.
open tonex choose account, restore purchases. product manager will re-open.
it will take a few minutes and then the new collections will be locally saved.
I stay off tonenet as much as possible. only if I need to be connected to try new things. Otherwise I just use local

I tried that, but after I had them installed and showing stand alone I shut down and tried to open in my DAW. None of the collections were there. went through the loop a few times. I think they are finally sticking.

 

[dean701]

I tried that, but after I had them installed and showing stand alone I shut down and tried to open in my DAW. None of the collections were there. went through the loop a few times. I think they are finally sticking.

that is odd. I will say that i have encountered issues where I got tired of waiting for 'restore purchases' to finish and closed tonex mid cycle. Then I had nothing authorized. I had to restart 'restore purchases' and let it finish to get everything back.

 

[jmcecil]

Annoying initial install/license issues aside, the group buy is a hell of a deal.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Holy macaroni. @IK Multimedia, please hire UI designers worth their salt. Dark grey on dark grey, enhanced with some more dark grey? You possibly can't be serious!
This is among the worst I've seen in a while, even worse than Kontakt's editor - and that should tell you a lot.
I present to you the Sampletank editing page:

 

[Sascha Franck]

And another one: The IK Product Manager won't let you resume downloads once you close it.
Given that it already takes 2 hours or so to download just some 5GB libraries (and it's defenitely not a problem on my end), I have absolutely no idea how I am supposed to download the Sampletank 4 Max content, coming in at 183GB. Do I have to keep my computer and the Product Manager opened for the rest of 2025?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Seriously?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Whomever designed the Sampletank UI needs to visit their psychologist. And then have their medication adjusted.

 

[laxu]

So I'm planning to go pick up a Tonex One pedal from an authorized dealer on Friday or Saturday.

What would be your top 10 things to pick from the group buy? I have zero IK software.

What would be the ones to avoid?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

What would be your top 10 things to pick from the group buy? I have zero IK software.

It's surprisingly hard for me to answer. I like the T Racks Product line best, but there's some that are hit and miss there, and what's most useful will largely depend on what plugins you have from other companies (like I don't really see myself using 1176/la2a/fairchild/pultec/ssl etc from IK when I have the UA equivalents). I'd go for the T Racks line of products for the most part though.

I do quite like their 33609, although I never use it. I like their distressor but use UA more. The Sontec EQ is good but I usually reach for other things. The tape machines sound good but I rarely use them.

Amplitube is KIND OF worth having although I think AT6 should blow it out of the water. It's fairly old and bloated at this point.

ToneX packs are probably worth trying for yourself. They can vary a lot, and tastes and requirements vary too.

I never use the sample library stuff, I just feel like other companies do all that better.

So much of their stuff is 6/10 for me. The ones that are 8 or 9/10 usually have alternatives from other companies that are a smidge better too, so I think its really about filling the gaps in.

 

[Sascha Franck]

What would be your top 10 things to pick from the group buy? I have zero IK software.

- All Tonex packs. Varying quality but quite some decent stuff among them. Make sure to first install everything coming with the pedal purchase so you don't end up buying what you already have.

- In case you're a bit into mixing, TRacks without any doubt. No idea whether you can get a bundle or need to go for individual things. The smaller bundles seem to be available through the groupbuy, the Max ones apparently not. Check what they include and perhaps get some missing titles separately, you'll have plenty of redeeming slots.

- Maybe Amplitube. I personally don't like fooling around within it too much, it's quite a clickety-clickety affair. I vastly prefer Tonex with some choice plugins in front.

- MODO Drums are pretty good, especially in case you don't have much drum libraries yet.

- Same goes for MODO Bass.

- Their Hammond is quite decent.

- Sampletron is quite good if you have a sweet spot for mellotrons.

There's also some nice libraries for Sampletank/Syntronik (Sampletank loads Syntronik patches as well, no need to fool around with multiple UIs), but IMO most libraries are too huge for what they offer. Heck, Spectrasonics' Omnisphere 3 needs a mere 64GB and kills (still need to purchase it one day). Can't say much about the Sampletank core library yet as it'll take ages for the download. Editing things inside Sampletank defenitely is a pain. I know why I always forgot about it, only got back to it because of the groupbuy. See screenshots above, it's embarrassingly bad.
I'll be able to tell more when I'm done downloading all the libs.

 

[bucephalus]

So I'm planning to go pick up a Tonex One pedal from an authorized dealer on Friday or Saturday.

What would be your top 10 things to pick from the group buy? I have zero IK software.

What would be the ones to avoid?

Given the amount of free options you'll have (and it's looking like the full 50 at the moment) definitely pick up all the Tonex Collections as they'll be good either as plug-in or direct on the pedal.

 

[laxu]

so I think its really about filling the gaps in.

That's my thought as well. I'm very much covered for compressors, tape deck sims etc with what I have from UA.

So far on my list:

• Tonex collections.
• ARC X plugin.
• Amplitube 5.
• X-pedal plugins.
• T-Racks 6.
• Hammond B-3X.
• Recording plugins not covered what I've got already.

At this rate it'll probably reach the full 49 by the time the group buy ends.

 

[dbagchee]

What would be your top 10 things to pick from the group buy? I have zero IK software.

Get T-racks pro 6 which includes nearly all of the modules and then cherry pick any remaining that you are interested in. You just have to be careful you don’t redeem one the bundle already includes as they don’t get disabled in the redemption tool. T-racks has a “module manager” that will show which modules are owned.

All the Tonex packs, I also got the “full” Tonex as it includes a few hundred more captures that are pretty good.

Amplitube 5 upgrade (Tonex One includes SE) and the Mesa 1 & 2 and Fender 1 & 2.

You may find after that it still hard to redeem the remaining products.

 

[Sascha Franck]

X-pedal plugins.

Fwiw, these are only available inside Amplitube. Which actually sucks quite a bit as they could be great on many things whereas dealing with Amplitube absolutely isn't.

And all of that is pointless anyway as long as you can't download a thing. IKs website creepingly slow, IK Product Manager downloads creepingly slow, ToneNET creepingly slow.

 

[Jarick]

Support says the issue is fixed for me so I’ll get to check later today and mess around with the new toys!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, there's some really nice sounds coming with Sampletank Max and Syntronik. But, quite unfortunately, editing them to suit your needs, even just very minimally, is a most royal PITA, if there ever was one, simply because the UI is made in a way to completely scare you away.
Seriously, I almost can't remember any UI that bad on anything made in this millenium - and if there was, it's likely some cheesy freeware.
I mean, just look at the screenshot I posted in #348. That's the modulation matrix. One of *the* key things you need to be able to deal with when finetuning sounds. But it's causing optical tinnitus after staring at that black in black nightmare for longer than 10 seconds. It actually looks as if nothing would be doing anything, due to the greyed/faded out - or rater: invisible - character of things. But there's some most essential things happening.
If this was decently designed, there'd at least be an alternate "bright" skin or something. But nada. Even when you size things to the max. it's not exactly getting better.

I absolutely don't get it. Don't you listen to your testers, @IK Multimedia? I mean, please don't tell me any of them actually said "yeah, that's a great UI!" - because it's an almost epic fail.

I really try to like your products, and as said, there's quite some nice stuff to be found. But I'm afraid I will just never use any of this stuff because the UI is so incredibly bad.