Mongillo19
Rock Star
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Yeah the mass YT videos focusing on the word "game changer" does make my eyes roll
IK Multimedia Tone X One?
- Thread starter Mongillo19
- Start date
Yeah, plenty of it.
I use a 30€ Doremidi to switch presets in a zoom G1XFour in my pedalboard. It even powers the zoom.
Giving host capabilities to this new ToneX USB port is really EASY. A simplified and naked down Arduino can make it flawlessly. Plenty of open source algorithms since years also. It's just a commercial decision. With it, you don't even need any adapter anymore. Kudos to Kemper, by the way.
laxu
Rock Star
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It is somewhat apt though. The Tonex One makes very good amp/cab direct tones a commodity.
Now we can argue all day whether it sounds/feels as good as Fractal or Line6, how it doesn't operate like the real amp, has more latency and aliasing, has limited fx, terrible software, or fiddly little knobs.
But it's in that category where it's as cheap as an average Boss Waza pedal and offers a lot for the money, with sounds that are more than good enough for the majority of people who buy one. The bigger Tonex pedal was that already, but it was a good chunk more expensive and in a less practical form factor.
It is likely IK will release a floor modeler that is Tonex + fx bundled in and that will make it increasingly harder for the higher end modeler makers. While IK effects don't compete with the best in the fx world, again "good enough" might win. There will of course always be a group of people who want the best...but there's a much bigger group who will be fine with "good enough". Younger players won't care about adjusting an amp exactly like the real deal, all they care is that they can get its sound for little money.
It just sucks that this tech comes from a company that is so bad at usability and UI design, but might be a major player just because they were first to market to gain enough following for 3rd party content.
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MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
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Is the iPad/iPhone version being somewhat slept on?
Like, the ability to choose your own I/O, combine with other plugin FX, route freely, automation, MIDI, big display for navigating makes way more sense to me. Not that I'd want that stuff on a pedalboard, but then I wouldn't really require a ToneX One style pedal to be on a board either.
I also agree that to get a realistically decent use out of this, you're likely going to combine with another modeller. At which point, I'd rather just do everything inside an HX Stomp or FM3 or whatever than trying to fudge something else in that'll at best sound roughly the same.
Its inevitable that IK also has something bigger coming. I'd be really curious to see how they do this but my expectations are seriously low.
What they need:
- slick on board UI, quick to make and edit patches in minimal steps
- access to the full Amplitube suite of models and FX
- a clever/slick UI to navigate their enormous VIR library.
- a better app+editor for ToneX and Amplitube
- Amplitube to be tweaked so you can easily seperate poweramp modelling
- proper gainstaging, because even mixing Amplitube models together is enough to make Pythagoras turn his back on maths. Throw ToneX models into the mix and its a shitshow.
- HW that allows Line 6/Fractal levels of routing
IK has proven they're quite competent at getting products to market at a decent price. Basically all the HW they've ever made has avoided anything but the most basic on board screens, and even then they aren't particularly nice to use. The ToneX pedal has tons of hidden menus, double functioning knobs and a lackluster external editor.
Like, the ability to choose your own I/O, combine with other plugin FX, route freely, automation, MIDI, big display for navigating makes way more sense to me. Not that I'd want that stuff on a pedalboard, but then I wouldn't really require a ToneX One style pedal to be on a board either.
I also agree that to get a realistically decent use out of this, you're likely going to combine with another modeller. At which point, I'd rather just do everything inside an HX Stomp or FM3 or whatever than trying to fudge something else in that'll at best sound roughly the same.
Its inevitable that IK also has something bigger coming. I'd be really curious to see how they do this but my expectations are seriously low.
What they need:
- slick on board UI, quick to make and edit patches in minimal steps
- access to the full Amplitube suite of models and FX
- a clever/slick UI to navigate their enormous VIR library.
- a better app+editor for ToneX and Amplitube
- Amplitube to be tweaked so you can easily seperate poweramp modelling
- proper gainstaging, because even mixing Amplitube models together is enough to make Pythagoras turn his back on maths. Throw ToneX models into the mix and its a shitshow.
- HW that allows Line 6/Fractal levels of routing
IK has proven they're quite competent at getting products to market at a decent price. Basically all the HW they've ever made has avoided anything but the most basic on board screens, and even then they aren't particularly nice to use. The ToneX pedal has tons of hidden menus, double functioning knobs and a lackluster external editor.
Sascha Franck
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As far as the software goes, if you were straightforward, you'd really had to wade through it only once in case you only needed "any" decent amps (as opposed to all the amps in the world or your specific own gear captured in every detail).
And as far as the knobs goes, I actually tend to agree (I'd much more prefer 4 semi-mini knobs as on the Wampler Belle), but for whatever reasons, even my pretty fat fingers manage to dial in, say, a Mooer Pure Boost just fine (in fact pretty much as good as an HX Stomp...). I think it's a lot about the individual knob's friction.
Oh, most defenitely. But that's likely because the large one lends to trying to get more out of it - whereas I see this small one pretty much as a one trick pony. Try to remember 2-3 baseline amps and forget about the rest. This is precisely how I'm using the Amplifirebox and it's pretty much the core of my live sound ever since I sold the Helix. All the rest is done with other pedals.
Lysander
Shredder
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Thanks, i wasn't aware of these!
Not too shabby for ~$60 with shipping from AliExpress.
Sascha Franck
Rock Star
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No. But if you want that, you would likely have something else already.
And not even an HX Stomp would allow you to do so without sacrificing blocks.
No. These are the kind of things you do beforehand.
Seriously, it's not as if "oh whoops, there's a tube poweramp only for my amplification duties" is even remotely close to a scenario happening regularly.
And again, not even an HX Stomp would allow you to do that easily as the amp settings are lost when flipping a block from amp to preamp.
I am by now making my living by playing through modelers (or at least IRs) live exclusively roughly since 2017. And I have not even once touched these settings during a rehearsal, soundcheck or whatever. In fact, after dialing in the initial patch, I even almost never do so when recording.
dronerstone
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Valid points, yet at this price point and size, I wouldn't be surprised if these weren't possible - and (apart from their bullshit software and marketing) I wouldn't even blame IK for it.
MirrorProfiles
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Even doing these before hand is a nightmare because you need to rely on the models being made well enough to be versatile.
Regardless, what you mean by "easy for everyone to have a great sounding setup under all conditions" is actually "easy for you to have the tone that you think is great".
I can totally believe that for your needs it would work just fine, but for most situations I'm imagining, it would absolutely need something more capable to use alongside it, and everything that comes to mind already has very good amp modelling.
I'm finding it hilarious that people are considering dealing with shite like this to go with such a small pedal. Is it not defeating the point?
Here's my new iPhone:
It's fine to change your mind about the stealing amps thing (which was silly to begin with) but just come out and say it. IK having a few licensed packs doesn't make them any better than Kemper. And did he say he's selling his own toan modelz? But it's okay because his SLO is totally unique so it doesn't fit his definition of stealing amps
They have 2 versions... mine is the first one, it costed me around 35€ back in the day (maybe 3 years ago?). The new version has some improvements, I guess... but mine wroks flawlessly.
Yeah... I don´t think at it as the "midi saviour" for the ToneX One. It has no sense. I just won´t buy the ToneX One, instead of searching for workarounds that kills the suposed advantage of size. I think they should implement midi usb host into the pedal, just as the Kemper Player, so you can use ANY usb midi controller without adapters. Well, or maybe they shouldn´t, they´re going to sell a ton anyway.
But even if it had the midi feature, I wouldn´t buy it anyway because of the input gain thing.
If it wasn´t for these 2 points, I would consider it for my full pealboard, as a direct replacement of my amp for rehearsals or flygigs, because then it would have full sense its tiny size and features for my use case.
dronerstone
Shredder
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One obstacle that I see here is that the market is already very saturated.
E.g. myself, I'd give the Tonex Mini a chance, but I already have:
- Helix Floor
- Two Notes CAB M+
- Boss Katana MK2 Head
- Catalinbread SFT (decent Ampeg pre)
- Kuro Exegol (excellent Model T pre)
And I'm not planning to buy new (redundant) stuff and start building another board and time soon.
Hence:
E.g. myself, I'd give the Tonex Mini a chance, but I already have:
- Helix Floor
- Two Notes CAB M+
- Boss Katana MK2 Head
- Catalinbread SFT (decent Ampeg pre)
- Kuro Exegol (excellent Model T pre)
And I'm not planning to buy new (redundant) stuff and start building another board and time soon.
Hence:
Byrdman
Shredder
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- 1,176
LOL... Been watching a few videos that say get 2-3 of these and you have an "arsenal" of great tones. Seems to me if you need that many, it would be cheaper to get the bigger version with more features and options.
Maybe with this coming out it will lower the price on bigger used ones.
Maybe with this coming out it will lower the price on bigger used ones.
SKU
Roadie
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- 845
You could always choose the effort-free path and let A.I. play for you. You can even project your hologram so you don't even have to be there at all.
Reminds of the OG toan seks pedal launch. "You want stereo? Just buy two of them! They're so cheap!"
Los-D
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I think the (gulp) QC has full MIDI over USB but have never tried it.USB to MIDI cables are dirt cheap; the problem is that you need a USB MIDI host to send messages, which is usually a computer. A quick search on Thomann will pop up a couple USB MIIDI controllers which can do this, but we're no longer talking a simple converter
As far as i know, no modeler out there supports sending MIDI messages over USB (people have been asking Fractal about this feature for some time now). The bottom line is that MIDI over USB Is only practical if you're using a computer.
As far as USB MIDI controllers, another option could be a Rapsberry Pi Zero which is cheap, though not a simple plug and play device anymore
SKU
Roadie
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- 845
You could go poverty and use an Arduino nano + usb shield. Size should be that of a flat small box, one that you can attach underneath the pedalboard.
Racehorse
Newbie
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- 14
Morningstar MC6 Pro does this.
