IK Multimedia TONEX

Whizzinby said:
Expound on said socks not being knocked off. lol How’s the interface and the toanez.

I’m not expecting much from an iPad rig, this is as much curiosity as anything.
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It's kind of unfair to admit straight away that it was a 10 minute tire-kicking session, and then to expound at all. Not that that will stop me... :D

It just didn't feel great IMO. After all the "slightly more accurate than QC/ significantly more accurate than a Kemper/ slightly smaller than a breadbox" posts, my expectations were high. Perhaps unrealistically so. I'd just done a round of HX 3.5 a few nights prior, and came away thinking I should stay in the QC lane - it just feels more fun to play, faster. I was hoping ToneX would deliver something similar, because my QC can't be in the 3 places I want it to be at the same time (nor can I afford 2 more of them.) But after clicking through a few amps at random and playing a bit, I wasn't really inspired to continue. I'm sure it gets better - this was just my very immediate impression, per my guitar-in-stolen-moments dad schedule.

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The interface is fine, I guess, but oddly, a bit sluggish on my Windows machine. (Just occurred to me it was probably in some whimpy power saving mode by default - I'll need to revisit in the "can't hear anything over the fan" performance mode. Just messing around on my phone here at work, the iOS UI seems much smoother.) And the "please don't sue us" capture names are a little difficult to parse. First world problems.

Signing away my first born to FMIC just for the privilege of keeping my socks on, ew. IK has always been a minor nightmare of virtual bureaucracy.
 
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Whizzinby said:
I’m not expecting much from an iPad rig, this is as much curiosity as anything.
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This will help the iOS version a lot. I'm not expecting it to be as good as any of the hardware platforms. I'm expecting it to provide: reasonably good tones, variety, compatibility with Jam Origin. And that'll be just fine. :giggle: Provided it doesn't cost a zillion dollars after in-app purchases. :oops:
 
mbenigni said:
This will help the iOS version a lot. I'm not expecting it to be as good as any of the hardware platforms. I'm expecting it to provide: reasonably good tones, variety, compatibility with Jam Origin. And that'll be just fine. :giggle: Provided it doesn't cost a zillion dollars after in-app purchases. :oops:
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That’s what I’m curious about. I browsed through the ToneX app on my iPad, looks like it comes with about 20 or so amps and a handful of drives, but from there it’s not intuitive how to best get the content you want:

Mega Pack
Super Mega Pack
Super Duper Mega Pack
Etc.

Or more importantly how this $100 curiosity won’t become a $634 curiosity. lol
 
Whizzinby said:
That’s what I’m curious about. I browsed through the ToneX app on my iPad, looks like it comes with about 20 or so amps and a handful of drives, but from there it’s not intuitive how to best get the content you want:

Mega Pack
Super Mega Pack
Super Duper Mega Pack
Etc.

Or more importantly how this $100 curiosity won’t become a $634 curiosity. lol
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Exactly. Classic IK Multimedia: minor nightmare of virtual bureaucracy.

(That's one thing I love about Helix Native, by contrast: one very reasonable price; here's our everything.)
 
Here’s my impression.

I like it with my UAD Interface, and not with the Axe I/O. Now that’s just me, and someone else may generate different results interface wise.

Like with any profiling I’ve experienced a profile either works or it doesn’t. There’s really no in between. If someone doesn’t capture their own gear there’s a lot of this is probably close enough or nope, but I can see the brilliance of capturing one’s own preferred analog setting to really get the most out the snapshot paradigm.

The quality is somewhere in between the Neural plugins and the Fractal modeling—to me(given a tonex model that’s within a range I like).

Responds well to analog pedals in front of it. So a smaller player could really work well on a pedalboard if they eventually introduce one.
 
Gearzilla said:
Here’s my impression.

I like it with my UAD Interface, and not with the Axe I/O. Now that’s just me, and someone else may generate different results interface wise.

Like with any profiling I’ve experienced a profile either works or it doesn’t. There’s really no in between. If someone doesn’t capture their own gear there’s a lot of this is probably close enough or nope, but I can see the brilliance of capturing one’s own preferred analog setting to really get the most out the snapshot paradigm.

The quality is somewhere in between the Neural plugins and the Fractal modeling—to me(given a tonex model that’s within a range I like).

Responds well to analog pedals in front of it. So a smaller player could really work well on a pedalboard if they eventually introduce one.
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Yeah, I'm basically geeked because I'll be able to run a capture of an amp+Captor X on my iPad, which is fricking cool as hell. I don't have a ton of faith in others' captures. They've basically been shit so far, except for the ones done by a couple folks here.
 
I just checked my IK product Manager and they gave me the ToneX player for free. I am not sure what to do with it but thats cool.
 
UA Volt series are on a pretty good sale right now and include 2 UAD plugins (both native and DSP versions).

I just bought their simplest Volt (for £100 inc next day delivery) which looks like a great way to add a 1 MOhm DI, headphone out, Line outs, MIDI, mic pre w/phantom power etc to an iPad. Pretty sure both of the included plugins cost more on their own (even at the black friday sale price) so IMO you really can't go wrong.

Hadn't really paid attention to these before as I have other conversion for my studio, but its pretty mental how cheap the portable stuff is these days. Should make a useful box for messing around on the iPad with.
 
Yeah I’m approaching it as a novelty, so it can only exceed expectations. Will be curious to see how the iRig device works out.
 
Whizzinby said:
Yeah I’m approaching it as a novelty, so it can only exceed expectations. Will be curious to see how the iRig device works out.
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I spent a few minutes with iOS ToneX last night and... ("he won't like it; he hates everything!")... I loved it! The captures are hit or miss - not so much in terms of "do they sound good?" but in terms of "do they sound anything like I would expect this particular amp to sound?" Which makes it a little hard to navigate. No matter, this is by far the best sounding amp sim I've heard for iOS, and I can probably limp by with just the free stuff for a while. UI is good, sounds are great, nice variety of reverbs, a compressor that will probably prove useful... I'm stoked.

Take everything I said about the Windows version with a grain of salt, because it's got to be possible to make it sound at least as good as the iOS version. I was running through cans the night I tested on Windows, and maybe I'm just coming to the realization that I hate these cans? (I used different headphones on iPad last night.) The UI is also kind of janky, though (yes, even with my PC in full Turbo mode) - it hangs trying to select audio interfaces/ channels, it hangs trying to load captures, none of the captures appear to be included for free... it's just funky. The iOS version is silky smooth. Up is down and black is white LOL.

giphy.gif
 
mbenigni said:
I spent a few minutes with iOS ToneX last night and... ("he won't like it; he hates everything!")... I loved it! The captures are hit or miss - not so much in terms of "do they sound good?" but in terms of "do they sound anything like I would expect this particular amp to sound?" Which makes it a little hard to navigate. No matter, this is by far the best sounding amp sim I've heard for iOS, and I can probably limp by with just the free stuff for a while. UI is good, sounds are great, nice variety of reverbs, a compressor that will probably prove useful... I'm stoked.

Take everything I said about the Windows version with a grain of salt, because it's got to be possible to make it sound at least as good as the iOS version. I was running through cans the night I tested on Windows, and maybe I'm just coming to the realization that I hate these cans? (I used different headphones on iPad last night.) The UI is also kind of janky, though (yes, even with my PC in full Turbo mode) - it hangs trying to select audio interfaces/ channels, it hangs trying to load captures, none of the captures appear to be included for free... it's just funky. The iOS version is silky smooth. Up is down and black is white LOL.

giphy.gif
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That’s awesome. I nosed around the app a little more last night and it looks pretty straight forward. I still can’t make heads or tails of the paid content packages (especially across ToneX and Amplitube lines) but i think I’ll just kick the can with what comes with it base before sinking anything else into it.

Have you dove into the user capture waters yet? My cloud capture experience has left me scarred elsewhere, but I bet there are some good caps to be found.
 
Whizzinby said:
That’s awesome. I nosed around the app a little more last night and it looks pretty straight forward. I still can’t make heads or tails of the paid content packages (especially across ToneX and Amplitube lines) but i think I’ll just kick the can with what comes with it base before sinking anything else into it.

Have you dove into the user capture waters yet? My cloud capture experience has left me scarred elsewhere, but I bet there are some good caps to be found.
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I haven't looked at any content outside what could be had for free, by clicking around at random.

I just tried running it direct into a 4x12 cab, and that wasn't immediately great. The VIR section seems to add a lot to the overall timbre. That's OK for me, since the main use will be on iOS, where I need to keep everything FR so that guitar+synth routing is nice and simple. Catch-22: the UI is almost unusable when embedded in Jam Origin. (That's probably Jam Origin's fault; not ToneX's.) Hard to say whether I'll go any further with it. iOS AU UI has its inherent quirks, and the Windows version (whose VST would add value for recording) is a little bumpy (for me, for some reason.) Besides which, all my best audio interfaces are actually guitar modelers/ capturers LOL.
 
mbenigni said:
I haven't looked at any content outside what could be had for free, by clicking around at random.

I just tried running it direct into a 4x12 cab, and that wasn't immediately great. The VIR section seems to add a lot to the overall timbre. That's OK for me, since the main use will be on iOS, where I need to keep everything FR so that guitar+synth routing is nice and simple. Catch-22: the UI is almost unusable when embedded in Jam Origin. (That's probably Jam Origin's fault; not ToneX's.) Hard to say whether I'll go any further with it. iOS AU UI has its inherent quirks, and the Windows version (whose VST would add value for recording) is a little bumpy (for me, for some reason.) Besides which, all my best audio interfaces are actually guitar modelers/ capturers LOL.
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I kicked a few extra bucks in for the iRig with a 1/4” amp out, not sure how often I’d want to run it into a 412 but wanted the option. You think there is too much coloration baked in to effectively run via cab?

My theory with this experiment is I always have my iPad near me during the day playing something, so this might be an easy way to keep a guitar handy for some noodling without firing up the Death Star. I think once poweramps and cabs get involved I’d be hard pressed to not just use an amp, but I figured why not have the flexibility?
 
Whizzinby said:
I kicked a few extra bucks in for the iRig with a 1/4” amp out, not sure how often I’d want to run it into a 412 but wanted the option. You think there is too much coloration baked in to effectively run via cab?

My theory with this experiment is I always have my iPad near me during the day playing something, so this might be an easy way to keep a guitar handy for some noodling without firing up the Death Star. I think once poweramps and cabs get involved I’d be hard pressed to not just use an amp, but I figured why not have the flexibility?
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If anything, I'd say the opposite: that the amp captures aren't sufficiently colored, and the cab sim is picking up some of the slack. But there are a number of more likely explanations:

- The specific amp captures I tested aren't great?
- I'm not adequately familiar with the specific amps in question?
- The amps aren't coming up with the knobs in usable positions (and I didn't do much with them because... tiny UI.)
- I don't actually like my 4x12 as much as I think I do? :D

The last one is the most probable explanation, but it's notable that I can turn off ToneX and stick a bare QC amp sim (no cab) inline, and everything sounds magic.

Right on re: having an iOS practice rig close to hand. All my proper amplification is a bit of a walk from anywhere the rest of the family hangs out. I like being able to plug into an iPad and a little monitor, or headphones, to practice without having to go too far. (I actually use an old 1/4" to USB audio conversion cable I stole from a Rocksmith video game, and USB to lightning adaptor. Plus headphone out to whatever.) Not that I actually do it all that often...
 
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