IK Multimedia TONEX

[Sascha Franck]

Beware there’s a bit of a translation factor moving patches from the software to the hardware - just watch your levels going into the plugin or you might end up with wildly different gain staging and breakup levels on the hardware.

Yeah, first thing I'll be doing later on will be to compare the same patches on the hardware and the plugin and come up with a channel strip setting adressing potential differences (my interface's input trim stays the same all the time). Did that with the Stomp and HX Native already.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, the PSU issue is a shame. Did try various ones by now, the results are very different. And it only seems to be really noticeable once a guitar is plugged in an turned up. With the guitar volume at zero, there's very little differences, if at all.
No idea what's going on there. I mean, this seems to be a solid piece of kit, so why are they cheaping out on this? If I was running the company, this would be considered a showstopper.
It's not getting in the way too much for me to regret purchasing it, but still, this is no decent quality assurance.

 

[Dimiguitar]

Fwiw, the PSU issue is a shame. Did try various ones by now, the results are very different. And it only seems to be really noticeable once a guitar is plugged in an turned up. With the guitar volume at zero, there's very little differences, if at all.
No idea what's going on there. I mean, this seems to be a solid piece of kit, so why are they cheaping out on this? If I was running the company, this would be considered a showstopper.
It's not getting in the way too much for me to regret purchasing it, but still, this is no decent quality assurance.

I've seen stuff like this with 3 tonex ones. People were telling me repeatedly it's not how they are, but it's not what I found. At the end, I just accepted this issue and still make great use for the tonex one.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I've seen stuff like this with 3 tonex ones. People were telling me repeatedly it's not how they are, but it's not what I found. At the end, I just accepted this issue and still make great use for the tonex one.

I've been reading about this before considering one quite sometimes and thought folks possibly weren't using proper PSUs, but by now I can safely tell it's an IK issue, likely related to some ground stuff going on at the input stage. No idea how one could permanently adress this, but all I do know is that the Tonex pedal is the only digital device in my arsenal being such a sissy about PSUs.
Yes, I will find a sufficient solution, in all potentially critical situations (gigs) I will only be using a pretty clean(-ish) patch anyway, so there's that. But IK should defenitely up their game for whatever next run of hardware.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, when the pedal arrived, it was resetted to the factory defaults. First thing I did before touching any software was to connect it to my mobile phone and check whether that'd work fine (because that might be my main use case). By default, patch A had that high gain Marshall loaded, on patch B there's that clean Dumble patch.
And when I switched to that patch, I instantly knew that this thing would be a keeper. I know, it's not what most people round these parts are after, but I am. And it's gotta be the single most instant gratification clean patch I ever stumbled upon. Even if all else would not satisfy me, it'd be worth to keep the thing for that patch alone, it's just glorious.

 

[Dimiguitar]

Fwiw, when the pedal arrived, it was resetted to the factory defaults. First thing I did before touching any software was to connect it to my mobile phone and check whether that'd work fine (because that might be my main use case). By default, patch A had that high gain Marshall loaded, on patch B there's that clean Dumble patch.
And when I switched to that patch, I instantly knew that this thing would be a keeper. I know, it's not what most people round these parts are after, but I am. And it's gotta be the single most instant gratification clean patch I ever stumbled upon. Even of all else would not satisfy me, it'd be worth to keep the thing for that patch alone, it's just glorious.

Have you loaded your own captures yet? I'm using a VH4 preamp capture I made into a tube power amp and it sounds amazing. Also use the tonex one as an overdrive pedal in front of tube amp, and to record in my daw directly with full captured chains.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Have you loaded your own captures yet?

Nah, I still haven't bothered creating any. And perhaps I won't. The only amps I have left aren't worth it (a 90s "The Twin" and a Laney LC50 - and even while the latter is a really nice amp, it's not the sounds I'm after anymore). Ok, I *may* one day capture my Soldano SP77's dirt channel running into a tube amp model of the Amplifirebox (or of an AMT Pangaea, which, as unlikely as it might seem, has some pretty decent power amp models), but otherwise, the stuff available with Tonex Max seems to be absolutely sufficient for my needs. On the big board, I really only need a pedal platform and the pre-loaded Dumble thing should check all boxes there already.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Ok. I was just trying to fool around with the Tonex plugin. And guess what? You CAN'T enter any text in the model search box under Logic as all key actions are still only triggering Logic commands.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
Hey, @IK Multimedia, do you actually have any testers worth their salt?
I absolutely can't believe this!

Same old story, really. Potentially killer products, incredibly lousy quality assurance (and don't even get me started on the iLoud Micros and their un-solveable port turbulence issues).

 

[Mongillo19]

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, when I closed and reopened the plugin 2-3 times, it all of a sudden started to work. At least.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Ok, dealing with all this requires more than just patience. I can't believe just how bad the software is made, regardless whether it's the editor or the plugin. Collection browser, ToneNET browser, preset browser, category/name filter, favourites and what not. And everything spread over the entire place. And why does the UI of the Tonex Editor look completely different from the plugin? FFS, why can't you just do it like Line 6 where the plugin and the editor are pretty much literally identical?
And can you prelisten to all ToneNET things from within the editor? Just as you can from within the plugin?

 

[DrewJD82]

Ok. I was just trying to fool around with the Tonex plugin. And guess what? You CAN'T enter any text in the model search box under Logic as all key actions are still only triggering Logic commands.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
Hey, @IK Multimedia, do you actually have any testers worth their salt?
I absolutely can't believe this!

Same old story, really. Potentially killer products, incredibly lousy quality assurance (and don't even get me started on the iLoud Micros and their un-solveable port turbulence issues).

Sascha discovering ToneX after the update-

Sascha upon running into the first issue that may not even be caused by ToneX-

 

[Sascha Franck]

Sascha discovering ToneX after the update-

I wouldn't even want to know what things were like before the recent editor update, given just how badly things are still designed.

 

[DrewJD82]

I wouldn't even want to know what things were like before the recent editor update, given just how badly things are still designed.

I gotta start counting my blessings, I still haven’t run into any issues with it going back before the update. (Logic is my only DAW, too). I just learned my lesson about firing shots at IK after I piled on when Andy Wood’s setup didn’t work…..which was caused by his specific setup and not IK.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I just learned my lesson about firing shots at IK after I piled on when Andy Wood’s setup didn’t work…..which was caused by his specific setup and not IK

See, none of my major gripes (of those I'm already experiencing already) has anything to to with my setup. Even if the non-working keycommands would turn out to be a one time affair, the UI is just the UI. And it's pretty horrible IMO, especially as there's no consistency all throughout. Fwiw, this is an issue with IK stuff ever since I can remember. They partially adressed some of the most horrible issues, but it's still pretty bad.
And well, the noise issues very clearly are hardware related and there's many people who stumbled upon them, some of them even giving up on the Tonex One because of these issues.

 

[DrewJD82]

See, none of my major gripes (of those I'm already experiencing already) has anything to to with my setup. Even if the non-working keycommands would turn out to be a one time affair, the UI is just the UI. And it's pretty horrible IMO, especially as there's no consistency all throughout. Fwiw, this is an issue with IK stuff ever since I can remember. They partially adressed some of the most horrible issues, but it's still pretty bad.
And well, the noise issues very clearly are hardware related and there's many people who stumbled upon them, some of them even giving up on the Tonex One because of these issues.

Still counting my blessings, I’m one of the “The Fractal UI doesn’t bother me in the slightest” types.

Should also note, I’m just running the ToneX plugin or standalone, I don’t have one of the pedals yet.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Should also note, I’m just running the ToneX plugin or standalone, I don’t have one of the pedals yet.

Well, that'd explain some things. It's defenitely tougher to deal with two similar, yet different software topologies - especially in case the two could be almost identical.
Seriously, what's winding me up the most is how all the IK stuff could be just excellent - if it wasn't for some things being a complete mess sooo often.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Airstep TX: arrived.

It operates okay as a wireless interface for editing on the phone, as a wireless power supply for the One, and as an effects/presets switcher.

Did you use it some more by now?
I just watched the Studio Rats video and downloaded the app (which is "working" without the Airstep) to have an idea about what's available. Gotta say I'm quite stunned because this turns the Tonex One in a very easy to deal with live unit - possibly even more so than the full Tonex on its own. The only downside being that the Airstep is limited to be used with just the Tonex (or is that any different?), so one of those Pirate MIDI boxes would possibly be a better fit - but they're apparently not as effortless to use as the Airstep.

Note that when used with the Tonex One, the Airstep TX always operates in Stomp mode. So if you have assigned your fav amps to A and B in Dual Mode, you can't acces them, you're limited to the presets.

What exactly does that mean? Pardon the possibly daft question, I'm not much into the thing yet.

 

[yek]

Yeah, the software is still bad, even though splitting it into 3 different apps has made things a little more clear.
But still much left to complain about.

And agreed on the Clean Dumble sound, that's very usable.

 

[yek]

Did you use it some more by now?

I'm traveling a lot for work, and the Airstep is quite heavy, so I didn't take it with me.

And at home I don't use TONEX, I have other options.

The TONEX One has two operating modes:

1) Dual Mode: switch between Preset A and Preset B, using the main switch. You already discovered this mode, with the Dumble being preset B.

2) Stomp mode: the pedal acts as a stomp box (overdrive) before a traditional amp or modeler.
When you press the main switch in Stompbox mode, the virtual stompbox is turned off, and you get a direct-through signal.
Which is handy when the pedal is before an amp, or when connecting the pedal to a computer and use the Tonex simulation from the software, not the pedal itself.

There's an additional 'mode': Preset Browsing Mode. Through a difficult switch combination and knobs with too little range you can -in theory- switch between 20 presets. Too difficult to use to be useful without software.

To switch the TONEX the the two main modes without software, you have to hold ALT for like 6 seconds and use the Bass knob to switch modes.

Now, with the Airstep, the TONEX makes those 20 presets from the Preset Browsing Mode more easily accessible. That's nice but in order to do this, it runs in Stomp mode. That means that those two precious presets / amp tones you've selected for the Preset A and Preset B slots, after examining hundreds of captures, are now not accessible anymore. Solution: add them to the 20 presets.