IK Multimedia TONEX

[Chocol8]

They absolutely should. Seems it works via MIDI Sysex or something since there are quite a few third party tools.

I think the third party tools are translating midi messages to whatever protocol IK uses with their editor over USB.

 

[Shask]

That looks like it is working pretty well! Do you get access to all 20 saved presets on the One, or just the two in its A/B slots? I am wondering if it can swap the others in out as fast/gapless as it does the A/B with the One's foot switch.

I still think IK should add MIDI over USB capability if physically possible (seems like it should just be software) but this is a pretty small and inexpensive work around. I am definitely curious and following your trials with interest!

You can select all 20 presets.

What it does is move it to the stomp slot when you select it. It runs it on stomp/off mode, and then always moves the preset to the stomp slot that you select.

 

[Sascha Franck]

That looks like it is working pretty well! Do you get access to all 20 saved presets on the One, or just the two in its A/B slots? I am wondering if it can swap the others in out as fast/gapless as it does the A/B with the One's foot switch.

You can access all 20 slots and switching is just as fast as in A/B mode. Really excellent.
With the web app you can even re-order the captures in their slots, so if you want to exchange an amp on slot #5 (called up via PC #5) for a gig or so without re-programming your MIDI controller, that's kinda easily possible. Which is absolutely up my alley as I usually allow myself to use 1-2 sounds in a "playground" fashion, regardless of the gig - and I'm sure it'll be cool being able to just play another amp here and there, with anything else staying just as it was before.

I still think IK should add MIDI over USB capability if physically possible (seems like it should just be software) but this is a pretty small and inexpensive work around. I am definitely curious and following your trials with interest!

Seems it works via MIDI Sysex or something since there are quite a few third party tools.

According to @IK Multimedia there's no suitable hardware to supply the computing power that is needed for the MIDI translation inside the unit - and I have no reason not to believe that. I mean, it's a very small unit and there's gotta be reasons why it's so affordable, too.

Anyhow, so far I'm absolutely amazed about the way this setup turns out to be. If this is doing well on the next gigs, I may even think about getting rid of most dirt pedals on the live board and tighten up things yet some more.
Also, when you think about just the core stuff, this will make up for an amazingly affordable and incredibly great sounding setup. A used GT-1000 is around €700, a new TXO is around €160, the Pico between €60-100 (depending on where you are), add a suitable PSU for 50 bucks and then perhaps whatever board (could pretty well work with just a bag or light case if you mount TXO, Pico and PSU on a very small board).

That's around €1k and gets you some of the best amp sounds around (if you're fine with captures) and Boss level FX. Sure, some of them are kinda dumbed down, but let's face it, Boss knows FX pretty well - and in case you don't need any nifty stuff, they will suit every situation.
Add to this trail spillover and global blocks.

 

[yek]

That switching is very fast indeed.

 

[laxu]

According to @IK Multimedia there's no suitable hardware to supply the computing power that is needed for the MIDI translation inside the unit - and I have no reason not to believe that. I mean, it's a very small unit and there's gotta be reasons why it's so affordable, too.

Source?

MIDI is a very simple protocol and pretty bottom tier controllers are enough to receive and process MIDI messages. It's not like they have to implement e.g MIDI clock support or full in/out communication. PC and CC message input support would go a long way.

Alternatively, publish the specs for the USB communication so 3rd party tools can be created without reverse engineering, or provide an API. You could probably slap together the cheapest and smallest Arduino UNO to handle the conversion.

 

[Chocol8]

Gapless switching is something I would expect from the loaded presets on a modern device, but for something the size and price of the One to be able to load other presets to the slot without gaps is pretty impressive to me! That’s great that it is working that well!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Source?

@IK Multimedia said so right here on this forum.

Alternatively, publish the specs for the USB communication so 3rd party tools can be created without reverse engineering, or provide an API. You could probably slap together the cheapest and smallest Arduino UNO to handle the conversion.

That's indeed something they could do. But this is in fact what is covered by the Builty project.
IK themselves possibly don't want to cannibalize the sales of the big unit.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Gapless switching is something I would expect from the loaded presets on a modern device

Just that no device can really do it unless you sacrifice some functionality.

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

View attachment 53450

Alrighty, I've been dipping my toes back into capturing some of my amps and humbly submit a small batch for my friends here. For those with hardware, these are setup to translate accurately to the Tonex harware with trim at 0.

• 1998 revision G Dual Rectifier
• fresh caps
• fresh JJ EL34s
• Solid State Rectification
• Bold switch
• Tung-Sol in V1
• a whole lot of attitude.

If you like Rectos, you will probably enjoy some of these. If you are Recto-curious, start with the crunch patches, plug in single coils and roll your guitar volume down a touch, there are nice shades of gain and compression in there.

Details:
I captured the amp through a Suhr RL direct via a Presonus Quantum 2626. I won't make any grand statements about quality, this was the result of a test working out levels and seeing how the various channels and modes responded to my reamping chain. I like some of these better than others, but I think it captures a decent summary of the amp.

Hope you all enjoy!

Clean:

Recto Clean B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Vintage lighter crunch:

Recto Vintage Light Crunch B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Vintage Crunch:

Recto Modern to Vintage Crunch B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Vintage High Gain:

Recto Vintage High Gain B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Modern cloned to vintage:

Recto Modern to Vintage Crunch B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Modern Crunch

Recto Modern Crunch B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture - modern high gain

www.tone.net

Modern High Gain:

Recto Modern High Gain B

Mesa Rectifier direct capture

www.tone.net

Dude, these are great! Finally got around to trying them. I’ve never really bonded with the recto sound. When dialing in for example the HX model it’s just been farty and fizzy and boosting didn’t really do it for me.

With these I just lost more than an hour mostly playing! Perfect amount of captures as well so it’s not too much to sift through.

I feel like I finally understand tje recto sound better after messing around with your captures. Highly recommend others to check them out.

Loaded them all onto my TO for now and will mess around a bit more and try to find my faves. Thanks a lot for sharing!

 

[laxu]

That's indeed something they could do. But this is in fact what is covered by the Builty project.
IK themselves possibly don't want to cannibalize the sales of the big unit.

Link to the project: https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController
So the Pirate MIDI products are basically a prebuilt version of that.

I haven't been following this topic that much since I didn't use any Tonex products, and since it's a very long thread I've probably missed a lot of this stuff.

 

[EOengineer]

Dude, these are great! Finally got around to trying them. I’ve never really bonded with the recto sound. When dialing in for example the HX model it’s just been farty and fizzy and boosting didn’t really do it for me.

With these I just lost more than an hour mostly playing! Perfect amount of captures as well so it’s not too much to sift through.

I feel like I finally understand tje recto sound better after messing around with your captures. Highly recommend others to check them out.

Loaded them all onto my TO for now and will mess around a bit more and try to find my faves. Thanks a lot for sharing!

So pumped they are working for you and some of the other folks here. I have evangelized the non-boosted, EL-34 loaded 2-ch Recto vibe for years. I was honestly just excited to share some of the ways I use that amp, make my case a bit.

The orange vintage caps in particular I think show a side of that amp that gets glossed over because there’s so much attention on the red/modern boosted heavy tones. The Recto Vintage Orange channel is a ROCK machine. The EL34s help too by shaving off some of the lows/highs and pushing more midrange.

No promises but the Mark III Simul Class head is sitting in the music room and might get a similar treatment this weekend. Very excited to hear what V2 caps can pull off here, as my prior attempts to capture this amp have ended in disappointment.

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

Getting MIDI to work sounds pretty nifty. I have a BOSS FS-WL-1 lying around that has MIDI Bluetooth. Does anyone know the cost for a small controller and enclosure?

I also "found" the mode now where you can change the A/B/C presets on Tonex One. I thought you could stay in that mode and then you can actually toggle between all three via the footswitch. Would probably be too unreliable for use outside of bedroom playing though.

 

[Chocol8]

Getting MIDI to work sounds pretty nifty. I have a BOSS FS-WL-1 lying around that has MIDI Bluetooth. Does anyone know the cost for a small controller and enclosure?

I also "found" the mode now where you can change the A/B/C presets on Tonex One. I thought you could stay in that mode and then you can actually toggle between all three via the footswitch. Would probably be too unreliable for use outside of bedroom playing though.

The ABC mode has been known, but the issue is the order is always A then B then C. What the pirate solution is doing is giving you the ability to call up any of 20 presets on command, and the speed of the switching seems really good. That's a big jump in functionality on its own, but you also get control over the built in effects if you use them and other parameters like Sascha showed, adjusting the gain at the end with a slider on a touch screen. That's pretty darn cool for the price of entry.

 

[dbagchee]

I also "found" the mode now where you can change the A/B/C presets on Tonex One. I thought you could stay in that mode and then you can actually toggle between all three via the footswitch. Would probably be too unreliable for use outside of bedroom playing though.

I’ve been staying in this mode for the most part with a clean, rhythm, lead capture to cycle through. Seems like it would be fine for live use - though having to keep track of how many clicks to get to the sound you want would be annoying.

 

[synthpenguin]

Source?

MIDI is a very simple protocol and pretty bottom tier controllers are enough to receive and process MIDI messages. It's not like they have to implement e.g MIDI clock support or full in/out communication. PC and CC message input support would go a long way.

Alternatively, publish the specs for the USB communication so 3rd party tools can be created without reverse engineering, or provide an API. You could probably slap together the cheapest and smallest Arduino UNO to handle the conversion.

See here:

For those talking about MIDI on TONEX ONE, we kept it to a very specific form factor and functionality to keep the very very low cost of the TONEX ONE units.

It doesn't do MIDI. There's no MIDI on the unit.

We could make a control unit to translate, but it seems there are options already out there that people are enjoying at this time and we'll consider any options if the market is right for those.

 

[Chocol8]

I read those responses but I am pretty sure Peter isn't a software engineer and he may not know what is and is not really possible with a software update. I can't imagine there would be that much heavy lifting if it can take non-midi command as well as it does.

 

[synthpenguin]

I read those responses but I am pretty sure Peter isn't a software engineer and he may not know what is and is not really possible with a software update. I can't imagine there would be that much heavy lifting if it can take non-midi command as well as it does.

Yeah, in general MIDI is cheap and trivial to add to basically anything like this, but it's possible there are timing issues etc that they don't feel like working out considering its place in their lineup.