IK Multimedia TONEX

[Sascha Franck]

This is always the risk with some of these companies, where you never know if something will work down the line.

Well, I already mailed their support.
And fwiw, the app isn't even working with Android 13 anymore, there's a complaint of someone on Thomann's review pages, coming from February 2025. But apparently they're offering an APK somewhere on their own site.

Anyhow, all that smells quite fishy. In addition, I just read that commands apparently are triggered on switch release. No idea how anyone would come up with things that stupid (the XSonic Airstep does it the same - possibly the same Chinese garbage under the hood), but all of this is really putting me off already.

I could as well go with a Luminite, but that's overkill for what I want.

Maybe I should really just get a GT-1000 Core. Would not need any additional MIDI stuff because of its super capable switching options (CurNum for the rescue). And as much as I hate their editing business, I'm quite familiar with it by now.
Not exactly in a hurry anyway, but I could certainly do with a small setup for quite some occasions.

 

[Shask]

Well, I already mailed their support.
And fwiw, the app isn't even working with Android 13 anymore, there's a complaint of someone on Thomann's review pages, coming from February 2025. But apparently they're offering an APK somewhere on their own site.

Anyhow, all that smells quite fishy. In addition, I just read that commands apparently are triggered on switch release. No idea how anyone would come up with things that stupid (the XSonic Airstep does it the same - possibly the same Chinese garbage under the hood), but all of this is really putting me off already.

I could as well go with a Luminite, but that's overkill for what I want.

Maybe I should really just get a GT-1000 Core. Would not need any additional MIDI stuff because of its super capable switching options (CurNum for the rescue). And as much as I hate their editing business, I'm quite familiar with it by now.
Not exactly in a hurry anyway, but I could certainly do with a small setup for quite some occasions.

That is one thing I didn't like about the M-Vave Chocolate Plus. You had to download the apk, and then load it from 'non official sources' or whatever it is called. Once you do get it working there is lots of typos, misspellings, etc...

It works pretty well, but definitely some BS to deal with it.

 

[Sascha Franck]

That is one thing I didn't like about the M-Vave Chocolate Plus. You had to download the apk, and then load it from 'non official sources' or whatever it is called. Once you do get it working there is lots of typos, misspellings, etc...

Yeah, have seen that already. "Fortunately", while I was obviously considering a Chocolate Plus for a while, I won't get one due to the lack of an analog MIDI out. As said, I do have a CME Widi Jack already, but for any "important" live rig, I don't want to deal with BT but rather go for wired MIDI.

The more I think about it, I do in fact consider grabbing a 2nd hand GT-1000 Core. The clear benefits being:
- I do by now know how to deal with things. As much as Boss' editing sucks, I know my ways around already.
- Super low latency.
- Instant switching.
- Global blocks.
- Incredibly flexible switching (the "CurNum" option is really kickass in case you only have a small amount of switches).

Given that this is just a small setup that will see limited and/or kinda "dedicated" use, I wouldn't even need any additional MIDI controllers, so it'd basically be a feature reduced version of my big setup with zero additional programming layers.

 

[yek]

For this to happen I would basically need two things:

- A MIDI controller doing what I mentioned above. The only proper method to switch things on the TXO is via PCs and the only proper way for me to work with the Stomp in such a setup would be via CCs (I'm not going to sacrifice the amazing patch switching speed by the slow Stomp, so that would stay on one preset all the time).

- A MIDI controlled loop switcher. That's actually the tough part because all I've found so far is both overkill and expensive. I'd really only need 2-3 loops. Could go for a MIDI amp switching box and add, say, a dual loop thing controlled by analog switching inputs (there's kinda easy DIY kits around), but that would add too many layers that I wouldn't want to deal with. In case anyone knows of small MIDI controlled loop switchers, I'm all ears.

Didn't read all posts, but in the field of small and capable MIDI controllers and MIDI loop switchers , the Disaster Area Designs product rule, IMO.

Especially the gen4 products.

 

[Sascha Franck]

the Disaster Area Designs product rule, IMO.

They're great but very expensive, especially given I really only need pretty simple functions.

 

[laxu]

In addition, I just read that commands apparently are triggered on switch release. No idea how anyone would come up with things that stupid (the XSonic Airstep does it the same - possibly the same Chinese garbage under the hood), but all of this is really putting me off already.

It's quite common for it to work like that if the controller supports hold, double press etc. See e.g Morningstar's Action List. You can see that on their controllers if you use the Long Press action, then the press should be done via the Release action instead.

This is because otherwise how can you detect that the user is holding the switch, if Press triggers the moment the switch contacts touch?

But the problem on the Hotone seems to be that it will use that behavior always rather than only when hold is in use. That's just lazy, and not having an up to date Android app is too.

XSonic Airstep from what I remember used the Morningstar way, but I don't recommend it either because it had major issues connecting to my Android phone, yet the iPhone or iPad on the same network had no issues.

Another major problem with the Airstep was that it relied on syncing the app - and thus pedal data - to your iCloud account. So if you wanted to configure the pedal via Android, it would not read the current configuration from the pedal, and required you to start over. This was so stupid.

The "super compact + 4 buttons" format of the Hotone, M-Vave etc is great but it's a shame they don't seem like reliably long term products.

 

[Sedaxel]

Yeah, have seen that already. "Fortunately", while I was obviously considering a Chocolate Plus for a while, I won't get one due to the lack of an analog MIDI out.

Hey, it has an analog MIDI out. It´s the 1/4" port, which can be configured to work as MIDI or expression pedal.

 

[Sascha Franck]

But the problem on the Hotone seems to be that it will use that behavior always rather than only when hold is in use.

Exactly. And with the Airstep it seems to be like that, too (as in you can't even switch the hold-functionality off).

The "super compact + 4 buttons" format of the Hotone, M-Vave etc is great but it's a shame they don't seem like reliably long term products.

Absolutely. It really sucks as if something like that would come in very handy for me right now. And I really don't need any more elaborated options for the setup I have in mind. Just 4 switches allowing me to send a PC and a CC (or maybe 2 CCs) while pressing them, done.

Hey, it has an analog MIDI out. It´s the 1/4" port, which can be configured to work as MIDI or expression pedal.

Oh, that's cool! Too bad you can't connect an EXP pedal anymore then. This was something I had in mind for a slightly more advanced setup.
Main board in my case would be Stomp and Tonex, expanded by either just a MIDI controller or a MIDI controller plus EXP pedal.

Anyhow, right now I'm seriously considering a GT-1000 Core. Would solve all issues at once. Fortunately I've got no pressure to decide, so I'll finish my main setup first.

 

[Sedaxel]

Oh, that's cool! Too bad you can't connect an EXP pedal anymore then. This was something I had in mind for a slightly more advanced setup.
Main board in my case would be Stomp and Tonex, expanded by either just a MIDI controller or a MIDI controller plus EXP pedal.

Agree. That´s a big limitation. Sooner or later, you need both features together.

 

[laxu]

@IK Multimedia

IK really should do something about how Tonex handles download states.

It's stupid that it blocks the entire UI from functioning if you try to download an audio demo or a tone model and the connection is slow. If you were e.g playing a clip from the bottom menu, you can't even turn it off.

Speaking of which...the Tonex downloads are annoyingly slow, and I'm on a freakin' 1 gigabit connection over here.

 

[Shask]

Yeah, have seen that already. "Fortunately", while I was obviously considering a Chocolate Plus for a while, I won't get one due to the lack of an analog MIDI out. As said, I do have a CME Widi Jack already, but for any "important" live rig, I don't want to deal with BT but rather go for wired MIDI.

The more I think about it, I do in fact consider grabbing a 2nd hand GT-1000 Core. The clear benefits being:
- I do by now know how to deal with things. As much as Boss' editing sucks, I know my ways around already.
- Super low latency.
- Instant switching.
- Global blocks.
- Incredibly flexible switching (the "CurNum" option is really kickass in case you only have a small amount of switches).

Given that this is just a small setup that will see limited and/or kinda "dedicated" use, I wouldn't even need any additional MIDI controllers, so it'd basically be a feature reduced version of my big setup with zero additional programming layers.

You can use the 1/8" out for MIDI. That is how I use it.

You can theorically connect a USB to MIDI DIN cable also to the USB jack.

 

[Sascha Franck]

You can theorically connect a USB to MIDI DIN cable also to the USB jack.

Are you sure that'd work without any kind of translation? And if so, where could you get such cables?