Tonex Pedal....It's REAL
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Sascha Franck
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Well, I have been playing in original bands, musical theatres and rather elaborated cover shows for a pretty long time in my life (and at least partially, still am). And as all these were very well rehearsed, after 1-2 shows I could as well have covered any pot/encoder/switch with goop. So, I absolutely get that as well.
But these days, most of my jobs are "telephone band" kinda style. Even if they're planned well in advance of the gig, there's usually no rehearsals apart from checking some things during soundcheck. And fwiw, I absolutely enjoy these kinda gigs as they're not 1:1 cover shows or playing the same stuff each and every evening. But they demand some flexibility, depending on the band line up, the individual players, the location, the direction the evening may take (party or loung-y - you get the idea), the singers and what not. So I simply cannot prepare any kind of setlists or things such as "1 scene per song part" or whatever it might be.
Fwiw, this is also precisely why my next all-in-one modeler will either have a global blocks functionality or it won't be mine. So far, this basically leaves me with a GT-1000 and (sort of) a KPA (no Axe FX III for me as I'm not going back to any racks). But then, I'm not in a hurry because my pedalboard based setup is doing exactly what I need - I only wish I could integrate something such as the Tonex a bit more flawlessly, but it doesn't exactly look like.
Sascha Franck
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I don't have any of these, either. My delay/reverb/something pedal is an HX stomp, for the occasional weirdness I have an MS-50G and my amp modelers are an Amplifirebox and an Amp Academy. My board is stuffed so nothing that'd be larger than the to-be-replaced counterpart would fit.
MirrorProfiles
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I doubt it, but it’ll definitely offer more options to people at lower price points. I don’t really see the captures as a main selling point of a QC but maybe that’s just me.
I would say this might demonstrate to companies like Line 6 that a profiling solution doesn’t need to be tethered to the actual device using the profiles. I think it makes a lot of sense to do the capturing on a computer rig and just exporting to the destination device later.
This does lead me to the question though - if a Helix or FM-3 could load tonex amp models, and you could do all your FX/IR/presets solely in one device, would you still buy a simple ToneX pedal?
and as a follow up, if you could create a patch using existing (component) modelling tech that sounds indistinguishable to the capture, would you rather use that?
Genuinely curious what amps people are using that existing models just don’t do justice to and the only viable solution is to use a capture of it.
Either way, I think playing back profiles/captures doesn’t require anywhere near the resources or I/O to make them. Wouldn’t say no if something can be added to existing devices, even though I think in many situations it doesn’t really offer much benefit over component modelled stuff.
Sascha Franck
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Same here. In general, the use case for either of the two is pretty much different.
Very valid point.
No idea whether it'd work like this, but perhaps one could even do a bunch of main captures rather quickly and then have the refining done in a batch processing manner overnight or so.
And obviously, it also allows for the user to decide whether one wants to capture things themselves - and in case the answer is "no", one wouldn't have to pay for extra hardware features only required for capturing.
Sascha Franck
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And oh:
I could imagine some, just wouldn't know whether the capturing process would be able to actually work properly. Thing of, say, your guitar signal being split by a crossover, running into two amps with, say, the lower portion of the signal running into some rather clean-ish amp to keep things tight while the higher portion could be sent to some creamier overdriven amp. As said, no idea whether the current capture options would be able to get that right, but it'd be worth a try.
I could imagine some, just wouldn't know whether the capturing process would be able to actually work properly. Thing of, say, your guitar signal being split by a crossover, running into two amps with, say, the lower portion of the signal running into some rather clean-ish amp to keep things tight while the higher portion could be sent to some creamier overdriven amp. As said, no idea whether the current capture options would be able to get that right, but it'd be worth a try.
MirrorProfiles
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wouldn’t modelling do this easily and with all the benefits of being able to fine tune settings/levels/gainstaging of each one?
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I've got a Diezel VH4 and Marshall Satriani JVM as you know, and both of those are in the Axe FX III. But they don't really sound the same to me. Sometimes I prefer the models, but most of the time I prefer my amps. Using the tonematch block can get closer, but yes, if I could, I'd run profiles on the Axe3, no question - assuming they were accurate to my real world amps.
At the same time... this new 50min album I'm working on that I sent you, all of the guitars are Helix Native running the Revv Red amp model, which I really love.
So I guess it comes down to... you have a thing.. you love the sound of it.... you want to replicate it as much as possible ???
MirrorProfiles
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I get that matching tones with modelling isn’t really a fun or rewarding process and profiling does it with ease, but I’d be amazed if you couldn’t match them to the point that it was indistinguishable. But whether that’s worth the ballache and trial and error is another matter which is understandable. I’m also not really considering the live aspect as much because I never play live, and I’d be a lot more confident about matching recorded tones than ones running through a power amp.
I do feel like the topic is more about the ease and (assurance/lack of doubt) of having your sound than it actually offering something you can’t do already. It’s just less of a PITA to achieve.
MirrorProfiles
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kind of case in point - band I’m working with atm.
We dialled a tone in with a 5150, profiles with ToneX and have been tracking with that. Sounds dead on to the amp sound which is what we’ve built their sound around.
After they left, I tried matching with other software models. It was dead easy to copy with every single 5150 emulation I own. I don’t think we’d have dialled that tone in if I didn’t start with the real amp sound as the reference but as far as the final tone goes, I don’t think ToneX has any sonic advantage over the models. Once it’s dialled in, any of them would do an equal job.
We dialled a tone in with a 5150, profiles with ToneX and have been tracking with that. Sounds dead on to the amp sound which is what we’ve built their sound around.
After they left, I tried matching with other software models. It was dead easy to copy with every single 5150 emulation I own. I don’t think we’d have dialled that tone in if I didn’t start with the real amp sound as the reference but as far as the final tone goes, I don’t think ToneX has any sonic advantage over the models. Once it’s dialled in, any of them would do an equal job.
I never said it was perfect for me. I don’t even know if I have a real use for it. It is what it is, buy it or don’t.
D
GTR37
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I think you will have the REVV in AX3 shortly apparently the guys at Revv finally sent Cliff a Generator a couple of weeks ago
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Orrrrrrrlllllyyyyyyyyy ???? I missed that!!
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eggpl@nt
Roadie
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I'm only going to be tentatively, barely excited about this possibility. From November 2020:
Wish - Mesa Dual Caliber DC-5
Recently, I met a producer in town and saw that he had a Mesa Dual Caliber DC-5 in the corner, which is an amp I’ve always been curious about, but have never been able to get my hands on one. The Axe has kept my amp GAS at bay for years, but he was kind enough to let me fire it up... it blew my...
Lysander
Shredder
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Eh, it was the flagship feature of the QC: "profile amps/pedals in a small box". And it enjoyed ~3 years of being pretty much the only device being able to claim that.
We'll see how much of a splash ToneX ends up making, but the fact that you can now load multiple profiles in a box even smaller than the QC, and at 1/4 of the price, is quite significant IMHO.
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Sascha Franck
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Sure, but a) it'd be a pretty complexed setup and b) use up plenty of horsepower. So consolidating all this in one single capture seems like a nice idea to me.
James Freeman
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That does make a lot of sense, high power computer (or google cloud) for maximum capturing accuracy and modelers for playback only.
The computer is in the studio where the amps are anyway, rarely I read about people taking the capturing device to another studio or friend to capture their amps or a sudden opportunity where you also happen to have a Kemper with you.
With the open source version it is even possible to record the processed 'training sounds' and take it home on a USB (email, dropbox, etc.) to train later at your own time, so you're not tied to any device or computer and not wasting anyone's time.
JiveTurkey
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I need to invent some time today and do some digging. I'm assuming I can install trials for Max and Amplitube 5 then license them once I get the pedal in hand?
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