Tonex Pedal....It's REAL

[GTR37]

This pedal is unreal. I re-captured my amp this time paying more attention to the levels during the setup and on the AXE and all I can say is wow. 24 minutes start to finish and listening on in-ears and I'll be damned if I can tell a difference. $400!

Can you post any clips
Do you still think the Fractal BE had the edge ?

 

[texhex]

You sharing your caps?

Yeah, I’ll post them up eventually. I’ve only made 2 so far and deleted one of those. It’s a slow process for me because of other obligations but as I have time I’m trying to get the best process down for me. Hoping to get some good time in this Saturday morning.

Can you post any clips
Do you still think the Fractal BE had the edge ?

I think the Fractal BE is exceptional and the AXE has the overall adavntage because of everything that it does, but so far, after two attempts at the same amp I think Tonex and this pedal nail it pretty good if all you want is a copy of your amp. I just really like getting a copy of my amps and running them through the AXE, it’s what I’ve been doing with the Kemper but if this one capture is any indication, my Kempers days are numbered.

 

[texhex]

Tonex capture of the ADA totally killed the Kemper profile of the same amp. I'm sold.

IR is of a Mesa Oversized 4x12 with a SM57 1 inch off the cap with cuts at 83 and 8300.

Two mid gain 80's type tones that sound great with some reverb and delay. If you have the option, you can put a drive (Maxon 808, TS) in front to liven these up. Drives into Tonex pedal work pretty well so far.

Search Tonenet for "ADA MP1_1" and "BE100_1" or tex_hex

• ADA MP-1 running through 2015 Marshall DSL100H return for power amp
  • OD1 9.5
  • OD2 3.0
  • Master Gain 5.5
  • Bass 0
  • Mid -6
  • Treb 12
  • Pres 4
• 2018 BE100
  • BE channel
  • S and V switches all the way to the right
  • C45, Fat, Sat switches all off.
  • Pres 6
  • Bass 4
  • Mid 4
  • Treb 6
  • Master 3
  • Gain 6

 

[pipelineaudio]

Is there someplace where we can find the names of people who's uploads we should be searching?

 

[Mongillo19]

Is there someplace where we can find the names of people who's uploads we should be searching?

I made a thread here if that's what you mean!

Tone X Capture Thread

Figure this would be a good spot to mention captures you have done across. I'd like to give a shout-out to a few members here such as @Deadpan @Orvillain @JiveTurkey who made some killer captures and shared them. I'll avoid putting links for my sake because tone net doesn't seem to register...

thegearforum.com

 

[the-trooper]

You sharing your caps?

 

[Sascha Franck]

But really, attempting to elevate the pedal itself by dismissing the originator of its core functions

I'm doing neither. The Kemper is one of the most marvelleous pieces of guitar technology ever, especially given it's digital and still going strong after 10+ years.
Doesn't change anything with the fact that certain things can't be captured by the Kemper and that, as of lately, there's better capturing technology.

 

[dronerstone]

So, what'll happen if you capture your amp set "flat" and rather clean, but then make changes to the EQ or gain parameters in ToneX - from what I understand, at least its tone stack would add/subtract "wrong" frequencies, right?

How about gain "structure" then? Does the clipping character stay intact?

 

[laxu]

So, what'll happen if you capture your amp set "flat" and rather clean, but then make changes to the EQ or gain parameters in ToneX - from what I understand, at least its tone stack would add/subtract "wrong" frequencies, right?

How about gain "structure" then? Does the clipping character stay intact?

Just like Kemper, it will deviate from the real amp. That said...it might not be a problem at all.

My BluGuitar Amp 1 ME works in a pretty unique way. It doesn't have a traditional user adjustable guitar tone stack at all! The tonestack is fixed internally, no idea to what settings. On some of the channels you can blend between different tone stacks - for example the Classic channel goes from a Superlead to JCM800 and beyond. Basically as you turn up the tiny side tone knob, it gets brighter, tighter, more gainy and angry sounding.

This is then followed by the equivalent of having an EQ pedal in the fx loop. The 3 band EQ is a treble/bass shelf filter and a 600 Hz midrange filter. They have way more range than most guitar amp tonestacks and are not interactive either. Just with these controls you can dial the BluGuitar to sound like a bunch of amps - as long as their voicing is Fender (clean channel) or Marshall based (vintage, classic and modern channels).

To reflect this back on the Tonex pedal, I don't see having pre or post-EQ as your only EQ adjustment options as a problem. I don't think most people actually care that much about accuracy to the real amp and instead just want something that makes it sound like their preference. They want something that sounds and feels like playing a tube amp but whether it's 1:1 with the captured amps controls is secondary because many don't understand how the amp works anyway.

When I had the QC and captured some of my amps, because you could not adjust the frequencies of the capture block EQ, they never behaved like the real amp. With the Tonex offering control over what frequencies those knobs control, if you have the real amp you could figure out the closest equivalent to your amp's tonestack behavior. It still won't be exact, but enough in the ballpark to shape the sound to your preference.

I hope that people making commercial captures will take the time to do this work and give either presets or some manual saying "for closest to amp EQ, plug in these frequencies and mid Q values".

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Hey Peter - is it possible for whoever’s sending all the marketing emails to try and target them based on what customers already own. I get several email offers a day that are almost always on stuff I own. Occasionally there’ll be an offer on a new product that I don’t own that I sometimes skip past because so many emails aren’t relevant to me.

I already own enough duplicate licences of IK products, the emails make it seem like I’d be interested in buying even more

 

[dronerstone]

Just like Kemper, it will deviate from the real amp. That said...it might not be a problem at all.

My BluGuitar Amp 1 ME works in a pretty unique way. It doesn't have a traditional user adjustable guitar tone stack at all! The tonestack is fixed internally, no idea to what settings. On some of the channels you can blend between different tone stacks - for example the Classic channel goes from a Superlead to JCM800 and beyond. Basically as you turn up the tiny side tone knob, it gets brighter, tighter, more gainy and angry sounding.

This is then followed by the equivalent of having an EQ pedal in the fx loop. The 3 band EQ is a treble/bass shelf filter and a 600 Hz midrange filter. They have way more range than most guitar amp tonestacks and are not interactive either. Just with these controls you can dial the BluGuitar to sound like a bunch of amps - as long as their voicing is Fender (clean channel) or Marshall based (vintage, classic and modern channels).

To reflect this back on the Tonex pedal, I don't see having pre or post-EQ as your only EQ adjustment options as a problem. I don't think most people actually care that much about accuracy to the real amp and instead just want something that makes it sound like their preference. They want something that sounds and feels like playing a tube amp but whether it's 1:1 with the captured amps controls is secondary because many don't understand how the amp works anyway.

When I had the QC and captured some of my amps, because you could not adjust the frequencies of the capture block EQ, they never behaved like the real amp. With the Tonex offering control over what frequencies those knobs control, if you have the real amp you could figure out the closest equivalent to your amp's tonestack behavior. It still won't be exact, but enough in the ballpark to shape the sound to your preference.

I hope that people making commercial captures will take the time to do this work and give either presets or some manual saying "for closest to amp EQ, plug in these frequencies and mid Q values".

Thanks!!!

100% comprehensible and legitimate, good points. :)

As long as it sounds good, it sounds good! No need to copy/imitate.

I've always liked that about my Katana head - without checking out specific channel/voicing details online, I wasn't able to pinpoint the exact amps it was inspired by.

Of course, there's certain giveaways, but you never know for sure. And that can be a relief. Just enjoy the sounds, tweak until it does what you want, and go "who cares? It sounds great!"

Sometimes we all get caught in the tiniest details and lose our minds, trying to make a model sound 100% identical to some mysterious thing we might've heard/played 10 years ago in a totally different place, with a totally different rig, etc.

Probably healthier to just approximate, and find good times with something that'll "only" go 95% of the way, with 5% of its own voice in the mix. Enjoy the playing!

PS: don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to unhealthy amounts of time and thought spent on tweaking/routing/gain staging and massive geek-outs. Everything has its moment in time.

 

[Sascha Franck]

With the Tonex offering control over what frequencies those knobs control, if you have the real amp you could figure out the closest equivalent to your amp's tonestack behavior. It still won't be exact, but enough in the ballpark to shape the sound to your preference.

This.
The only thing I could see being improved (no idea whether there's enough CPU power) would be having two separate EQs, also allowing you to route any of their controls to the main BMT stack. That way you could, say, have a pre-amp mid control and post-amp bass and treble. That would add a lot to the tone shaping flexibility.

 

[laxu]

This.
The only thing I could see being improved (no idea whether there's enough CPU power) would be having two separate EQs, also allowing you to route any of their controls to the main BMT stack. That way you could, say, have a pre-amp mid control and post-amp bass and treble. That would add a lot to the tone shaping flexibility.

Yeah separate pre/post EQs would be useful especially for high gain users where pre-EQ would be useful for cutting lows to tighten the sound and post-EQ for shaping it. Would be useful for e.g Mesa Mark series captures as the real amps contain both an early tone stack to shape the character and a late tone stack with the graphic EQ.

Managing both on the Tonex pedal itself would be hard unless they rework it to the "multiple alt modes" paradigm I recommended earlier.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Managing both on the Tonex pedal itself would be hard

Well, I think for a start it'd be fine if you could just route either pre- or post-bands to the main controls individually.

unless they rework it to the "multiple alt modes" paradigm I recommended earlier.

That'd obviously be even better.

Personally, I'd rather have a second EQ than a compressor - so they could possibly make that switchable in case CPU power is limited.

 

[mbenigni]

Personally, I'd rather have a second EQ than a compressor - so they could possibly make that switchable in case CPU power is limited.

That's not a trade I'd typically make, but if we're talking about this particular compressor, then yeah, definitely. As far as I can tell, it's the weakest link in the ToneX pedal's chain.

 

[Sascha Franck]

That's not a trade I'd typically make,

Me neither. But in case of this thing, I'd likely think of it as a "pure amp" thing - maybe with an extended tonestack but not with anything else. In case I'd ever get one, I'd almost take a bet I wouldn't use the reverb, either.

 

[mbenigni]

Me neither. But in case of this thing, I'd likely think of it as a "pure amp" thing - maybe with an extended tonestack but not with anything else. In case I'd ever get one, I'd almost take a bet I wouldn't use the reverb, either.

I am definitely using the reverb. The Plate and Springs are actually quite good, if you're willing to brave the menu diving and tweak them a bit. (I've never understood the appeal of Room reverb - adding an effect to throw the "clang" on top of your tone that some people spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to get rid of with physical room treatments? I guess it's a headphone "realism" thing, i.e. "OK, now this sucks. Realistically." Otherwise, hello? I'm already in a room.)

I'm generally drawn to onboard effects wherever they're available - even if there's a reasonable compromise - because I like to see what I can get done with as little board real estate as possible. That was the appeal of the Stomp, the QC, and now the ToneX. 90% of the time I could get away with ToneX and nothing else, but for the fact that I'd miss a delay of some kind.

 

[laxu]

I am definitely using the reverb. The Plate and Springs are actually quite good, if you're willing to brave the menu diving and tweak them a bit. (I've never understood the appeal of Room reverb - adding an effect to throw the "clang" on top of your tone that some people spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to get rid of with physical room treatments? I guess it's a headphone "realism" thing, i.e. "OK, now this sucks. Realistically." Otherwise, hello? I'm already in a room.)

I'm generally drawn to onboard effects wherever they're available - even if there's a reasonable compromise - because I like to see what I can get done with as little board real estate as possible. That was the appeal of the Stomp, the QC, and now the ToneX. 90% of the time I could get away with ToneX and nothing else, but for the fact that I'd miss a delay of some kind.

A room reverb is definitely most useful for headphones to bring in a missing space. If you are running through a poweramp and cab, PA speaker or studio monitors then it depends. In a small room with not much reverberation, it might give some sense of a larger space when you are just playing by yourself. On a recorded track I would turn it off.

I have the opposite view where I'd rather have a modular system with pedals because then I can choose what I want and prefer - a single unit is unlikely to be 100% to my liking in every fx category. I see the Tonex effects as convenience features and I would not really care if they weren't there. Usually in boxes like these a reverb is going to be "just ok" rather than great compared to having e.g a dedicated reverb pedal.

 

[eggpl@nt]

This is sick. Shout out to @Orvillain for the Rockerverb Capture. I also found a couple really good Roadster and Revv Captures. @KyleBull ‘s stuff is great too.

@IK Multimedia , @Digital Igloo , check it!

 

[Lysander]

This is sick.

Throw those three in a small pedalboard and you have a portable rig that can pretty much do anything you'll ever need. Well done!