IK Multimedia ToneX One, anyone?

[Baloney Balderdash]

This seems almost too good to be true at that price: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/tonexone/

 

173£/199 Euro at Thomann.

 

 

Edited May 12 by Baloney Balderdash

[velvetkevorkian]

It does seem neat, if you can live with only having access to 1 or 2 presets available on the fly. Definitely makes more sense to me than the HX One.

[BEADist]

Tonex One > amps, no effects

Helix One > effects, no amps

Maybe a good combo ?!

[thisisswanbon]

Anyone had any experience with this yet?  Seems a bit of a slow burner in the bass world.  Bass the world did a demo and the fuzzes sounded great, even by analogue standards!

[bnt]

I just ordered a TONEX ONE, so I'll find out by next week. In addition to the amp and cab sims, it has some features that will come in handy, such as the compressor and the audio interface. I think it will go great on my small board with octaver and phaser in front.

[bnt]

The Thomann prices have come down since launch, too: £149 / €175 incl. VAT. I had to add some strings and cables to my order to get my order over the €200 threshold for free shipping. 😉 

Edited August 21 by bnt

[fretmeister]

I've got the 3 button one and it has some very good sounds for guitar and bass use.

 

On the other hand the software is a stone cold atrocity. 

There is literally nothing instinctive about any of it. In these days of fantastic UI on the Helix and QC etc IK should be ashamed.

 

Still, I'm persevering. At the moment I'm using it with a couple of pedals to be a mini lounge rig with a Yamaha HS7 monitor. I can use it for both guitar and bass.

I'm old enough to remember when 2 channel amps started to get popular, so having 3 sounds on a bank for guitar use is more than enough for me.

[bnt]

My ToneX One arrived today and I've played with it for an hour or so. The basic functionality works very well e.g. I loaded up "The Fridge" tone model and lost track of time for a while. It does that thing I like about an amp that just makes me sound better, and I added a bit of compressor for the smoothness. The software needs work, though.

[skinflappingsub]

I've got one and I like it. I'm the past I've used  a sansamp, a paradriver and a VT bass, which were ok for a bit, but all sounded a bit thin at times. 

I've only noodled around at home using the SE software but gain levels seem to feel a bit deeper, as in more headroom and the using a pinch of the built in comp seems to really make the tones enjoyably squishy, like kind of like a big power amp section.

This week I've been 

enjoying the Sansamp RPM and Fridge models a lot, also the fender twin and Princeton guitar amps are a lot of fun.  I've yet to load up much more on it.

I'm looking forward to trying it at volume and seeing how it fares next to a drummer. If it holds up at louder volume I might not need an amp anymore...   ... I mean, until I decide I change my mind again and start to daydream about 810 cabinets and heavy power amps...

 

[bnt]

One important thing I've learned about the ToneX App is that you have to watch out for dual processing, since the pedal is also an audio interface.

• If you are using it in Librarian mode only, to manage the sounds on the pedal and playing through it, turn off the Input in the app settings. No audio should be going through the app at all.
• If you are playing through the app, using the Tone Models there, you need to put the pedal in Stomp mode and bypass it, so it's not processing the audio as well.

They could improve the app by making this automatic, I think: mute input when on the Librarian page, and bypass the pedal processing when on the Home page playing through Tone Models there.

[thisisswanbon]

Any of you using the tonex and also have experience with the tonehammer di?

 

Short story long - Bought myself the tonex one as a birthday present, and while I'm really impressed with it I find myself gravitating to the tonehammer capture on the tone-net. It's subtle, but does something cool to my tone. Now wondering if an actual tonehammer would give me more of what the tonex is doing 🤔 

[thisisswanbon]

Answered my own question and bought a Tone Hammer - surprisingly close. The ToneX one definitely captures the character!

 

It's also so much closer to the qualities of analogue than any of the line 6 etc modellers have come... scary to think what they've crammed into this at such a low price!

 

Software is AWFUL though... mines going back simply because the money is needed elsewhere... I'd love to justify keeping it, and will most likely buy again in the future.

[bnt]

I don't know the Tone Hammer range, but I presume you meant the pedal preamp? I imagine it sounds different dependng on whether you go direct to PA from it or through and amp & cab, since it doesn't have amp or cab sims, and the same would be true of the model i.e. I should try it in the ToneX with and without amp & cab sims. So far I've only really used the ToneX in Dual mode (amp & cab sims), not Stomp mode, since I don't have an amp.

[bnt]

I spent some time yesterday trying out the ToneX One as purely an audio interface to other things, and it performed very well. To do this you have to switch Direct Monitoring off (in Librarian settings) and have it bypassed in Stomp mode.

 

Connecting it direct to a new iPad Air was good, no problem getting power over USB-C. There's something about the sample rate that affects its compatibility with some iPad apps, which I've seen a few complaints about - I think it's because it's 44.1 kHz rather than 48 kHz, or something. I couldn't get it to work with Korg Gadget 3 or the Aurora Mammoth standalone app, but Mammoth and others worked fine as plug-ins hosted by AUM. Logic Pro was great too, as was IK's ToneX app that uses the same models. 

 

I also tried it connected directly to my Mac Mini, also over USB-C, using ToneX (of course), Apple MainStage and Logic Pro, and even Neural Amp Modeler - no issues there. There's no problem using the pedal's own processing when recording to DAW, but you don't need to when you have ToneX as a plugin in the DAW.

[bnt]

IK Multimedia have just added Modulation and Delay effects to ToneX presets. You can add them to Presets in the ToneX CS software then transfer the Presets to your firmware-updated ToneX devices. With the ToneX One, so far, it looks like you’ll have no control over them on the pedal itself, and all you can do is select between Presets that have the effects or not. It’s still a nice update, though, and can really turn ToneX models in to a one pedal solution. 
 

I’m not able to test this at the moment, since the IK software has “lost” my ToneX One hardware registration, and so I can’t use the Librarian side of the software. If I try to re-register the serial number, it tells me the pedal is already registered to another account. I’ve logged this with the IK Support people, last weekend, and heard nothing back yet. 

[rwillett]

I have the three foot switch version and think it's great. I tend to find I use it for the older Fender amps and don't really get on that much with the hi gain amp sims. That's not my bag mainly because I can't play very well. It sounds great with a Fender Bassman and my Tele. 

 

I use it behind a Mod Dwarf. The dwarf tends to more pedal effects rather than amps. 

 

I agree about the interface being garbage. To be honest, you can apply that to most of the IK range of software. I work in IT as that's my job and I struggle to understand how it works and fits together. The only worst piece of software I know is is the RUFC Game Management Software which makes this look like a work of genius. 

 

I really need to download the manual and sit down with it for a few hours along with a decent white and work my way through it. 

 

Looking forward to the upgrade. 

[bnt]

On 14/11/2024 at 23:31, bnt said:

I’m not able to test this at the moment, since the IK software has “lost” my ToneX One hardware registration, and so I can’t use the Librarian side of the software. If I try to re-register the serial number, it tells me the pedal is already registered to another account. I’ve logged this with the IK Support people, last weekend, and heard nothing back yet. 

 

After a little back and forth, they sent me a new serial number for the registration, and we're back in business.

The Modulation effects work as I expected: you add them to a Preset, save it (use a new name if you're modding a factory preset), and transfer to the pedal in the Librarian section.

The lack of Modulation effects was an odd omission before; they're pretty standard but are nice to have.