IK Multimedia TONEX - Amp Profiling Made Affordable!?

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⏰ Timestamps ⏰
» 0:00 Intro Playing
» 0:12 Welcome Digital John!
» 0:35 Introducing ToneX
» 3:19 Lee Is Confused
» 5:12 Let's Hear Some Presets!
» 10:05 Tone Profiling Made More Affordable?
» 15:39 What About Adding Pedals?
» 19:36 Final Thoughts?
» 20:48 Thanks For Watching!

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[andertons]

Just to address some of the comments below.... 1) we don't get paid by brands to make these videos. We make a living by selling stuff through the Andertons store & all the matters to us is that you get something that you'll love. 2) We use the presets whenever we do these demos because we don't have a week to prepare for each demo. If the presets aren't representative of how the unit sounds, then I'm not really sure what the point of presets are. 3) we plug these types of units direct into our interface so you can hear the cab emulation from the unit - we hear it through our monitors & you hear it through yours (ie, you aren't hearing our monitors). 4) we obviously each have personal preferences about gear & all the presenters are encouraged to voice their opinions - we aren't guns for hire! So take this demo how you will - I thought Tonex was a fine piece of kit for the money, but I'm not sure we'll see it being used by Joe Bonamassa any time soon - I might be wrong & will happily eat my words if thats what happens!! And if you get one & you get the best sounds you've ever had then thats awesome & I hope it inspires you to play more as, after all, thats the whole point of getting new gear!! Cheers, Lee

[geraldhinson]

I've been playing my Kemper for years, mostly using it for amp/cab with my pedalboard in front of it (because I love my pedalboard and use it with my real amps too - Carr Mercury and Brunetti Wizard). I sold a Fractal in favor of the Kemper. No regrets. I've always loved the Kemper.

In that context, I bought the tonex not expecting too much. I was wrong. Selling the Kemper. The Tonex is awesome.

[SentientBeingMusic]

I appreciate the hard work you guys do to educate us about all this gear. Had a lot of fun watching you guys mix music with laughter. Been playing for over 45 years and heard and seen it all. But it seems everything I find awesome you guys find issues with. Have a cup of ginger tea and chill! The ToneX is incredible regardless of price. The sounds are first class. But you have to turn the knobs to dial it in just like you would a new amp. Turn the damn knobs and make the sound better. There, I said it! Have a bloody nice day! Going to take a walk now on the Darkside and visit my local music store and turn all the amp knobs to 12 o'clock! See, now you got me doing it!

[gearngigs]

Normally I really love your videos but with all due respect and a lot of love, this one was a bit of an exception. I think you guys need to listen through bigger, better studio monitors, maybe add a subwoofer. If they're small and that far away it's gonna be tough to make them sound engaging to you. Many people, including famous artists, record in the studio while listening to their sound, miked in another room, through the control room monitors. If they are good monitors at a decent volume it can still be a great playing experience. A couple of points that I felt should have been made: It does in fact act as a USB recording interface, and it is extremely low noise and high dynamic range with a huge frequency response. It plays back captures made on your computer or stored within the tonex software, so you don't need your laptop on stage. It takes pedals generally a lot better than fractals, kempers or neural cortexes, and reacts more like an amp would to those. Many times in a live situation or in recording, the delays and reverbs and even modulations are added after the microphone stage, so putting those sort of effects after this pedal would sound essentially identical to that, and would a better analog to the way many a professional setting would work. If you want full range out of those devices you don't run them through your guitar cabinets. We have fractals and kempers here in our studio, and I believe that this keeps up with them from a capture and IR standpoint, irrespective of the price point. When you factor that in too, it becomes quite amazing. You might want to revisit this pedal after a rethink. I think you might have done your sales on this product a disservice.

[MicCostanzo]

16:10 Guys, the FX chain loops the signals between pre and power amp. The TONEX can be fed directly into a power amp. Put your effects in front of it and that's it. You don't have to find a fly in the ointment now, just because the pricing of the other profilers/modelers becomes obsolete by this device. ;-)

[brysonlee]

You have to use these types of products to their strengths. None of these profiling/ capturing units will give you “amp in the room” tone. You’ll need an actual cabinet if you want real air moving. It can, however, give you “amp mic’d up in the next room” tone. The room, mics, and any boards/mixers that we’re used will all color the tone. So they’re great for consistency if your playing live going to front of house or recording. You don’t have to depend on any sound guys or use their house sm57’s to mic up.

[Simto]

As somebody who owned a real AFD100 for many years, I think the profile here sounded really great. Best tone in the video for sure.

[johnaurentz]

I was a bit negative at first when I saw this Andertons video as it was the first one I had seen but now after I've seen a lot of other reviews and comparisons of all the contenders, the Tonex is a clear winner by far.
Well done boys....
All of these amp models are done on the lowest of the three modelling resolutions due to the long wait unless you have a newer high end nvidia adapter (like I do) so I can use the highest setting and not worry about a 15 minute wait vs a 5 hour wait. Even on the lowest resolution, this unit destroys both the Quad Cortex and Kemper away.
I'm a dyed in the wool tube guy but that's the point. I want to capture my custom replica builds and be able to use them at a volume that doesn't damage hearing. This is perfect for that task. I have some amps that only rich rock stars or collectors have available and to be able to have them all in one easy to switch pedal is a dream come true. I have an exact replica of a tube rectified 1967 Black Flag with brand new NOS Drake transformers. I have 20 other replica amps like this and profiling these amps as well as the Tonex does is my dream.
I ordered will see how good it does.

[david]

It’s widely recognised that the captures are every bit as good as QC or Kemper also. This isn’t a “cheap” product in that sense.

[adamjones]

Just think of it as the Amp, get all of the other things from Pedals, HX Stomp or whatever full modeler or pedals you have. With HX Stomp or Helix, you have a ton of power adding different amps, using effects pre and post amp, then can use snapshots, and full midi triggering of the Amps in Tonex seamlessly, without a gap.

An FX loop on this pedal would only help with the headphone out. Using it with a modeler like HX, you can pre or post any FX in any order. This and a stomp or HX effects can shrink a pedal board, and allow uses to capture their own amps and not have to take them to a gig. Convenient, but like most things, it's not for everyone. Playing through a tube amp is very cool, and as amazingly close as a lot of units have come, there is always just a little bit of something with a Tube amp and Cab that's awesome.

FWIW, I've been exclusivly in the Modeling/Digital domain since 2008, so my ear adapted long ago to monitor, pa "FRFR" systems. Still love tube amps though, I don't want to deal with them most of the time though.

[jefffree]

Sounds pretty OK to me. Keep in mind the levels from the studio monitors in the room are peaking at a very conservative 80db

[joemiller]

I really like tuning in to your gear testing but amp in the room .. anti digital bias is getting old. I consistently play on silent stages with in ear monitoring and I think this is true for many people. I need insights and advice for the best gear and approaches in this space. I hope we can hear more of that in the future. With that said thanks for all you do to serve the community.

[JohnSmith-efsx]

I'm surprised they're not more impressed with this unit. I think it's incredible.

[carlosfernandez]

As someone living in an apartment, I really like this pedal, because I just want decent guitar sound and guitar recording experience, getting rid of mics, amps or DAW lag, at a decent price. I was going after one of the UAFX pedals before this came out.

[I.M.Guitar-Nerd]

Yeah, I really like the idea of this, and I'm pretty sure that it's going on my would like to buy list.

[vitaliy_kozubenko]

Tonex is not a competitor for Kemper or Quadcore either in price or functionality. It is a competitor for such devices as Iridium, UA dream 65, Ruby, Walrus AC1, etc.
About the same price and much more advanced functionality. Add to this the profiling technology instead of modeling and then it becomes clearer why this product really deserves attention. Very impressive amp in a box

[Jonathan-L]

As a harmonica player, this Tonex player seems very enticing, if ... it can be patched with the elusive combination of unobtainably rare & expensive amps that actually sound & work well for amplified harmonica. Whether or not it'll be achievable at any stage it's hard to say, but I love the concept of having an all-in-one tone box, then plug into a clean amp, FR/FR speaker or PA. I think the price point of the Tonex is pretty reasonable considering what other products cost. In the meantime, I'll sit on the fence and think about it.

[sejtaridiss]

It's been said many times, but still - I'm in awe when I see and hear Digital John short intro. So funny :)

[Guitaural.]

Tonex is doing the most accurate amp captures on the planet right now, and this little piece of gear is amazing. Can't believe how dismissive they were of it. The fact that IK brought this to market for 399 is incredible. Kemper rested on their laurels, and Neural _still_ hasn't delivered on their QC promises. This fills a great niche for people that want the most accurate amp tones, but nothing else.

[smashmash]

Luckily there are plenty of stunning demos on YouTube and very impressive a/b comparisons from those who've dived in properly. You have a huge following and are quite capable of tainting product sales through laziness. "That sounds like a hundred thousand amp to me *raise eyebrows*" well, that is exactly what it sounded like to the mic in front of it at time of capture. The hardware is spot on, blame the capture. TBH IK should curate the Tonex capture list so the first few are totally killer to circumvent lazy reviews (theyve missed a trick there) because too many digital "reviews" live or die by random patch selection (with an already closed mind). I think an honest description of this video would be "unboxing".