IK Multimedia Tone x, anyone tried it yet.

I´ve tested the ToneX Pedal a few hours at a 2X12" with Greenback/V30 powered by an older Crown poweramp.

As assumed the sound was really great and also the virtuall speaker simulations are very useable to shape the sound!

Of course the most of the standard presets are not really that good but there are a bunch of user presets in the net that are working great!

I used a Comford as well as a Friedman and a Fender Twin profile for my tests.

The Pedal works really nice standalone but can also be driven with pedals in front of it.

What makes me send it back though are:

No editing possible with the help of the software
Reverb and compressor are not individually switchable but must be switched on or off via preset change.
No effect loop which makes the use of delay/chorus etc. almost impossible without external reverb.
No XLR output but only line level - so you should use a DI box if possible.
Due to the lack of reverb-compressor switches, three channels per memory bank are too few.

Overall, the ToneX pedal leaves me with an ambivalent impression. Great sounds but as a concept not thought through to the end.

For me (and it is just my personal choice), it becomes a non starter as soon as I see it powered by a power adaptor instead of an IEC mains connector.

Quote from Hurricane

The ToneX-Pedal has been released yesterday !!

When will the "Kemper-Player" be available ??

Kemper Player? I’m not sure I understand. They released a pedal for their Tonex platform. Kemper has the Stage unit. What is it exactly you “need”? I just saw videos about it and it’s just a trimmed down version of a Kemper Stage with lots of fewer options. I’m confused 🥴

We all want a mini kemper very small form factor (profile player ) with 4 switches with all the FX , minus the profiling on a 500€ to 1000€ budget .

This one could fit in a small backpack to use on the go.

Quote from waraba

We all want a mini kemper very small form factor (profile player ) with 4 switches with all the FX , minus the profiling on a 500€ to 1000€ budget .

This one could fit in a small backpack to use on the go.

We all want a mini kemper? No. I don't want one.

well I personally would love one

Quote from GearJocke

We all want a mini kemper?

Important precision : I'd keep my kemper right in my studio , the mini would serve as a backup & go away solution.

Quote from waraba

We all want a mini kemper…….

Okay….didn’t know that 🤣 But okay….I understand the question then.

I will qualify to say I am a hobbyist and not pro musician.

I've tried the Tonex software quite a bit in the last few days. To be honest I am less than impressed. The UI to me is frustrating and fiddly. 90% of the sounds on the free tone net are to me harsh and not fun to play, perhaps a greater percentage of the factory presets seem to me to be the same.

My favourite sounds are driven Plexi Marshall ala ACDC and clean but not sparkly Fender sounds for clean rhythm with a bit of spring reverb.

I do think Kemper is a champion at both these sorts of sounds.

Tonight I tried using the Kemper with some favourite Marshall sounds sending out to my DAW whilst I also got the Kemper to output a DI signal at the same time. Of course my Kemper stage sounded great with the addition of a bit of the inbuilt natural reverb provided by Kemper,

I then applied Tonex software to the DI track which of course was exactly as played by the Kemper track as they had been simultaneously recorded and tried some of the best Tonex Marshall captures I had collected over the last few days.

Nope could not get the software to sound as good as the processed Kemper track. To me in comparison Tonex lacked body, harmonic complexity and sounded harsher and for want of a better word less amplike and saggy. The Kemper track was a bit more low passed but I think that's realistic given the frequency response of a guitar cab. The Tonex software seems to me to tend to have harsher high frequency content, less bass and sound and feel stiffer to play.

I would rate the particular experiment I did 2/10 to Tonex and 9/10 to Kemper re sound quality in my opinion and how it sounded to me.

I paid for the software Tonex SE, but I don't think in retrospect it was a terribly useful purchase, sure there are some decent sounding clean and very gain captures (IMHO people might like them for the fizziness ). I don't think the Tonex stomps are all that much better than the existing modelled AT5 stomps eg the stellar Mudhoney stomp in Amplitube 5. Some of the free Tonex Klon stomps with high downloads are not not too bad though.

I found it was very difficult to do a Tonex capture of my Kemper, routing my Steinberg UR 44 was a nightmare, I did not succeed as I wanted to try some Tonex captures of one or two of my Kemper profiles. Just trying to figure out the routing of my UR44 and Kemper ins and outs was testing to say the least.

I was going to buy a Radial reamp box to capture some of my few amps in Tonex, but now I don't think I'll bother, I'll let others tear their hair out and the few good captures I can find I will gratefully import into my Tonex software and use when I am too lazy to break out my Kemper.

I took great pleasure in deleting all the IK presets in my TONex software that I don't own captures for, as I cannot stand the obnoxious hissing reminder IK kindly attached to all those presets. That was a relief and made browsing the presets section of the Tonex software not jarring as it was to me before.

There is a reason I have seen Kempers in many studios on Youtube, I think its place is secure. It is claimed by some on the internet that Kemper is not as accurate as QC and Tonex, however I think in terms of accuracy of the Kemper if that is even a problem then that is completely outweighed by the great tone and feel of the Kemper unit, and noting also the great build quality of the Kemper and the great support and updates and user community.

I downloaded the free version when it was available and....well if kemper, fractal or helix didn't exist yet I guess I would be thrilled and purchased it. But now? No way.

Quote from donlp1

I will qualify to say I am a hobbyist and not pro musician.

I've tried the Tonex software quite a bit in the last few days. To be honest I am less than impressed. The UI to me is frustrating and fiddly. 90% of the sounds on the free tone net are to me harsh and not fun to play, perhaps a greater percentage of the factory presets seem to me to be the same.

My favourite sounds are driven Plexi Marshall ala ACDC and clean but not sparkly Fender sounds for clean rhythm with a bit of spring reverb.

I do think Kemper is a champion at both these sorts of sounds.

Tonight I tried using the Kemper with some favourite Marshall sounds sending out to my DAW whilst I also got the Kemper to output a DI signal at the same time. Of course my Kemper stage sounded great with the addition of a bit of the inbuilt natural reverb provided by Kemper,

I then applied Tonex software to the DI track which of course was exactly as played by the Kemper track as they had been simultaneously recorded and tried some of the best Tonex Marshall captures I had collected over the last few days.

Nope could not get the software to sound as good as the processed Kemper track. To me in comparison Tonex lacked body, harmonic complexity and sounded harsher and for want of a better word less amplike and saggy. The Kemper track was a bit more low passed but I think that's realistic given the frequency response of a guitar cab. The Tonex software seems to me to tend to have harsher high frequency content, less bass and sound and feel stiffer to play.

I would rate the particular experiment I did 2/10 to Tonex and 9/10 to Kemper re sound quality in my opinion and how it sounded to me.

I paid for the software Tonex SE, but I don't think in retrospect it was a terribly useful purchase, sure there are some decent sounding clean and very gain captures (IMHO people might like them for the fizziness ). I don't think the Tonex stomps are all that much better than the existing modelled AT5 stomps eg the stellar Mudhoney stomp in Amplitube 5. Some of the free Tonex Klon stomps with high downloads are not not too bad though.

I found it was very difficult to do a Tonex capture of my Kemper, routing my Steinberg UR 44 was a nightmare, I did not succeed as I wanted to try some Tonex captures of one or two of my Kemper profiles. Just trying to figure out the routing of my UR44 and Kemper ins and outs was testing to say the least.

I was going to buy a Radial reamp box to capture some of my few amps in Tonex, but now I don't think I'll bother, I'll let others tear their hair out and the few good captures I can find I will gratefully import into my Tonex software and use when I am too lazy to break out my Kemper.

I took great pleasure in deleting all the IK presets in my TONex software that I don't own captures for, as I cannot stand the obnoxious hissing reminder IK kindly attached to all those presets. That was a relief and made browsing the presets section of the Tonex software not jarring as it was to me before.

There is a reason I have seen Kempers in many studios on Youtube, I think its place is secure. It is claimed by some on the internet that Kemper is not as accurate as QC and Tonex, however I think in terms of accuracy of the Kemper if that is even a problem then that is completely outweighed by the great tone and feel of the Kemper unit, and noting also the great build quality of the Kemper and the great support and updates and user community.

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Thanks for the well thought out post. As with the QC, will be interesting to see how it pans out once the hype train slows.

Quote from waraba

We all want a mini kemper very small form factor (profile player ) with 4 switches with all the FX , minus the profiling on a 500€ to 1000€ budget .

This one could fit in a small backpack to use on the go.

exactly

If they decide to build one for those who want one, I understand. For live use, I would want it to have enough switches for Performance Mode, Effects, Looper and Tap Tempo. They already offer The Remote and The Stage.

Here is the Kemper in my experiment see above my other post. Thanks Paddy for your comment.

kemper exp kemper.mp3.zip

Here's Tonex

kemper exp tonex.mp3.zip

They both have a bit of post processing to try to get them to sound their best to me.

Kemper Rules, this tonex toy can stay on the shelf....

Thanks donlp1. I did like the Tonex here, but they are both different, both usable. You might have saved me some money here

Just got mine, sounds pretty good in the headphones and has a good feel to it. I went to guitar center and played the tone x pedal through a carvin mach 100 power amp pedal into a bogner 2x12 and then I switch to a Friedman 2x12. I then played a Mesa Badlander el34 50 watt and a Friedman JJ100. Tone x sounded good, the low end and low mids was thick and clear with no sign of mud. The high mids and treble and presence didn't have AS much sizzle as the amps that I usually like so I reached for the presence and treble knob on the pedal often but after I played the real amps I realized I didn't really miss it as much as I thought. Cool pedal to have for mini rigs or to compliment a pedal board. At this point between the tone x , quad cortex and Kemper I see the only space left to pursue and perceived better experience is the cab and mic section. Just my thoughts

I am not sure if this post belongs here and I apologize if it doesn't, but I just got the new Tonex and think is sounds...well...bad. I should point out that I play both my Kemper and Helix though tube power amps and a real 2x12 cab w/V30s. I went the same route with the Tonex, cab sims off, and it just doesnt cut it for me. Both Kemper and Helix piss on it with that type of setup. I guess the Tonex is more for FRFR and recording, dont know. I would certainly never use this thing live...its going back tomorrow.

Bummer! Personally I've never been impressed with Amplitube in any form, so am not too surprised. I imagined that the pedal could be tweaked with some custom captures and deep editing, but if the normal amps sounded like Amplitube, I imagined it wouldn't be for me...