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
Nice way to adresse it! It's true that due to some technicalities, the sound may vary depending on the environnement or the audience. It's also good to mention (from an another RU-vidr, but I agree to 100%) that the captured sounds are, and will always be a CAPTURE. Not the real deal. May sounds the same, maybe not, but the user should be aware of that, and not EXPECTING to behave the same way. In comparaison to paintings, every piece of art is unique, and a reproduction will appear to be the same, but every connoisseur will know that it ain't. For anyone who has limited resources(money, space, etc..) that's a pretty damn good alternative. Probably if I had a lot of gear at home I'd buy it to capture my own sounds, but in my case I prefer to go the Fractal Audio way, and buying and EXPERTISE of already professionnaly captured gear. You guys are awesome, I've subscribed to your channel many years ago, and watch every single one of your videos. You were adapting your content since the age of time, and were pretty good at it since the beginning. Even though is hard to recreate the feeling of real gear, the feedback you give us from your point of you is spot on. 👌 Continue your good work :)
No worries Lee. I'm sure you'll have a more in-depth look later. We're just giving a heads-up on the accuracy of the captures Tonex is capable of. We still love ya. : )
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.
Melancholy John and the Captain are dismissive from the start. 3rd party(like Kemper) are where its at. Need to understand the product. Most other digital will wind up backing this up. This review is going to age terribly.
Bad review. Sorry guys. I get you dont like these pedals cpt. its obvious. you can buy every amp / pedal / gutar you want but thats not the most of us...
Lee is totally uninformed in this video. And it's not about his roots being in tube-amp world. He just didn't do any homework. ToneX is your amp and cab for live performances. The rest of what it offers (compressor, reverb, etc.) is interesting, but in the context of a full pedalboard, probably not very useful. Especially since there is no FX loop. You will want your fx outboard from the ToneX. ANd, moreover, the idea of capturing a drive pedal ONLY makes sense if it is a VERY expensive drive pedal (like a real Klon Centaur) since this things costs $400 - why would I dedicate the ToneX to a capture of a Tube Screamer or a Timmy that I could buy and put on my board much more cheaply (and stack them if I want to)? The ToneX Pedal is an amp replacement. I sort of wish it didn't provide cabs as part of the capture. I wish they were amp only (I know they can be, but many creators will be capturing amp and cab together). If a capture (Tone Model) is amp only, you can then add in your own IR in something like a Mooer Radar, and you can insert your time based pedals after amp/before cab. And for me, I use a power amp and guitar cabinet, so I really don't want cabs to be part of the capture. Finally, keep in mind that most presets from MultiFX companies really suck (I deleted all factory presets in my HX Stomp day one - they are just terrible). So why would you expect that these Tone Models / Presets would sound fantastic? At minimum, they need tweaking. But more likely, you need to buy better captures, or create your own from your own amps with your favorite settings.
Excessively dismissive review. Retailers must find it difficult to stomach the introduction of a inexpensive substitute, a highly accurate amp profiler in this form factor selling for only a fraction of the price of its competitors, even if it offers only a substantial subset of their full functionality. For me personally there is huge value in the TONEX pedal for the infinite library of high-quality profiles, and anyway I'd never have been that high-value customer that shelled out for anything as expensive as a Kemper or Quad Cortex.
Retailers are ordering units like they're going out of style so I think they see there's great interest. And I do thank you sincerely for your interest in TONEX Pedal too. Much obliged.
Not necessarily. Value of sales could be higher if it entices purchase from those not prepared to pay for the more expensive option. If margin on 3 cheaper units amounts to same as 1 expensive unit, if you sell 4 times as many units of the cheaper one then it will be more profitable. As you say, you are one of those 'new' customers who didn't go down the Kemper route. Retailers justice want to sell product. If this results in decline in kemper sales they will reduce that stock or discontinue the line. Or wait for kemper etc to reduce prices.
As a big fan of the channel for many many years, even from the time you still recorded in black and white, i have to say, you totally missed the game changer this pedal is. This device is not simply cheaper then Quad Cortex and Kemper and therefore you can hear the quality drop. This is the normal argument sellers make when they do a review, more expensive is better. 80% of Kemper and Quad cortex owners dont capture/profile themselves. They just use it as a profile/capture player. Those users have been ignored by Kemper and Neural DSP, since there was no competition, so why would they just create a player. That is what IK Multimedia did. Just a capture player. If you want to capture yourself with ToneX, you dont have to buy ADDITIONAL hardware, just use your computer. Once this concept is understood and explained properly, Kemper will go bankrupt, since the ToneX pedal is better as a ordinary player. You put your normal effects pedals before your ToneX pedal, as you would do on your normal pedal board with an amp, and your time based pedals after it. Get an FRFR speaker and you are done. For 1/3 of the price. The standard version comes with 150K Joe Bonemassa Dumble OD amp captures and many, many more. More captures will follow in the ToneX cloud.... Another anticipated use is with a multieffects pedal, e.g. Digital Johns favo pedal, the Valeton GP200. Put the ToneX pedal in the FX send and return loop, disable amp and cabinet on the GP200, and you have the best rig in the world. Or wait 1 year, and IK Multimedia will bring a Amplitube player pedal on the market as well. My expectations from Andertons videos on this pedal were most probably too high, since I think you totally missed the gigantic step in guitar/amp technology this pedal is. They didnt want to compete with Kemper and Neural DSP on the capturing part, they assumed everybody owns a computer already, and that is the smartest business decision they have made. On stage you dont need your computer, just the player. So f****** smart of IK Multimedia, an undercut as they would call it in F1 driving.... 😉
I've an origin amp modeler brilliant piece of kit very tactical and interactive and analog Digital wise the HX stomp gets good reviews kemper always seemed a bit ott for what I'd want
I don't see the point of this unit. It sounds good for 2023, but not outstanding on the market. You need a bunch of other stomp pedals before and after, and a DI box and an frfr and it's still mono, no dual amp. At the end you pay more over 1000 euros and get all the hassle with power supplies and patch cables. No thanks, I stay with my Fractal fm3.
This basically is the QC for the price of an Iridium… and yeah they feel very unbalanced “for the price can it be as good” actually isn’t the question: “ha the tech evolved so it’s actually better”?
@@masterofreality230 I am on the fractal forum and there it was a welcome addition. People there are eager to use it in combination with their Fractal devices. Myself included...
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.
I just don’t understand why with the Quad Cortex they did a 30 minutes video comparing the real amp vs the capture and with the Tonex pedal is like “let’s hear a few presets and that’s it”.
They dismissed it as a subsitute for a modeller, for whom is an end user (aka tone downlaoder only). Otherwise, what is it? A non tweakable good sounding presets library? No flexibility to create its own tone, only to use Joe's tone he decided to upload, wiht his mics, in his room, with his knob settings. ToneX only makes sense for profilling players, and that is probably only 1% of IK customer's base. I think fair that Andertons set the record straight for the average bedroom player, in stating that the tweakability is very reduced, and that the tones are great, but not much more groundbreaking than the great modeller that are out there - and non tweakable, a big weakness.
Kemper needs a spot in guitar gear museum right next to Line 6 Pod. Once a pioneer, but now obsolete. Line 6 as an innovating company pushed on however, and Kemper did not.
Anderton's could have done a much better job reviewing this product. I feel they did a disservice to ToneX and AmplTube by making this review so adhoc.The player and reviewer is not helping matters either as he is unprepared. Anderton's is better than this and they need to be responsible for they're reviews. D- for their poor and rushed effort
They reveiwed only ToneX. Amplitube is a different product, and much superior, imo, for 99% of the users. I wish they did a pedal for Amplitube. Given the high quality of the models, that would make ToneX useless.
They aren’t using it properly so what do you expect it’s designed for pedal boards not for your laptop and monitors. Obviously if your going to use it that way you would just use Tonex software and the pedal is not needed. Kind of shaking my head at this.
@@BkBk-gy6vr you aren’t comparing the same things? What about people who want to take a capture of their actual amp (or a killer profile of an amp they don’t own) and use it with their own pedalboard? Not everyone wants an all in one. For the record my main unit is an FM9 so I personally wouldn’t use this much either, but what I can say is that in terms of the amp sounds, it’s absolutely amazing and perfect for a lot of purposes.
I picked up on Lee’s body language early in the video and concluded this was going to be a painful video. Gave up watching after 10 minutes and headed to the comments section. I’m not entirely sure what the point of this video was. More effort went into the Miku pedal demo. A lost opportunity.
Not sure what to make of this review. Usually love these videos but it seems rhe Captain has already made up his mind. The real strength of this pedal is to capture amps. Going through the capture presets in the box is mever gonna show the best of it. The Quad Cortex is the same as is the kemper. A real review capturing an amp would be better. I own and Axe 3 and had and sold a QC. The captures on tbis are as good or better than the kemper or qc. I guess the Captain wont want to sell these over the price of a kemper or qc.....thats just business i guess. The effects loop question has been answered also.....Iridium and QC don't have them. Just feels like a "don"t buy this we want to sell amps,qc and kempers" no malice intended. Maybe you can do a capture of a real amp or better a still a classic blindfold test between the tone x , qc and kemper. Now that would be a fun video.
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.
But I still love anderton's and I'm glad they are out there. Their videos have gotten me through many a tough day. And digital John's playing is always a pleasure.
@TC No, I don't. I have no affiliation with any software, amp or pedal manufacturer. As I said in my comment, I run a recording studio. This is purely my opinion, based on direct experience with gear.
@TC No, but I do. Can I answer any questions for you? You can try TONEX software and see how you like it if you don't trust what others are saying. The software Tone Models are what you load on to the pedal. Who knows, you might even like it.
Given these considerations, I can tell that it doen;t make any sense for the 99% of people who are bedroom player to buy a TOneX, if such a rig is necessary to perceive valuable difference with regular modellers.
@@DudeMcGuybro TONEX Pedal nearly selling out everywhere says otherwise :) I apologize that clarifying misinformation has offended you so. I hope one of our future products is a better fit for you though.
That was the intended result of the hugely dishonest "review" they made. They know this product will eat into they higher margin products sales. But I think to most people this is clear enough and it will backfire on their channek
@@ikmultimedia please clarify also if license are transferable when selling the pedal second hand, and also to 99% of the non pro customers how much does an avergae customer spend for an extra fx compnaion pedal as well as how much doe an average customer spend in extra tone capture pruchase since the package of 1,100 tones you provide is basically crap
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. ;-)
@@n.s.a5661 Well, let me start by welcoming you to our wonderful tribal community of guitar addicts. The effect loop is a feature from the classic amp architecture. The effects you want to loop in are placed between the pre-amp and the power amp. There is a difference between parallel and serial looping. But that is not important here. The ToneX is not intended to be used like a classic amp or an alternative amp setup. Therefore, the objection that an FX loop is missing is actually irrelevant. I hope this was of some help to you.
@@MicCostanzo people are so dogmatic. They act like putting a reverb in line on the front end hasn’t been being done by pro musicians for decades. Not every amp has a loop. 2 of my all time favorite amps I own don’t. Guess what? It’s fine. 🤦🏻♂️
@@tommilitello198 The first amps with loop were already built in the late 60s and in the early 70s it became more and more popular. By the way, it was one of the most requested custom modifications - even for plexis. It only took until the 80s that it became a regular feature. But if it's about terminology for you: It's a classic feature, but maybe not in vintage amps. Better?
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!
@@rejuvenator8966 17:25 He just riffs on it for a bit, but it sounds very authentic to the real amp. Lee hits the tubescreamer for a couple of seconds and it sounds like it takes that well too. Sounds great to me.
Why are these guys not mentioning that this is better than a Kemper for $400? End of story and paradigm shifting game changer. These guys are like "let's try out amplitube pedal"? They miss the point I think.
Luckily there are plenty of stunning demos on RU-vid 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".
Or maybe Andertons is one of the few honest reviews - because they dont care what they sell as far as they sell - in the middle of a sea of product placement video? (aka IK-sponsored commercials) Weird that Mooer GE200 is a pedal including tone capture released since 5 years and no one pays attention.... Strange that ToneX does not even allow to control fx/vst and is seen as the next revolution.... and in the meanhwile a small company called MOD is making the revolution, but are too weak financially to afford that aggressive marketing and pricing a-la IK, and thus the community doesn't pay attention...
It's all done: on a real amp (and amp modellers) I can tweak the knobs to create my tones, while here I cant, and have to stick on how Jane and Joe have decided to set up their amp and effects for that specific amp (unless I upload 1 million different captrue of that amp). Might be ok for cover bands and who looks for a ready-to-use tone, but for creators/composer/who looks for their tones, it's very frustrating in terms of creativity not to be able to tweak things. That said, I can totally see how it makes sense for who captures their own amps in their favorite settings, and take that on tour instead of the full amp for convenience. But as an uploader/user only, it doesn;t really make sense to me, and modeller + good IRs do already a great job (with full tweakability ability and fx loop). While I could tell that the tone captures were really good, there was often something I wanted to change in terms of EQ and gain on the amp, but it was frustrating not to be able to do so. (I mean, the real amp EQ, not an 'end of chain' EQ like on ToneX).
Captain, aka Lovely Lee, I think you should have run it through a FRFR Cabinet, like the Line 6 Powercab or the Headrush for getting more of that air movement feel. Though I could be wrong. Would be nice though to see an in depth follow up video with Digital John on this, using a FRFR and how he would use it with other units like the HX Stomp and Neutral DSP. Also would like to know what kind of equipment you would put with this Tonex pedal on a pedaltrain Nano Max or Nano plus for gigging. With experienced gigger Pete also putting in his two cents. So you would have a very versatile board and if you would for example would use the midi feature of the Tonex and in which way. Anyway, very nice and informative video. Keep up the good work!
Also I've never seen andertones just mic up the studio speakers lol...and not show clips of this going directly into the interface...very purposeful to get the shittest sound possible....
I’ve spent over 2k on a custom built 1974x and pedals to get one good tone. Not flexible at all. This lets me configure whatever I want without having to spend thousands for each amp. I can load them up and go play and the audience wouldn’t know the difference. Hell in a dark room you wouldn’t know the difference. Selling all my shit tomorrow.
“You know, digital really isn’t my-“ WE KNOW. Why not have two hosts who are actually into digital and respect it? It’s not like valve amp demos have one host constantly proclaiming, “You know, I’m not really into valve amps.”
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.
14:20 A little odd to ask an opinion for something that can be empirically tested pretty easily. Others have already done it. You make the profile, and then you record the same DI through the mic'd amp as well as the profile. Flip the phase on one, and null test them. Result: TONEX is the most accurate profiler available right now. Significantly better than Kemper, and even a little bit better than the Quad Cortex. It's *quite* accurate.
Would have loved to see this video with Pete over someone who is clearly not interested in this modelling tech. The Captain fumbling through this is just a wet blanket.
They’re being true to themselves, calling this profiling or capturing is a joke. Still haven’t found a single video where their captures sound like the amps captured.
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 one........We will see how good it does.
I like Digital John but bear in mind that he does some work for Neural DSP, so he can't really say its better than the QC. When John says no one when making captures get it bang on the money he touches his nose which indicates that he's not being 100% up front about the subject. I imagine Neural and Kemper et al are on the back foot with this surprisingly reasonably priced unit.
hey lee, why dont you make a comparison between for example a marshal jcm 800 tone x profile to a real jcm 800, to make it more interesting make it a blindfold challenge.
@@jan-paulvanderhoeven1639 Depends... If considering the profiler capability: yes, that's a great great option. But if considering the average end user who is just a 'file downloader" of presets (call them capture or patch, if you wish), have you factored in all the extra money one has to spend to download decent (paying) tone captures covering a decent range of knob settings for their favorite amps? Let's make the math: I want to have a decent choice of settings for my fav amps: I need thus 50 tone captures per amp with knobs in various positions. Quality captures, bought in bulk, comes to ~$5 a file. That's another ~$250 for each amp to have a decent coverage of all its settings...
They seem a bit worried about the ton of sales they are going to loose with higher margin products such as the quad cortex/kemper etc. They fail to mention that this is the best proposition for home studio use because the software that is included not only allows you to capture any amp/pedal or combination of both, not only it does include any effect you may want in amplitube where youncam import both you amps AND pedal captures, it also works as a plug in wich is a HUGE advantage over the quad cortex, fractal, helix or kemper proposition. They also FAIL to mention that it does the best caputres of them all. They emphazise ad infinitum the lack of modulations in the pedal itself, though you do get them in the software suite, and the pedal itself has a very good compresor, noise gate, eqs and reverbs (the pedam is meant to be used in the contrxt of a pedal board or with a multi fx unit, it does have midi). It does not need an effects loop so it is a moot point. The fact that you can get infonite sounds out of any capture by changing the cabs is alsp not mentioned or showned. They deliberately choose to focus on the least important and weaker feature of the pedal which are the captures that are included, which i a lot pf people dont really care for but it is another moot point because of the fact that there are endless great profiles in the net. Finally, they DO know and understand that every single professional studio / profiler that makes a livong out of capturing this profiles will mograte to this platform because at 1/4 or 1/5 of the proce, PLUS the fact that it is an infinately better tool for home studio, most people will migrate to this eco system. They clearly understand that this is going to change the industry because everybody is going to buy one, and therefore, stop buying a lot of the lther stuff they hoped to keep selling at much higher price points and bigger margins. Its just so obvious and lame, It's sad. I hope people see through this dishnonest review and choose to buy this stuff and everything else... elsewhere.
Yes, as profiler it's probably the best solution. The real revolution would be an Amplitube pedal. That would have been a game changer. The ToneX stomp box for tone capture switching is basically useless... how many time does one change amp/amp settings during a set? 2? 3 times maybe? That can be done on a computer on the side in between songs. And then... no need for ToneX, because there's NAM. And it's free. But that's true that the inclusion of AT5 in the ToneX pedal+ToneXmax package is attractive, even without a pedal (a midi pedal is a pain to configure...). Even if AT5 included in that package is only the standard version, not the max... but ok.
Try Joe's Favorite Patch - Bonamassa's Actual Dumble ODS, it's the best capture of the ODS gain I've heard or played on any platform. And Kemper has quite a few good variations to choose from.
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.
Do you feel that way about the high gain captures too? I really wanted to love Tonex. I pre-ordered, anxiously awaited and when I played the high gain models, they felt quite lifeless to me and way more polite than the real models. Felt the same with Amplitude. Also, you nailed the assessment of Kemper and the Neural QC lol
@TC Mine sounds real to me, although my amps are _loud;_ this allows me to turn way down or just throw headphones on. There will always be a place for amps tho. I already have pedals galore so love that you just use what you already have with this and there's no deep menu fiddling.
look at this way... when we listen to your videos we are essentially hearing the equivalent of what the tone x and other similar units are doing. We are listening to mic'd cabinets etc... on these demos through earbuds, stereo speakers, studio monitors. We never get the "amp in the room" experience anyway. So I think trying to evaluate something like the tone x on that level is kind of pointless. They only thing we can say as listeners is that we like it or we don't.
So far, the IK profiles sound about the best. People will get better at it though. I think its a cool product. Its not on par with the QC, or Kemper, its better at profiling.
My experience has been the opposite with a lot of time on tone net so far. Granted there is some mud to sift through to find the gold on tone net, but IME the great user-uploaded tone models on there blow 95% of the IK profiles away. Sort tone net by likes/downloads and the top user tone models are fantastic.
@@BkBk-gy6vr I play a Mark V 25 all of the time and I was impressed. I saw a null test done and Tonex beat a Kemper an a QC. Captain really isnt into digital, I think he was quick to write it off, I mean, that and he sells way more expensive things that do the same thing lol
@@saint__andrew I noticed that some tone models have barely any range when it comes to the tone stack then others have quite a bit. But when you find good ones, I think they sound awesome.
@@BkBk-gy6vr LOL how would you know what I've owned? No bullshit, I had an FM3 (which I also love) when I tried out toneX for the first time. I couldn't decide which I liked better, but ultimately decided to sell the FM3 and go all in with the toneX software and pedal because it makes so much more sense for my use case. #1 I had planned to build a pedalboard around the FM3 but makes so much more sense to do that with the toneX pedal because the FM3 is way too big and clunky, and I don't need the extra processing power and FX. #2 I record a lot and using the toneX plugin eliminates my need to re-amp like I would need to with the FM3, and then I can easily take my tones on the go. I posted this comment earlier and I assume andertons deleted it because I hinted at some inherent bias in this vid and the reason why they weren't impressed. Either way I would say there are so many other videos you can find on youtube to give you a better representation of how great this pedal can sound - I would not base your opinion on their first impressions here...
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.
@@CatchMeOutside361 You can get ToneX and Amplitube 5 free versions and check it out. The ToneX amps if the capture is good sound closer to a real amp than the Amplitube native amps. The best part of having both is you can mix and match ToneX amps with Amplitube 5 amps for stereo rigs within Amplitube 5.
It's a 400 quid unit that has a lot of tones that are great for playing at home and will fool most people down the pub when your doing sseetchild of mine....Lee as a business man probably isn't happy with these as I wouldn't be either....as a player I'm very excited
If you owned a restaurant that did great food that everyone was happy to pay a premium on coz it was the best...but then had to but chip buttys on the menu as there was a shift in tastes etc....would you be happy as a business man?
@@danmillward3480 I say that because it doesn't make business sense to sell a product if it reduces overall profits. People will rush out and buy TONEX, and then in 12 months NDSP will announce their plugins can now be ported over to the Quad Cortex and all the channels will be buzzing about it. End of the day its all about getting players to buy more stuff
I knew the owners of a guitar shop who told me that the low end guitars and amps are what keeps the bills paid. I suspect a lot of folks who can't justify the price of a Kemper will be all over this.
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
Profilling is great, but... how many tone capture files do one need to buy to cover all the settings of a single amp? My bet iss that in a couple of year, moedlling tech wil have improved so much to make profiling tech obsolete.
Lee verify Studio Rats A/B comparassion about his Bad Cat and Machless amp and if you honest ( i know you are) you goin to change your mind !! Or may be you stay in dinosaur mode..!! 😃
Lee don't blame the tools lol blame the toolsman... After spending 4 weeks 2hrs a day working through 6000+ captures I have it dimed... Also their are plenty of people with real dumbles who have captured them, you have to buy the capture packs.
@@jan-paulvanderhoeven1639 I used to be a snob too and then I learned to play and that's when I understood , that’s ok Modeling Amps sounds so good if you take the time to adjust absolutely all the details Most of the mistakes people make is that they take the basic presets or barely modify them and then complain about the sound quality
It's not about snobbery. I have a Helix floor unit that I used to use for small gigs, and it worked great for that. There's no way I could ever use it to it's full potential. It's got too much stuff. It's option overload. I haven't played a gig in years and my Helix hasn't left it's backpack until about two weeks ago, when I was looking for a certain cable. I'd forgotten just how big and heavy the Helix is. It's still smaller than a medium sized pedalboard. I don't really use pedals at home though. I plug straight into my little Vibro-Champ and just play. It's simple and relaxing. For me, that's what music is supposed to be. If I plugged the Helix into the front of my amp, I'd spend more time messing with menus than actually enjoying the gear. The Helix has great sounds and, for folks who like messing with all the options, that's great. I'm not judging anyone for that. I just prefer to plug and play these days. You know, the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). I'm still keeping the Helix, for now. Who nows if I'll need it for a future gig?
@@jimmyparris9892 The principle itself of modeling is that it sounds much better because you have access to absolutely all settings. However, I agree it's quite tedious because you have to take the time to adjust everything. So, no judgment here, I prefer it because everything is in the same package, it's much better than all the tube apps I've owned in my life. What do you personally use now?
@@alexdenton6586 I actually only have 2 amps, a little Tweed Champ clone and a Vibro Champ reverb amp. They can still be too loud if I want some dirt, so I may plug in an ODR1 or a Marshall BB2 pedal. I'm just too lazy to mess with anything else.
Never use the opinion of a retailer if you are a musician. Retailer channels are good when you want to get introduced to new products. They pretend to be giving you an objective opinion but they are actually trying to manipulate you in such a way to keep their most profitable product portfolios active.
Sound is sound, I got ears. I value all these stores doing good quality videos. They are doing a fab job. We got more gear options than ever and they bring us that. I think this is a loaded and unfair comment especially as you’re buying something with your ears and hands that you can test in person or even return under DSA. We’ve never had it so good!
Use your ears, duh. Buy it if it sounds good to you. IK’s pedals are solid imo. They started out modeling high end analog studio gear like 1176 and Fairchild 670 compressors etc. For mixing… which is not easy to model, as they’ve got very subtle dynamic reactions. Their digital modeling is pretty top shelf tbh. Not sure why it’s important on this specific product, to point out the obvious (that retailers want you to buy something). But IK has, in my experience, offered serious value for money. Especially when compared to UAD (plugins) and other boutique pedal companies (hardware). I have no idea who IK is, i’ve just been using their plugins for mixing for ages. And i picked up their blue reverb pedal on Black Friday last year (obviously a reference to the Strymon Blue Sky which is more expensive) and it sounds lovely and feels super solid. Yes, it’s good to understand that stores are trying to sell you something. In my experience IK makes solid stuff. Use your own ears. IK seems to be attempting to do a good job without charging you the extra 100 euro-dollars though. Ymmv. 🤷♂️
Interesting that the impression of the pedal is "it's cool for £400". I've been checking other vids where they A/B vs the real amp they captured and they sound identical.
Andertons does not like that kind of stuff. Oblvious. He can afford all the amps / Pedals he wants so I get it but thats not what most players deal with...
Many videos also do that with $200 floor modelers loaded with a decent IR, and there also they sounded identical. No need for an extra gadget to do that, imo. Current modeler are already ultra close, and no difference as soon as soon as a couple of effects are added, let alone in a mix. I think profilers only make a sense to profile. For tone 'copies', modelers are way superior given the tweakability possibilities, even if sometimes these are 'just' 98% idendtical instead of ToneX 99%... but again, unnoticeable as soon as the gain is slightly up or in a mix - even with clean tones. Only A/B could have us spot a difference, but without that, after 5min it's the same. Like for HD vs UHD tv... only in a store can one really notice a difference with a lot of attention, but after 5min of the movie start, the image quality doesn;t have any impact on the enjoyment.
I couldn't get any real info on the sound of this unit. I expect some clean to up to breakup tones to evaluate, but you two just went from quick superclean to over the edge distorted. I get it, that John is that type of player, but still... This is not how I'd go to evaluate any amp or effect.
So an interesting one here... I normally really trust the andertons videos to give a real review.. so is every other single other reviewer wrong on this. Or did they totally miss it on the one... I have only heard great things for this system... and I say system as it is the full software and pedal all for under £400... time will tell as it seems this is going to be Katana big...
It really does stand atop everything else with its tonal accuracy and feel. This video is pretty funny, because it shows just how much Lee's preconceived biases blind him to the objective reality of things. He can't stand digital stuff even though TONEX captures amps so accurately that it's nearly impossible to tell the captures apart from the real amp.
There is couple of hundred of modellings and basically your realistic job is to find only that golden one from any given style. I can tell there is some real gems there. Others(most) you just can(must) just skip in one second. But the essence is how the model compares to real tube chain touch wise? I can get the exact copy of the sound as reamped but it totally feels different and is not playable. That makes sense as the tones crosses at that exact playing touch but deviate grossly if played just a little bit differently. Other model can be playable too. But then there is some models which sound truely heavenly when reamped. They are not to be played but to be recorded. i think Tonex on PC (I would say Tonex SE) is the best tool there to learn about different types of amps and cabs. So if you use traditional say real Marshall JCM 800 style tube amp and couple of SM57s and 10" speakers in a closet to record your track and then reamp with say Ampilitube 5 and Tonex Max then you've got inifinite possibilities and good learning space to find a way get it right out of the bat. But I like more the big chance Tonex offers learning about amp/cab combinations.
Bad review. Ffs grow up Anderton. We all know you make way more money selling pointless pedals at £200 each but this product, for 99% of real world guitar hobbyists, is perfect
Should they have transfered the captures to the pedal and then put it on a pedal board to output to a powered cab or pa system to get a more convincing sound?
We'd definitely love to see our gear used as intended so here's one vote for you. Another popular use case is in the fx loop of a multifx unit (since TONEX Pedal never looked to be that multifx pedal, we weren't coming for your multifx pedals... yet).
@@ikmultimedia Yet? Oooh, that sounds like I'll be buying the ToneX pedal now and then whatever 'yet' turns into later! And yeah, as someone already mentioned, blindfold Lee and see if he can hear the difference between this and the actual physical setup the capture was based on.
There is an issue where you can have both the pedal + software running at the same time as well, and some of these sound like that (feedback, lots of gain, etc.) It's pretty clear these guys have not really spent time with this or thought about this review at al. It's probably the WORST review of this on RU-vid now and they're just going to stick to their initial opinion that they don't like it. Lost a lot of respect for them from this review.
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.
The UA units are far better sounding. The Dream actually sounds real. There’s nothing in Tonex that comes close. I’ve got both units by the way but am returning the Tonez as I really don’t like the sound of it at all.
Yeah that is why I got it also. I was looking to get an interface to play through my pc and headphones, I also wanted a gate and a compressor. Then I saw this.. Now I have the things I needed for the same price AND I get amp capturing as a bonus.
If this was approached as a dedicated mic less studio tool with conceivably every amp in existence on your desktop indistinguishable from a mic”d amp for 400 bucks how can you not be in awe of this unit . The fact that you can also gig on silent stages anywhere in the world with a suitcase sized rig is astonishing !! Let’s give the tired old “ doesn’t flap my jeans “ comparison a rest and focus what it does do.
I feel like this isn’t the best review… I bought the software about a week ago and have found some amazing presets. I think quite a few of the unbiased channels have compared them to Kemper and the QC and it shows how close they are. The Kemper is miles behind the other 2 and this is easily on a par with the QC modelling-wise. If all you wanted was an amp modeller and wanted to use your own effects then I think this is a no brainer compared to the iridium, acs-1 and all of the UA pedals that came out recently. They’re the devices (along with the Kemper) that I think will lose sales rapidly because of this.
I've messed about a fair bit with digital, in fact my entire set up now is on guitar rig on pc....and that was as clear as mud in parts I've got to say lol
The general consensus is that the captures are actually better than kemper and QC. Some accuracy tests have been done and ToneX nails it the closest. I will admit some of the preset captures aren’t that good though.
@@neildeakin4454 Forums, RU-vid comparisons, etc. Check out the video by Mendel bij de Leij ,especially the portion where he does the reverse phase test. People are admittedly selling their kempers for this. But these are all just opinions in the end…..
@@neildeakin4454 There is a youtube vid where they compare all 3 profilers. They use a null test- reversing phase. Perfect reproduction (or original amp) yields NO sound. TONEX is miles ahead in this scientific test. MILES.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Avhih6805YU.html 20:00 mark. Its a scientific comparison. Like what you like, but there is very good reason why some are really enjoying tonex amp tones. Btw. NAM (freeware profile) is even more scientifically accurate than Tonex, but no community/hardware.
I love this thing. For 1/6 th the price of a Kemper, I can capture my favorite amps and drive pedals and take them with me. Add a GT1000 core and a EXP pedal and you have a super small portable rig with all your favorite tube amps and pedals, for far less than a Kemper, QC, Fractal, etc
Yep, and the majority of effects will give *identical* results before the IR or after the IR. The only exceptions are nonlinear effects like compressors, but those wouldn’t go in an effects loop anyway.
"For 400 quid..it's alright. " Oof Not the best review. Unfortunately I don't think they are showcasing it in the way it's meant to be used which makes the harsh review seem somewhat unfair. I'd like to see them do it again with the tonex in front of some kind of power amp and cab which is the whole point of the device.
This unit is a recording interface, but the lack of xlr forces you into using another interface or their tone x capture/reamp box to actually capture. Clunky, but probably done to keep the footprint and price small.
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.
I think this is more intended as a Strymon Iridium killer than as a full-blown multieffect. In that regard, an FX loop would be a good thing to have - frankly, I'd want my signal chain to be as amp-like as possible, and that generally involves putting modulation, reverbs, delays etc between the pre-amp and the IR in a (partially) digital rig. I also think a lot of these products have pre-sets that aren't necessarily representative of what the unit can *really* do - which is a shame for demo videos and especially first-impressions.
XLR out and simple effects loop and they could’ve charged double. Every time I picture how I’d use this, I just end up realising I only need the plug in, as I wouldn’t use it live. At $399 I want one in spite of that. But if it had those features, I’d have paid for one already.
