IK Multimedia TONEX Pedal: Stereo multi-effects guitar and bass pedal with 150 Presets, 15 Pre/Post FX, Tuner, Tap Tempo, Headphone Out, Software Player and Editor

The pedal is great, it has a lot of options to play with, but there's one catch: it's difficult to configure for someone who isn't very patient or doesn't understand technology very well. You absolutely have to read the pedal's manual; otherwise, you'll never be able to use it properly. Installing the driver and apps wasn't difficult at first, but the problem arose when I wanted to listen to the sounds downloaded from the bass version. Everything sounded the same to me. What was the problem? I had to modify the pedal to use it as an "Interface", because by default it's set to "Live" to be used with an amp. So, I'm going to explain how I did it, and I was able to hear the sounds of different pedals and amps. It's not easy; it took me quite a while to read and understand, since I had gotten into the metronome section. Here's what I did... The manual reveals on pages 14 and 31 that you're stuck in the secondary submenu because the pedal comes factory-set in simplified display mode (pp. 3, 14, 31). Step 1: Exit the BPM screen in one go. 1. Press the right encoder or knob labeled PRESET/BACK in once (pp. 14, 18). 2. Pressing it moves the pedal back one step in the device's internal Windows directory. Step 2: Enter the GLOBAL menu correctly. 1. Now that you're on the normal screen, press and hold the left encoder labeled MODEL/SELECT for two seconds (p. 14). 2. The word SETUP will appear on the display (p. 14). Turn the same knob until it reads: GLOBAL SETUP and push the knob in to enter (pp. 3, 32). Step 3: Change the Operating Mode to INTERFACE. 1. Slowly turn the MODEL knob clockwise, past the volume and external control options, until the word GENERAL appears on the pedal's display and push the knob in (pp. 3, 31). 2. In GENERAL mode, continue turning the knob until the key parameter OPERATION MODE is clearly displayed (pp. 3, 31). Push the knob in. 3. The manual specifies on page 31: it comes factory-set to LIVE mode (for solo playing) (p. 31). Turn the knob to change it to INTERFACE (p. 31). 4. To save: Press and hold the MODEL knob for two seconds so the system saves the data to the circuit board (p. 14). This way you can listen to the different types of sounds included with your pedal package (I imagine it's the same for the guitar pedal). But... To get the pedal working normally with the amp again, you have to reset it to its factory settings, to "live" mode. Here's what you need to do: Step 1: Return the pedal to "Live" Mode Since we left the pedal configured as a USB sound card in INTERFACE mode, if you connect it directly to the amplifier without changing this, the volume will be extremely low, flat, or muffled (p. 34). Make this one-second change to the buttons before disconnecting it (p. 2): 1. Press and hold the left encoder, MODEL/SELECT, for two seconds to enter the menu (p. 2). 2. Turn the knob to GLOBAL SETUP and press (p. 2). 3. Locate the GENERAL tab, enter it, and navigate to OPERATION MODE (p. 3). 4. Turn the knob to change the INTERFACE code back to the option that reads: LIVE (p. 31). (This reactivates the unit's internal processing unit to use the actual amplifiers in your system) (pp. 8, 31). 5. Press and hold MODEL for two seconds to save the settings (p. 2). Additional Information. Step 2: The Golden Trick for Your Amp (Cabinet Bypass) The manual details on page 8: "Don't forget to bypass the CAB section of your PRESETS to avoid unwanted double baffle filtering" (p. 2). • Why this happens: The TONEX presets have a built-in amplifier (AMP) and simulated speaker cabinet (CAB) (p. 6). But since you have a real physical bass combo amp with its own wood and cloth speakers, if you send the signal with the digital CAB on, you'll be putting a "virtual speaker inside a real speaker," breaking the EQ (p. 8). • The Quick Fix: Turn the physical knob on the pedal to the global CAB setting and turn it off completely (CAB BYPASS), or simply press the physical button on the front to turn off the CAB indicator light completely in the preset you're playing (pp. 2, 8, 15). This is how you'll hear the pure, crisp, three-dimensional roar of Ampeg and Aguilar tubes organically exploding through their true RMS watts (pp. 1, 8). I recommend reading the manual carefully; you'll need patience and time to fully understand how it works. I hope this is helpful to someone. Thanks, greetings from Costa Rica.

I cannot state good enough things about this pedal. The tones and adjustability are fantastic, especially with the ToneX Editor application. I was able to truly dial in the tone that I’ve always been looking for through the use of various amp and cab models not only does it give you a great variation of tones and models by default. You can also download user created models from ToneNET which is easily accessible through the tone library in the app. I opted for the bigger unit over the Minnie due to the need to make adjustments on the fly while on stage and it has worked out tremendously. The sounds that you get from this unit sound organic and premium compared to similar petals that claim to provide the same functionality. Overall, this pedal was well worth the price that was paid, and I see myself using it for a very long time.

This thing is hard to use, takes forever to learn, the interface is terrible, and it will likely break your computer like it did mine. But this is by far the best sounding guitar amp modeler ever made. I have all other modelers and its not close. However, those modelers like the GT 1000, HX stomp, Universal Lion 68, and many more all work flawlessly and have natural intuitive interfaces. The Tonex is frustrating to use, tweak, edit, save and organize presets and models. So bad that it takes away from the enjoyment of playing. But it just sounds so good. If literally all you care about is tone, and getting the best guitar amp tones ever made available, get the Tonex and be ready for the headaches. If you don't mind compromising on sound for easier and more stable use, get one of the others. Also, I have both the original and anniversary white editions. It is worth the extra price for the anniversary presets.

Topline: Incredible variety, quality, and accuracy at your fingertips for a very fair price. However, the UI/UX is lacking, and it's incredibly noisy. PROS: - IK's Tonex ecosystem has thousands of amp and cab models for you to try - The tones sound *really* good, and are very accurate to their real-world amp counterparts. - The price is great. - Three presets per bank is nice, making this very usable in a live scenario especially if you hook it up via MIDI for auto-patch switching. - the included reverb/compressor/noise gates are very usable. CONS: - The UI/UX on the desktop app is really bad. In order to load an IR or new amp model onto the unit (should be one of the simplest actions), you have to create a preset that contains the amps/cabs you want and drag it onto the pedal in the "librarian" view in the app. you CANNOT simply drag and drop cabs and amp models you want onto the pedal's storage and then go tweak it, you MUST create a preset that contains all the models you want. Want to try a new amp model with 12 new cabs? You need to create 12 separate presets, sorry. - The workflow on the unit itself is terrible. Editing parameters is a real pain and menu diving is really clunky. Would be nice if it had a screen and encoder knobs, but I get that they want to keep cost down. This is the price you pay for that. - EXTREMELY NOISY! I don't know why nobody talks about this, but SO many of the amp models are very, very noisy. If you have a single coil guitar this thing can be a real challenge to work with. Even many clean amp tones are super noisy. You will need to make very liberal use of the noise gate. I suppose this is accurate to the "Real amp" experience, but many other digital modelers don't really have this problem, and Tonex is fundamentally a digital amp modeler.

Love it so far. I wanted something compact to just sit down and quickly play and this is exactly it. Just plug in and play with headphones or speakers. You can also have it really easy or get reallllly technical with it as there's a lot of advanced parameters to change. There's quite a learning curve if you go that route, but if you just wanna sit down and have a good ole jammy shred piece then this is it. Don't expect fractal axe fx tones, but for what it is you can get some really amazing sound for guitar or bass. Presets are just fine and easily adjustable. Very easy to use and setup. My only gripe is that it doesn't have a power switch which seems to be a lot of people's issues. But still it's fine.

Gets the job done!

Awesome Tone!

I have heard many good things about this pedal. It isn't for me. It is very noisy for some reason, my Kemper and Headrush don't have that issue. It has not global EQ so using with an FR/FR speaker means a need to add EQ to every preset for high/low cut. The sound was so underwhelming to me I had not inspiration to do anything with it. Every preset sounded poor to me and I had no desire to work with it so I returned it. Form factor is nice, features are nice. Not replacing my Kemper with it to get smaller as I had hoped.

Buen pedal, ahora armar la Pedalboard con puros pedales de IK multimedia.

Perfekt

I just received my Tonex today and the box did not include the serial number card to register the pedal/ get access to the software. There were also no instructions in the box. Ikmultimedia doesn’t have a support number to call, so I’m currently waiting on a email response with no luck so far. I will give them a few more days. Update- after about four days Ikmultimedia emailed me my serial number. The Tonex pedal is very well built and the stock pre sets sound amazing. It’s weird but the Tonex pedal sounds much better than using the software on my Mac with the same headphones. I feel this pedal is a pretty great value when you consider that the amp models sound better than the Kemper, it’s an audio interface, it comes with Tonex Max and Amplitude 5 software. I use this with a boost pedal and a delay but I also ended up ordering a GP200 on sale and will put the Tonex in its effects loop for a Better effects solution with the amazing amp and cab models of the Tonex. It would have been nice if the pedal had more effects options but over all I would highly recommend because the amp models and cabs sound amazing. I probably should have removed a star for the lack of effects and missing my serial number card in the box, however it’s a great value, well built and sounds amazing so 5 stars for bringing this to market at this price point

Llegó defectuoso, me encuentro en proceso de devolverlo

I bought TONEX used from the Amazon Warehouse and off the bat the registration card was missing. Without it you cannot use the software at its full capacity which is a bummer, there are options you cannot reach through the knobs which are available physically. I guess otherwise the device would look like a mixing console, also also prone to mechanical issues. Anyways, after a really short contact with the support they provided me with a new serial number and I was good to go. Great! The software for the software (IK Multimedia Product Manager) is kind of dusty (and buggy) so accidentally I registered TONEX three times on one of my Macs which is nuts and simply should not be possible from the programmers point of view, having in mind there is a registration count limit here. For whatever reasons, only IK knows - either I'm a legitimate owner and free to use the device and software as often as I require or there is a problem and I cannot use it. As simple as that but to be fair there are other companies with even worse policies (Apogee, to name just one example, not cool, great hardware), so no big deal for now. IKM allow you to increase number of installations without any problems, which is also a legitimate request, since computers advance really fast. Just remember to unregister the software before you retire or sell the computer you used to use with it. Getting to how the TONEX sounds and this is where the pedal really shines. In my ears it's just great, though it might not be top notch but I guess its size and computing power set some limits here. Compared to my Line6 HX Stomp and in my ears it is just as good and sometimes even better, more natural and nearer to the sound in my head. It offers silky, warm and very responsive clean, roaring lead and rhythm sounds. It's really usable at least through my studio monitor box. On the other hand compared to the HX Stomp it's really hard to say which I like more. HX Stomp gives me a bunch of stompboxes and a bunch of connection options which is why I love the Swiss knife of sounds. It still sounds just excellent and is easy to embed into any kind of setup, live or at home. TONEX is not that flexible, it offers just one version of different most common effects, it rather focuses on other capabilities and I suppose that's modelling and capturing. It might be great at that but I see no necessity to do anything like that. Luckily there is also no need, there are plenty of freely available presets and sounds. I use them as a starting point to find my sounds in the pedal and it worked fine for me. Of course you can spend some money and even buy models and presets but I see no reason why, it's quite easy to design a great sound by yourself. Bottom line: If you're looking for everything, great sounds and effects, excellent flexibility and usability - for me it's rather Line 6 HX Stomp (XL). If you wish to have a great sound, maybe in your studio where you have all the plugin effects and just the core sound needs to be great - check out the TONEX. I'm switching between them back and forth all day long and still cannot say which one I like better. As of now TONEX is a bit cheaper and its price might even go further down, roundabout 200EUR is more than fair (used), having in mind some simple stomp boxes cost more. IK Multimedia really must continue to improve their software, TONEX even froze one time so I had to unplug its power supply, I never had anything like that with the HX Stomp. Also usability and flexibility of the device itself could and imho should be much better.