IK TonexSE for $39.99

[cclarry]

$33.59 with code GROUP

https://www.jrrshop.com/ik-multimedia-tonex-se

[jngnz]

I'm thinking about getting this instead of more Nembrini and NeuralDSP stuff because I keep hearing it's basically the end of all amp sims.

Do I need MAX? Why/why not? I play guitar and bass. Badly.

[Clint Martin]

So far this and the tape collection are the deals I’m most interested in.

 I’m having issues with jrr shop. They are not sending me a link to change my password. 
I’ve emailed support….nothing.

guess I’ll try to call.

[Brian Walton]

8 minutes ago, jngnz said:

I'm thinking about getting this instead of more Nembrini and NeuralDSP stuff because I keep hearing it's basically the end of all amp sims.

Do I need MAX? Why/why not? I play guitar and bass. Badly.

Don't need max, but be prepared to buy some 3rd party pack.

SE version gets you unlimited user downloads (which one includes samples from a number of the 3rd party packs.  

Honestly SE and some tonenet hunting provides a pretty crazy amount of good tone options.  Advantages of 3rd party is quality of capture combined will full gain range of the amp.

There IS some of this on tonenet, but may or may not be for the amps you are most interested in.

At this price, it is a no brainer if you simply enjoy playing.

[fitzroy]

Tempting. Does anyone know if this unlocks the stuff it comes with (e.g. unlimited downloads for tone models) for the iOS version as well?

[PavlovsCat]

38 minutes ago, jngnz said:

I'm thinking about getting this instead of more Nembrini and NeuralDSP stuff because I keep hearing it's basically the end of all amp sims.

Do I need MAX? Why/why not? I play guitar and bass. Badly.

What do you think about the NeuralDSP stuff? I'm just going to say that I am in love with the tones that Tim Henson gets out of a guitar and am contemplating picking up the amp sim he endorses. 

In my case, while I own a few guitars but my tendinitis makes them too painful to play, so I play the Evolution libraries and put them through amp sims. 

[ALC]

25 minutes ago, fitzroy said:

Tempting. Does anyone know if this unlocks the stuff it comes with (e.g. unlimited downloads for tone models) for the iOS version as well?

Yes, it unlocks the iOS version as well,

[telecode 101]

1 hour ago, jngnz said:

 I keep hearing it's basically the end of all amp sims.

 

I don't think so. These aren't sims. They are sort of captures in time of an  amp and whatever effect (except reverb -- IIRC, it doesn't do time effects very well). I sort of see this as good for people in cover bands and people who like famous traditional electric  guitar sounds. For me,  I am into the werido Fripp/Eno thing where you try to make a guitar sound very  weird and synthy... so for me, AT5 is still my go to tool for that. To play around in an all encompassing virtual environment of simed amps and effects and go in there and see what happens when you mix marshalls, rolands, and  10 delays.

 

 

[jngnz]

46 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

What do you think about the NeuralDSP stuff? I'm just going to say that I am in love with the tones that Tim Henson gets out of a guitar and am contemplating picking up the amp sim he endorses. 

In my case, while I own a few guitars but my tendinitis makes them too painful to play, so I play the Evolution libraries and put them through amp sims. 

I own Nolly and Cory Wong, which I think are generally considered to be the most versatile as well as the most interesting for clean and crunchy stuff. Most of their other stuff except for Tone King is supposed to be quite focused on metal and other „heavy“ music, so I haven’t really looked at any of them further.

I love combining them with OTS libraries and would give them an edge over Nembrini and certainly over PA stuff.

With the music you seem to make, I recommend you start with Nolly.

 

[Brian Walton]

47 minutes ago, telecode 101 said:

I don't think so. These aren't sims. They are sort of captures in time of an  amp and whatever effect (except reverb -- IIRC, it doesn't do time effects very well). I sort of see this as good for people in cover bands and people who like famous traditional electric  guitar sounds. For me,  I am into the werido Fripp/Eno thing where you try to make a guitar sound very  weird and synthy... so for me, AT5 is still my go to tool for that. To play around in an all encompassing virtual environment of simed amps and effects and go in there and see what happens when you mix marshalls, rolands, and  10 delays.

 

 

Well the amp "sim" part - where the device is simulating an amplifier (well amp - speaker - mic in this case) is in fact the best I've heard/felt.  

The effects Fripp/Eno use are not "amps or amp sims" to get the weird stuff (yes, they have both used Amps and Amp sims as part of the rig over the years).  So to the point/question - yes, ToneX is arguably the best amp sim on the market - but as you point out one needs to be aware it isn't a modeler that gives you the same Amp EQ tone stack when making adjustments or have the full gain range of an amp in a single profile.   But for all intents and purposes, it is simulating the sound and feel of an amplifier being recorded with a speaker and microphone(s).

Once can easily use ToneX and add effects before and after it to make the crazy stuff and I find it easier to do that than a traditional amp - which is going to be limited where you put an effect "after" the speaker/mic.  (note in the box you could disable cab sim in Tonex, run the IR in another loader to also put effects between those points as well).  

 

I'm not going to call it the end all be all, because eventually I'm sure someone is going to make something that better captures the knob interactions, gain range, as well as more accurate representation of harmonics, decay, etc and interaction with the tone and volume knobs in addition to figuring out how to get latency below 3ms.  Which seems imperceivable to most, but when you AB all this with playing a Trainwreck - there is a difference in how the amp responds and how ToneX does.  That said, so few people get to experience something of that caliber, I can tell you that ToneX is still amazing and getting something that close to the sound in the box (and pedal) is a wonderful thing.  

[telecode 101]

1 hour ago, Brian Walton said:

Well the amp "sim" part - where the device is simulating an amplifier (well amp - speaker - mic in this case) is in fact the best I've heard/felt.  

The effects Fripp/Eno use are not "amps or amp sims" to get the weird stuff (yes, they have both used Amps and Amp sims as part of the rig over the years).  So to the point/question - yes, ToneX is arguably the best amp sim on the market - but as you point out one needs to be aware it isn't a modeler that gives you the same Amp EQ tone stack when making adjustments or have the full gain range of an amp in a single profile.   But for all intents and purposes, it is simulating the sound and feel of an amplifier being recorded with a speaker and microphone(s).

Once can easily use ToneX and add effects before and after it to make the crazy stuff and I find it easier to do that than a traditional amp - which is going to be limited where you put an effect "after" the speaker/mic.  (note in the box you could disable cab sim in Tonex, run the IR in another loader to also put effects between those points as well).  

 

I'm not going to call it the end all be all, because eventually I'm sure someone is going to make something that better captures the knob interactions, gain range, as well as more accurate representation of harmonics, decay, etc and interaction with the tone and volume knobs in addition to figuring out how to get latency below 3ms.  Which seems imperceivable to most, but when you AB all this with playing a Trainwreck - there is a difference in how the amp responds and how ToneX does.  That said, so few people get to experience something of that caliber, I can tell you that ToneX is still amazing and getting something that close to the sound in the box (and pedal) is a wonderful thing.  

yes. you can use TX inside AT5.  from what little i tried TX, i still feel its for guys that want to play their favorite hard rock riffs. i seem to get better mileage from AT5 as a sound design type approach to guitar sounds in a DAW.

 

fwiw.. it seems fripp uses fractals these days. but i still like to experiment mixing weird combinations to get tones.

[jngnz]

10 minutes ago, telecode 101 said:

yes. you can use TX inside AT5.  from what little i tried TX, i still feel its for guys that want to play their favorite hard rock riffs. i seem to get better mileage from AT5 as a sound design type approach to guitar sounds in a DAW.

 

fwiw.. it seems fripp uses fractals these days. but i still like to experiment mixing weird combinations to get tones.

This reasoning is so odd to me. I feel like „sound design“ really happens after the amp sim part, so a lack of sound design options wouldn't even affect my opinion of ToneX at all. I'm looking at ToneX for TONE, not to replace an effect chain or amp suite of some sort.

[Clint Martin]

The problem I have had with other capture programs (Tonocracy and NAM) is that unless I find exactly what I'm looking for, there isn't really a great way to fix it without having access to the amp or model itself.

Maybe ToneX works better? In the other programs if I adjust the low, mid, or high controls the capture can get pretty funky and unnatural sounding.

I'm afraid it's as endless as looking for the perfect IR but for $39 it may be worth trying.

[telecode 101]

1 hour ago, jngnz said:

This reasoning is so odd to me. I feel like „sound design“ really happens after the amp sim part, so a lack of sound design options wouldn't even affect my opinion of ToneX at all. I'm looking at ToneX for TONE, not to replace an effect chain or amp suite of some sort.

is rock and roll tone is what you need, then TX is for you. 🙂

Edited November 22, 2023 by telecode 101

[Brian Walton]

25 minutes ago, Clint Martin said:

The problem I have had with other capture programs (Tonocracy and NAM) is that unless I find exactly what I'm looking for, there isn't really a great way to fix it without having access to the amp or model itself.

Maybe ToneX works better? In the other programs if I adjust the low, mid, or high controls the capture can get pretty funky and unnatural sounding.

I'm afraid it's as endless as looking for the perfect IR but for $39 it may be worth trying.

Run the free version and see what you think.  (maybe look for a free Amalgam Audio capture on ToneNet in an amp style you like as a test)

I had the same fear with Tonex, but the EQs are just like what happens in a recording studio...eq after your "recorded" tone hit the board.  If you have done real amp recording before you have an idea of what to expect from the MIC.  

Now if the gain structure of a preset isn't want you are looking for, the gain knob more or less feels like increasing or decreasing the signal going into the amp.  So yes it does distort or clean up but it doesn't have the same interaction between EQ and gain settings like you find on some amps.  There is some hunt involved, but if there is stuff that sounds as authentic as it gets for a digital emulation of it.

[Craig Fowler]

5 hours ago, telecode 101 said:

I don't think so. These aren't sims. They are sort of captures in time of an  amp and whatever effect (except reverb -- IIRC, it doesn't do time effects very well). I sort of see this as good for people in cover bands and people who like famous traditional electric  guitar sounds. For me,  I am into the werido Fripp/Eno thing where you try to make a guitar sound very  weird and synthy... so for me, AT5 is still my go to tool for that. To play around in an all encompassing virtual environment of simed amps and effects and go in there and see what happens when you mix marshalls, rolands, and  10 delays.

 

 

This is a good point, esp. if you're running ToneX in standalone.

I'm very much a 'guitar straight into amp' kind of player, and for me ToneX feels like a big step up from other 'sims' (though Kuassa will never lose its place in my heart!). 

I bought Max a couple of weeks ago and have been really impressed, but SE would have been better for me because I'm not using many of the IK models. I have lucked out and bought half a dozen of the tonejunkie capture packs at 94% off, as well as one from Amalgam. I'll probably also pick up one or two of Matt Figg's packs at some point.

The big downside of ToneX is that --in true IK fashion-- you have a product that's pretty amazing paired with a GUI that seems to have been designed by a blind man having a slushie freeze. There's nothing intuitive about it, no batch import of captures from 3rd party vendors, and all kinds of pop-up menus for things that should be front and centre. 

[reginaldStjohn]

I have been playing with ToneX SE but have the darn'est time trying to figure out how to get the user presents loaded. The UI is confusing to me.  If I go to ToneNet in my web browser I can see all sorts of user captures but can't download them from the web page. Have to use the ToneNet browser in the GUI and then I have a hard time finding the same models I see in the web.

Is there a tutorial or walk through for this?

[Brian Walton]

21 minutes ago, Craig Fowler said:

This is a good point, esp. if you're running ToneX in standalone.

I'm very much a 'guitar straight into amp' kind of player, and for me ToneX feels like a big step up from other 'sims' (though Kuassa will never lose its place in my heart!). 

I bought Max a couple of weeks ago and have been really impressed, but SE would have been better for me because I'm not using many of the IK models. I have lucked out and bought half a dozen of the tonejunkie capture packs at 94% off, as well as one from Amalgam. I'll probably also pick up one or two of Matt Figg's packs at some point.

The big downside of ToneX is that --in true IK fashion-- you have a product that's pretty amazing paired with a GUI that seems to have been designed by a blind man having a slushie freeze. There's nothing intuitive about it, no batch import of captures from 3rd party vendors, and all kinds of pop-up menus for things that should be front and centre. 

You can batch import presets from 3rd party vendors, by selecting them in the windows explorer after you do the right click and import presets (which in and of itself isn't 100% obvious.  

I've imported 75+ in one click before so know it works.