Designed and built in Italy, the TONEX Pedal is the latest addition to IK Multimedia’s TONEX ecosystem. IK Multimedia takes a system wide approach to their products, offering software, guitar and audio recording interfaces, speakers, software and more that are all designed to work with and enhance each other’s capabilities in an ever-expanding ecosystem of professional-grade products. That said, the TONEX pedal can be used stand alone as a self-contained stomp box, as a pedal board amplifier, as a desktop guitar amplifier or as a high-quality USB audio recording interface. The TONEX pedal is designed to seamlessly integrate with IK Multimedia’s TONEX Desktop App, ToneNET, as well as IK Multimedia’s Amplitude 5 premium virtual guitar amp simulator, which works as a standalone desktop app or as a VST or AAX Plugin.
The top of the TONEX pedal has a scrollable Model control, an easy-to-read LCD display, a scrollable preset knob, parameter control knob, and a full tone stack, as well as gain and master volume controls. Pushing the parameter button brings up a second set of controls that include reverb, compression and more. Combined with the top set of controls, the TONEX pedal gives you a comprehensive palette of tone-shaping controls as would be found on most professional grade guitar amplifiers. The three footswitches on the TONEX pedal select a bank of three presets and can be scrolled up and down to the available banks by simultaneously pressing two footswitches simultaneously. The back of the TONEX pedal has a mono guitar input, stereo left and right outputs, a headphone jack, MIDI In and Out, an external control jack, a USB 2.0 Jack and a 9-volt barrel power jack.
All the TONEX pedal’s control parameters can be accessed via a set of menus accessible by depressing the top left Model button. Available menu parameters include global input and trim controls, Interface, MIDI channel assignment, and other essential control parameters. The TONEX pedal case is made of rolled steel. The TONEX pedal has clearly been designed to successfully function as a rugged, road worthy stomp box as well as a “hands on” virtual desktop guitar amplifier and audio interface. All the controls on the TONEX pedal are logically laid out and easy to access.
The TONEX pedal is designed to integrate with IK Multimedia’s TONEX app and ToneNET, a collaborative platform for users to upload and share custom created amplifier and stomp box models. The TONEX desktop app has three main windows, a player page that allows you to audition from literally hundreds of factory and user submitted profiles, the profiling window that gives you access to TONEX’s profiling algorithm and a librarian page that syncs with the TONEX pedal. Using TONEX’s librarian window, you can drag and replace existing amp and stomp box profiles onto one of the preset banks on the TONEX pedal, making the TONEX pedal a portable library of amp and stomp box models you can take with you to recording sessions, rehearsals, or live gigs.
The TONEX software has controls to allow you to turn on and off Amp, Cab Compression Reverb and the ability to select and save from a large library of available Amp and Cab options. You can also incorporate the TONEX pedal into Amplitude 5 by dragging and dropping the respective icon from the palette of available amps and effects pedals onto Amplitude 5’s signal chain.
There are four different tiers of the TONEX software available from the IK Multimedia website, which gives access to the TONEX tone library (there is a free version of the TONEX software available to get you started). You get the full TONEX Max version with the purchase of the TONEX pedal, giving you access to a huge and constantly growing library of available factory and user submitted amplifier and stomp box profiles to work with. You can filter the styles and categories of effects from the TONEX desktop app or via Amplitude 5.
This brings us to the other core feature of the TONEX ecosystem, the ability to create custom- profiled models of your own amplifiers and stomp boxes via the TONEX profiling utility. Profiling technology has been available for a number of years, notably on the Kemper line of profiling amplifiers. IK Multimedia brings a similar professional grade technology to the TONEX ecosystem by incorporating their proprietary AI machine modeling capture technology in the TONEX software. The key point here is that the TONEX profiling technology gives you the ability to professionally profile your amps and effect pedals at a highly attractive price point.
In order to take full advantage of TONEX profiling capability, you will need to use a professional grade reamplication device, such as IK Multimedia’s Capture, which connects to your studio recording interface and allows you to profile or reamp your amplifiers or pedals directly through the TONEX desktop app. The TONEX software features an easy-to-follow set of steps to walk you through the profiling process. How long that process will take and how accurate the sample of your equipment will be dependent on the processing power of your computer and the quality of your audio interface.
The TONEX Pedal is available now for MAP $399. Find out more at: ikmultimedia.com/products/tonexpedal
Sweetwater offers a TONEX Pedal and Capture Bundle for $649, which will give you everything you need to take full advantage of the TONEX pedal’s full tone shaping and profiling capturing capability. Find out more at:
sweetwater.com/store/detail/ToneXBun–ik-multimedia-tonex-pedal-and-capture-bundle
