ToneX Pedal Review

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 4 Mar 2023 11:43 am

Here's my review of the new ToneX pedal with lots of links, sound files and opinions! If I had it to do over I would just buy a Quilter TT12/15 for steel, this ToneX pedal for standalone, recording and use with the TT12/15 and keep my Allen Encore amp with the Cannabis Rex speaker for regular guitar and ditch all my other sound gear. This pedal is simple to use and produces great sounds in a small package for a modest price.

ToneX pedal review

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 4 Mar 2023 5:48 pm

Greg, wonderful sound samples that I would be more than happy with. I hope you continue to experiment and make some with an amp and PA. I was floored by how clean and accurate the samples came out. Excellent presentation and review.

Marty Broussard · Post by **Marty Broussard** » 4 Mar 2023 8:04 pm

Thanks Greg!

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 4 Mar 2023 8:50 pm

Thanks for the kind words. It's challenging to try to play and manage the record controls at the same time.

I really like my Axe FX 3 setup but this sounds just as good and greatly simplifies the process of getting usable sounds. I would think that putting this ahead of the TT12/15 and adding a delay and Leslie effect in the amp's effects loop would cover all bases. Especially nice that you can remote the amp's controls and have all your effects and tone controls at your fingertips. The ToneX EQ section is really powerful and gives you all kinds of low, mid and treble band shifts not available on the Quilter.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 5 Mar 2023 6:06 am

I agree with you. And a strong EQ that actually works is highly valuable. I believe most amps would benefit from a better EQ.

Tal Herbsman · Post by **Tal Herbsman** » 5 Mar 2023 7:30 am

Greg, great review. I'm not clear on whether you tried the pedal as a preamp to a class d power amp (I assume the quilter gives you this in its FRFR mode) with IRs turned off. If you did, does that set up give you a good "amp in a room" feel and sound? Ie. Is it plausible replacement for a twin reverb?

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 5 Mar 2023 2:07 pm

Tal, the only mode I tried was guitar/volume pedal direct to ToneX pedal and then ToneX output to my Zoom R24 recorder. I like the sounds I can get out of the Quilter TT15 and I believe that adding the TOneX to it in whatever fashion would yield and even better reverb, vastly better EQ and if wanted a bit of that breakup that the Twin Reverb gives you. Hopefully there will be someone in Dallas at the show that will have these devices to try out.

Kristen Bruno · Post by **Kristen Bruno** » 6 Mar 2023 9:02 pm

Thanks. Great Review!

Did you happen to find an amp model emulation that would give a nice raunchy bluesy sound with a lap steel?

Thanks
K

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 6 Mar 2023 11:18 pm

Greg. Thanks for the excellent review. Did you notice any latency with the ToneX?

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 7 Mar 2023 5:24 am

Tom, I saw bunch of bad reviews on this pedal some citing excessive latency. I have not experienced the problems those reviewers cited and can’t detect any latency at all.

Tal Herbsman · Post by **Tal Herbsman** » 7 Mar 2023 8:29 am

Some guy on the internet named Leo Gibson has a video measuring the latency of this device. He came up with latency of 3 milliseconds. According to him this is excellent but not best in class.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 7 Mar 2023 9:00 am

Interesting. For recording a latency of 10 ms or less is considered acceptable. Here's an explanation:

Audio latency is the amount of time it takes for your audio or MIDI signal to be sent into your interface or computer, then have the signal sent through analog to digital converters into your DAW, back into your interface, then have it be converted back into analog to your outputs.

From Google search here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+recording+latency

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 7 Mar 2023 9:41 am

Maybe it matters when you have several devices in the signal chain, each with some latency. It adds up, I guess. Since I’d probably only use this pedal alone, it probably won’t be noticed.

Kristen Bruno · Post by **Kristen Bruno** » 12 Mar 2023 6:50 pm

Here is another review I found of ToneX, Quad Cortex and Kemper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV8pQxEwo_o

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 12 Mar 2023 7:34 pm

"It's important to address the fact that around 5 ms of latency is totally ok by considering this: when you stand in front of your full analog amplifier with no effects at a DISTANCE of 3,5 meters, you already have 10ms of LATENCY DUE TO THE SPEED OF SOUND."!

Kristen Bruno · Post by **Kristen Bruno** » 13 Mar 2023 5:36 am

I wonder if we move our bar faster than the speed of sound, ... would we be transported back in time?

Wait, I was confused, I meant faster than the speed of light!

I plan on getting one since I am now using an FRFR speaker with a modeler. Hoping to get better "amp" sound through ToneX as opposed to the modeler, Will have to wait and see. (the modelers are great with regular guitars but not so great with steel guitars - that crazy pickup impedance strikes again!!!))... I just hope there a few good samples to use. Don't need more than that.

Greg, Thanks for all the work you did with your review.
Ever manage to get anything coaxed out of a lap steel?

(BTW, I did talk to sweetwater about not having any sample demos of *ANYTHING* for steel guitar, and the response which I will loosely interpret was because we are such a small population as compared to regular guitarists, which fits their normal business model)

K

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 13 Mar 2023 6:21 am

My ToneX pedal does as well as my Fractal AXE FX3 for pedal steel. In fact the Twin and Super reverb models require very little tweaking to get great sounds. I've also found that the Quilter Tone Block 202 works great with headphones and direct to console and probably would good enough to eliminate you FRFR system. With the Fractal I had to do a deep dive into the parameters to dial out all the distortion that most people seem to love for regular guitar.

Joe Farrell · Post by **Joe Farrell** » 15 Mar 2023 5:40 am

Hi Greg:
I recently purchase the Tonex software and I was wondering if you could share your Tonex captures?

Regards,
Joe

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 15 Mar 2023 5:51 am

Joe, I haven't tried any captures and not sure I will pursue that. There's so many great sounds built in and even those can be adjusted to create even more great sounds. There is a ToneX web site where users can share tone captures so check that out.

Geoff Noble · Post by **Geoff Noble** » 16 Mar 2023 2:32 am

Hi Greg, great review and you are getting really nice tones on the sound samples.

I'm currently checking this out with a view to purchasing the pedal at some point, atm I have the demo software installed.

Would you be willing to share your tone settings for the 2nd demo in your sound samples, 2.Twin Factory With Room Reverb Cranked Up. They're all good but that one hits the spot for me and I'd like to give it a go.

Nice playing BTW and thanks for the review, I always enjoy your reviews, always very informative.

Cheers

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 16 Mar 2023 4:49 am

I didn't save all the settings but I remember setting the room reverb delay to 4.5 seconds and cranking the reverb level to 40%.

Geoff Noble · Post by **Geoff Noble** » 17 Mar 2023 2:30 am

No problem Greg, I'll fiddle about and see what I can come up with.

On initial fiddling about I got a decent result without too much work, will persevere and refine what I've done so far. Certainly seems like a bargain for the cost.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 17 Mar 2023 4:24 am

Also try changing the reverb type to Plate at 4 seconds which really sounds like a hall reverb.

Geoff Noble · Post by **Geoff Noble** » 19 Mar 2023 2:36 am

Thanks Greg, I'll give that a go.

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 1 Apr 2023 4:02 am

I saw this on Facebook today:

*A warning to anyone looking to buy or sell a Tonex pedal second hand.*

I recently purchased a pedal from someone as they seems to be sold out everywhere. When it came to registering the product, the previous owner had registered it to perform an update and couldn’t find how to de-register so we contacted IK Multimedia and raised a ticket.

Initially they said the license cannot be transferred until after 90 days, and they then said we could pay 20 euros for this to be done, however the new owner would still need to purchase the software, which is an additional £250.00.

…

If you are planning on buying or selling one of these units, please check the licence status.

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