IK Multimedia ToneX Pedal Special Edition

Firstly, the silver finish Tonex Special Edition Thomann version appears at least as nice 'in the metal' as the regular version in my opinion so any preference between the two finishes is very subjective. And as the silver version is currently a lower price than the original black version on Thomann - and being functionally identical - I can see no reason to get the regular black one in preference at the moment.

The Tonex pedal comes with Tonex Max software - quite a sophisticated platform which allows you to get the same tones using your PC/Mac audio interface (stand-alone or in a DAW) and also to capture your own amps and pedals - you need a re-amp box for that (either IK Multimedia's or an alternative). I have not yet tried profile capture but I look forward to trying this when I get a re-amp box sorted out.

Another key feature is the Librarian which allows you to overwrite pedal slots with amps of your choice, having first downloaded, tweaked and auditioned them on the Tonex Max software on your computer. It takes some time to get familiar with the whole 'eco-system', set up sound drivers on a PC or Mac etc - but the software is generally quite intuitive once you get into it.

The Tonex pedal can be used as the audio output device for the Tonex Max software running on your computer. That can be a bit slightly confusing until you get your head round it - I found it helpful watching some YouTube videos that explain this capability quite well.

There is perhaps not a lot to say about Tonex's capability to profile and recreate amps, speakers and drive pedals that has not been said x1000 times already - it is capable of a super accurate recreations of amps and rigs, in a very cost effective way.

Of course each capture is of a rig of some sort, set up a certain way, maybe with a mic and cab, maybe direct amp out - so you may spend considerable time finding something you want from the thousands of captures available (free and for purchase). Also worth mentioning that while you can drive a model harder or quieter and get what feels like a real amp, you may want to switch between multiple profiled captures for different gain ranges. Also the tone stack in the Tonex EQ may not behave exactly as the original amp being profiled, but usually works effectively enough in my experience so far anyway.

It is worth mentioning 'Tonex One', the new IK Multimedia pedal as an alternative option which I assume many will consider, being smaller and at lower cost - I have not tried the Tonex Max personally but it is said to sound identical to a regular Tonex. But having messed with my Tonex for a week or two now, I definitely appreciate the various knobs provided for tweaking EQ, compression, reverb etc. and the display showing the profile name, the value of the adjustment being done to a parameter and deeper editing - a major benefit for me. There are 150 slots available on the Tonex Vs. 24 Tonex One. And the software version provided with the Tonex is more comprehensive - you get Tonex Max and Amplitube 5. For me the extra price that is worth it as I may well use them both for recording. I am not saying Tonex One is not a great product by the way - it looks fantastic for the right sort of use case e.g. "set and forget" simplicity of switching between clean and gain amp. But for those who want to tweak a bit more, and are OK with a larger form-factor, I think the Tonex pedal is probably still a better option.

One thing to bear in mind about Tonex (and most other similar digital pedals) is latency. Tonex has around 3 milliseconds latency which is normally too small to be a problem on its own. Most humans seem to be insensitive to less than around 10 milliseconds latency - but imagine having several such devices in a chain on a board - the latency can soon stack up. And Tonex One is sometimes proposed as a "why not have 2 or 3 of them on a board to model gain/overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals as well as an amp?". Tonex can certainly model gain pedals quite well but those latencies will add up and if you have other digital pedals in the chain - it may become significant for some users. I know that some people argue against latency as being a real world issue - the typical counter argument is that sound travels 1 metre in 3 milliseconds so it is "just like being 1 metre further away from a speaker" - but I think it sometimes can matter e.g. in some recording setups.

Could Tonex be any better? Well providing additional effects such as delay and chorus etc would be nice to have. I would love to see a convolution reverb capability too - but I realise that is would be a lot more DSP and cost. A post amp-pre-speaker effect loop would be useful, but each loop on a digital device inevitably means more latency as there is an additional AD/DA stage, so I suppose "it depends".

One minor point to mention is I was surprised to find that I had to update the new Tonex as received in order to get a firmware version with a working tuner - a newly added feature apparently and I can confirm this works great and makes excellent use of the display.

Also I almost forgot to mention Tonex also sound very convincing with bass rig captures - I have tried several with bass guitar and was seriously impressed.

In summary, great pedal, great tones, great value, very highly recommended.