IK Multimedia ToneX Pedal

I bought this about two years ago and use it virtually every day. The main reason for using this is that the tone models sound really, really good. Honestly, I think I'm at the point where I genuinely don't see myself needing a tube amp. The Tonex pedal is fairly simple to use and it's easy to change the settings on the fly. The Tonex pedal is my amp when I play with my band. There are only two small downsides that I can think of. 1) The electrical grounding is not very good, so this is susceptible to weird buzzing sounds. And if paired with another device that also has grounding issues (for ex. Tonex One), some weird frequencies will likely occur. So use an isolated power source! 2) The three buttons in the front are a bit heavy to push, sometimes I try to push it and it doesn't change the bank. But I just have to remind myself to press it a bit harder!

So overall, absolutely brilliant product and you get a ton of stuff for the money. Love it.

I've had it for 3 months, and I couldn't be happier. It was difficult for me to order it, because I didn't read anything but complaints about how complicated it is to manage its application, and that it is mandatory to buy premium download packs. Nothing further from reality. The factory presets are not bad, there are better and worse ones. If you don't like them, you can download practically any amplifier and cab you want, as well as all kinds of overdrive or fuzz pedals, absolutely free, and in a very simple way (I don't understand people who complain so much about the software), it works fantastically. . Another different thing is that you have to investigate among the thousands of profiles there are and find your favorites, that takes time, but the pedal is great.
I use it with a power amplifier to a 4x12 cabin, and it is great.
There is a test on YT by Tim Pierce of the Tone X, and he says he would pay double for it. He compares it head to head with some of his amps, and nails them. I agree with him..

I primarily use the unit through headphones at home or a PA for band rehearsals. I have not used the capture functionality so far, so I cannot judge that.

For above uses, the ToneX pedal performs well. To my ears, it sounds as good as more expensive profilers or real amps.

The main positive point I want to stress in this review is the updated software. A lot of previous reviews complain about the earlier UX of IK Multimedia's software, which, I agree, was pretty bad.

However, recent updates not only added delays and modulation effects to the pedals (and free of additional charge, nevertheless), but also HUGELY improved the tone design workflow.

With the updated software, one can finally edit presets live on the pedal, filter functionality is well thought through and drag-and-drop is pretty intuitive.

In my opinion, the software went from really confusing to very well designed.


Besides that, setting parameters on the pedal itself is not super straightforward due to the limited screen, so it takes some time with the manual if one wants to configure more "subsurface level" settings without using a computer. This is why I deducted one star from "handling".

The second shortcoming is that in my instance, the headphone jack developed a malfunction where one of the stereo channels emits a high pitched white-noise. This was not the case in the beginning, so I suspect a hardware fault, which is why I removed a star from quality.
The pedal itself though feels well made and sturdy.

To conclude:
It does what it's supposed to do, sounds good, and the new software is a substantial improvement.

The interface on the pedal takes some time to get used to though.

I could set up the sound I had in mind, without spending infinite time and money trying real hardware.
Moreover the pedal and software make it simple, amazingly complete and simple. I found every knob or setting to be crucial and none of them redundant 👍
I could compare some real gear with its capture in direct A/B : for instance switching to ToneX with Nobels odr mini capture , and a real Nobel odr mini, in the same signal chain, with a looper. Really impressed. Same sound, same reaction.
The software and the 2 pedals sound the same. I trust what I setup on any of them.

An idea to IK : in the general menu of the pedal, please add a third mode , live, interface and “both”, so we could test some stomp in the software into some amp in the pedal :)

Another : please add a mode where switch A would alternate between 2 presets, switch B would on/off the modulation slot (chorus, phaser…) , and switch C would on/off the delay slot.

As always people working at Thoman are great.

Great 🇮🇹 product !