Tonex or Amplitube?

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

Amp simulators popped up which I haven't looked at in ages. It was a little confusing though on what the difference is between Tonex and Amplitube by IK Multimedia. Does anyone use either, or both? If I'm looking to plug into the DAW and bring up a surf sound then a metal patch, can I use either or which might be better? I'm not playing live. This is all home studio stuff. Also, does either come with a batch of presets - U2 tones, Surf tones, Hendrix, etc.?

[Rolling Estonian]

Amplitube is the amp sim, Tonex is their online catalog of settings for the amp sim. I have Amplitube without Tonex and the presets it provides is more than enough for what I need. I bought the Fender add on and the Twin is my go to right off the bat, it's really good.

M

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

What's all the stuff about 'capture'? And don't you need an interface for the Tonex?

If you have Tonex it's like you basically have Guitar Rig and Amplitube is Guitar Rig lite?

[ppayne]

I have been using Guitar Rig for 15 years I think. I've never missed anything. A plus with Guitar Rig is that you can also use it for other instruments and you can experiment a lot. But I don't use the Lite version.

Theoretically you only need Guitar Rig for all instruments. You can find everything there. From EQ to reverb, chorus, phaser, etc. But no one uses it like that. That's why you can really experiment a lot. Of course there are expensive, better single effects. But as I said, theoretically you could use it like that.

If you're not looking for a 100 percent replica of some guitar amp hardware that nobody can hear as a normal DAW user, then I can recommend Guitar Rig The user interface could be a bit better maybe. But it has changed in version 7.There is also an IR loader in v7 because everyone has it. For the guys looking for an accurate IR replica, for whatever So I can recommend it for normal daw users.

If you only play a real guitar 24/7, it might be different.

It's hard to say who has the best ready-made presets out of the box.

Patrick

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

What's an IR Loader ? Haven't looked at guitar stuff in quite a while.

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

Theoretically you only need Guitar Rig for all instruments. You can find everything there... But no one uses it like that.

How are people using it? Aren't the majority guitar players?

[ppayne]

Theoretically you only need Guitar Rig for all instruments. You can find everything there... But no one uses it like that.

How are people using it? Aren't the majority guitar players?

Of course guitarists, playing live. But also daw users for guitar simulations. Everyone uses it for guitar because it's called Guitar Rig. But in theory it's just an extensive amps and effects collection. Of course you can use them anywhere.

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

Got ya. Wasn't thinking of using it for the live gig.

[ppayne]

Got ya. Wasn't thinking of using it for the live gig.

That's why these effect racks usually have a standalone version so that they work without a DAW. For people who can still really play a physical guitar

[Mixel]

With all the top dogs, I can still recommend "Kuassa". Everything that makes a guitarist’s heart beat faster at an affordable price.

https://www.kuassa.com/

[W1tchseason]

I have Amplitube and love it. I don't have Tonex but this is my understanding.

Amplitube is the amp/cabinet/fx modeller. Depending on which version you have, there are dozens/hundreds of recreations of real life hardware and most of them are pretty good.

Tonex is completely different. Basically you feed "a specially prepared audio file of actual guitar and bass signals" into your physical hardware rig (amp, speakers, FX) and then it compares the source signal with the output from your rig and tries to recreate your sound in software. You can then upload your setup to the Tonex site and other people can download it and get "your" sound. I don't think Tonex has any modelled amps, cabs, or FX, or things that you can tweak.

So if you want to create your sound from scratch, get Amplitube. If you want to sound like one of the hundreds of examples that others have already uploaded, get Tonex. Tonex is probably better if you don't know what you're doing or don't want to fiddle about trying different combinations of stuff, Amplitube is better if you want to start from scratch and build your own sound.

Tonex can also capture your live sound and recreate it in your DAW without you having to use your rig hardware.

HTH

[W1tchseason]

...and regarding presets, yes - Amplitube comes with a tone of presets. U2 certainly, surf - almost certainly. But they will all have specific modules, some of which you may not own unless you have the Max version.

[mixyguy2]

Does IK Multimedia still require ilok?

[W1tchseason]

Nope, not Ilok. IK Product Manager does it all.