Product Reviews by KVR Members

Nice, quite flexible plugin for modulated, polyphonic +/- 1 octaver sounds.

I rather am a guitarist than a keyboarder, who usually prefers pure tube amp tones, if it comes to effects, a (vintage) phaser, Lesile/Univibe, tape echo and/or spring reverb do the job for me usually.

With meanwhile one exception: I always liked Octaver sounds, especially -1 ones, but often found them sounding too synthetic and they usually had one disadvantage, the mostly were monophonic.

In reality I sometimes use a PitchFork meanwhile, which does a good job, but although I have some pitch shifting / octaver plugins, they did not convince me so much sonically or had only been monophonic.

I got the Unisonizer as pre-release some time ago and the demo-version sounded quite good, with one disadvantage, the sound always was in some way also modulated not only octaved. So I asked Eplex7 if they could help me with this "problem". They made a comparably fair offer and finally I also got an additional "custom" version with the modulation sections deactivated.

I still noticed some decent sort or modulation, but for most of my purposes this version works better and I still can use the regular version as well.

The general sound of Unisonizer as a modulated, combined -/+ 1 octaver is really good, the modulations work fine, are good adjustable, also the mix between original signal and octaved ones, while retardment affects the reaction / latency time between original signal and octaved ones.

What I do not like so much is, that the final signal level usually is much higher than the original one, so an additional output gain/volume control would be an advantage. Maybe anyway a separate input and output level control.

But apart from this a - at least for me - very useful and good sounding plugin, which works equally well with real audio signals, like guitar, bass, precussion, maybe even drums, but of course also excellently well with synthesizers.

Try it eg. with a Minimoog, Taurus or OBX and you get - comparably simple - some completely new sounding tones, but Unisonizer also works well with simple piano sounds or maybe even better with modern synthesizers for optimizing eg. some cinematic sounds or ambient pads. I did not try it with vocal, s but I can imagine, that it, correctly mixed, also can work well there.

Unisonizer has it's own character, so it is no really completely neutral sounding octaver (but up to now I never have heard a really "neutral" one ever, but it certainly sounds way better and more naturally than this well known brown monophonic pedal from the 1980's)). The basic sound is quite good and with all the possible adjustment options you have a lot of possible final results to choose from and this "effect" still is not as inflationary as some other, more common effects meanwhile.

It can work quite decently or you can only get the processed effects alone and everything in between.

In my opinion a good, also comparably cheap option, to get some fresh, new, different sounds, also out of your already existing gear.

Recommended.

Despite of a lot of improvements still not really convincing in my opinion.

A lot of the amp models still seem to have been unmodified overtaken from Amplitube 1 to 3, and so they unfortunately also sound.

The AC-30's sound much too clean, the Fulltone OCD, which in reality is nicely adjustable from decent, almost clean crunch to lots of gain produces too much gain even if the gain control is at 1, most Orange amps do not sound very convincing, if you know the real amps, even worse, the Tiny Terror in version 3 sounded nice, but the "improved" handwired version now has little to do with a Tiny Terror in my opinion, produces too little gain and all the typical dirty is lost.

The Amplitube Marshalls, if they are Plexis, JCM's or newer Marshalls simply sound disappointing, if you ever have played a real Marshall, the Jet City amps rather sound like transistor amps to me, but hardly like tube amps, completely scratchy tones, but also newer models like the Soldano or the Pink Taco do not really sound very convincing to me, to be honest.

I have some better, more naturally and authentically freeware amp plugins meanwhile, commercial ones from competitors even more, so theoretically the Amplitube package has a lot of features, unfortunately practically most of these sonically for me is outdated or badly programmed garbage, if you know the real gear.

Some of the newer models like the Mesa/Boogie II or the Leslie collection sound good, but they rather are an exception. The Fender Tweed amps rather - apart from some few exceptions - sound very disappointing to me.

A Copicat or Echorec still is not included in the pedal section, as little as eg. a COT50, Zendrive or Zenkudo, much less a Timmy, Okko or SHO / Box of Rock, a Jen Wah with selectable, different Fasel coils (white, red, green) or a Maestro, in the speaker section legends like a Goodmans Audiom or Axiom are missing, but also eg. a Celestion Blackback.

In the amp section also still a lot is missing, eg. an old Gibson or National amp, a original Vox AC-4 or AC-10, a WEm Dominator, Echolette or Dynacord, some more Diezel, a Dirty Shirley, Trainwreck or Fuchs, Dover, just to name a few.

On the other hand, if they do not sound much better than the typical Amplutibe amp simulation, they also will onyl disappoint me. Maybe some more talented and skilled programmers would be helpful, but obviously these are hard to find.

I personally meanhwile get better sounding results, if I breadboard a low voltage tube pedal and record it directly into my DAW and add a good cabinet IR of my choice.

Most of all, if the older components will not be updated to 2022 / 2023 standard, I personally find it better that they are removed from this - at the moment and in my opinion - bluff package of outdated, bad sounding tones.

Luckily there meanwhile are more than enough alternatives available. Maybe not so extensive, but much better and much more authentically sounding....

After some more days of testing, another review here, as I cannot write much more under ToneX Max.

In principle ToneX and Capture works well, if properly adjusted and if you have some experience how to adjust everything properly and if if you use the right cables at the correct places (instrument and audio cables).

I have meanwhile managed to create some exellently sounding models, but most of them not with the first capture.

Nevertheless I am disappointed from most of the results from other users, but also from most of the Premium models.

Meanwhile there are a lot of models available, really good sounding and usable I personally find about 1 to 2 % of them, about 5% of the Premium models, which - in my opinion - are surprisingly few.

Nevertheless ToneX allows to create excellently sounding models, but not without some experience and proper adjustment, which also means, that your favorite live amp settings will not necessarily give you exactly the results, which you expect.

In my opinion one weakpoint of ToneX at the moment is a sometimes strange the bass reproduction.

I have not been so convinced of the cabinet capture first, but after some weeks of use I must admit, that you can get - comparably easy - very good results with little effort.

I have tried some captures with a simple SM57, some results sounded good, others not, especially smaller speakers (8" or 10") may need some post-eq-ing, while 12" speakers seem to sound really good and also more vivid, dimensional and authentically than eg. an analog speaker simulation or some - even really good - IR's via a hardware IR loader.

First I had been very pleased from the results of my speaker emulator, but after I had learned how to capture my favorite 112 cabinet properly, the real cabinet/speaker proved to be a different league sonically.

I also found that I could even improve the final result by using an additional (tube) preamp/eq for the microphone for fine-tuning. Also speaker capturing at room level works and sounds fine.

One still annoying aspect for me is, that meanwhile a lot, if not most of the user models on ToneX are no real, self-made captures, but captures from already existing third-party plugins or models, which are available as different software/hardware solutions like Fractal, Helix, Kemper, UAD and some others. Makes no sense to me, to create a(nother) model from an already existing digital plugin or model and not from real gear. (Quite apart from a lot of copyright and licensing problems, I think.). They also of course do not cover the dynamic range and the quality of a well made capture of a real, well adjusted amp.

ToneX has a lot of potential and I am really happy with some of my own captures / models meanwhile, but still could need some improvements in my opinion.

Still not perfect, but nicely innovative and hopefully - very soon - on the way to even more perfection.

Time will tell....

In principle a good idea, but this first release is not really convincing me as much, as I excpected. As it is at the moment.

Capturing with an audio interface and ToneX Capture works well, if you have connected everything correctly.

If everything works, you need time, but you can get - with some experience - some nice final results, which can sound good, although I personally would not define these results as absolutely perfect or really authentically sounding, but at least chances are good, that they will sound better than a lot of the Amplitube amp and pedal models.

After having captured some of my gear, my first impression is, that in general treble usually sounds surprisingly good, while bass tends to sound more muddy, diffuse and loose than the one of the real gear. What not really convinces me, is sometimes the harmonics reproduction, also some (or a lot) of the original dynamics are lost, in general the tones have some tendency to sound a little bit too neutral, too compressed and sterile for my taste, something, which I also have experienced from other AI or neural network based plugins.

Also overdrive and higher gain settings tend to sound too clean, even if the levels are adjusted already higher, than the software wants it, overdrive tones can sound a little too overpolished, too compressed, especially in advanced mode.

The default mode for the learning process results in my opinion even in better, more naturally sounding final results as the advanced mode, which seems to "synthesize" the model too much and too intense, while the results of the default mode at least maintain a little more of any original, natural "irregularities and dirt", also harmonics reproduction sounds better.

After the first days of trying and using I must admit, that the ToneX models sound much more authentically and naturally thanmost other neural network based plugins, which I have heard and / or tested up to now.

The promised - but not really from me as intensely as desired recognizable - sonic authenticity also only concerns the captured sample itself, as soon as you adjust some controls of the final model, you rather land in some sort of digital fantasyland, so if you eg. have captured an amp with gain at 8, you hardly will get the same tone, if you reduce or increase gain of your model than you will get, if you do the same on the real amp. This does not necessarily mean, that the results do not sound good (most of them do surprisingly), but they definitely will sound different than the real gear.

I also did not find any options for any final post editing or sonic fine tuning of the captured models or any selectable options, which controls the final model should have or not outsinde of the predefined, but not really very flexible templates.

What I dislike most is, that ToneX is not really a sample based amp or pedal modeling system, but only a simple preset capturing system, there meanwhile are a lot of neural network based plugins available since years, which are capable of simulating even complete multi-channel amps with a lot of knobs and switches. So, why is ToneX not capable of this, at least as an advanced option?

From a convincingly working amp or pedal model I expect, that the whole range of possible sounds can be reproduced and that the controls (and switches) react exactly in the same way as on the original, real gear. This is unfortunately not the case here, you cannot even capture a single channel completely.

I do not really want to switch permanently between different models of the same pedal or amp (channel) and reload them, only if I want to make some decent adjustments.

Even if I capture some different settings, I cannot combine them to a single model, which accurately reproduces all possible tones of the real amp or pedal. I only can create a collection of different presets, which in my opinion rather is a recession to digital stone age, than any revolution, not to speak about user-friendliness.

I think, it cannot be so complicated, to implement a simple or optionally also more complex multi capturing system. Alone three different captures would increase the sonic authenticity, if you eg. capture a clean setting, a crunch and an overdrive setting with different, optimized tone stack adjustments for a single channel and the software is capable to combine them in a single model, this model would be much more authentically sounding than the single capture based ones.

Also I miss an option to export a model as vst, so that it is also usable and combinable with other, external plugins. If I eg. have captured a boutique pedal with my favorite settings and want to use it with my favorite amp plugin outside of ToneX or Amplitube, I have to place the complete ToneX in my signal chain. Works, but is not really an elegant solution, if I just want to use a ToneX pedal in front of one of my favorite amp plugins.

ToneX models are in Amplitube only implemented as amps, but you cannot deactivate an existing cabinet only add an additional amplitube cabinet or use a model without cabinet. As ToneX also creates pedal models, I find it disappointing that there is no additional option to add another ToneX pedal model in the pedals section, you can only use them instead of an amp but not combine a ToneX pedal plus a ToneX or Amplitube amp model, a feature, which I also miss in ToneX itself. Usually you do not use a pedal as amp replacement, but in front of an amp.

What I also miss is a more complex deep editing section for model creators. The trimming option after learning is a good idea, but not really good controllable, I found after release, that I trimmed some models too intense and could not correct the signal level afterwards, so I had to capture the whole model again. Better would be a post-editing section, which alows not only signal level corrections but also eg. some gain intensity modifications and an internal sound shaping optimization, which a creator can also apply to an already existing model. Also an option, to blend two different models parallel but also serial could be useful, I think.

A little disappointing I find, that the Premium model range is almost identical with the amps, which already exist within Amplitube. Ok, there also is a Dumble and a Klon Centaur, but both do not really belong to my favorite gear. Sonic mainstream, while some more "exotic" but really good sounding amps are not included. I hope that some users will fill this gap.

On the other hand one big advantage of ToneX is, that you can comparably simple capture pedals and amps, from which no plugins are existing anywhere else, you can capture some rare, customized or even unique pedals or amps, which makes sense, eg. I have not seen a Timmy or Zendrive anywhere around up to now, although they are very popular in reality, so I am curious what the users will publish in the future.

Another reason, why I bought ToneX is, that I like to develop and breadboard my own (tube) pedal circuits, but I am not really good in soldering pedals, so ToneX gives me the option, to capture an only breadboarded circuit, from which most probably never a single real pedal will be existing, although some of them sound excellent.

My first test worked flawlessly and - even more surprising to me - noiseless, although the breadboarded circuit usually reacts very sensitive even to a moving cable or disconnects a connection and also the final result sounds very much as intended, which impressed me a lot, despite of my other complaints here. Therefore one more star for ToneX, than I actually wanted to give.

This is great, I can breadboard my (tube) pedal ideas, capture them, but do not have to build any pedal by myself, but still have the final, convincingly sounding results as ToneX model available.

Useful I would also find, if creators could upload complete folders with eg. different captures / models of the same amp or channel with different gain and tone control adjustments, which other users can then download as folders too.

Another wish is, that I can combine a pedal with another amp or at least with a cabinet, if I want to use such a combination, without the necessity to capture pedal and amp in a single model.

Also the cabinet system needs improvements in my opinion. You can use your own external IR's or also some VIR cabinets, but if you activate them, you notice a significant loudness / output level reduction, but there seems to be no automatic or manual compensation or adjustment option for it available anywhere. Also in general some input and outpul level controls, as meanwhile even every average pedal plugin offers them, are missing. Capturing my own cabinets only gave me rather disappointing, too bassy and muddy sounding results, even with a SM57.

The basic idea of ToneX is really good, no doubt, but as it is, it still is far away from being perfect. A lot of different aspects still need a lot of improvements in my opinion. On the other hand, this is a first release, and nevertheless the essential concept works surprisingly good.

At the moment I am not really unhappy with ToneX, it can work fine and do nice things, but it also does not make me too extremely excited, to be honest and cabinet capturing is a complete weakpoint in my opinion, which urgently needs improvement.

A good start for (hopefully) something better and a little more professional in the future, I would say.

As it is at the moment, certainly not (yet) the promised sonic revolution of the guitar plugin market for me, but the potential for it is already there, if IK Multmedia improves the right things in the right way.

Hopefully soon and not only in some years....

Beautiful, authentically sounding tremolo tones with even more flexible adjustment options, while maintaining the quality of the tones.

I already have some other tremolo plugins, most with even more adjustment options, but I never was really happy with them. This one gives me exactly the sounds, which I was looking for and expect from a tremolo.

Well done plugin, even more flexible than the real pedal(s) due to the additional widening and drive controls, even sounds great alone without any amp plugin.

Both versions have their qualities, sound a little different, but equally good. So in fact this plugin contains two tremolos in a single plugin.

Introductory price is a bargain, so grab it, as long as you can.

Still a very rare gem, although this plugin meanwhile is not the newest one.

A tube power amp plugin alone sometimes really can be helpful and in this case this plugin really does a very good job, even more, as it is widely adjustable and tweakable and it sounds good and very convincing.

The only thing I miss is a "little brother", which means, an EL84 / 6V6 power amp, maybe switchable from push-pull to single ended mode and maybe with additional pentode / triode switching.

Top-notch, not only for a freeware plugin.

Good, very flexible (guitar) overdrive / distortion pedal, on the one hand it continues, where the also excellent TS-999 or TSB-1 (some sort of slightly hot-rodded, sonically more flexible boutique TS based pedal plugins) end, on the other hand it sonically also reminds me a little bit of an OCD, if properly adjusted, but has enough gain reserves to work equally well as distortion or high-gain Metal pedal.

As I have not found a convincingly sounding OCD based pedal plugin up to now, I prefer using the ProF.E.T. for these sort of tones. Gives a nice dynamic reaction to attack, offers a good harmonics reproduction, more than enough dirt and power and also the four-band eq does a good job for adding more depth and low end rumble and / or more treble bite.

A reviewer complained about the harshness, I personally think, this is depending on the signal chain, a pedal like this one should be placed in front of an amplifier, it will not produce so convincing results if it is positioned behind an amp or as mastering saturation effect. But I also found it in combination with some amps sounding too harsh, with other ones exactly this "harshness" resulted in a convincing harmonics reproduction, but also a different cabinet IR can change the final sound impression a lot, so the whole signal chain is some sort of interactive system, also a pedal like this one will not sound very convincing at too high gain settings and in front of an already heavily distorting high gain channel. In combination with a clean or crunch channel it works best in my opinion.

Also sounds good without an amp plugin or only combined with a power amp (eg. the still excellently sounding TPA-1) just with a cabinet IR behind.

Excellent plugin, not only because it is freeware.

Even in 2022 still a really versatile and good sounding tape / magnetic disc echo plugin. Even more as it is / has been freeware.

Perfect for tweakers, who not only look for some usual but also for some more unusual echoes. The echoes sound very natural to me, individual selection of up to 6 heads also allow the creation of some dense vintage reverb tones but also decent simple slapback sounds and almost everything in between.
Some presets even offer an individually adjustable bmp control, which changes the otherwise fixed delay times of the heads. Most of the presets are based on some Italian vintage tape or magnetic disc echoes, like Binson or Meazzi but also some Copicat, Roland and Vox based presets are included.

As far as I can see, this plugin was the digital predecessor of the real, digital Blue Nebula echo / delay pedal from this company.

Could deserve a 64-bit update, I think. A lot of contemporary delay / echo plugins sound much less convincing to me than this "digital vintage" gem.

Highly recommended if you still find a source to download it.

Maybe usable for bass and synthesizers, but for guitar this is not really my idea of a convincingly sounding distortion. Even if I changed the three bands, I did not really get any convincing tones, but this experience I also made with some other multiband distortion plugins.

A classic pedal distortion like a RAT or DS-1 still is a different league, although they also are far away from being perfect. But - at least for guitar - they are rather my idea of distortion.

A lot of different analog sound simulations in a single plugin, from cassette and tape to various sorts of tube saturation and overdrive.

Works well in principle, adds some nice colorization, saturation or overdrive to your tone.

The dual four band controls are useful, but also may need some time for tweaking, but on the other hand allow much better control than a single knob plus a typical tone stack.

Can be used for mastering but also for guitar, bass or other instrument amplification. Tube bass amp is my favorite guitar tube sound, as it sounds beefier, fuller bodied, but the two guitar tube presets also sound nice, if properly adjusted.

I decided for Reamp against Stark, on which the different amp characteristics did not convince me so much, I also do not like built-in effects, as usually I prefer different ones or different sounding ones, but most of all I prefer using my own cabinet IR's.

But Reamp does a good job, also sounds good stacked with Freeamp in front and is sonically very flexible if you take some time for tweaking. Also works well with pedals and other effects.

Also can be used for some additional saturation or overdrive in front of a (more) typical guitar tube amp simulation plugin.

Switchable Harmonics intensity also is a good idea.