IK Multimedia has entered the headphones amp market with the Tonex Plug, and pocket-sized guitar rigs don’t get more powerful than this.
The form factor is familiar. The Tonex Plug has the integrated 1/4” input for your guitar cable in that swivels to accommodate most (all?) electric guitars. There is the 1/8” output for your headphones. And there is a USB C input for charging the device. You can also use it as a guitar audio interface.
There are buttons for cycling through your presets, accessing its onboard guitar tuner, an on/off switch that doubles as a battery status check, and there are two volume buttons that also let you connect it to a device via Bluetooth.
But this is a device built around IK Multimedia’s AI Machine Modeling tech; the range of tones it presents guitarists – and bass guitar players – is off the charts.
It’s just as IK Multimedia says, the Tonex Plug gives you “instant access to over 40,000 free amps and pedal rigs in your pocket”, including the Premium and Signature Collections – plus there are some onboard essentials such as EQ, gate, compressor, delay, modulation and reverb.
It's not just the amount of tones; IK Multimedia says you won't be able to tell the difference between the modelled gear and the real thing.
“From the first note, you'll notice and feel the difference – rich, dynamic, touch-sensitive tones that respond like real gear,” it says. “Practise late at night, rehearse in silence, or warm up on the go – all without losing the soul of your sound”
Ever since launching the Tonex platform, IK Multimedia has been refining it, making its Tonex devices smaller – giving us a full rig in guitar mini pedal with the Tonex One. This personal amp, which lets you play your guitar silently anywhere, anytime, perfect for late night practice, travel, whatever, and it is as compact and portable as it gets.
If the controls on the actual device are the essentials only, connecting to the Tonex Control app (iOS/Android) accesses all the deep editing features you need to dial in an electric guitar sound, from amp settings to customising your IRs and cab sims. You can even model your own rig and save it down to a preset.
You can browse other Tonex user’s presets and download them, tweak them, share your own for others, and with the Tonex Plug Bluetooth-enabled, you can steam external audio to the amp to practise to – that could be music or a YouTube lesson.
The Tonex Plug allows you to cycle between 30 presets on the device, all arranged over 10 colour-coded banks. There is an onboard metronome. What doesn’t it do? Well, it’s one amp you couldn’t rest a beer on.
One last point worth noting is that you get a generous six hours of playing time from a full charge. Priced £/$/€149 (add 10 bucks for a carry pouch), the Tonex Plug is available now. See IK Multimedia for more.
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