Shask
Well-Known Member
Have you tried to do a ToneX capture without a cab/IR?Yeah, the bass selection is unfortunate... But there are a lot of guitar amps in there that sound great with bass and, when I used to do live sound for a band that used Axe FXs, they just ended up not using an amp at all. That's typically how I record bass - just smack a ton of compression on there, a little dirt and some EQ and you're in business.
ToneX is definitely not modeling and is captures. EQ adjustments on it are definitely more natural than I remember them being on the Kemper when I owned one. I'm sure Kemper has gotten much better since release though in that aspect. The EQ will definitely not react the same as the real amp though, so I'd expect to use multiple captures of the same amp if you want different tones. It's not uncommon to buy a ToneX pack and they have like 10+ captures of one type of tone, because the EQ just doesn't have a wide enough range to change the tone correctly, this is really the downfall of captures to begin with, though.
I think ToneX has a more realistic feel and probably CAN sound better. It's undoubtedly more accurate, but the Helix software and hardware are infinitely better. The effects on the ToneX pedal are also very basic compared to Helix.
I think it really depends on what you want from the two. ToneX, for me, excels with captures of my own amps, dialed in how I would set them, through IRs that accentuate the qualities I was looking for when I captured the amp. It's great for recording. Helix is way better for building sounds from scratch and the overall experience doing so is way better. I personally hate going through profile after profile to find one I like. On my Stomp, I just pick an amp I know sounds close to what I want, adjust the EQ and I'm done.
Where the two shine together is the fact that Helix is pretty limited in amp models and if you're using an HX Stomp, you only have a certain amount of DSP/blocks you're working with. If you're looking for something outside those amps or you're constantly running into times where you don't have enough DSP because you're using heavy Reverbs/Delays/Pitch Shifting, offloading that to the ToneX is super helpful.
I wonder how well this would work to capture a sound you could play through a poweramp/cab.
It could be cool to do something like an OD, through a Recto, through an EQ, all captured into one little sound you could then play through the ToneX.