Unlock the ADVANCED Settings... (TONEX EQ Trick)

Want to make a good thing even better? Well, EQ is your best friend! In this video, we check out a few of my favorite EQ tips for TONEX. Fear not, those advanced settings don't need to be confusing. So, let's check it out!

Products Featured

IK TONEX: https://amzn.to/3u0BIOy
IK Z-TONE: https://amzn.to/47LljeG
​GTRS S900: https://amzn.to/48EDiVl

​If you like the Tone Model used in this video, check out:
www.amalgamcaptures.com

Video Transcript

Howdy friend, you’re here in the studio with Luke from GuitarIQ.com. In the last few videos, I’ve been looking at some of my go-to settings for adding a little bit of space, and depth, and polish to your favorite Tone Models within TONEX. In this video, I thought it would be fitting to conclude this little video series—at least for the time being—with a few tips that will arguably have the most impact on the sound of your favorite amp and cab combinations. And that has to do with how we dial in the EQ section within TONEX.

Now, the most important thing to remember when we're thinking about EQ within TONEX is that TONEX is first and foremost an amp capture platform. It’s not an amp modeling platform. Now, that might seem pretty obvious but it means that the EQ settings we see across the top panel of the amplifier (or across the top panel of the pedal, for that matter) aren't designed to emulate how a particular amplifier would necessarily function in real life. Rather, the EQ within TONEX is designed to be much more like a studio-style EQ that we apply after the fact. After a performance has been recorded, or in this case, after a tone has been captured. Now, one of the benefits of that is it means that the EQ settings within TONEX are actually much more versatile than we would typically have with a three-band EQ on the top panel of an amplifier, for example.

So to access the full power of this EQ, we need to come over to the Advanced Parameters tab over here. Keep in mind, all of the settings that we're going to look at today (and, of course, the settings that we've looked at in the previous two videos) are all accessible on the pedal itself as a standalone unit. I've just been using the software to demonstrate these concepts because it makes things a little bit clearer. So before we jump into a few quick tips for getting the most out of the EQ within TONEX, let's just he an example of how I've dial this in. Unfortunately, TONEX don't currently give us the ability to toggle the EQ on and off like we can with the compressor or the reverb, for example. So I've come over here and I've saved a couple of different presets. One with the EQ set to off or the default/neutral position. And one with the EQ changes that I've made.

So the signal chain here is exactly the same as the previous two videos. It's my GTRS guitar going into the IK Multimedia ZTONE buffer/boost pedal—links in the description. I'm then heading straight into the interface and the Tone Model I'm using here is another great capture by the team over at AmalgamCaptures.com—again, links in the description. So let's just compare what I've done here. First, with the EQ in its default setting:

[Music]

Okay, now let's come down… and with the EQ engaged:

[Music]

Off:

[Music]

And on:

[Music]

Okay, so you can hear there that I'm just trying to bring the tone forward a little bit by adding some thickness in the body and the mid-range of that guitar sound. Now, as with all of the tips that I've covered in this video series, this isn't meant to be a night and day difference. The whole idea here is that we’re already starting with a Tone Model that we really like the sound of. All of the tweaks that I've been suggesting in these videos are just about taking a good thing and, ever so slightly, making it even better!

So with that in mind, let’s just set this back to the default position and take a look at what I've done here. One of the big problems we have when we dive into the Advanced Parameters here is that an EQ like this can be quite daunting to someone who's just used to the basic three-band—bass, middle, and treble—EQ we have on the top panel of an amplifier. There’s a whole lot of knobs and settings here and it's easy to get confused. So let's just simplify things right down to three basic settings. And they are the bass frequency setting, the mid frequency setting, and the treble frequency setting. These settings set the frequency points that our bass, middle, and treble knobs are either boosting or attenuating.

So if we come over to the bass frequency here, for example, we can see that this is set to 300Hz. Now, my first tip here is actually pretty simple. It’s just to basically leave this one where it's set. I think 300Hz is probably a good starting point. And a lot of the time you might just find that you're leaving the bass knob set to its default position anyway. 300Hz is kind of more of a low mid-type of frequency, in my opinion. It's helpful for dialing in a bit more body to the sound of the guitar. But if you're really wanting to extend the low end of your tone, or just add a bit of roundness on the bottom end of the sound, you're probably better off using the depth knob over here—or some combination of the two.

Now, moving over to the mid frequency. Here we probably have a bit more to play with. You can see that TONEX sets this at 750Hz as its default suggestion. This is a very popular frequency for guitar players. One of the most popular bestselling guitar pedals of all time—the Tube Screamer—has a very noticeable mid hump around the 700Hz to 800Hz range. And a lot of players love this kind of frequency range because it adds a bit of thickness, and body, and a more vocal-like quality to their guitar tone. All that said, depending on the particular guitar amp and cab combination that you're using, this 700Hz to 800Hz frequency range can sometimes be a little honky or boxy sounding. So if you're feeling a little bit adventurous, there's a whole range of really great sounding guitar-centric frequencies from about 750Hz to 1500Hz that you can experiment with. But, in the interests of keeping things simple, I’m just going to give you one additional frequency point that you can use to compare against the default setting. And the tip here is moving from 750Hz to 1000Hz, or 1k. Again, if we draw a comparison with guitar pedals, 1k is much more like the type of mid-hump that we would find in something like a Klon pedal, for example. It’s very much still a mid-range frequency. It’s just voiced a little bit higher and you might find this frequency range a little more pleasing depending on the amplifier. Now, of course, there's no “better” or “worse.” It's just about what you like the sound of.

Finally, let's move over to the treble frequency. You can see by default this is set to 1900Hz. Now, again as with 750Hz, around that 2k range is another really popular frequency for guitar. The reason being, if you're struggling to be heard in a mix, all the mix engineer has to do is bump a whole lot of 2k onto your guitar tone and you're going to cut through the mix—no worries. The issue is that our ears are incredibly sensitive around this whole 2k to 3k range. And just boosting a high shelf at 2k isn't necessarily the most pleasing thing to listen to. Now, one of my favorite tips that I pretty much use on all my TONEX presets is to move this a lot higher by shifting it up to 4k. This is a really versatile frequency range. We can boost 4k to add some presence and articulation to the sound. Or, on the other hand, we can attenuate 4k to round things off or warm things up really nicely. Without really affecting the core all important mid-range of our guitar tone. By moving the treble frequency here quite a lot higher, we’ve actually shifted this much closer to the frequency range of the presence knob over here. And that allows us to use both controls in tandem in some interesting ways. For example, one of the tricks I really like to do is to come over to the treble knob and boost that 4k range to add some nice top-end brightness and articulation to the sound. And then to compensate for this by coming over to the presence knob and rolling off some of those top-end frequencies that can often be a little bit shrill, or brittle, or fizzy sounding. It’s a really great trick for getting more presence without adding harshness to our tone!

So there you have it, there’s some of my go-to EQ tips that I find myself using more often than not. To recap, we’re just leaving the bass frequency where it's set by default. With the mid-range frequency, we're just voicing this a little bit higher at 1k to add a nice point of comparison against the default 750Hz that TONEX is set to. (And, of course, we can sweep anywhere between those two settings, or even slightly higher, to really dial in a sweet spot that we like the sound of.) And with the treble frequency here, we’re going to voice this a lot higher at 4k. The idea is, we’re going to leave that all important 2k to 3k range just to sit where it does naturally in the guitar tone. And we're using this to experiment with the nice interplay between the treble and the presence knob.

So there you have it. Take those suggestions away with you, go experiment and see what you come up with. If you enjoyed this video, then please click on that like button or leave a comment in the comments section below to let me know. If you do want to see some more “tips and tricks” style videos like this around TONEX, then please leave your thoughts questions and video ideas in the comments section as well—that would be super helpful. Also while you're there, be sure to check out the other TONEX videos I've done—links will be in the description. And one last thing before you go, I’d love to invite you over to the website GuitarIQ.com to check out some of the books and other learning resources that we have waiting for you over there. Covering everything from fretboard memorization, to chord theory, to warm-ups and workouts, scales, and a whole bunch more… That is GuitarIQ.com. Well, that's it for me. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video!