Yonac Software, creators of Magellan synthesizer, has released ToneStack, a new amp simulator and effects processor for iOS.
ToneStack comes with 6 classic amps & cabs and 20 FX (with over 68 additional units available for in-app purchase). ToneStack lets you use up to 64 units simultaneously (device CPU limitations apply). With ToneStack’s ABY units, the signal can also be split anywhere in the chain.
It also supports MIDI control, Audiobus, Inter-App Audio and Audio Copy/Paste.
Here’s a video intro to ToneStack:
Specifications:
- “Virtual Circuit” amp & FX modeling technology
- Units modeled after real-life topologies
- ABY: split signal anywhere, use dual amp setups, blend, pan or switch FX chains & more
- Complete collection: 24 amps & cabs, 70 FX, with stompboxes & rack-units and more
- 64 simultaneous amps & FX
- Independent amps & cabs
- 3 mics per cab w/ distance & position setting
- 8-Track recorder w/ 2 tracks free
- Tapedeck w/ punch looping, sample-accurate rec, pitch/time manipulation, FX send & more
- Tuner w/ permanent & fullscreen modes
- Metronome, tap tempo, settable time signature
- BPM sync mods & LFOs
- onSTAGE mode w/ quick preset load & FX toggle
- Unlimited banks & presets; easy preset sharing & more
- Extremely powerful MIDI: control any amp or FX parameter
- Easy MIDI Learn
- MIDI prog changes + bank & preset up/down
- Audiobus: input, FX, output, state-saving
- Inter-App Audio FX
- Audio copy/paste, email, WiFi, iTunes sharing
- iOS compatible USB or headphone jack interfaces (USB recommended for best audio quality)
- Requires iPad 2, iPhone 4 S, iPod Touch 5 or newer
ToneStack is universal and available in the App Store for an introductory price of $4.99. Additional information is available on the ToneStack website.
Is the input stereo or mono like in Jamup?
discchord.com did a short writeup about its stereo processing capabilities. Basically, ToneStack provides an ABY splitter that can be used to maintain stereo separation.
FX that allow a dry/wet mix signal appear to allow stereo through from the original input chain – e.g. if in Audiobus. Anything that is in itself mono – e.g. a speaker cab – appears to fold the signal to mono.
What is being surmised is that the splitter is sending the stereo signal to *each* of the A/B chain. If something in that chain is ostensibly mono, then you lose anything that was stereo in the original signal. However if you only use FX that are stereo, then the stereo signal of the original will pass through as well.
This is from some initial experimentation with it this morning among several folks, including myself, over on iPad Musician.
E.g. if you just put the splitter and summer and no FX in, you’ll hear the stereo signal pass through. I used a ping-ponged patch from NLogPro via Audiobus. I then tried with *just* a cab on each of A/B. Result was in mono after the summer. Then I tried with *just* a Studio Delay on each of A and B with the mix at 0. Original NLogPro signal was in stereo. Up’ed the mix levels and set different delays on A and B and I could hear all three – original stereo from NLogPro, and each separate A / B delay.
We’ve asked Yonac about it. 🙂 Nice bunch of folks – we’ll see what they say.
Man I wish someone would just do an fx processor like this in simple stereo. It’s not like only guitar players use these, I mostly use them for DM1 beats and synth apps, which all work in stereo and whose sound relies on stereo.
When I saw this I thought: “Great, finally an alternative to IK Multimedia IAP rip offs! I’ll buy it instantly, being a huge fan of Magellen, it can only be great!”
But beware, the real price of the app is 45 (or more) Euros, not 5! You only get a small portion of the advertised features with absolutely no information on how much is missing. The website only mentions the multitrack recorder being limited to 2 channels, but forgets to mention that you have to buy amps and effects separately for over 100 Euros (!) to get the full version advertised in the features list – or pay “only” 45 for everything. In iTunes only 2 of dozens of IAPs are listed – it’s more than obvious why.
I think I will be using Magellan at lot less in the future. It’s no fair play from Yonac. But obviously that’s the way they do it in Durham, NC.
The Yanoc site store (I’m not including the link cause the post will get held up for hours) CLEARLY shows what is included in the base version. All the add ons are detailed as well. While you do have to actually buy the app to see the specific prices for each of the addons, the website doesn’t “forget to mention” anything- it is spelled out completely obviously, under the heading “What’s Included”.
“ToneStack comes with 6 classic amps & cabs and 20 FX (with over 68 additional units available for in-app purchase).”
It seems like Yonac (and this post) are pretty clear that there are a lot of add-on options.
The reason companies choose to go with in-app add-ons is that hardly anybody is going to drop serious cash on an app without trying it first. Yonac would probably be better off, though, if they’d release this for free so more people would try it, and make their money off of people buying the add-on effects.
I agree that it was unclear (at least as it was described above). In the list of specifications it says: “Complete collection: 24 amps & cabs, 70 FX, with stompboxes & rack-units and more” without differentiating what was included and what is up-selling.
I have JamUp and Bias. I haven’t been able to get very good results with them because of latency and audio issues (pops, CPU-related perhaps). Would be curious to know if the audio performance is better with this than with JamUp/Bias.
The latency is much better with Tonestack than Bias. In fact, I don’t notice any latency at all with Tonestack. To me, Bias is unusable because of its latency.
A comment on my own comment: apparently the latency issue in Bias has been solved, or at least improved significantly, in some update this year. It works great now!
You can’t blame Yonac for your obvious inability to READ their website!
I would like to see a list of ALL the FX currently available and at what price – without having to buy an app. I don’t want to spend money on something i’m going to delete if there are no effects I want to use.
For $5, if it works as advertised, it’s a good deal. The MIDI controls and ability to split the signal path are quite nice.
I wish there was a good bass rig included in the basic package. I don’t mind “The 59” (is that a Fender Bassman?) but would love to see some other kinds of bass rigs.
I also felt that Positive Grid’s “bundle” strategy combined with the redundancy between JamUp Pro and Bias made figuring out which elements to purchase kind of confusing. Ideally you could pick the items you want and just pay for those– but I guess the app store probably doesn’t work that way.
Every single amp and fx in ToneStack is available separately – you don’t have to buy any bundles if you don’t want to. The bundles are a much better deal though, and the complete pack is a better deal still. But if you just want to add a couple of things to the base app, you can do that too.