RM100 and VOX Tonelab SE/LE

[Corium_AZ]

Does anyone here have any experience with these? I currently have a Rocktron Intellifex and MIDI Mate, both of which I'll be selling soon. I do gig pretty often, and rarely get more than 10 minutes for the band to set up or tear down, and am looking to simplify my rig as much as possible - and the whole rack unit+midi board+effects loop routing, etc is not very helpful here. In any case, I've always liked the VOX Tonelab effects units whenever I tried one. And, it would seem as if the larger ones (SE or LE) have a MIDI out. I have to think it could then be used to switch channels on my RM100. Am I correct in this assumption?

Also, anyone who has experience with one of these, what are your thoughts on the effects quality? Are the overdrives decent? I'm not interested in any 4CM, and will run direct to the input of my amp. What are the potential issues with this, if any?

Any other thoughts on these units?

Thanks.

 

[eyeball987]

I sold my Vox LE a few weeks after getting into MTS mainly because I wanted to be able to use the 4CM.

I thought that the LE was pretty good actually and wouldn't mind having another one around. The RP1000 that replaced it is a much better unit for me though.

Issues that you might encounter would be running the time based effects in front of a dirty amp for one. Some just don't like the tone / effect of dirt being added to a delayed signal for example.

 

[Corium_AZ]

I dont think I'll have a need to run chorus, flange, delay or the like on a dirty channel, at least not very often. Most of those effects will be on clean modules. I'll prolly only want/need reverb, and maybe some very slight delay on dirty channels.

Can I use it to switch channels on the RM100 as well?

 

[eyeball987]

I dont think I'll have a need to run chorus, flange, delay or the like on a dirty channel, at least not very often. Most of those effects will be on clean modules. I'll prolly only want/need reverb, and maybe some very slight delay on dirty channels.

Can I use it to switch channels on the RM100 as well?

Nope. No channel switching. From what I can remember anyway but I do believe that was another issue I had. I can't switch channels with the RP1000 either but it's not something I need.

 

[Corium_AZ]

I'm getting mixed answers here. A quick search resulted in finding some folks saying they have control over MTS channels via Tonelab:

http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=3898&highlight=tonelab

http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=729&highlight=tonelab

But, others have said they do not.

Anyone here have one right now, and can confirm this?

Thanks.

 

[Corium_AZ]

Just following up here.

I did end up picking up a VOX Tonelab LE, and I can confirm that it can in-fact switch channels on my RM100 no problem. So, no need for a rack or anything. The effects sound really good, and seems as if it does not color tone much if at all. I'll have more to say after I have some time with it at high volumes.

All you have to do to make this work is select a preset (1-4, any bank), select the desired module for that preset via the channel select button on the front of the RM100, and simply hold down the channel select button on the RM100 for several seconds. Voila, anytime you select that preset on the Tonelab, your selected module will be switched on.

Hope this can help someone else out in the future.

 

[eyeball987]

Just following up here.

I did end up picking up a VOX Tonelab LE, and I can confirm that it can in-fact switch channels on my RM100 no problem. So, no need for a rack or anything. The effects sound really good, and seems as if it does not color tone much if at all. I'll have more to say after I have some time with it at high volumes.

All you have to do to make this work is select a preset (1-4, any bank), select the desired module for that preset via the channel select button on the front of the RM100, and simply hold down the channel select button on the RM100 for several seconds. Voila, anytime you select that preset on the Tonelab, your selected module will be switched on.

Hope this can help someone else out in the future.

That is really cool! I thought that was one reason why I let mine go when I got into MTS. Maybe it was just the 4CM thing? I don't know.

Let us know how the time based effects work out in front of a dirty mod.

 

[Corium_AZ]

Ok, so I got a chance to try the Tonelab out at stage volume last night. I can confirm that all of the effects sounded great on clean channels, and the overdrives also sound extremely good. However, as others have said the time based stuff sounds terrible running in front of my SL od100 and Mark X. I'm sure they'd sound great if I ran the Tonelab in the effects loop, but then I lose the overdrives. I should clarify that I play rhythm guitar only, bacau de the time based effects do in fact sound great in front of the dirty channels if your doing leads. Soon as you start palm muting, chugging, it gets all f'ed up. In my case, I'm ok with no effects on my dirty channels, except maybe a bit of reverb, which sounds fine.

Overall, I'm very happy with the TL.

 

[Corium_AZ]

I really wonder what the deal is with the time based fx in front of a dirty channel sounding like crap? I don't think there were effects loops in amps at all until the 90's, right? How come they were still able to run delays, chorus, etc in those high gain amps? My lead guitarist plays a Marshall JMP & Plexi, and has a whole plethora of effects pedals in front of those with gain dimed, and they sound fine... WTF? Maybe Rob or someone can explain this.

 

[VitaminG]

chorus can sound fine in front of an amp. As for delay & reverb, it was common to apply them at the desk. So the dry amp was recorded and then the engineer put the effect on the sound. The effect wasn't just post-preamp (like in an fx loop), it was post-poweramp.