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Hi, I have a Martin HD28 with an Anthem pickup and I currently use the Session DI and Align Series Reverb pedal. I have been happy with the sound quality. I came across the idea of applying an IR of my guitar to the signal to create a more natural sound. I played around with this concept in my DAW and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it sounded. But it’s not practical to travel with my DAW when playing live. I did some digging and came across what I consider two reasonably priced options. The Voiceprint DI and the ToneDexter. I’ve spent time watching YouTube videos on both of these products but have not found any that show a side by side comparison. It looks like the ToneDexter is setup to capture an IR using an external microphone(s) and allowing you to save them as presets. And the voiceprint DI is setup to only use the microphone of an iPhone. There are certainly advanced control features in the Voiceprint ie EQ etc…when compared to the ToneDexter that I find appealing. But I am having trouble accepting that using the internal microphone of an iphone will provide better results than an appropriate Sennheiser, Shure, Neumann microphone. Can anyone provide insight into your experience using the ToneDexter and the Voiceprint DI, which one you prefer and why?
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Last edited by DoctaPayne; 06-07-2021, 08:56 AM. -
Hey DoctaPayne,
Thanks for posting.
The VPDI and the ToneDexter have a lot of similarities, but the goal of each products is a little different.
The ToneDexter is intended to give you more mic character in your plugged-in sound, while the VPDI is designed to make your guitar sound more like your guitar, without other coloring or artifacts. For this reason, the ToneDexter allows you to use the mic of your choice to make your presets. The VPDI uses the phone mic as a measurement device to measure the unique frequency response and character of the instrument. You can actually use an external mic with the Voiceprint DI, and it will give you more mic character in your Voiceprints. It's just another option for the players who want to experiment.
I haven't used the ToneDexter extensively for live playing, but when I have used it I thought that the mic qualities of the ToneDexter were a little too intense. That, combined with the limited tone controls, made the unit too tricky for me to figure out in a live environment. That's just me though. I know a lot of people love the ToneDexter. I also haven't tried the ToneDexter with a mic system like the Anthem, but I've heard from other players that they don't play well together.
I have tried other IRs through my HX Stomp, and some of them sounded pretty decent at lower volumes. Using a 3rd party IR on my guitar has never quite felt right to me as a player though.
To me, the Voiceprint DI has a good balance of the right features. It's easy to make a Voiceprint that improves the sound of the pickup (and still feels like I'm playing my own guitar), the in-app tone controls are extremely powerful, and it works well with a wide range of pickups. Honestly, the Voiceprint's EQ section on its own is one of the best things I've ever used for live-gigging.
Obviously, I am more than a little biased. -
I’ve got both ToneDexter and Voiceprint DI. I use them with guitars having Anthem, K&K, and Fishman Matrix Infinity pickups. It takes a bit to get the blend between mic and piezoelectric for a clear and natural sound, but once you do, both ToneDexter and VPDI are superb preamps. I will say that the parametric EQ of VPDI is far superior to the bass/treble pots on ToneDexter. If Baggs ever releases the promised multi-band compressor feature, it’s game over IMHO.
What I’ve found is that both TD and VPDI work best using a Neumann KM184 to generate the response model. It’s a bit tricky to get a KM184 into an iPhone, but it’s worth the effort. I do use the iPhone internal mic with an RTA app to examine the response curve of my guitar through the monitors and FOH. Problem frequencies are obvious and the VPDI parametric makes short work of them.Comment
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Thank you Caleb. I hadn’t heard about any problems using the anthem with the ToneDexter. I did some digging and their website says the Anthem SL does not work well but the Anthem does work well.
I see that there is now a second 5 band parametric in the VP section of the app that is in addition to the 5 band parametric in the EQ section. I think this is a great improvement for eq’ing the VP independent/ahead of the main output EQ. I hear there is talk of a future update to add a compressor……this would be a great addition. I really like the compressor and saturation functions on the session DI. It would be great to see these both added.
With the ability to use an external mic, plus the firmware updates, plus the easy access to speak with LR Baggs I think I will be purchasing a VPDI over a ToneDexter.
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I spoke with the folks at ToneDexter today. They were very open about “what’s under the hood” and what makes their product work so well. As a 40+ year audio professional working live sound events and designing/installing sound systems I have quite a bit of experience using and creating IR’s. I was satisfied that they know what they are doing and understand the complexity of properly creating an IR. This is not to say that LR Baggs does not, but to date I haven’t heard anyone speak as in depth about their process as the folks at ToneDexter has. So, I have decided to try the ToneDexter.
I do appreciate the feedback to this post. I will provide an update once I’ve had time to run the ToneDexter through some real world testing.Comment
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