TONE3000 Plugin Update #1: Pitch Shift, Native Search and a MUCH Better Workflow
That was fast. 😄
Just about one month ago, TONE3000 released its official NAM A2 plug-in.
Completely free.
Open source.
With direct access to the enormous TONE3000 library.
And apparently people were interested.
A LOT.
According to TONE3000, the plug-in has already been downloaded more than 200,000 times in its first month.
And now we already have the first major update.
This is not just:
“Fixed some bugs.”
“Improved stability.”
“Changed icon by 2 pixels.”
😄
There are actually several features here that can significantly change how I would use the plug-in.
Especially:
Pitch Shift.
Native Search.
Dual Mono.
A much better Noise Gate.
And perhaps less exciting on paper, but VERY important in real life:
A completely rebuilt native interface with dramatically lower CPU overhead.
So...
Let's take a look.
First of all...
If you cannot find Pitch Shift, go to SETTINGS!
I am putting this almost at the beginning because otherwise I can already imagine people installing the update and thinking:
“Where is the Pitch Shift?!”
😄
It is hidden by default.
Go to:
Settings → Plugin Settings → Show Pitch Shift
Turn it on.
And then the Pitch Shift control appears on the main interface.
THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Because Pitch Shift is probably one of the most interesting new features in the entire update...
...and you might completely miss it.
Pitch Shift / Transpose is here
This is probably my favorite addition.
The new Pitch Shift lets you transpose the incoming instrument by up to 24 semitones in either direction.
So...
Standard tuning guitar?
Need to play something one semitone lower?
Two semitones lower?
Drop the pitch.
No retuning.
No second guitar.
No additional plug-in.
And because the pitch shifting happens before the NAM processing chain, the virtual amp receives the already pitch-shifted guitar signal.
That is exactly where I would normally want this kind of effect.
For example:
Guitar → Pitch Shift → Drive capture → Amp capture → IR.
Nice.
And it can also behave like a Whammy pedal
There is a STEP mode.
When STEP is enabled, the Pitch knob snaps to semitones.
Perfect for normal transpose duties.
Disable STEP...
...and the pitch can move continuously.
Now connect a MIDI expression pedal and suddenly you have a Whammy-style effect inside TONE3000.
And THAT opens another door.
Pitch dives.
Octave sweeps.
Artificial harmonies.
Weird sound design.
Tom Morello territory.
Or complete nonsense.
Which is sometimes even better. 😄
TONE3000 supports MIDI mapping of the Pitch control, so an expression pedal can control the sweep directly.
Native Search might actually be even more important
Pitch Shift is sexy.
Search is boring.
Right?
Well...
Not really. 😄
Because I think workflow is still one of the biggest problems of the whole NAM ecosystem.
I wrote about this when the original TONE3000 plug-in launched.
NAM has never really had a sound-quality problem.
The technology can sound absolutely incredible.
The problem was:
Find capture.
Download capture.
Unzip capture.
Organize capture.
Load capture.
Try capture.
Don't like it.
Repeat.
And repeat.
And repeat.
The original TONE3000 plug-in already made this much easier by integrating the library.
But the first version still used an embedded web interface.
Now the search system is native.
Click + on a signal-chain slot...
...and browse the entire TONE3000 library directly inside the plug-in.
You can filter captures by things such as:
Verified creators.
Your favorites.
Recently used tones.
Gear type.
Format.
Tags.
Manufacturer.
Creator.
And more.
THIS is important.
Because the biggest guitar-tone library in the world is useless if finding one good sound takes 45 minutes.
I don't want 700,000 sounds.
I want...
ONE good sound.
😄
And the faster I can get from:
“I need a Marshall-style crunch”
to:
“THIS ONE!”
...the better the technology becomes in real life.
This is exactly why I keep saying that the next big competition between guitar processors and capture platforms might not be about another 0.2% improvement in modeling accuracy.
It might be about:
Discovery.
Curation.
Organization.
Workflow.
The embedded web browser is gone
And this is another BIG improvement.
The original interface was essentially running an embedded browser.
That made development fast...
...but it also created problems.
TONE3000 reports users experiencing things such as blank interfaces on Windows 10, freezes on some Linux systems and heavy CPU usage on older computers.
The interface has now been rebuilt using native code.
No embedded webview.
And according to TONE3000, one Linux tester measured around a 75% reduction in total CPU usage with the same signal chain after switching to the new version.
I would be slightly careful with translating that number into:
“TONE3000 now universally uses 75% less CPU.”
Different computers, operating systems and sessions will obviously behave differently.
But removing the web browser from the plug-in interface is definitely good news.
Especially for older laptops.
And especially for live rigs.
Because...
I don't want my guitar amp simulator wasting CPU rendering a website.
😄
Give that CPU to the audio processing.
Dual Mono
This one sounds slightly technical...
...but it could be extremely useful.
Imagine you have a stereo source.
But you want to process both sides through the same mono processing chain.
Normally you might have to sum the stereo signal to mono.
And now your stereo information is gone.
Dual Mono lets the same processing chain operate independently on the left and right channels.
So:
LEFT → same processing → LEFT
RIGHT → same processing → RIGHT
The channels remain separated.
Why would I care?
Stereo guitar processors.
Stereo pedalboards.
Synths.
Stereo reamped material.
Captured studio hardware.
Or basically any stereo source where you want identical processing on both channels without collapsing everything to mono.
Remember:
NAM is not only about guitar amps.
You can capture:
Preamps.
Pedals.
Saturation units.
Outboard processors.
Complete analog chains.
So the more flexible TONE3000 becomes with stereo and dual-mono processing...
...the more interesting it becomes outside the classic:
Guitar → Amp → Cabinet
workflow too.
And I like that direction.
Finally... a more serious Noise Gate
High-gain players will probably appreciate this one immediately.
The original simple threshold control has been expanded.
You can now access:
Release
Hold
and
Range
controls.
Threshold decides when the gate reacts.
Release determines how quickly it closes.
Hold controls how long it stays open after the signal falls below the threshold.
Range determines how much attenuation happens when it closes.
This matters.
Especially for tight modern high-gain guitar sounds.
Because there is a huge difference between:
“Remove some background noise.”
and:
“Make this palm-muted riff stop EXACTLY when I want it to stop.”
A gate is part noise-control device...
...and part envelope shaper.
With high-gain rhythm guitars, the second part is sometimes even more important.
Too slow?
The riff feels loose.
Too aggressive?
Sustain disappears and note endings sound unnatural.
So having these parameters available makes much more sense than just one threshold knob.
Local NAM and IR files are easier too
Another useful workflow improvement:
You can now load local NAM captures and IRs directly from files or complete folders.
Right-click a slot and choose:
Load File
or
Load Folder.
Drag-and-drop still works too.
And importantly...
You don't need a TONE3000 account for your own local files.
This is important to me.
Cloud libraries are convenient.
But I still want my own curated local collection.
Especially if I already KNOW which captures and IRs I like.
The best workflow, in my opinion, is not:
Cloud OR local.
It is:
Cloud AND local.
Search the huge library when you want discovery.
Use a small curated local library when you already know what works.
Presets now integrate better with your DAW
Another change I really like:
TONE3000 presets can now appear as programs in the DAW.
That means you can switch rigs from the host and use MIDI Program Change messages for preset switching.
For live setups running through a laptop...
This could be REALLY useful.
Imagine:
Song starts.
DAW sends Program Change.
Correct TONE3000 preset loads.
Verse.
Chorus.
Solo.
Next song.
Different rig.
No mouse.
No browsing.
No guitarist staring at a laptop instead of the audience.
😄
And MIDI mapping goes further than preset changes.
You can control things such as the gate, pitch shift, input/output levels, stereo parameters and individual block bypass states using MIDI.
TONE3000 is slowly starting to look less like:
“A NAM loader plug-in.”
And more like:
“A complete NAM processing platform.”
That is a pretty big difference.
Several smaller improvements
There are quite a few smaller changes hiding behind the headline features too.
Settings such as calibration, oversampling and multi-core processing can now be remembered by the computer.
The tuner has improved tracking, including support for five-string bass down to low B and better behavior at high sample rates.
IR handling has been improved so the plug-in can distinguish cabinet responses from reverb and other IR types more reliably.
There is now ARM64 Linux support.
LV2 support has improved for Ardour and Mixbus.
And the developers fixed multiple stability and compatibility problems, including reported Cubase crashes on Windows and other platform-specific issues.
Again...
Not very sexy.
But this is exactly what I want to see ONE MONTH after releasing a completely new plug-in.
Release.
Listen.
Fix.
Improve.
Repeat.
And this is where open source gets interesting
TONE3000 says more than one hundred bug reports and feature requests arrived after the initial release, while community developers also directly contributed code to the project.
And the Pitch Shift feature itself has an interesting story.
The original implementation was contributed by community developer Vivek Radhakrishna before being further developed inside TONE3000.
THIS is one of the interesting things about open-source audio software.
A user doesn't necessarily have to wait for:
Product manager → roadmap → budget approval → development schedule → next year's paid upgrade.
Someone can actually build the thing.
And contribute it.
Of course, open source doesn't automatically mean good software.
It still needs:
Good architecture.
Testing.
Maintenance.
Design.
Documentation.
And people willing to do all of that work.
But watching the TONE3000 plug-in evolve this quickly is definitely interesting.
TONE3000 is becoming much bigger than a website
This is another thing worth watching.
Because while everyone is looking at the plug-in...
TONE3000 itself is expanding everywhere.
Moises recently integrated the TONE3000 library directly into Moises Studio, its browser-based DAW.
Users can browse and play TONE3000 NAM captures and IRs directly inside a Moises project without installing the TONE3000 plug-in or manually moving capture files.
Even more interesting:
Moises Studio can create NAM models from recorded DI + processed signals and can also generate private models from reference material.
Then there is the Octave HS-1.
This is basically a portable Windows-based audio workstation / multi-FX / VST host with a touchscreen, audio interface and battery.
And the TONE3000 plug-in comes preinstalled, including NAM A2 support and MIDI control.
So we are slowly getting:
TONE3000 on computers.
TONE3000 inside processors.
TONE3000 inside online DAWs.
TONE3000 connected to hardware ecosystems.
This might be the bigger story.
Not another plug-in.
An ecosystem.
And TONE3000 is finally addressing capture quality too
There is one problem I have mentioned before with huge libraries.
More is not automatically better.
Actually...
Sometimes more is WORSE.
😄
If a library has hundreds of thousands of captures but:
Half are poorly named.
Some are badly captured.
Some have no useful information.
Some have inconsistent levels.
Some don't clearly say what equipment was used...
...finding the useful stuff becomes increasingly difficult.
TONE3000 recently updated its Tone Sharing Guidelines specifically to address this.
Among the changes:
Public captures of software and plug-ins are no longer allowed.
One tone pack should represent one piece of gear or one specific signal chain.
And photo/documentation requirements are becoming stricter.
TONE3000 also says it is developing automated compliance checks and a three-strike enforcement system.
GOOD.
Because I think curation may eventually become more important than library size.
Give me:
20 excellent captures.
Clearly named.
Properly documented.
Properly gain-staged.
Actually tested.
Instead of:
2,000 random files called FINAL_AMP_47_NEW_TEST_3.nam.
😄
So... what do I think about Update #1?
The original TONE3000 plug-in was already impressive.
Especially considering the price:
€0.
But I also felt it was clearly version 1.0.
Or technically...
Even earlier than that. 😄
The basic concept was excellent.
But there was still a lot of room for improvement around workflow, performance and guitar-player-friendly features.
And this first update attacks exactly those areas.
Native Search makes finding captures faster.
Native UI should make the whole plug-in lighter and more reliable.
Pitch Shift removes the need for another very common guitar effect.
Dual Mono makes stereo processing more flexible.
The improved Gate makes much more sense for serious high-gain playing.
DAW preset switching and MIDI control make live applications more realistic.
And local file browsing makes TONE3000 more useful even if you don't want to live entirely inside the cloud library.
That is a pretty serious first update.
But I still want MORE 😄
Of course I do.
I would still love to see TONE3000 eventually become more complete for standalone guitar playing.
Give me:
Delay.
Reverb.
Chorus.
Phaser.
Maybe compressor.
Maybe a simple drive section that doesn't require a NAM capture.
Maybe a few utility blocks.
Because inside Cubase?
No problem.
I already have hundreds of plug-ins.
But if I want TONE3000 to become my complete standalone practice or live rig...
Pitch Shift is an excellent start.
But we are not quite there yet.
And maybe that isn't even the goal.
We'll see.
The NAM battle is becoming a workflow battle
This is probably still my biggest takeaway.
A few years ago, the main question was:
“How accurate is the model?”
Today?
NAM A2.
TONEX.
Neural Capture.
Kemper.
Modern modelers.
They can all sound ridiculously good when the source capture is good.
So the questions are changing.
How quickly can I find the right sound?
Can I organize it?
Can I use it live?
Can I switch it with MIDI?
Can I combine multiple captures?
Can I load my own IR?
Can I transpose my guitar?
Can I run it on an old laptop?
Can I share the same tones between hardware and software?
Can I simply PLAY instead of managing files?
THAT is becoming the interesting competition.
And Update #1 makes TONE3000 significantly better at exactly that.
I am also working on the same basic philosophy with my own Amps To Play NAM A2 captures and Cabs To Play IR packs:
I don't want to give guitarists thousands of random options.
I want fewer options that are easier to understand, easier to compare and actually useful in real playing.
Because the product shouldn't make tone hunting harder.
It should make it faster.
How to update TONE3000
The plug-in currently does not update itself automatically.
Download the newest installer.
Run it over your existing installation.
Open TONE3000 again.
Your existing presets should remain preserved.
And remember:
WANT TO TRY PITCH SHIFT?
Settings → Plugin Settings → Show Pitch Shift
😄
Don't spend 20 minutes looking for it.
Have you already tried the new TONE3000 update?
How does the Pitch Shift work for you?
Would you use TONE3000 as your main guitar plug-in now?
Or are you still using NAM RIG, Neural Amp Modeler, TONEX or something else?
I am curious.
May the muse be with you!
Don't you use NAM captures yet in your productions?
I help guitarists get their dream tones by my TONE HUNT WORKSHOP as a service.
Kempers, QCs, Helix, Axe etc.
May the muse be with you!
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