Machines / TONE:96
TONE:96
Twelve effects you play with your hands, locked to the beat and the key.
TONE:96 is a stereo effects unit for DJs and live performers who play their effects with their hands. Pick an effect, shape it with two knobs, and play it on its own XY pad on the touchscreen. It goes on the master as an insert, or on a send and return.
It holds 12 effects. Tempo-synced delays, a tape echo and reverbs. Beat rolls and loops, after a DJ mixer's beat effects. A spiralling wash. Three resonators and textures after Mutable Instruments' Clouds, Rings and Elements.
It finds the beat by itself or follows your taps, and it hears the key, so the effects that play notes stay in tune with the track.
Turn an effect off and it rings out over its own tail length. Mark your favourite effects and FX Select steps through just those. Everything you set is kept when you power down.
See it played
A walkthrough of every control on the panel: each knob, button and pad, and what it does to the sound.
More on YouTube
Loading the 3D model
Play all 12 effects
An 8-bar loop runs through TONE:96's own effect engine, the same code that runs inside the box, here in your browser. Switch an effect on, drag the circle on its screen, turn Amount and Time, change the mode, or lock the pad where you leave it.
Headphones or good speakers recommended.
How it plays
Play it with your hands
Every effect has its own XY pad on the touchscreen, with a moving picture of what it does. Drag to shape it, let go and it glides home, or lock it where you leave it.
Locked to the beat and the key
It finds the beat by itself, learns from a few taps, or holds a tapped tempo. It hears the key too, and the effects that play notes stay in it.
12 effects, 46 modes
Tempo-synced delays, tape echo and reverbs, beat rolls and loops, a spiralling wash, and three resonators and textures after Mutable Instruments' Clouds, Rings and Elements, which take their sound from the track.
On the master or on a send
Patch it in as a master insert or put it on a send and return. Every effect rings out over its own tail length, limiters keep it clean when you push it, and your favourites keep FX Select to the effects you use.
The panel
Everything a set needs, within reach and in the order you use it: pick an effect, pick a mode, shape it, play it.
Specifications
| Processing | |
|---|---|
| DSP | Electrosmith Daisy Patch SM: STM32H750, ARM Cortex-M7 @ 480 MHz |
| Sample rate | 48 kHz |
| Buffer size | 48 samples (1 ms) |
| Bit depth | 24-bit (codec) |
| Memory | 64 MB SDRAM for loops, delays and reverbs |
| Audio | |
| Audio I/O | Stereo in / stereo out |
| Signal path | Master insert, or send and return |
| Dynamics | Limiter on the effect, soft limiter on the output |
| Bypass | Active button switches the effect on and off |
| Effects | |
| Effects | 12 (46 modes combined), one at a time |
| Tempo | Automatic beat detection, learned from taps, or tap tempo |
| Key | Key detection; pitched effects can follow the key |
| Tails | 0 to 15 s per effect, when switched off or away |
| Interface | |
| Display | AMOLED touchscreen (LilyGo T4-S3): effect pages, XY pads, settings |
| Buttons | 9: tap, FX on/off, effect prev/next, mode prev/next, settings, matrix, lock matrix return |
| Potentiometers | 3: FX amount, FX time, output level |
| Connectivity | |
| Power | 15 V DC from an external mains adapter |
| Updates | Firmware updates over USB |
A question about TONE:96, or an idea for it? Send an email.