Tonelify translates a recorded guitar tone into knob settings for the amp and guitar you already own. It reads the documented signal chain behind a track and works out where to set the controls on different equipment to land in the same place. Below is what it does, what it needs from you, and what it costs.
Tonelify is a web app that turns a recorded guitar tone into knob settings for the amp and guitar you already own. You name a song and your gear, and it returns gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values, a pickup position, and the order of the effects.
It is not a plugin, an amp modeller or an impulse response pack. Nothing is installed, and no audio passes through it.
Tone matching works backwards from the signal chain behind a recording. The documented rig for a track tells you where that sound came from: how much gain, which part of the midrange was pushed or cut, which pickup was selected, and what sat in front of the amp.
Those four things carry the character. Once you know them, you can rebuild the same voicing on different equipment by moving the controls to different positions. A boutique high-gain head and a practice combo reach the same place from very different knob settings, and working out that translation is the whole job.
No. Tonelify never records, uploads or analyses audio. It works from the documented equipment behind a recording and from the gear you tell it you own, so it runs entirely on text.
That means there is nothing to install, no latency, and no audio interface required.
A plugin captures a sound and reproduces it inside your computer, which means your tone only exists while the computer is running. Tonelify gives you positions for the physical controls in front of you, so the result stays on the amp after you close the browser.
It is also the only approach that works if you play through a real amp in a room rather than into a DAW.
Any amp and guitar you can name. There is no fixed device list to pick from — you type what you own, including the model, the channel and the pickup configuration, and the settings come back adapted to it.
That covers tube heads, solid-state combos, modelling amps and practice amps, along with electric guitar and bass.
Your guitar model, your amp model, and the tone you are chasing — either a song, an artist, or a plain description of the sound. Pedals and multi-effects units are optional, and adding them changes where the gain and EQ land.
The more specific the gear entry, the tighter the result. "Squier Affinity Strat, SSS pickups" gives a better answer than "Strat".
No, and no honest tool would claim otherwise. A record is a mix: layered takes, studio compression, mic placement, room, and mastering all sit between the amp and the file you hear. What you can reach is the same voicing and the same feel under the hands.
Tonelify aims at the amp-in-the-room version of the tone. The remaining distance is closed by pick attack, string gauge and playing technique, not by knob positions.
From documented sources: rig rundowns, interviews with the players and engineers, and gear databases. Tone pages describe the original equipment as reported rather than confirmed, because for older recordings the accounts sometimes disagree.
The adapted settings are then derived from that chain and from the gear you entered.
Yes. Bass rigs are handled the same way as guitar rigs: you name the bass and the amp, and the settings come back for the controls that amp actually has.
There is a free plan with three tone matches a month and three saved tones, and it does not ask for a card. Every match on the free plan returns the full settings, not a preview.
Unlimited matching starts at $4.99 for a week pass, or $12.99 a month on the Player plan.
Free: three matches a month, no card. Week Pass: $4.99 a week, unlimited matches, renews weekly, no trial. Player: $12.99 a month or $59.99 a year, unlimited matches, gear presets, effects chain and tone tips, with a 3-day free trial.
Yes. Subscriptions are managed through Stripe and can be cancelled from your account settings, and cancelling stops the next renewal rather than ending access immediately — you keep the plan until the period you already paid for runs out.
The free plan runs three matches a month without a card, which is enough to see whether the settings land on your own rig before any money changes hands.
