Guitar tone matcher
Dial in legendary guitar tones on your own gear
Your Gear
Select your current equipment configuration
Can't find your model? Type generic type (e.g. “S-Type”)
Song & Part
Identify the track and tone you want to capture
Try it with 7 free days
Make an account, then start a first plan: $0 today and 5 matches on your own gear during the free days. Cancel in Settings before they end and you pay nothing. Fill the form in first if you like, it stays here.
One-Click Adaptation
AI-generated settings for your specific gear
Original Tone
Awaiting Input
Select a song and run research to analyze the original track's signal chain
Your Adaptation
Ready to Generate
AI will calculate the optimal settings for your guitar and amp
Check your tone with your phone
Play for 8 seconds near your amp and your browser tells you what stands out in the sound. Free, no account needed. The audio never leaves your device.
Hold the phone about 30 cm from the speaker, pointing at it. Play chords or a riff at the volume you normally play.
This reads the balance of the sound in your room, not the record's settings, and it gives a direction rather than a knob position.
How the AI guitar tone matcher works
Tonelify is an AI guitar tone matcher. You name a song and the amp, guitar and pickups you own, and it returns where to set the gain, the EQ and the master, which pickup to use and the order of the effects, written for that rig.
Tone matching is the job of working out where to set the controls on your own equipment so it lands on the same sound as a recording. Four things carry a tone across rigs: the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the order of the effects. A high-gain head and a small practice combo reach the same voicing from very different knob positions, and calculating that translation is what Tonelify does.
The match runs on text: it works from the documented rig behind a recording and from the gear you name, so there is nothing to install and no audio interface required. Below the result there is an optional tone check that listens to a few seconds of your amp through your phone's microphone and says what stands out in the balance. It runs in your browser, and the audio is never uploaded. The settings reach the amp-in-the-room version of a tone rather than the mixed and mastered record, because layered takes, studio compression, mic placement and mastering all sit between the amp and the released file.
- 01
Enter your gear
Name the guitar, the amp and the pickup configuration you actually own. Tonelify needs the rig it is translating to, not the one on the record.
- 02
Name the reference tone
Give a song and artist, or describe the sound in plain language. Tonelify reads the documented signal chain behind that recording.
- 03
Get the dial positions
Tonelify returns gain, bass, mids, treble, master and presence values, a pickup position and the order of the effects, set for your equipment.
What the matcher works from
249 songs with sources
Every song in the tone library has its rig taken from interviews, rig rundowns and gear write-ups, with the sources linked. Match one of them and the matcher starts from that documented rig and lists the same sources under the result. Songs outside the library can be matched too, without the linked sources.
154 amps, units and instruments
The gear catalogue covers 46 amps, 36 multi-effects units and modellers, 31 pedals and 41 guitars and basses. For an amp or unit in it, the answer is written for the controls on that model's own front panel, taken from the maker's manual. Gear outside the catalogue can be typed in by name.
To see what an answer looks like before you sign up, open a library page such as Master of Puppets on a Boss Katana.
A matcher, not a modeller
A tone matcher is one of four kinds of AI guitar tone tool. Modeller AI builds the sound inside its own amp models, capture libraries give a modeller real amps to load, and general chatbots answer without knowing your amp's panel. A matcher gives you positions for the physical controls in front of you, so it is the kind that works when you play a real amp in a room. Tonelify does not make preset files: you set the knobs by hand.
AI guitar tone apps compared, Tonelify included
Other tools called tone match
Two other things go by the name. The Tone Match block on Fractal Audio's Axe-Fx III compares a preset with a reference signal, such as a recording or a mic on a live amp, and changes the preset's sound to match it. The result is saved in the unit, as a preset or a user cab. EQ-matching plugins, such as Match EQ in Logic Pro, learn the frequency spectrum of a reference track and of your own track, then build the filter curve that closes the gap inside the recording software.
Both work on audio that runs through the device or the computer doing the matching, and both answer with an EQ curve rather than knob positions. Tonelify works the other way round: it takes the song and the gear you own and says where to set the controls on that gear, so it suits any amp or multi-effects unit you set by hand.
Tone matcher questions
What is a guitar tone matcher?
A guitar tone matcher works out how to get the tone on a recording out of gear you own. Tonelify takes a song and the amp, guitar and pickups you name, and returns the knob positions to set on them: gain, EQ, presence and master, the pickup to use and the order of the effects. Some tools use the name for audio matching instead, such as the Tone Match block on Fractal Audio's Axe-Fx III, which reshapes a preset's sound against a reference recording.
Is there an AI that sets my amp to sound like a famous guitarist?
Yes. An AI guitar tone matcher such as Tonelify takes a song or a player and the amp, guitar and pickups you own, and returns the knob positions to set: gain, bass, mids, treble, presence and master, the pickup to use and the order of the effects. It works from the documented rig behind the recording, not from audio.
Is the Tonelify tone matcher free?
For 7 days. Matching needs a plan, and a first plan starts with 7 days free with nothing charged that day: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, and Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matches. The starting points in the tone library are free to read with no account.
Does the tone matcher work with modelling amps and multi-effects units?
Yes. Name a modelling amp or a multi-effects unit, such as a Boss Katana or a Fender Mustang LT25, and the settings come back for that unit's amp models and controls rather than for a generic amp. For units in Tonelify's gear catalogue, the controls come from the maker's manual.
Can the tone matcher match a bass tone?
Yes. Switch the matcher to bass, name the bass and the bass amp you own, and the settings come back for the controls that amp has.
Will the settings sound exactly like the record?
No. A record is a mix: layered takes, studio compression, mic placement and mastering all sit between the amp and the released file. The matcher aims at the amp-in-the-room version of the tone, and its numbers are a starting point to adjust by ear, not the settings used on the record.
Browsing for ideas first? Explore the documented tone library