Summing stereo inserts to mono beforehand

[Rezzy777]

Hello, I am thinking about buying two Tonex Ones so I can have the broad sound of two amps mixed together to get a wider range in the frequency spectrum.

But as I mentioned in the title, I DON’T want stereo amps since this ends up with one amp on the left – only heard by people on the left of the room – and one amp on the right.

So can my H90 sum those two signals beforehand for me and then add its amazing stereo effects after it?

I hope my question is clear 😅 Many thanks in advance!

[joecozzi]

Hello,

I would start with an INIT program where you only have THRU algorithms. Connect each Tone X pedal to a separate insert. In the Routing menu, creating a parallel signal flow and place Insert 1 on one side and insert 2 on the other. Blend the signal of both to taste. Once you got your amp tone dialed in, you may introduce presets at the very end of the signal chain for mono or stereo audio.

You could even process each amp individually with its own effect if you wanted to.

[Rezzy777]

Sorry, a new idea occurred to me this morning:

when using the two Tonex Ones as mono inserts, are these also in series entering the h90?

I mean, if I set the Mix of Insert2 to 100%, is he then fully overriding Insert1 because Insert2 is later in the chain then Insert1?

Or am I missing something here? Because if so, this would be exactly what I need!

[joecozzi]

Rezzy777 wrote:

when using the two Tonex Ones as mono inserts, are these also in series entering the h90?

If you position the inserts at the very beginning of your chain in the same position, Insert 1 will always come before insert 2 in a series configuration.

Rezzy777 wrote:

I mean, if I set the Mix of Insert2 to 100%, is he then fully overriding Insert1 because Insert2 is later in the chain then Insert1? Or am I missing something here? Because if so, this would be exactly what I need!

When Insert 1 and Insert 2 are in the same position, the H90 automatically routes Insert 1 into Insert 2 as if they were to consecutive pedals in a serial chain.

[Rezzy777]

I just did a little test with my single Tonex One (still have to buy the other one) where I put an empty cable into Insert2, and yes, Insert2 overrides Insert1 when its Mix is set to 100 but then Insert1 also can only be heard on the left channel. I was hoping that H90 would merge them automatically while letting me keep the stereo effects.

@joecozzi: I actually still want both presets of the h90 to happen to the summed amp sound of the two Tonex ones.

[swatmark]

I do not believe the routing in the H90 will satisfactorily allow you to do what you’d like to do, so my recommendation is to merge the two Tonex Ones before the H90 with a parallel pedal (e.g. Sonicake Portal is cheap and effective, GFI Duophony is amazing but costs more, EHX TriParallel is also good and mixes three channels – one thing to note is that all allow for phase correction, level control and dry blend).

If you didn’t need this specific requirement, “So can my H90 sum those two signals beforehand for me and then add its amazing stereo effects after it?”, there are two H90-only options worth trying, though neither does exactly that:

Both of these require parallel routing:

1. Post‑A/Post‑B: place both inserts as mono into Post‑A and Post‑B positions, with two pre-Tonex effects on Presets A/B (e.g. Phaser into Tonex OD on one side, Polyphony into the other Tonex on the other). All the stereo imaging hitting the Tonex Ones gets summed to mono at the insert points, generating two mono chains, which are then summed to dual mono for output — this actually blends the two Tonex signals, closest to what you’re after. Still, there’s no room left for stereo FX afterwards. You’d be relying on the delay and reverbs in the Tonex One unless you have something post-H90.

2. Pre‑A/Pre‑B: place both Tonex inserts as mono into Pre‑A and Pre‑B positions instead. Each Tonex feeds its own separate Preset (e.g. Reverb on one, Delay on the other), so the two amps never actually blend into one signal — but each gets its own full stereo effect, and the two independently-processed stereo paths are blended at the final output. Not a true “sum then FX,” but a genuinely nice way to run two differently-flavoured amp/FX combos in parallel.

Ensure you’re using mono (TS) cabling for the insert loops 3 In/Out and 4 In/Out.

Manual refs
3.2. Two Mono Inserts: Example of connections
6.2.1. Insert Routing: specifically the note “The H90 will automatically adjust to process audio in mono or stereo depending on the physical input and output connections. Insert routing will sum or mult the signal accordingly.”

[Rezzy777]

Got it, thank you so much!

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