New IK Multimedia Devices Are All About Z-Tone

IK Multimedia is giving electric guitar players new ways to purify and capture their beloved guitar tones. This NAMM season, the company is releasing a new buffer boost preamp pedal, DI box, mobile interface, and USB audio interface, all with killer controls and killer tone.
First on the docket are the Z-Tone Buffer Boost and the Z-Tone DI Box. Both leverage the triple-topology preamp from the company’s award-winning AXE I/O, and both add powerful ways to shape tone that will be a boon to any axe slinger. You’ll note, for instance, a Z-Tone variable impedance control, which has a drastic effect on your instrument’s tone, because you’re literally shaping how the pedal resists the electrical signal with which it comes into contact. You can use this control to preserve the natural tone of your instrument across long cable runs, or to mangle the timbre completely: the choice is yours.

IK Multimedia Z-Tone DI

You’ll also note the two channel settings—JFET for warm, tube-like sound, and PURE for clean—and the Active/Passive switch to accommodate different pickup types. Both boxes offer dedicated 1/4" effected outputs, as well as 1/4" link outputs for mirroring unaffected sound to amplifiers, and XLR connections for outputting balanced signals. That’s where the similarities between the two units end.