Quote:
Originally Posted by
oldgearguy
β‘οΈ
I wish I was able to keep at least one H8000 to compare when the 9000 arrived. I will say I was surprised a bit at the initial sound of some of the presets. Digging into them a bit, it appears that Eventide added a simple compressor on the front end of a lot of the effects chains. Once I stripped the chain back to just the core effect(s) I wanted to hear and tweaked them, it definitely sounded better to me. The other thing to keep in mind is that there are variations on some of the classic effects (Black Hole for example). There's the H8000 version still sitting at preset number 5012, but there's another one up in the 94xx range but it's the one from the H9 box with different editing options and a bit different sound.
Bottom line for me is that it sounds excellent, is very easy to use and being able to set up 4 effects chains on the screen and being able to use them simply by routing signals from the aux sends/patchbays is very nice. Also having lots of fun stringing effects together in different ways to produce more complex combined sounds.
Without having a direct A/B in front of me, I'm reluctant to say whether the 9000 is cleaner/purer/smoother than the 8000. If there's a change, it would be shades of the same color versus a completely different palette like you get jumping from an H3000 to the 8000.
Maybe I can get Sweetwater to send me a loaner 8000 for comparison purposes for a month...
Yeah, expect to see color changes in the sound for sure between the units.
I expect the H9000 to sound cleaner and more "colorless".
I am still sure it sound superior to plugins, I have heard so many years that you dont need an eventide hardware unit because of the plugins, I have always found that its simply not true...
Seem the Eventide H9000 have some problems in production right now, they keep a low profile of the unit does not make much advertising etc.
So if you buy it now expect to be some kind of beta tester.
I think the price is kind of insane, but you have to really have a long term goal when buying this, just like H8000FW its more of a life partner, personally I would not be able to make music on guitar without it.
Right now there is really not much information and feedback from the h9000 as far as I know, the original H9000 have almost no user feedback, I think reviewers have probably not got any review units either since the H9000 seem to be a work in progress right now, it seem they have not even ported all H8000 presets, or even created new H9000 algorithms.
They have gone over to ARM from DSP to Native processing as far as I understand it without being any kind of expert, but going from DSP to native of course this will affect the sound in some way or another on the deep level.
I really prey that this is the masterpiece we have been waiting for, as I said I see this more as a life partner so its very important that it really deliver in the sound quality compared to their legacy products, I dont want it to sound like their own plugins, so I hope the H9000 have some kind of unique color just like H8000FW that you simply cant get on VST.
I sold my H8000FW as soon as I heard about the H9000, I did not expect it for Eventide to actually take so long until release after it got leaked.
In retrospect I could probably have kept the H8000FW for atleast 2 more years. The buyer Was not aware of the H9000, I told him about it on phone after he had paid me, and he did almost fell out of the chair. If I would had kept it would probably had been harder to sell it, but it still a lot lower price then the H9000 though. It really depends on the user, if you just use a few presets constantly on your mixbus then I would say that H9000 is not needed, H9000 is for those who want to edit and program presets more easy, and of course it is yet to be seen how it compare in sound quality. I try to be optimistic about it, but there is a lot that kind go wrong in this metaphysical art of sound.
The price difference between the two models regular and R version is huge.
so price difference is 2000 dollars because lack of display ?
I am not sure which one I will buy, of course the regular version is one of the most sexy Racks ever in my opinion, just as h8000 this looks like something that belong on a NASA space station. I think the R version is little bit too stripped, would had been good to have atleast volume meter to see signal level for input and output.
Would also be intersting to know if you buy the R version if it would be possible to replace it later with the regular front with the displays and dial buttons etc.
I have seen complains about the actual usabillity of the touch display, also in studio its probably harder to reach it then thru the software interface when it comes to controlling the unit, so the most rational choice is to get the R version for sure, but you don't get that eye candy and that "Nasa grade" feeling of the unit, I think you will get stronger connection to it with regular version on emotional level. So in the long term its maybe smarter to just pay 2000 extra, probably will add on into the second hand value the day you sell it.
H9000 is a long term investment, I think it will take a very long time if ever until Eventide will release a new version. There is so much they will be able to change on the software in the platform over time, so there will probably not be a need for a new hardware platform for a long time. What we all is waiting for though is to hear the converter and color of etc, if converters match H8000FW then H9000 Hardware platform will last a long time, and there is a lot of possibilities with software upgrades for a long time to come with this platform.