Hello,

I'm looking for a comparison chart between these 2 generations but couldn't find one.

Does anyone know all the upgrades the 9000 will bring? Any new algorithms not present in the 8000, and H9?

Me too. I’d like to know the same.

It's still a work in progress. There's some algorithms in the H8000 that have not (as of yet) been ported to the new H9000.

From the screen, it's hard to tell what's a new H9000 algorithm. Some names are obvious from the H8000 and if I had an H9, I might be able to identify those as well, but I don't know if there are any completely new algorithms in there. I believe a large part of the sw engineering effort went into porting the existing ones and getting them running on the new hardware platform.

The ability to chain 4 effects in various configurations and have 4 sets of them available at the same time gives you a lot of flexibility. Even just hooking up the analog I/O (8 in, 8 out) to a patchbay and using a few cables means in theory you could has something running through 16 algorithms on the H9000.

Yes, they've ported over the vast majority of the fx from the H8000 and ALL of the fx from their stomp boxes. And the unit sounds great! Here's their list of algos not yet in the H9000: H9000 Support | Eventide. I think some of these might still make it over to the H9000, but I'm sure the company is even more eager to be designing NEW algorithms just for the H9000--which should be really amazing. Old gear guy is right by implying that the unique ability of this unit to combine so many fx gives you new fx sounds just from doing that. If the H8000 took a lifetime to fully explore, as has been said, the H9000 will take an eternity to fully explore! But amazing results are almost immediate.

Any update on the h9000 huge buzz when first announced.

What info do you need? There a few owners here now, but availability of the unit is still tight.

when i talked to eventide @ AES last year i left a little disappointed about the H9000... it seemed to be just MORE H8000, instead of something truly new... and i mean from an algorithm point of view, obviously the UI and i/o and everything is greatly updated... maybe "disappointed" is too strong.. more like "ok, i don't need to sell my 8000 right *now*"

not that that's a BAD thing, of course.. i love my H8000, and lust after the sheer power of the 9000... however, i was disappointed to find out there are no really new algorithms... they didn't seem to take advantage of the massive processing power by adding things like granular samplers, or other real time audio mangling. now, maybe they will create these as time goes on, i certainly expect a long lifespan of the H9000... but, as someone above said, the power here lies mostly in the combination of existing H8000 algorithms which, yes, is great in itself, but seems like a missed opportunity for taking it to another level.

seems the processing platform is there, so maybe it will develop over time.

Given that Eventide Audio is still a small company, it's probably the case that all resources were put on getting the existing stuff porting over and running properly. Without that, they'd be selling an empty shell. This way, at least you have the majority of the H8000 algos plus the H9 and other boxes stuff all in one place.

Now that the bulk of that work is done, I can certainly see their attention turning to fully exploiting the new platform/additional power with some new algorithms.

The good news is that like you said - you have a choice. There's no need to sell a working H8000 just yet unless you want to start exploring the new platform. In either case, you'll be able to tap into the wealth of algorithms/presets that have been created to this point.

This should take care of anyone's concerns about the H9000 "just" having thousands of H8000 and H9 sounds currently: From the Eventide website--"New FUTURE algorithms is the main reason we created the H9000. The decision to migrate from fixed point DSP to ARM was, in large part, driven by our conclusion that creating new ways to effect sound will be more efficient using the tools available for general purpose processors. The ARM platform also makes porting our plug-ins to the H9000 more efficient."

great news... and, to clarify, my concern about "just" H8000 algos stems from the fact that i already own an H8000... so don't see the immediate need to upgrade...

I would love to see a comprehensive video of the unit out in the wild. A user review would be great

Sure, I can see that. Although, if you mainly use the analog I/O, assuming you sold your H8000 for $3000, you'd be paying around $6800 for a pair of H8000's since out of the box it supports 8 analog I/O connections (plus a bunch of digital as always). So it's kind of like buying a second H8000 for $3800 with the side benefit of it being supported and hopefully expanded on for years to come. I essentially cross-graded by selling both of my H8000's to fund the H9000.

The question is whether or not you really need a pair of H8000's.

re: user demos/reviews. It's on my list to do. Just trying to carve out time in August is proving to be challenging. we'll see...

Algorithms a side, how does the actual converter sound different ?
H8000 Had a special "metallic" character but in a very positive way, I can easily see why they would want the H9000 to sound more "boring" and totally "flat" instead the result is maybe it sounds more like a vst plugin instead...

This is what makes me most skeptical about the device, I not heard any studio recordings with it yet.
I am very skeptical the h8000 algorithms will sound the same in the h9000 , many reason because of this is that there is totally new people responsible for the h9000 and eventide have only put out mid range product the last decade.

If some one have both it would be amazing if they could compare.
maybe H8000 now will go down in price. For me h8000 Was the best sounding effect for guitar ever to bad it is was such a big pain to program and use.
My expectations of H9000 is not that it will sound better then h8000, the main focus has been software integration and make it more easy to program, I am afraid the pure sound have become secondary, so while it superior when it comes to software integration, if anything I expect that h9000 will sound probably worse then the h8000 I hope some one can prove me wrong.

The options for me is to buy back the h8000 for hopefully cheaper price or the h9000, I really need the eventide sound anyway.

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.

My suggestion is keep your Eventide 8000 and Get Italo to design you new Soundworks and patches to registers, as honestly I think the 9000 is going to be like the Fairlight series III. The product that actually sinks Eventide! Small company? Hmmm! Doubt I’d say that! ARM processing seems lazy and unless you’re using it as a DAW converter then, the 9000 hasn’t, actually made not a dent in the market. You take a guys money telling him the 9000 is out?

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.

Bloody charming you are?
I’ll remember to never buy anything from you!
Hoping karma smacks you silly!

If I was him, I would have just requested a refund from paypal and returned it to you.

Unless of course coming up with the additional $4k was a non-starter and the general availability issues were a concern.

Not that I condone the manner in which the deal was presented, but without knowing all the details I an not rushing to judge.

I love eventide, their a great local company. I hope they succeed.

Bump... it’s been a few months. Any more user feedback on the H9000?

H9000 owners are probably too busy enjoying it to write a review.

I'm seeing mixed opinions on this unit which is a bit worrying. If the 8000 was released so long time ago, why nobody goes WOW, sells their 8000 to buy a 9000?

Actually on Reverb there's been a bunch of H8000s up for sale and sold in the past few weeks. Really cheap, too, like in the $2500 range. Including one guy who actually swears in his ad, "I'm not selling this to upgrade to an H9000"

Yes the resale on the 8000's has plummeted lately, with tons of them on Reverb.com. You get so much more with the H9000, so it was inevitable.

There's actually a used H9000 on Reverb for just under $5k but it has dings on the faceplate and a rack ear is bent. What the hell, did the guy drop it down a flight of stairs?! At that point, I'd rather buy a new one just for the peace of mind.

or, people like me sold both of my H8000's and picked up a 9000.

The price differential between a used H8000FW and a new H9000 is not trivial. If you have neither, the 8000 is fast becoming an outdated, unsupported item. Quick comparison of editing is that if I had to edit the H8000 from the front panel only, I'd have sold it a long time ago. The EVEnet remote made editing on those boxes quick and intuitive. The 9000 gives you easy front panel editing and even though Emote runs on my Windows tablet and the Mac, I still find myself reaching for the panel controls for quick to medium sized editing.

Sound? Neither is an H3000. If you want that particular flavor, buy a 3000. Does the H9000 still create awe and wonder? Definitely. Especially now that you can string multiple crazy algorithms together and soon (well fall/winter) be able to route the outputs of one FX chain into yet another chain (or more) all in the box.

The 9000 is an actively developed platform that is still growing and changing. If you can afford to get in early (most of the actual usability bugs have been squashed by now), it's worth exploring. Rather than spend more money on synths and drum machines and mid-tier effects, possibly investing in an H9000 will yield greater sonic rewards.

Does the h8000 have a purpose specific menu? For instance could I just select vocals and get all the vocal tailored presets lined up?

There's categories by number. Pull down the Preset guide from the Eventide site and have a look. There may be a way to tag/search as well, but I never used it.

I got one of these at what seemed like a fire sale price. I figure the 8000 is the most advanced of the previous architecture, and there will always be differences between architectures. No chance I’m going to have the funds for a 9000, but I wouldn’t mind a 3000 some day as well.

i think most preset libraries are bs: how should a manufacturer know what kind of efx you intend using on a specific source?! you'd miss the beauty of tons of algorithms if you'd go by a list and presets...

learn to tweak: much more fun!

That would be me. I'm running 2 H8000FWs in the studio, and I've got 1 in the live rack. Being able to share everything amongst the 3 units is critical, and my dreams of selling (4) 8000s + Eve/Net for (2) 9000s dissolved after:

1. Vsig wasn't/isn't a priority (got this from the horse's mouth at AES) -this may be changing though, we'll see.
2. No way to transfer all my custom presets to the 9000
3. Gutted Analog stage (only a -10/+4 option?! -H8000FW= -90/+30!)
4. No internal "anything-to-anything" routing
5. No Custom Scales
6. No "Ultra-Shifter"
7. USB 2 as the only stock way to stream all that data to/from the computer.
8. Many hardware revisions in a short time since it's release
9. No new algorithms/presets -just a repackaging of other talented designer's work (of course, this is planned to change, but I'll wait).
10. 192k on this new beast of a machine is yet still unavailable (it also cannot be exceeded with the current hardware).

So, I do hope this will be the success everyone would like it to be (myself included). I just think that if it's to become the true successor of the H8000FW, with a vertical as well as horizontal leap forward, the general approach from within the company needs a blast of inspiration, the likes of what made the 3000/8000 legends.

An "anniversary" project would be great, where they invite Bogdanowicz/Belcher/Derr/DeAngelis/Gilfix etc. back for some serious FX warfare, to be released in a "Legends of Eventide" preset pack.

So, if this would truly be a *total* step forward from the H8000FW -for the price, I would go for it.
Right now, it isn't there yet, though admittedly, it is leagues ahead of anything out there. I'd like to see it reach it's FULL potential, before throwing my setup up in the air and re-configuring with H9000s as my centerpieces. I could have a brand new, full-featured one for 4750, but am still opting out at this point. I'm of the cautious constitution, and am on a similar page as "TheLastByte" in this thread right now.

What am I selling the H8000FW on Reverb for?
It doesn't have a remote jack, whereas my other 3 do, and I've got my eyes set on a pair of EQM-1S3s.

Every bit helps; Simple as that.

-Adam.