2 H9’s or just 1 Maxed?

I only play at home for fun but since having two H9’s and an Amplifire 3 I’ve got rid of all my delay/reverb/modulation stompboxes. It all depends on if the Eventide “sound” is the one you want as other brands have their own take on the effects.

I’ve got both of my H9’s in the Amplifire effects loop in mono (only because I have one Laney FRFR otherwise it’d be stereo) and a Dunlop mini Wah and Boss tuner in front of the Amplifire with a Boss NS2 Noise Suppressor in a wiring that reduces noise in front and in the loop (and acts as a master bypass).

I used to have a Marshall half stack and never liked how the pre/post functionality worked so run the Eventide as normal effect pedals. The Amplifire allows you to move the effects loop per preset in front of the amp block if you want to use a fuzz tone or a phase tone into a cranked “amp” or between the amp & cab block when using delay/modulation/reverb so I think that is more versitile.

I’m not sure why yours have a “muddy” sound as mine seem fine. You might want to ask for some advice on the Atomic forum as you might need to tweak a setting in your presets

Thinking about it, I’ve noticed that when creating a Amplifire preset on the pedal (at the computer editor) sometimes actives the wah block and won’t let you deactive it without using the editor.

That could be a cause for your “muddy” sound. It’s worth a scan on the editor

Since you only ever have to buy only one MAX, getting a 2nd CORE – which will be a MAX too! – was the best way, in my mind, to drop the rest of my discrete effects. Also, I avoid the inevitable re-recording of all the guitar effects with rack mount Eventide effects (H3000, GTR4000, H8000FW) by having live H9’s setup during the tracking. With enough attention I rarely feel the need to re-record the effects unless it’s for fine tuning some aspect of effects mix/intensity.

Before Eventide came out with multieffects (Spacetime, Pitchfuzz, and Harmdillo to date), I found uses for up to 5 pedals – the max. Now, I use three in the studio, and two in my practice space. I could sell a couple without discomfort – but who can give up the potential of FIVE MAXS!!

Five liquid choruses sounds sublimely liquid. Or ten micro pitch delays… it’s leaves the speakers literally gooey. 🙂

I always WANTED to need two.. but I got by with an extra pedal for reverb. Thats usually the only 2nd algo I need. 

Other than dirt, of course. I have 5 gain stages.

That brings up some pretty good additional points.  Learn one; learn both.  The same global configurations.  Similar parameters layouts.  And the ability to create your own ‘mega-algorithms’:  Two dissimilar algorithms that sum up to create a feature set extending well beyond either single component algo.  Four harmonies with delay feedback.  Panning phasers.  Dual series delays.  Scale contrained trills.  The list goes on …

It’d be kind of boring to just rehash the basics, wouldn’t it?  I have many bog-standard presets that I use for cover bands & such.  They’re usually multi-purpose; easily adjustable with aux/HotSwitch, expression pedal and/or MIDI CC.  I fly in Preset Lists in to suit the situation.  Lots of emulations of classic FX.

My solo & at-home stuff is more ‘out there’.  But most of the crazier configurations come from solving a particular problem.  Some type of request for a unique sound from clients or friends at my home studio.  Usually any kind of Preset List that I upload for the forum here is the result of me learning (or revisiting) a new algorithm.  “Hey, here are some things I found out that I’d like to share.  Adapt it & tear it up.”

Not much more pre-planning than a set list.  I embraced MIDI control long ago.  Master MIDI Clock, separate MIDI switching & expression array.  I use the same MIDI Channel scheme to each effect (plus one Channel may be assigned to a basic chain of effects).  Synths have their own Channels.  I still run Thru an ancient FCB 1010 – 10 banks of 10 switches each.  I try to keep the Program Change messages in the same logical sequence.  Step on a switch; everything reconfigures.  i have a few (whole) banks of 10 switches that actually ‘play’ the effects.

As an aside, though, my reply above was more focused on practical applications.  For example, QuadraVox has four scaled harmonies, but a single delay.  So add a 2nd H9 Digital Delay for the feedback.  I run two amps live, so syncing Phaser & TremoloPan mixes nicely in-the-air.  I plan to post something here about using 2 (or more) H9s in a simple series / parallel / series config.  You can create many new effects, and still run to a single amp.