Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[Code001]

any of you rack cats using Eventide H3-9k on the regular? if so:

1) What are your uniquely Eventide go-to presets you can’t live without? I.E. Some say the micropitch detunes in it is the best while others prefer the yamaha spx texture.

2) Does anyone prefer the older H3000 series sounds over the newer stuff?

3) Any old school long time H3-9k users dump the rack units for the H90 pedal?

1. Crystals are actually my go-to for Eventide effects. My SPX90 does a solid detune, and I think the Wave Mechanics stuff works fine for intelligent harmonizing, but nothing can really touch what my big Eventide does when it comes to the crystal algos. Reverbs are also shockingly good, and Blackhole is amazing. Italo has a ported version of Blackhole for the H3000. Honorable mention to the Undulator.
2. It's a different character. Both are cool IMO. I do think my H3000 sounds "bigger" and more 3D. Has some depth to it that the pedal doesn't. But the pedal still gets very cool sounds and is way more flexible.
3. I use both in different contexts. I especially love playing with the new glitch effects the H90 just added. It's also nicer to adjust with the desktop editor versus bending over pushing buttons on the H3000.

Edit: Oh yeah. And the Manifold presets from the Eclipse. I actually really miss those and might try to find an Eclipse just for them. Haven't found a way to recreate them yet in my current gear.

 

[mentoneman]

1. Crystals are actually my go-to for Eventide effects. My SPX90 does a solid detune, and I think the Wave Mechanics stuff works fine for intelligent harmonizing, but nothing can really touch what my big Eventide does when it comes to the crystal algos. Reverbs are also shockingly good, and Blackhole is amazing. Italo has a ported version of Blackhole for the H3000. Honorable mention to the Undulator.
2. It's a different character. Both are cool IMO. I do think my H3000 sounds "bigger" and more 3D. Has some depth to it that the pedal doesn't. But the pedal still gets very cool sounds and is way more flexible.
3. I use both in different contexts. I especially love playing with the new glitch effects the H90 just added. It's also nicer to adjust with the desktop editor versus bending over pushing buttons on the H3000.

Edit: Oh yeah. And the Manifold presets from the Eclipse. I actually really miss those and might try to find an Eclipse just for them. Haven't found a way to recreate them yet in my current gear.

the only rack units i’ve spent any quality time with have been the H8000s. not VSig deep but tweaking parameters enough to determine how i’d like to use it. the fx are very pristine in comparison to my H9.

i sat with an H3000 dfx for a few hours in a studio the year it came out, auditioning the presets on headphones,
and messed with an eclipse at my friend’s shop.

 

[Code001]

Yeah, I have only tried the H3000 (mine is a DSX with the H3500 FW), Eclipse, H9, H90, and plugins. Haven't tried any of the other rack Eventides. Wish I could! Would love to hear how the original presets sounded on some of those units like the OG blackhole in the 4000 series, for example. Or Italo's Landau preset: https://www.italodeangelis.com/it/eventide_and_other_stuff/michael-in-a-box.asp

 

[ChurchHill]

any of you rack cats using Eventide H3-9k on the regular? if so:

1) What are your uniquely Eventide go-to presets you can’t live without? I.E. Some say the micropitch detunes in it is the best while others prefer the yamaha spx texture.

2) Does anyone prefer the older H3000 series sounds over the newer stuff?

3) Any old school long time H3-9k users dump the rack units for the H90 pedal?

Yeah, I've got an H3000DSE and GTR4000, both in regular use and an Eclipse in semi-regular use. Also have all the Factor pedals and an H90.

For the 3000, the micropitch is great, different from the SPX90 (Symphonic or Pitch Change C). I often use both at once. I love the Reverse Shifter, not for Crystals, but just as a great delay with a little detuning. Band Delays are good, too, and I find all the reverbs to be inspirational, different and not quite as realistic as the Lexicon's can be, but just as great.

For the 4000, I simply love the original Black Hole. There's just something there that no other unit can do, my guess would be something in the converters. I also use it for the same things as the 3000, so other reverbs and delays.

Yes, IMHO, nothing sounds like the 3000. The 4000 is close, but nothing does what the 3000 does.

And no, the H90 hasn't made me want to replace anything. What it is good for is consolidating the Factor pedals on my pedalboard. The Factors sound great, too, but without running them in parallel, the latency just gets to be a little much for me. Of those, the Timefactor and the Space are my favorites. The H90 allows me to get those sounds without the latency of the Factors.

I'll also add that the Eclipse is a fantastic unit, definitely scratches the Eventide itch. But, it's not a 3000. I've got the 3000 & 4000 in my large rack that doesn't go anywhere, the Eclipse in a smaller rack, and the H90 in a small "digital" board for jam sessions.

 

[ChurchHill]

Yeah, I have only tried the H3000 (mine is a DSX with the H3500 FW), Eclipse, H9, H90, and plugins. Haven't tried any of the other rack Eventides. Wish I could! Would love to hear how the original presets sounded on some of those units like the OG blackhole in the 4000 series, for example. Or Italo's Landau preset: https://www.italodeangelis.com/it/eventide_and_other_stuff/michael-in-a-box.asp

Italo's the man! He inspired me to add the PCM81 and Lex 300, for which I am eternally grateful.

 

[tonedog]

Nice work Pat!! Only guy I know besides Mike and Luke who play I'm Buzzed as it should be!
Happy New Year!

 

[mentoneman]

Yeah, I have only tried the H3000 (mine is a DSX with the H3500 FW), Eclipse, H9, H90, and plugins. Haven't tried any of the other rack Eventides. Wish I could! Would love to hear how the original presets sounded on some of those units like the OG blackhole in the 4000 series, for example. Or Italo's Landau preset: https://www.italodeangelis.com/it/eventide_and_other_stuff/michael-in-a-box.asp

i tinkered with the H8000 virtual rack and the concept is cool but lacked in the authentic and unique magic of each box it tried to emulate.

i’ve always been rooted in the Bradshaw school of thought where all of the grail fx boxes have their main singular strength/identity and job to do. although each box can do a million things, tc 2290 for delay, 1210 for its chorus, lexicon reverb, and eventide pitch and space. an analog tri stereo chorus sound in the mix is something i can’t seem to avoid, although i’m never going to pay $3Gs for the rack versions. i’ll stick to pedals and half rack units until behringer spits out a TSC rack clone out for $3-400

my b team is yamaha spx for micropitch, symphonic and verbs behind the chorus,
and the korg for different digital and analog sounding delays and choruses.

personally i think italo’s best work is in the libraries he did for the korg.

the only other super grail box i’d love to mess with but have never had the opportunity to investigate is the pcm 42.

 

[mentoneman]

Yeah, I've got an H3000DSE and GTR4000, both in regular use and an Eclipse in semi-regular use. Also have all the Factor pedals and an H90.

For the 3000, the micropitch is great, different from the SPX90 (Symphonic or Pitch Change C). I often use both at once. I love the Reverse Shifter, not for Crystals, but just as a great delay with a little detuning. Band Delays are good, too, and I find all the reverbs to be inspirational, different and not quite as realistic as the Lexicon's can be, but just as great.

For the 4000, I simply love the original Black Hole. There's just something there that no other unit can do, my guess would be something in the converters. I also use it for the same things as the 3000, so other reverbs and delays.

Yes, IMHO, nothing sounds like the 3000. The 4000 is close, but nothing does what the 3000 does.

And no, the H90 hasn't made me want to replace anything. What it is good for is consolidating the Factor pedals on my pedalboard. The Factors sound great, too, but without running them in parallel, the latency just gets to be a little much for me. Of those, the Timefactor and the Space are my favorites. The H90 allows me to get those sounds without the latency of the Factors.

I'll also add that the Eclipse is a fantastic unit, definitely scratches the Eventide itch. But, it's not a 3000. I've got the 3000 & 4000 in my large rack that doesn't go anywhere, the Eclipse in a smaller rack, and the H90 in a small "digital" board for jam sessions.

good to know and consistent with what most say about the sound of the 3000 vs the rest.

 

[mentoneman]

Nice work Pat!! Only guy I know besides Mike and Luke who play I'm Buzzed as it should be!
Happy New Year!

sniderman!
mahalo my friend and too kind! hope you’re rocking a stable of ridiculously cool amps as you enjoy a glass of Sonoma’s finest while watching a beautiful Monterey sunset!
Happy New Year

 

[Code001]

i tinkered with the H8000 virtual rack and the concept is cool but lacked in the authentic and unique magic of each box it tried to emulate.

i’ve always been rooted in the Bradshaw school of thought where all of the grail fx boxes have their main singular strength/identity and job to do. although each box can do a million things, tc 2290 for delay, 1210 for its chorus, lexicon reverb, and eventide pitch and space. an analog tri stereo chorus sound in the mix is something i can’t seem to avoid, although i’m never going to pay $3Gs for the rack versions. i’ll stick to pedals and half rack units until behringer spits out a TSC rack clone out for $3-400

my b team is yamaha spx for micropitch, symphonic and verbs behind the chorus,
and the korg for different digital and analog sounding delays and choruses.

personally i think italo’s best work is in the libraries he did for the korg.

the only other super grail box i’d love to mess with but have never had the opportunity to investigate is the pcm 42.

100% agree on everything you said. Each of my units is effectively one or two "types" of effects for the most part, and I switch between them depending on what I'm looking for. TSC, PCM70, and PCM42 are kinda the only things I'm passively seeking out. But even seeing some of these units at decent prices, I really wonder how much better they'll be than my other gear. The PCM81 with Italo's presets an Dual FX card is mind bogglingly good. Did you know the PCM42 doesn't remember your delay time, and you have to set it every time you power it up? Man, that would be such a pain haha.

Honestly, the 2290 is one of my top pieces of gear. The way it throws audio around the stereo spectrum and really messes with your ears is something I can't recreate on anything else. It's just such a unique unit and honestly one of the few that was really truly meeting the hype of the legendary rack gear when I started really pursuing it.

 

[Dave L]

I´ve had tons of rack stuff including most of the typical favorites, and my H3000 and GTR4000 units are just the best for me when it comes to modulation and thickening. The SPX90 pitch C is a cool sound that you recognize, but compared to the detune in the H3000 it sounds pretty thin/small to my ears. Especially for distorted tones. I put in the SPX from time to time, since I want to like it for both sentimental reasons and to free up the Eventides, but I always end up pulling it again.

 

[mentoneman]

Same here.
I am a stickler for og manuals.Your clips sound great as always!

BTW did you ever get sorted with the RST Preset B functions and what you were hoping to accomplish?

Bob has been more active on his socials lately and keeps threatening to update his website. Hoping he restores the video instruction guides for RST Preset B!!!

 

[mentoneman]

100% agree on everything you said. Each of my units is effectively one or two "types" of effects for the most part, and I switch between them depending on what I'm looking for. TSC, PCM70, and PCM42 are kinda the only things I'm passively seeking out. But even seeing some of these units at decent prices, I really wonder how much better they'll be than my other gear. The PCM81 with Italo's presets an Dual FX card is mind bogglingly good. Did you know the PCM42 doesn't remember your delay time, and you have to set it every time you power it up? Man, that would be such a pain haha.

Honestly, the 2290 is one of my top pieces of gear. The way it throws audio around the stereo spectrum and really messes with your ears is something I can't recreate on anything else. It's just such a unique unit and honestly one of the few that was really truly meeting the hype of the legendary rack gear when I started really pursuing it.

did not know that about the 42. that seems very inconvenient!

my 2299 drives me nuts enough in that i have to manually hit the midi enable button when i first power up my rack so that it will accept midi changes.
per the special number 6 literature, it seems to allude to the fact that the user can globally enable midi as a default status but either i misunderstood or my unit is whack because i’ve not been able to do so.

 

[mentoneman]

I´ve had tons of rack stuff including most of the typical favorites, and my H3000 and GTR4000 units are just the best for me when it comes to modulation and thickening. The SPX90 pitch C is a cool sound that you recognize, but compared to the detune in the H3000 it sounds pretty thin/small to my ears. Especially for distorted tones. I put in the SPX from time to time, since I want to like it for both sentimental reasons and to free up the Eventides, but I always end up pulling it again.

yah it’s pretty much no contest when comparing the depth and complexity of the eventide pitch fx to spx.

experimenting in my wdw rig,
the spx just adds a shallow split/metallic texture when using my pitch C settings and a bit more ripple when using symphonic with other modulation fx in my rig.
but they come across a bit blurry/subtle overall in parallel versus running those effects in a straight stereo rig in series.

which is why at the moment the spx is relegated to a hall reverb at one end of my TSC chorus chain ATM, where it works a bit more effectively in helping my TSC sound trail off longer and sounds more familiar and “right”.

spx landau routing and settings info:

+ 8 cents on the left ( w/ 60 ms delay )

- 8 cents on the right ( w/ 30 ms delay )

that's Landau's "Womanizer" patch

 

[PhilC]

100% agree on everything you said. Each of my units is effectively one or two "types" of effects for the most part, and I switch between them depending on what I'm looking for. TSC, PCM70, and PCM42 are kinda the only things I'm passively seeking out. But even seeing some of these units at decent prices, I really wonder how much better they'll be than my other gear. The PCM81 with Italo's presets an Dual FX card is mind bogglingly good. Did you know the PCM42 doesn't remember your delay time, and you have to set it every time you power it up? Man, that would be such a pain haha.

Honestly, the 2290 is one of my top pieces of gear. The way it throws audio around the stereo spectrum and really messes with your ears is something I can't recreate on anything else. It's just such a unique unit and honestly one of the few that was really truly meeting the hype of the legendary rack gear when I started really pursuing it.

I just got back into rack gear after a hiatus. The PCM 70, PCM 42 and TSC were the only pieces I really sought out as well and honestly, it’s plenty. I have the FM3 in the mixer where I can use it in series or parallel and honestly, I use that as much as anything. I use it for a bit of everything. Micropitch when using the dedicated pieces for the other stuff. It doesn’t have the depth of the dedicated pieces (same for using amp models vs real amps through the react ir) but unless I’m going for the full 80’s swell/wash thing, it’s super convenient for getting sounds fast.

 

[Little B]

BTW did you ever get sorted with the RST Preset B functions and what you were hoping to accomplish?

Bob has been more active on his socials lately and keeps threatening to update his website. Hoping he restores the video instruction guides for RST Preset B!!!

I've delved into the preset B thing some.I have B presets set up,for after I ran out of buttons and i.a.controllers in normal preset A mode. So I think I got somewhat the jist of it.Yes,I hope Bob elaborates on that sometime.( finish the online manual).
....my h8000 needs some service work so it's going out soon for that.Im kinda in the camp as others here: I use it for its strengths only.Ive messed with the virtual racks,black hole,pitch shift,detune,various verbs,delays,and whacky stuff, etc,it's in parallel with my 2290,other effects in my cae mixer.And to my ears anyways it's more pristine and fuller sounding than the h9 for sure,the h90 is a little closer to it,but there's some things in that 8000 that nothing else will do.Its very deep,that's for sure.I probably mess with my 2290 the most tho.Theres just something about it.

 

[mentoneman]

tasty morsels!
always said if i had to bail everything and start over, i’d build around fractal. i got killer delays and reverbs out of the ultra many moons ago!

 

[GuitarVacation]

@mentoneman is a fella that knows how to RACK! LOL

Got some dream gear level stuff man, especially with the Tyler. That's a refrigerator of tone and grown man fun if I've ever seen one.

Are you using the Friedman module over the IE4 dirt most of the time, or do you have particular sounds the IE4 takes the lead on (pun intended).

I've been kind of fascinated with the IE4 ever since hearing Chris Poland using it for the thick fusion type tones with his Ohm project. Chris is a fella that ain't scared to bring a decked out rack to a VFW gig haha.

Sounds great man!

 

[mentoneman]

I've delved into the preset B thing some.I have B presets set up,for after I ran out of buttons and i.a.controllers in normal preset A mode. So I think I got somewhat the jist of it.Yes,I hope Bob elaborates on that sometime.( finish the online manual).
....my h8000 needs some service work so it's going out soon for that.Im kinda in the camp as others here: I use it for its strengths only.Ive messed with the virtual racks,black hole,pitch shift,detune,various verbs,delays,and whacky stuff, etc,it's in parallel with my 2290,other effects in my cae mixer.And to my ears anyways it's more pristine and fuller sounding than the h9 for sure,the h90 is a little closer to it,but there's some things in that 8000 that nothing else will do.Its very deep,that's for sure.I probably mess with my 2290 the most tho.Theres just something about it.

i think for me Preset B would be more useful if i had an H8000 or fractal and wanted to control the on/off state of specific effects in a chain within a preset without switching to another preset and deal with loading time glitches.

i did dabble with attempting to make my PCM 80 a looper and reassign Preset B IA switched into CC controllers, but failed

however i did get some of that functionality i wanted using boss footswitches inserted in the PCM 1/4” footswitch jacks.



but to do it properly the PCM needs to be at the end of the line so all the other fxs are entering the PCM versus running parallel.

one of the H8000 engines would be great to do that with too.
it’s why my braddah Zach had Bob route the H8000 the way he did:

the H8k converters being clean enough to run 2 ins/outs at the end of the line in series, to loop or affect the whole wet mix,
or use at the Mix 1 position to feed H8k fx into other fx. the power of H8k routing and 4 analog ins/outs!

 

[mentoneman]

@mentoneman is a fella that knows how to RACK! LOL

Got some dream gear level stuff man, especially with the Tyler. That's a refrigerator of tone and grown man fun if I've ever seen one.

Are you using the Friedman module over the IE4 dirt most of the time, or do you have particular sounds the IE4 takes the lead on (pun intended).

I've been kind of fascinated with the IE4 ever since hearing Chris Poland using it for the thick fusion type tones with his Ohm project. Chris is a fella that ain't scared to bring a decked out rack to a VFW gig haha.

Sounds great man!i

Chris is a ripper and very cool!

i ran sound and simultaneously videotaped (camera mic) the first concert at Tone Merchants a scant 17 or so yrs ago!



He was using a CAE rig with a Fish for this show. I regret not filming a quick rig rundown with him but it was a hectic afternoon because at the time the room was just a box with an elevated stage and the lighting was funky so i had a friend bring some curtains/frames to help diffuse echoes a bit, tried to gel the lights (which Chris helped with) and tried to put a drum shield around Kofi but he wasn’t having it

i miced everything and flew by the seat of my pants! There were these fluorescent light panels on the ceiling which was crushing their vibe at first. Rob the bassist walked up to the mic after the first song and said “Cleanup on Aisle 9..” teasing how overly bright the room was, so i made the executive decision to kill them! they were way happier but the video suffered in the dark curtains v white walls background contrast!

side note was when Landau and Fletcher played there the same thing happened with the lights. i could tell Mike wasn’t feeling it and then i popped the fluorescents off and he said “Ah..” into the mic and relaxed his shoulders