So I know there has been a lot of discussion about the H90 being two H9s and at the price point its not worth it, etc... Well its really not just two H9s in one. They look similar and are both Eventide, but from routing to actual sounds thats kind of where they are much different.
My biggest complaint is the way Eventide released this. They sold the first batch and then it became a Unicorn. Eventide had to at least have had a rough idea on production numbers and everyone I know who ordered one has been waiting with no definitive date for them to be in stock again. I ordered one back in early November from MF. November wento to Dec, to Jan, to March and now I dont know if they bumped that or not. Back in Jan there was a store in Tokyo that had them in stock so luckily I was able to grab one of them. They Matched MF's price cause I had the %15 off coupon and shipping only took about a week. Overall I got lucky cause they sold out right after I put my order in.
Now first off I friggin hated the fact that on the H9 if you didnt use the app to program the thing you were extremely limited in what you could do from the pedal itself. That is no longer an issue on the H90! You can tweak any and all programs and parameters right from the pedal and you can also assign any of the main buttons to access whatever your "go to" parameters are, so you dont have to go thru a bunch of pages to find what you need. In other words, always tweaking your mix control? Assign to the front display for that parameter and instant access. You can assign the buttons for "A" side, another for "B" side and then another button for both A & B. I wish that option was available on some of the rack units rather than scrolling thru page after page. The flexibility of being able to do small things like that along with being able to completely program and tweak individual presets from the pedal itself is really a huge leap over the H9.
INSERTS... I usually run most of my rack gear in parallel with a mixer, but unless I was using my Switchblade, which is long gone, I have been kinda of limited in being able to sometimes run some delays in series with my other effects. The H90 has inserts so that you can plug in an effect, mono or stereo, and then assign it to where you want it in the chain with whatever effects you are using in the H90. So basically having an H9 inserted into the H90, you can now run the H9 series, parallel, in between two effects or at the beginning or end of the chain. Thats on a preset basis so your not tied down to just one configuration. It is an extremely cool and useful feature if you are running other devices with the H90.
SOUND AND QUALITY OF EFFECTS.... Another thing that I didnt like with the H9 was the quality of some of the effects. The Verbs for me, in particular, didnt sound very good imo. I have an Eclipse and a DSP7000 and they both just blew away the verbs in the H9. The verbs in the H90 are absolutely on par with the Eclipse and at the price for the H90 they really should be! Most of the factory presets are really not usable for what I actually use it for, and a lot of the demos I have heard I wasnt really digging cause It was just basically to show off an outer space sound effect. LOL There is a video I did come across that actually explains how to use the pedal rather than just showing off what sounds it makes. Click if your interested. Long vid but informative>>> Using the H90 <<< I kinda wish this guy was a little more familiar with it before making the vid but at least it is somewhat informative.
OVERALL....I am a rack guy. Bigger the better! In reality that is not always practical to lug around and if I can get the same sounds from a small pedal based rack then thats awesome. Its extremely tough to do that even with the massive amount of pedals out there today.The H90 IS IMO on par with the Eclipse and in some ways actually outshines it. The H90 really just stomps on the H9 from just about every angle. Add in the fact that in order to program it properly you need an app to do so. If I wanted to use my phone or a pc I would have just bought a plugin. Nothing wrong with using editors and the like but I dont want to be stuck if I need to change something and my phone or laptop aint around. Eventide still is a little quirky when it comes to some midi implementation vs. say Strymon for example, but nothing major. The worst thing about the H90 is trying to find one to buy. Honestly, two H9s do not even come close to one H90 to processing power and versatility. Lot of $$$$, but I would grab this over an Eclipse if I had to decide which way to go.
My biggest complaint is the way Eventide released this. They sold the first batch and then it became a Unicorn. Eventide had to at least have had a rough idea on production numbers and everyone I know who ordered one has been waiting with no definitive date for them to be in stock again. I ordered one back in early November from MF. November wento to Dec, to Jan, to March and now I dont know if they bumped that or not. Back in Jan there was a store in Tokyo that had them in stock so luckily I was able to grab one of them. They Matched MF's price cause I had the %15 off coupon and shipping only took about a week. Overall I got lucky cause they sold out right after I put my order in.
Now first off I friggin hated the fact that on the H9 if you didnt use the app to program the thing you were extremely limited in what you could do from the pedal itself. That is no longer an issue on the H90! You can tweak any and all programs and parameters right from the pedal and you can also assign any of the main buttons to access whatever your "go to" parameters are, so you dont have to go thru a bunch of pages to find what you need. In other words, always tweaking your mix control? Assign to the front display for that parameter and instant access. You can assign the buttons for "A" side, another for "B" side and then another button for both A & B. I wish that option was available on some of the rack units rather than scrolling thru page after page. The flexibility of being able to do small things like that along with being able to completely program and tweak individual presets from the pedal itself is really a huge leap over the H9.
INSERTS... I usually run most of my rack gear in parallel with a mixer, but unless I was using my Switchblade, which is long gone, I have been kinda of limited in being able to sometimes run some delays in series with my other effects. The H90 has inserts so that you can plug in an effect, mono or stereo, and then assign it to where you want it in the chain with whatever effects you are using in the H90. So basically having an H9 inserted into the H90, you can now run the H9 series, parallel, in between two effects or at the beginning or end of the chain. Thats on a preset basis so your not tied down to just one configuration. It is an extremely cool and useful feature if you are running other devices with the H90.
SOUND AND QUALITY OF EFFECTS.... Another thing that I didnt like with the H9 was the quality of some of the effects. The Verbs for me, in particular, didnt sound very good imo. I have an Eclipse and a DSP7000 and they both just blew away the verbs in the H9. The verbs in the H90 are absolutely on par with the Eclipse and at the price for the H90 they really should be! Most of the factory presets are really not usable for what I actually use it for, and a lot of the demos I have heard I wasnt really digging cause It was just basically to show off an outer space sound effect. LOL There is a video I did come across that actually explains how to use the pedal rather than just showing off what sounds it makes. Click if your interested. Long vid but informative>>> Using the H90 <<< I kinda wish this guy was a little more familiar with it before making the vid but at least it is somewhat informative.
OVERALL....I am a rack guy. Bigger the better! In reality that is not always practical to lug around and if I can get the same sounds from a small pedal based rack then thats awesome. Its extremely tough to do that even with the massive amount of pedals out there today.The H90 IS IMO on par with the Eclipse and in some ways actually outshines it. The H90 really just stomps on the H9 from just about every angle. Add in the fact that in order to program it properly you need an app to do so. If I wanted to use my phone or a pc I would have just bought a plugin. Nothing wrong with using editors and the like but I dont want to be stuck if I need to change something and my phone or laptop aint around. Eventide still is a little quirky when it comes to some midi implementation vs. say Strymon for example, but nothing major. The worst thing about the H90 is trying to find one to buy. Honestly, two H9s do not even come close to one H90 to processing power and versatility. Lot of $$$$, but I would grab this over an Eclipse if I had to decide which way to go.
