Does H9 input meter do anything?

[Boynigel]

i’ve been using my H9 for over four years now and i’m still confused about the input meter.  it seems that no matter where i set the level, that i cannot hear any difference in the sound.  even when i engage a strong clean boost in front of it and the meter goes well into the red, nothing bad happens sound-wise.  i’m not complaining but i AM wondering what the deal is with this.  can anyone enlighten me?  thanks

[bohan]

boynigel wrote:

i've been using my H9 for over four years now and i'm still confused about the input meter.  it seems that no matter where i set the level, that i cannot hear any difference in the sound.  even when i engage a strong clean boost in front of it and the meter goes well into the red, nothing bad happens sound-wise.  i'm not complaining but i AM wondering what the deal is with this.  can anyone enlighten me?  thanks

If the red LED is lit It just means the sound is too loud so it's clipped. You won't notice any difference in the sound if your signal is just a bit higher than it should be. If your input level was loud enough, I believe you would be able to hear the clipping

[Boynigel]

bohan wrote:

boynigel wrote:

i’ve been using my H9 for over four years now and i’m still confused about the input meter.  it seems that no matter where i set the level, that i cannot hear any difference in the sound.  even when i engage a strong clean boost in front of it and the meter goes well into the red, nothing bad happens sound-wise.  i’m not complaining but i AM wondering what the deal is with this.  can anyone enlighten me?  thanks

If the red LED is lit It just means the sound is too loud so it’s clipped. You won’t notice any difference in the sound if your signal is just a bit higher than it should be. If your input level was loud enough, I believe you would be able to hear the clipping (Don’t do that though cause it could cause damage to your H9).

so the H9 input meter must have quite the early warning for clipping?  is there a “known” db value as to how much would damage the pedal?  i’m a little concerned, again, because i’m smacking the front end of my amp pretty hard at times via clean boost and OD, and the H9 is in my signal chain after the clean boost/OD.

[bohan]

Boynigel wrote:

so the H9 input meter must have quite the early warning for clipping?  is there a "known" db value as to how much would damage the pedal?  i'm a little concerned, again, because i'm smacking the front end of my amp pretty hard at times via clean boost and OD, and the H9 is in my signal chain after the clean boost/OD.

Hi, it's OK if the input LED is lit occasionally. Clean boost and OD won't damage the pedal. As long as the LED is not always lit and you are fine with the sound, you don't need to worry about it.

[Boynigel]

bohan wrote:

Boynigel wrote:

so the H9 input meter must have quite the early warning for clipping?  is there a “known” db value as to how much would damage the pedal?  i’m a little concerned, again, because i’m smacking the front end of my amp pretty hard at times via clean boost and OD, and the H9 is in my signal chain after the clean boost/OD.

Hi, it’s OK if the input LED is lit occasionally. Clean boost and OD won’t damage the pedal. As long as the LED is not always lit and you are fine with the sound, you don’t need to worry about it.

It’s lighting with every note attack, then after a second it goes out.  that said, if i’m chugging chords it’s pretty much staying lit.  still an “okay” scenario?  interestingly,  on the actual pedal the red peak light comes on when the app’s peak light isn’t.  that said, the peak meter on the app isn’t far behind the pedal- usually one meter light block away.  could 4CM be creating/contributing to the peaking?  i don’t recall ever having this issue back when i used the pedal exclusively in my amp’s fx loop.

[Boynigel]

Boynigel wrote:

bohan wrote:

Boynigel wrote:

so the H9 input meter must have quite the early warning for clipping?  is there a “known” db value as to how much would damage the pedal?  i’m a little concerned, again, because i’m smacking the front end of my amp pretty hard at times via clean boost and OD, and the H9 is in my signal chain after the clean boost/OD.

Hi, it’s OK if the input LED is lit occasionally. Clean boost and OD won’t damage the pedal. As long as the LED is not always lit and you are fine with the sound, you don’t need to worry about it.

It’s lighting with every note attack, then after a second it goes out.  that said, if i’m chugging chords it’s pretty much staying lit.  still an “okay” scenario?  interestingly,  on the actual pedal the red peak light comes on when the app’s peak light isn’t.  that said, the peak meter on the app isn’t far behind the pedal- usually one meter light block away.  could 4CM be creating/contributing to the peaking?  i don’t recall ever having this issue back when i used the pedal exclusively in my amp’s fx loop.

This is still unresolved. When using overdrive the red light on the pedal is always lit. However, the meter on the app is showing the level to be averaging at right around “0” or slightly under. Basically it’s the initial pick attack that peaks the meter over zero. As soon as the pick attack is over the meter hangs at just under zero. That said, fast picking means I’m always in the red. How much in the red is the mystery. Maybe it’s only .5 dB. Then again maybe it’s 4.5 dB or more. I don’t know and that’s what concerns me as far as potentially damaging the pedal as you mentioned earlier. I’m also curious as to which meter I should believe- the pedal’s, or the app’s?

[nickrose]

The app's meter just shows the input level, while the red light on the H9 shows the effect overloading. Depending on the effect and the frequencies involved, it is possible to overload the effect without overloading the input. So, the red light on the H9 is the main thing.

But, you are unlikely to damage the H9, and if you don't hear any unpleasant distortion, don't worry.The sound is the thing.

 

 

[Boynigel]

nickrose wrote:

The app's meter just shows the input level, while the red light on the H9 shows the effect overloading. Depending on the effect and the frequencies involved, it is possible to overload the effect without overloading the input. So, the red light on the H9 is the main thing.

But, you are unlikely to damage the H9, and if you don't hear any unpleasant distortion, don't worry.The sound is the thing.

 

 

Okay thanks. The light on the pedal is pretty much always red once I engage my overdrive pedal. Given that the sound is overdriven it’s hard to tell if there’s any “unpleasant “ distortion mixed in there. If there is, I can’t hear it. Just got a little panicked when the other Eventide staffer said the pedal could be damaged from overloading the pedal. Perhaps he was talking extreme case scenario?

[bohan]

Boynigel wrote:

Okay thanks. The light on the pedal is pretty much always red once I engage my overdrive pedal. Given that the sound is overdriven it’s hard to tell if there’s any “unpleasant “ distortion mixed in there. If there is, I can’t hear it. Just got a little panicked when the other Eventide staffer said the pedal could be damaged from overloading the pedal. Perhaps he was talking extreme case scenario?

Yes. I said "Clean boost and OD won't damage the pedal". As long as the clean sound is not clipped, you shouldn't worry about it.

[Boynigel]

Okay folks, OP here.  I want to take a moment to share what fixed this problem for me.  I simply put my Source Audio Programmable EQ pedal after the effects loop Send of my amp (Bad Cat Cub 15R), and then into the H9.  No more red peak lights!  i set the EQ flat and then used the EQ’s master level to cut the output level just enough to get the level where i needed it.  Of course one could tweak the EQ to their liking if they wanted/needed to.  To anyone who might be using the same EQ pedal as me, just be sure to set it to buffered bypass.  Icing on the cake is that my overall sound actually improved oh so slightly after doing this.  woo-hoo!

[Author]

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