H9 Max Dark Edition not working properly

[moreradiego]

Hi Eventide community!

I purchased an H9 dark harmonizer from Reverb.com from a seller called eclectic sounds, in Portland Oregon.

The unit I purchased looks pristine nevertheless it’s been a rollercoaster to my surprise.

I live in Europe, and I had read in forums that its fine to use an H9 max Dark with an adapter for the type of current we handle here, as the unit came from the US.

However, when I hooked it to my pedalboard, which is a custom made controlled by a MusicomLab EFX LE and powered by a yankee HS-M10 power supply, when I turned on the loop where the pedal is, it started to make crazy weird noises (not the good kind).

I don’t know how to describe the sounds coming out of my amp, but it surely does not sound like good news…

To rule out pedalboard/power supply malfunction, I plugged in the guitar into pedal(H9) into amp fashion, with its original power supply and an adapter, and the noises started again, only to stop, and all of the sudden it seems like its working.

I didn’t care much, and I started trying presets and different algorithms, but they were not quite fulfilling my expectations, for example, the band delay, which is one of my favorite Algorithms, sounded just like some weird reverb in virtually all presets within that algorithm, so we could say the unit was partially working.

After messing for a bit with whatever was available for me to use, I tried and plug it back into my board, and see if I got lucky, but yep, the weird crazy noises came back to haunt me.

I waited a long time to be able to purchase this device, only to have this bad experience right out of the box… It has been quite time consuming, and I cannot begin to express how frustrating it’s been…

Can someone PLEASE help me?

 

[nickrose]

Sorry you are having trouble. You should return it to your vendor.

It does sound as though you are having power supply problems.

Please everybody – buy complex (not just ours) products from an official local dealer who will supply the right parts and be able to offer support.

 

 

[moreradiego]

Thanks! But just to be clear…

It is not recommended to purchase an H9 from overseas (example: from the USA to be used in Spain) since there’s a high chance of power malfunctioning?

If so, is it ok to use a normal adapter from american to european power outlets on the original power supply? or also using it straight into a powered pedalboard?

 

thanks..

 

[bohan]

Have you tried reinstalling the latest software and factory reset the unit?

[moreradiego]

No, will try and get back to you.

[moreradiego]

Yep, I just tried it, here is the funny thing…

I tried the pedal straight into an amp with its original power supply + an adapter, not a single sound came out of the amp…

Later on, I installed it again on my board, and powered it with the board’s supply, and it was working, sort of, as said before, algorithms were not working properly, some wouldn’t even do anything and some are supposed to be crazy stereo band delays or modulations that were simply not doing anything special even when tweaking every single knob…

Then I proceeded to install the latest firmware (despite the H9 control app saying my device was up to date), and then did the factory reset (holding hot knob + right foot switch getting ‘clear’ on the screen) with hopes that my problems would be solved.

But the result was going back to stage 1, which were the little crazy weird sounds when turning on the loop where the H9 is, intermitently, as there is mostly no sound.

I’ll try and record a video and send it to you guys, but all around where i read in the internet, it said it shouldn’t matter, that it should work just fine even if I purchased it in the US… but maybe is my unit in particular that is messed up… idk.

and as a final note, I truly wish the support provided by Eventide was a little more in depth and with a friendlier tone, I feel my expectations were a little too high perhaps… Thank you anyways for your timely answer… I guess I’ll have to wait X amount of weeks for a refund or a new unit, or even months if I was to purchase it in Europe at a fair price…

Kind regards…

 

[bohan]

Sounds like you have a bad unit. I'm sorry about that. I would recommend the last thing before you exchange or return it.

Please try updating the unit with Eventide Direct Updater, which is bundled with H9 Control. If you are on Mac, you can find it in H9 Control by clicking the "Window" -> "Open Eventide Direct Updater" on the menu bar. If you are on Windows, you may just search "Direct Updater" in the Start menu. To update the unit in Direct Updater, you will need to boot your H9 into UPDATE mode by pressing the HOTKNOB while powering up.

After the update, please do a full factory reset by powering up unit with pressing and holding the right footswitch and the big black knob until you see INITIA on the display

[moreradiego]

I updated the unit through the USB cable and not through BlueTooth, and then rebooted it to factory settings (pressing down right footswitch + big central knob while powering up til it says [initia] or something like that) and now it works both with the original power supply w adapter and my pedalboards power supply.

I hope is all good from now on, cause the effects on this thing are crazy cool.

Thanks guys, and the Eventide support through email (Jerome)

 

[moreradiego]

Got my hopes too high… It worked just for a bit, now we’re back at stage 1, with the weird noise.

I’m done, I’m returning it, this has been nothing but a gigantic headache for me… and now I will have to return it to the US while I am living in Europe, and now have to spend more money that i didn’t had planned in shipping costs, etc. is just annoying and disappointing…

I don’t know if getting a new one or not tbh, in Europe the waiting time is way too long, and now IDK if these problems that I experienced are associated to simply a faulty unit or to a wider problem regarding power supply issues when purchasing overseas, and Eventide as a brand is not offering me additional solutions or answers further than ‘reboot it and update the firmware’ or ‘just return it’, even sort of suggesting that it’s my issue for having purchased it overseas.

Well I purchased it overseas because the available information (which is not official) points towards the fact that there should not be problems when using it with an adapter or with a pedalboard power supply. It wouldn’t be very useful to find some official FAQ from H9 users covering these issues for us when considering purchasing the unit in order to avoid headaches, because again, my experience so far has been nothing but frustrating, and it seems like it’ll be that way up until I get my money back or a new unit (Which I hope works if that’s my final decision, because it will probably will have to be purchased overseas again, since I can’t afford to wait over 1 month and a half for the possibility to buying it directly in Europe).

Let’s see how this plays out…

 

 

[bohan]

I'm sorry for what you experienced. Where are you from? We recently shipped a few big H9 orders to Europe. So it should be easier if want to replace or get new H9 in Europe now.

[moreradiego]

I live in Spain, and all retailers say that there is anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks of waiting time, that messes up all my planned recordings for October, that’s why I opted to purchase it from the US.

Is there any solution or just anything you can offer to make this better? I will say it again, been my first contact with eventide, this has been a pretty bad experience overall.

I saved up for most part of the year in order to be able to purchase this, 700$ might be little money for some, but not for me. Hope you can understand my frustration, and I truly wish the brand would do something to make this better, at least…

 

 

[bohan]

I'm sorry for what you've been through. We do have a very bad supply chain issue this year so we couldn't make a lot of H9 earlier. Now it's getting better and we are shipping H9's to Europe.

 

Based on your diagnosis, it's likely this is a bad unit. If it's a new unit under warranty, we can repair this unit but you need to send it it and it will take a while. So the ideal solution would be exchanging or returning this unit to the seller.

[bohan]

It's also worth trying updating the unit again with Direct Updater, which is bundled with H9 Control. You can find it by just search "Direct Updater" in the start menu on your PC. If these all don't work, you should consider returning or exchanging it.

[Fender17]

moreradiego wrote:

I live in Spain, and all retailers say that there is anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks of waiting time, that messes up all my planned recordings for October, that’s why I opted to purchase it from the US.

Hi, if you really do need it soon and have no other solution, I may lent you one for two months. I am from Europe, but not Spain. Would be maxed Core

[coolrai9]

Hi I too have just purchased an H9 Max Black and everything is not working right. I have updated the software, factory reset and initialized and have done everything but no sound is coming from the unit.  I plug my guitar directly to the H9 and to the amp.  I used its original power supply included in the box. When the unit is turned off, i can hear my amp but when its on and active, no sound is coming.  I cannot connect thru blue tooth also.  Is this a defective unit? Its distressing coz we don’t have resellers here in the Philippines to ask for help.  I bought this from the US.  

 

bohan wrote:

Sounds like you have a bad unit. I’m sorry about that. I would recommend the last thing before you exchange or return it.

Please try updating the unit with Eventide Direct Updater, which is bundled with H9 Control. If you are on Mac, you can find it in H9 Control by clicking the “Window” -> “Open Eventide Direct Updater” on the menu bar. If you are on Windows, you may just search “Direct Updater” in the Start menu. To update the unit in Direct Updater, you will need to boot your H9 into UPDATE mode by pressing the HOTKNOB while powering up.

After the update, please do a full factory reset by powering up unit with pressing and holding the right footswitch and the big black knob until you see INITIA on the display

[bohan]

coolrai9 wrote:

Hi I too have just purchased an H9 Max Black and everything is not working right. I have updated the software, factory reset and initialized and have done everything but no sound is coming from the unit.  I plug my guitar directly to the H9 and to the amp.  I used its original power supply included in the box. When the unit is turned off, i can hear my amp but when its on and active, no sound is coming.  I cannot connect thru blue tooth also.  Is this a defective unit? Its distressing coz we don't have resellers here in the Philippines to ask for help.  I bought this from the US.

It sounds like you should connect the unit to your PC via a USB cable, and reinstall the latest firmware in H9 Control. Let me know if this works out for you.

[coolrai9]

Hello Sir, yes i did connect it using PC and USB cable, it did connect with the H9.  I have updated it to the latest firmware and did the system restore, however, there is no improvement, i still didn’t get a sound from the unit.  

 

bohan wrote:

coolrai9 wrote:

Hi I too have just purchased an H9 Max Black and everything is not working right. I have updated the software, factory reset and initialized and have done everything but no sound is coming from the unit.  I plug my guitar directly to the H9 and to the amp.  I used its original power supply included in the box. When the unit is turned off, i can hear my amp but when its on and active, no sound is coming.  I cannot connect thru blue tooth also.  Is this a defective unit? Its distressing coz we don’t have resellers here in the Philippines to ask for help.  I bought this from the US.

It sounds like you should connect the unit to your PC via a USB cable, and reinstall the latest firmware in H9 Control. Let me know if this works out for you.

[bohan]

coolrai9 wrote:

Hello Sir, yes i did connect it using PC and USB cable, it did connect with the H9.  I have updated it to the latest firmware and did the system restore, however, there is no improvement, i still didn't get a sound from the unit.

Is there any sound when the unit is bypassed? Try it with both DSP bypass and Relay bypass.

[coolrai9]

I have changed the bypass, relay or DSP there is no sound after i go back to presets active.  

 

bohan wrote:

coolrai9 wrote:

Hello Sir, yes i did connect it using PC and USB cable, it did connect with the H9.  I have updated it to the latest firmware and did the system restore, however, there is no improvement, i still didn’t get a sound from the unit.

Is there any sound when the unit is bypassed? Try it with both DSP bypass and Relay bypass.

[coolrai9]

Hello sir, yes i did use the updater and updated it to the current version.  After the update, i did system restore also.  When i defaulted back to play mode, their is no sound or effect even in active position.  i notice when i turned off the pedal, i can hear my dry signal guitar again but when i turn it on and in play mode, there is no sound coming from the H9 and amplifier.

 

bohan wrote:

It’s also worth trying updating the unit again with Direct Updater, which is bundled with H9 Control. You can find it by just search “Direct Updater” in the start menu on your PC. If these all don’t work, you should consider returning or exchanging it.

[bohan]

coolrai9 wrote:

Hello sir, yes i did use the updater and updated it to the current version.  After the update, i did system restore also.  When i defaulted back to play mode, their is no sound or effect even in active position.  i notice when i turned off the pedal, i can hear my dry signal guitar again but when i turn it on and in play mode, there is no sound coming from the H9 and amplifier.

It sounds like you should exchange or return this pedal. Since you just bought it, it's still under warrenty.

[Author]

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