H90 – Tone Loss ?

[ThoGo]

Hi,

I’ve been enjoying the H90 and its amazing effects for a year now, but I notice a tone loss that, now that I’ve heard it, is really annoying to me. I wanted to share my thoughts about it and see if other users sense it as well, and if it’s something that can be solved or patched.

I play mostly in a clean tone with only an overdrive pre-H90 and a stereo reverb post. When the H90 is bypassed, I notice no tone loss or anything unusual. However, when it’s engaged, my tone loses its snappy quality and some dynamics, aka “tone suck.” I notice this mostly in the attacks. I should mention that I use it at instrument level, and it happens even if an “Init Program” is activated: as long as a program is active, I can hear that tone loss.

I wonder if it’s because of the DAC’s or a defective unit? A ton of features about the H90 are great, but this might be crippling for me as the simpler tones tend to suffer from that loss.

Any thoughts?

[joecozzi]

Hello ThoGo,

Bottom line, you should not be experiencing any degradation in the signal whatsoever, so it’s possible something else is at play. Can you be more specific with the gear you have before and after the H90? If you single out the H90, do experience the same issue? (Guitar > H90 > amp).

Always good to make sure you’re using the latest version of the firmware: 1.9.10. You must have download the latest version of H90 Control to update it: 1.8.16

[ThoGo]

Hi Joe and community

Sorry for the late reply, but I wanted to do some proper testing before saying more.
To answer your questions, here’s my detailed setup:

Vemuran Jan Ray -> H90 (Insert 1 Super Ego Plus) -> Alexander Pedals Space Force -> amp(s)

I’ve tried just the H90 in front of the amp and it’s a bit better. However, I could still hear a change in the transients. I recorded it and couldn’t hear any difference in the tone, so I came to this conclusion : I think the very small amount of latency generated by the pedal is what I feel and hear. As I play a fairly loud semi-hollow guitar, I can hear the initial acoustic attacks and I can feel/hear the offset when the latency kicks in. I think my use of insert 1 also adds AD/DA, which is why it’s more significant when everything is set up.

As for me, i’m done strugling with that and i’ll sur keep using my H90 a lot

[jackbrighton]

Just my $.02 on this. I can detect no tone loss with the H90 active, even with Init Program programs. Still exploring what this thing can do, and it’s ridiculous in the best way.

[mattlaurencemusic]

I gig with my amp up pretty loudly so I hear when something changes pretty well, and it’s something I haven’t quite figured out yet. I feel like sometimes I stumble on patches that color the sound a little bit or maybe just cut the volume, I’m not sure. I use my H90 in dual mode and have it in the FX loop. One of the things that took me a second to figure out was that when I had the P Bypass on DSP mode, it would color the sound severely. Big bass cut, kinda shrill top end, it sounded bad tbh.

Turning the bypass to Relay mode completely fixed this problem. I have good gear and I have a good signal chain – I have a buffer at the end of my chain going into the front of the amp, and my amp has a buffered FX loop. The DSP mode turns the H90 buffer on, so maybe it’s possible that it was just putting too much juice into an already healthy signal and made it sound weird, I’m not quite sure. But I do know that the relay bypass is true bypass and completely takes the signal out. Regardless, it might be worth messing around some of the global bypass/buffer settings and see if you have any luck

[joecozzi]

The path that’s in the effects loop of your amp, are you running it at line level?

[skywriter]

i also experience a duller tone passing through active H90. generally i find that adjusting the mixs for more dry helps a bit. i only use it on a Korg Prologue. i’ll try changing the bypass once i fix my unit.

[joecozzi]

Are you running the H90 at line level operating levels? After the H90, where are you sending the signal?

[skywriter]

joecozzi wrote:

Are you running the H90 at line level operating levels? After the H90, where are you sending the signal?

“i’ll try changing the bypass once i fix my unit.”

[joecozzi]

Whether using DSP or Relay bypass, you should not be experiencing any tone change from the H90 itself.

[joecozzi]

There should be ZERO tone change when using an INIT Program on the H90. Zero difference between active and bypass states. If there is character added because of an algorithm that’s a different story.

[skywriter]

yeah, i was an electrical engineer. i get it.

[Geonwoo Kim]

I’m also feeling tone sick these days. Going through H90 makes my dirty tone digital.

[Geonwoo Kim]

I’m also feeling tone sick these days. Going through H90 makes my dirty tone digital.

[Geonwoo Kim]

Shit.. it wasn’t H90, it was Big Sky. I love you, Eventide

[Author]

Posts