The Power of Three – A preset thread for multiple H9s

[davebrubaker]

I’ve been meaning to post some presets that use multiple H9s in combination. I’ve been running three H9s together through an ES-8 for about a year now and the power and flexibillity of these pedals in combination is amazing. I know I’m not the only one who’s obbsessed with the H9, so I’m hoping that some of you will join me in posting your favorite H9 recipes.

The first set is based around an ambient Pipe Organ pad I created using the Shimmer algo. Mixes really well with the original guitar signal. Expression pedal blends the wet/dry mix.Running a tweak of the Crystal preset after really expands the sound. The third preset in the set is the Fat H9 preset from the H910 H949 Algo. I run that in front of the pipe organ to give the clean guitar sound moe presence. The overall effect of all three presets running together on three H9s is a really lush mix of guitar and an organ/synth pad.

The order of the presets is Fat H9 | Pipe Organ | Crystal Blue

The Pipe Organ and Crystal Blue presets are in the preset library. Since the Fat H9 preset is pretty much stock I didn’t bother to upload it.

Pipe Organ: https://www.eventideaudio.com/community/presets/davebrubaker/pipeorgan

Crystal Blue: https://www.eventideaudio.com/community/presets/davebrubaker/crystals

My aplogies for not including an audio preview. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to record something soon. Curious to know what you all think.

 

 

 

 

[Given To Fly]

I think this is a good thread topic for several reasons:

1. It is music related rather than support related. The ratio of the two has always been lopsided.

2. I’m curious to know if any natural “synergies” occur when 3 algorithms are used in Series.

3. I’m curious if Eventide built-in “synergies” between certain algorithms.

For example, would a better multi-band distortion be achieved if all three H9’s focused on a different element of Sculpt? If less demand is placed on the 3 processors, perhaps the overall effect will benefit. That may not be how the H9’s work though. I suppose the idea is basically like gain-staging but instead of gain, you would be parameter-staging. Just throwin’ that out there…  

[brock]

Given To Fly wrote:

I think this is a good thread topic for several reasons:

1. It is music related rather than support related. The ratio of the two has always been lopsided.

2. I’m curious to know if any natural “synergies” occur when 3 algorithms are used in Series.

3. I’m curious if Eventide built-in “synergies” between certain algorithms.

Speaking to Given To Fly’s comments:

1.  Yes, it seems like it’s always been like that here, Mark.  I’m sympathetic to TS requests, not an RTFM guy at all, but sometimes … the answer is a few posts down, or right on top of the Search results.

2.  I really believe in that, although it might not be very pronounced at first glance.  I would think that – for the price of a few MIDI cables – everyone would be sync’ing multiple H9’s together to MIDI Clock.  Less obvious might be a series / parallel configuration.  It’s a hard sell to convince your average guitarist into a stereo setup.  But three H9’s in dual mono / stereo (with straight series connections both before & after the “parallel modules”) open up some amazing possibilities.  Again, for the price of a few patch cables.  I’ll go a lot deeper into this when I post some preset combinations.

3.  My first thought is that many of the algorithms have the same range of parameter values [SPEED / RATE; DEPTH; MIX].  Latched together to an expression pedal, or Aux / HotSwitch, offers another level of ‘sync’ between units.  Sometimes the ‘curve’ of those parameters isn’t exactly the same, but that’s another area to be exploited.  For example, the start & end points are the same, but the middle values drift into unusual morphing-type effects.

Given To Fly wrote:

… For example, would a better multi-band distortion be achieved if all three H9’s focused on a different element of Sculpt? If less demand is placed on the 3 processors, perhaps the overall effect will benefit. That may not be how the H9’s work though. I suppose the idea is basically like gain-staging but instead of gain, you would be parameter-staging. Just throwin’ that out there…

More of rack approach than pedalboard, but I’ve set up a stereo split before the three H9s.  All are in parallel (plus dry), and summed them out to a small stereo mixer under the ‘board.  There are mono effects in series before the split, and stereo beyond to a line mixer with sends to rack effects (two amps or FRFR).

The reason I go into all that is that your Sculpt example brought something to mind: it’s almost made for parallel.  I’ve created many more ‘bands’ by carving up the frequency spectrum into smaller slices.  Really unusual results; almost like hex pickups.  I broke down the parallel H9s now for some other testing.  Straight series is much more common, and it certainly has it’s charm for building up effects chains.

[Given To Fly]

brock wrote:

2.  I really believe in that, although it might not be very pronounced at first glance.  I would think that – for the price of a few MIDI cables – everyone would be sync’ing multiple H9’s together to MIDI Clock.  Less obvious might be a series / parallel configuration.  It’s a hard sell to convince your average guitarist into a stereo setup.  But three H9’s in dual mono / stereo (with straight series connections both before & after the “parallel modules”) open up some amazing possibilities.  Again, for the price of a few patch cables.  I’ll go a lot deeper into this when I post some preset combinations.

This thread has really made me think about quite a few things. Here are two:

MIDI – I used to teach guitar at a piano studio which was run by a 70-year-old grandmother. MIDI was a way of life for her because the studio used Clavinovas for most of the lessons. If you know how to use a Clavinova, you indirectly (or directly) become familiar with MIDI. MIDI integration is not inherently present in the electric guitar world. This does not mean guitarists cannot learn to implement it but they do need to be sold on the idea. Here is how (or one of many variations of how):

– Line up 3 H9’s in Series and out of sync.

– Using a MIDI Controller * to “Tap Tempo” all 3 H9’s in sync using 1 footswitch. (Mental lightbulbs will be turning On at this point!)

– Next, with the 3 H9’s set up to produce a clean guitar tone w/FX, a distorted guitar tone with FX, and a bizarre-sounding guitar tone with FX, scroll through each configuration using 1 button on the MIDI Controller to demonstrate the ability to control 3 H9’s with 1 foot and 1 footswitch. Something will need to be played on the guitar. (End the cycle on the clean guitar tone w/FX.) (Many lightbulbs!!!)

The reason this will work is you are demonstrating how MIDI can simplify their playing experience.

Displaying “amazing possibilities” without first demonstrating the simplification will scare most guitarists away. 

Rolodex Revelation – A Tubescreamer is equivilant to 1 recipe. An AxeFX III is equivilant to a big cookbook. The H9 is equivilant to a Rolodex of recipes. A Rolodex contains a tremendous amount of information but it can only be used one card at a time. 

 

[brock]

Apologies, davebrubaker. I haven’t auditioned these presets yet.  Looks like something I’d like … a ‘phat’ combination.  One important tactic I’ve seen from the screenshots is the conservative use of the MIX parameter.  This kind of approach is cumulative, and takes some tweaking & pre-planning.

There was a two-in-series stompbox thread here at one point.  It died on the vine, and I don’t want the same to happen to this thread.  At the time, I thought it was almost excessive to keep my PitchFactor & H9 Max on the pedalboard.  (One frequent poster contributed 4-H9 preset combinations).  I’ve since added two more H9s to the original PF / H9 Max.  I’ll bump with my own combos as time permits. 

[Given To Fly]

Upon first reading, this came to mind:

 

 

[Given To Fly]

I am looking forward to your Tri-H9 presets. If you could say a word or two about line mixers, that would be useful too. All the ideas I had involving parallel effects also involved an equal amount of amplifiers, which is expensive and impractical on many levels. 

[brock]

Tempting as it may be to veer off into the RPM discussion … 

I use my line mixers for parallel mix to stereo.  It’d be impractical for me (but cool, spatially) to go with more than two matched amps / stereo power amp.  I’ve experimented with W/D, W/D/W, but settled on L/R.  Flowcharting would be best here, but I’m working through some computer maintenence.

• I attempt to maintain the Dry* signal throughout.
• *Dry signal is really the mono FX chain before the stereo split [dirt, freeze, pitch shift, etc.]
• Many effects boxes (including Eventide) can be used as a splitter, depending on the jacks used.
• My ‘split to stereo’ is a little convoluted.  It ends up in 3 sets of L/R pairs to the three H9s.
• Those three sets of H9 outputs mix down to a stereo pair, using an RJM Mini Line Mixer.
• That stereo mix goes out to a small rack, two matched amps, and/or my home studio system.
• The L/R pedalboard mix can go straight to amps.  Main reasons for a 2nd (rack) line mixer:
• Plug in MIDI keyboards, send & receive to an MPX 1, dbx compressor / limiter, …

It’s something that I worked out as a relatively ‘plug ‘n’ play’ solution.  I can break it down fairly quickly for small venues, and it reintegrates back into the home studio with a minimum of re-cabling.  Please don’t ask about my MIDI routing scheme, though.  

[Given To Fly]

I had so many questions that the RJM Mini Line Mixer answers. Utilitarian products do not get much attention in the guitar world compared to say, fuzz pedals. 

[davebrubaker]

Thanks to all of you for the interest in this thread. I’m particularly excited that Brock’s joined the conversation. Your many posts and preset share’s have always been a source of inspiration. I have more combo patches to share. I’ve just been slammed at work. It may be a week or so before I get a chance to upload more.

Pretty psyched about the new Hotsawz algorithm. The description sounds really intriguing. https://www.facebook.com/delchambre/posts/10215572834530770

 

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