Bill Arsenault
Inspired
So disappointing to me to realize that the H90 really is not much more than 2 H9‘s.
I don’t necessarily think it’s an embarrassment and a joke-
that would just be rude to anyone who needed and bought one and foolish in general.
But I dont know what to think Now.
When I seen the price and what it looked like and heard how good it sounded I figured it had to be closer to the Eventide Eclipse which is their 2 decades old entry-level rack unit.
Or better yet I was hoping that the H90 naming meant it had a few legit effects from the H9000.
I totally forgot about the H9 because I always knew better than to buy one of those things-
The pedal effects are totally different watered-down versions of the rack-unit effects-
I don’t care what Eventide tries to imply I have played all of their effects side by side because all the pedal effects were mostly all included in the Eclipse.
The rack effects tend to have much more info coming out of the speakers than their pedal effects-
which only makes sense but they want you to think your getting some of the same effects from their classic rack line-up.
I never stopped to think for a second that the H90 was only going to essentially be two H9’s in one box.
Like wtf.
The Eclipse is really nice-
it sounds un-real and is pretty much indestructible.
But it has a 20 year old tech front-panel interface that sucks really bad if you intend to use it a lot outside of a studio-
as in your guitar rig.
And it still had no official editor when I sold mine a few years ago or whatever and bought the FM3.
Also-the Eclipse works best as a studio tool despite some deceptive marketing late in the game when Fractal released the Axe-Fx.
It’s definitely a waste of time and money if used in mono in the effects loop of an amplifier.
As with most stereo rack-effects an output to a stereo power amp is much more preferable and the input should be from a miked-up guitar cab in isolation or a mixing console and not instrument level signals.
It’s certainly not built primarily for guitarist which is what I was hoping and figuring what the H90 had to be-
a guitar players pedal styled version of the Eventide Eclipse single-space rack unit which would have been amazing and long over-due.
Fractals mono guitar effects are much better than Eventides.
Eventide still cannot do anything resembling a decent authentic overdrive but that’s not their thing so it’s understandable-
while Fractal has almost endless amazing options.
Fractals stereo effects are going to be amazing and probably even better for %99 of straight forward guitar playing.
Its only when you start running multiple stereo effects simultaneously on top of everything else that I still feel it’s only natural I can get even better results with a bit more clarity, separation and quality with a dedicated Eventide effects unit.
But that’s just my perspective and possibly the few people that use the really complex stuff that most people don’t incorporate into their music.
I went directly from the Eclipse to the FM3 and there was a noticeable difference back then in what I heard coming out of the speakers when stacking and layering serious amounts of stereo effects and I still feel like that’s probably the case.
I have been thru every stereo effects heavy Fractal Preset multiple times and had to de-construct most of them to restore the dry signal to my preference-
granted many of them are designed to be only %100 wet so I try to start from scratch now that I have a better idea of what’s going on in the presets and how I can achieve the changes I want.
But in general I did find it a bit easier to successfully keep the dry signal clearly intact on top of stacks of multiple stereo effects using an Eventide-
regardless of whatever routing I use for the amp/cab blocks on the FM3 grid.
Bottom line is that i fucked-up my info in assuming that the H90 is much more than 2 H9’s.
If anyone still wants any of the legit Eventide effects with a modern interface and editor then they will still need 7k for the H9000 which is insane-
or hook-up with the widow of a recently deceased H9000 owner which is my only hope.
That is kinda embarrassing and a joke to be honest-
for me and for Eventide both.
I don’t necessarily think it’s an embarrassment and a joke-
that would just be rude to anyone who needed and bought one and foolish in general.
But I dont know what to think Now.
When I seen the price and what it looked like and heard how good it sounded I figured it had to be closer to the Eventide Eclipse which is their 2 decades old entry-level rack unit.
Or better yet I was hoping that the H90 naming meant it had a few legit effects from the H9000.
I totally forgot about the H9 because I always knew better than to buy one of those things-
The pedal effects are totally different watered-down versions of the rack-unit effects-
I don’t care what Eventide tries to imply I have played all of their effects side by side because all the pedal effects were mostly all included in the Eclipse.
The rack effects tend to have much more info coming out of the speakers than their pedal effects-
which only makes sense but they want you to think your getting some of the same effects from their classic rack line-up.
I never stopped to think for a second that the H90 was only going to essentially be two H9’s in one box.
Like wtf.
The Eclipse is really nice-
it sounds un-real and is pretty much indestructible.
But it has a 20 year old tech front-panel interface that sucks really bad if you intend to use it a lot outside of a studio-
as in your guitar rig.
And it still had no official editor when I sold mine a few years ago or whatever and bought the FM3.
Also-the Eclipse works best as a studio tool despite some deceptive marketing late in the game when Fractal released the Axe-Fx.
It’s definitely a waste of time and money if used in mono in the effects loop of an amplifier.
As with most stereo rack-effects an output to a stereo power amp is much more preferable and the input should be from a miked-up guitar cab in isolation or a mixing console and not instrument level signals.
It’s certainly not built primarily for guitarist which is what I was hoping and figuring what the H90 had to be-
a guitar players pedal styled version of the Eventide Eclipse single-space rack unit which would have been amazing and long over-due.
Fractals mono guitar effects are much better than Eventides.
Eventide still cannot do anything resembling a decent authentic overdrive but that’s not their thing so it’s understandable-
while Fractal has almost endless amazing options.
Fractals stereo effects are going to be amazing and probably even better for %99 of straight forward guitar playing.
Its only when you start running multiple stereo effects simultaneously on top of everything else that I still feel it’s only natural I can get even better results with a bit more clarity, separation and quality with a dedicated Eventide effects unit.
But that’s just my perspective and possibly the few people that use the really complex stuff that most people don’t incorporate into their music.
I went directly from the Eclipse to the FM3 and there was a noticeable difference back then in what I heard coming out of the speakers when stacking and layering serious amounts of stereo effects and I still feel like that’s probably the case.
I have been thru every stereo effects heavy Fractal Preset multiple times and had to de-construct most of them to restore the dry signal to my preference-
granted many of them are designed to be only %100 wet so I try to start from scratch now that I have a better idea of what’s going on in the presets and how I can achieve the changes I want.
But in general I did find it a bit easier to successfully keep the dry signal clearly intact on top of stacks of multiple stereo effects using an Eventide-
regardless of whatever routing I use for the amp/cab blocks on the FM3 grid.
Bottom line is that i fucked-up my info in assuming that the H90 is much more than 2 H9’s.
If anyone still wants any of the legit Eventide effects with a modern interface and editor then they will still need 7k for the H9000 which is insane-
or hook-up with the widow of a recently deceased H9000 owner which is my only hope.
That is kinda embarrassing and a joke to be honest-
for me and for Eventide both.
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