Is The Eventide H9000 Worth $7,000?

I finally get to answer the question that's plagued me for years.

H9000 at Perfect Circuit (also, this month save 10% by using coupon code "BENN10"):

#proaudio #musicmaking #musicproduction

Timespamts:
0:00 - What it is
4:35 - Emote and VSIG
6:53 - Instrument Demos
10:14 - Modular Synth
12:10 - 3 Units, 1 Algorithm (Reverb Test)
15:21 - Epilogue

[ThePlodger]

I have had an H9000 for a few months now. I can totally agree. I use mine via ADAT to one of my three UAD Apollo interfaces, and it’s been totally rock solid for me. Emote works great, and used as a VST plugin gives total recall. It’s not my first Eventide, I had a DSP4000 before this, but the H9000 is in a completely different league. On the subject of the axe fx, I also have one (the mk 2 version), which I also love. The H9000 doesn’t replace it, because the Axe Fx is really well set up as a guitar/bass front end. Feed one into the other though…

Yes it was spendy. But it’s done more for me than dropping that amount of money on another synth would ever have done.

[ionnera]

Many artists who bought their H3500/DSP4000's in the early 90s are still using them without issues...

[murat_buyuk]

Got the H9000R about 2 months ago. OMG ... it is so creative to work with it, while it ALWAYS sounds awesome. It's hard to get not lost in it ;)

[atlantaguitar]

Might be reasonable as long as 1) you really need that level of parallelism on a sustained basis and 2) you can recover costs through use. I suppose that if there is some potential career defining creative breakthrough which you think might be more easily achieved by this unit than with something cheaper - then maybe. But I would still argue for the need to get charge-back income via production work. GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is indeed a thing. Not saying this would fall into that category but I've certainly made pricey hardware purchases that I later regretted because it became obsolete before I could get back the money.

[JayTheLane]

For us paupers Valhalla DSP make the free Supermassive Reverb/Delay/Modulation vst/Au3. It’s amazing. That coupled with Little Plate from Soundtoys gives me all the ambience I need.

[ToyKeeper]

H9000 in a nutshell: It can turn a fart into art. Hell, it can turn 16 farts into an orchestra. But... not many people actually need to do that on a regular enough basis to justify spending a few grand on it.

[amptechron]

Just repaired an H3000, and while I was skeptical of the cost (used $2000+), I was also amazed, so the H9000 must be out of this world....

[hubertvancalenbergh]

I'm interested in this machine because of Robert Fripp, who uses two of them (I think one of them is a spare) for his impressive soundscapes. His delays are impossibly long.

[ericjohnson]

I didn't have any issues setting up mine. I actually bought the MADI interface card so it could talk to my RME. It took me a while to figure out how to use those 32 channels - but the H9000 does it as long as you don't use too many algorithms at once. In any case it's a beast and has phenomenal sound quality. Absolutely worth it.

[SyntheticFuture]

How to become an amazing ambient guitarist:

Eventide OctaVox -> Eventide Blackhole -> play 1 note.

Done. You are now a ambient guitar player!

[zmix]

Excellent demonstration..! I've had an H9000 for several years and have to say that there is really nothing like it on the market, and the updates have been significant. As for the price, consider the historical prices of other cutting-edge professional DSP hardware, such as the EMT 250 digital reverb (over $20, 000 in 1976 - equal to $95, 958.88 in 2021), Lexicon 224 ($7, 800 in 1978 with only 2 reverb algos), Publison Infernal Machine ($20k), Sony DRE-2000 reverb ($15, 000 in 1981), etc... (also at 6:30, the word you're looking for is "monaural")

[caleykelly]

I'll have to admit, my reptile brain made me drool a bit over this a few times. Then I slapped myself. I don't really see the need for a hardware based effect device with this complexity in this day and age in 99.9% of situations. I can see if you are with a touring act, this would be a great way to travel light and put the board on the rider. Or if you had a studio that was charging hundreds or thousands per hour and couldn't deal with any down time. Outside of those two situations, I can't see not being able to create similar results with a well equipped computer and interface, which you need anyhow under most circumstances.
Is there a list of comparable software somewhere? I personally am getting a tonne of mileage out of my soundtoys bundle.
Thanks Ben informative and entertaining as usual.
Cheers.

[joesalyers]

I see these boxes integrated with live digital mixers since most of those concentrate on the EQ compression and the reverb/delay/modulation effects always leave something to be desired or they take up valuable slots you need for more DSP intensive effects like a better compressor for the lead vocals and so on. The digital connectivity is nice as well since you can pretty much hook it up to anything but 8 grand for a 4x4 single algorithm per core, ARM system is a bit dated in 2022/2023. But 90% of the things you can do with the H9000 can be done with an iPad Pro utilizing AUM and the Eventide plugins, (I've seen the more budget minded live engineers do this) All of the H9 plugins are available for the iPad at $9 each and AUM is a live audio routing software that costs like $5 so it can be done. So for about $1500 you can do everything 16 H9s can do maybe more depending on you iPad model and interface i/o. But the H9000 does do things that can't be replicated otherwise and the routing advantages are nice. So it just depends on if you are budget minded or price doesn't matter to you. Good video Cheers!

[jmsiener]

I want the episode of Benn in a massive ball pit having the time of his life.

[sixdonuts]

This is really a pro recording/mixing studio product but if you have the cash it would certainly nice to have. The 9000R seems like a nice less expensive option.

[yvesbajulaz]

Sounds so nice… nothing like dedicated hardware… the screen one is more future proof… regardless what happens it still will be usable… not os locked…

[miltonalmonte]

Love that sound it’s almost out of this world

[daneguitarist]

7:54 is that inception, dammmmn that was sick dude! hell yeah

[GingerDrums]

Quick answer: that depends on two factors:
1) how much money you expect to make from the difference it made to your music relative to more affordable and convenient plugin options
2) how much surplus enjoyment you got from the hardware workflow and the difference that made to your music relative to affordable and convenient plugin options *Edited for less ambiguity*

[phfatband]

Benn Jordann "H9000 might be the most expensive fx processer ever made"
The EMT 250 (which cost 20000USD at launch in 1976) "AM I A JOKE TO YOU?"