Electro-Harmonix Synth 9
ToTal GuiTar september 2017
104
Y
ou might have noticed
over the last decade every
hipster and his
moustache are tripping
over themselves to get
their hands on a synth. Now,
nobody wants to be that guitar
player who sets up a keyboard next
to their rig while their guitar lays
redundant for a middle eight. In
response Electro-Harmonix is
continuing its quest to usurp ivory
ticklers by giving us synth and
keyboard sounds in a pedal. As
with the other ‘9’ series pedals,
you plug your guitar in and the
pedal tracks the incoming signal to
trigger your sound.
There are nine dierent synth
sounds in total, and vintage
sounds from the 70s and 80s is the
order of the day. You’ll nd
approximations of models, such as
the Oberheim OBX, Mini Moog,
Arp String Ensemble, Korg Poly
Six, alongside some EHX originals.
The Synth 9 reacts polyphonically
to your guitar’s incoming signal,
giving you the option to output a
blend of your dry and synth sounds
via the synth out. As usual with
pedals of this nature, it stands and
falls on the tracking, but EHX has
made sure that the pitch
recognition is great and latency is
kept to a minimum.
Sound-wise, it lends itself most
favourably to big 80s-sounding
chord pads as well as funky 70s
mono synth runs, but it’s not
just limited to throwback novelties
either, with the Synth 9 producing
some aggressive synthy/square
sounds when you pair it with some
gain on the output.
Whether or not this pedal is for
you will largely come down to the
type of music you’re playing. But
the Synth 9 joins the Hammond
organ-aping B9 as our favourite of
EHX’s nine series.
Stuart Williams
ElEctro-Harmonix SyntH 9
The key to classic synth sounds
Type: Vintage synth
modeller
ConTrols: Dry vol,
synth vol, 2x controls,
synth select
soCkeTs: Input, synth
out, dry out
Bypass: Buffered
power: PSU (included)
ConTaCT: Electro
Harmonix, www.ehx.
comw
at a GlancE
£ 205
ElEctro-Harmonix iS continuinG
itS quESt to uSurp ivory ticklErS
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ovErall ratinG
SuMMarY
valuE for monEy
Build quality
fEaturES
Sound quality
uSaBility
TGR297.gear_quick.indd 104 16/08/2017 14:10