Members hangwire Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Hello M9 owners, I had a few questions and would like to hear your experiences/opinions: 1- how is the tuner? fast/slow/jumpy? 2- I know it has it's own adapter, but is the mA draw something that can be used with a Godlyke powerall daisy chain with 4 other pedals? I am assuming no, but wanted to ask. 3- is there an effect that does octave up and down at the same time with dry signal mixable in? If so, is it digital micropog octave or dirty octave multiplexor octave in tone? [by that I mean with a fuzz will it sound similar to a deep glitchy mxr blue box, or digitally sharp fizzy fuzz... 4- anyone compared the phaser to a small stone head to head? 5- overall, does it feel and sound good, or just good enough? [for example, most multis prior to the line6 _m-4 line were meh, but those sounded better... is this another step up, or lateral to say a DL-4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TechnicolorSkyline Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 tuner isn't all that great, at least compared to the Korg Pitchblack. I always kept the Korg on the board with the M9. Nope, you have to use the included adapter as far as I know. There is both an octave up/down only and an octave fuzz as well. Both are really glitchy which you may or may not like. Small Stone kills anything in the M9. M9 has close phase 90 patches, and the panned phase is really neat with two amps. Supposed to sound identical to the DL4, but it doesn't in many peoples opinion. I A/B'd them and the M9 sounded thinner, more digital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 30, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 more thin/digital as in that cheesy artifact tinny sound, or just not as much "oomphf" presence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TechnicolorSkyline Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 more thin/digital as in that cheesy artifact tinny sound, or just not as much "oomphf" presence? Definitely not as much "oomph". Not so much a tinny sound, just kind of thin... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 30, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 thanks for the info... too bad octaves are either up/down instead of both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 30, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Do any of the fuzz/dirt patches have a clean blend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members marchofflames Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 Do any of the fuzz/dirt patches have a clean blend? Nope. Just level for the effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Harry_Manback1 Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 The M9 is an excellent "Swiss army knife". It does alot of things well but excels at few. The tuner is more than adequate. Sub octave is great, and glitchy. Phase is decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HeartfeltDawn Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 The M9 is an excellent "Swiss army knife". It does alot of things well but excels at few. The tuner is more than adequate. Sub octave is great, and glitchy. Phase is decent. I'd agree with this. The chorus on the M9 is really disappointing for me. I don't think it's anywhere near as good as my favourite chorus unit (Yamaha SPX90). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 Hello M9 owners, I had a few questions and would like to hear your experiences/opinions:1- how is the tuner? fast/slow/jumpy? Reasonably fast, not jumpy, reasonably accurate. Not as accurate as my Peterson, harder to see at a distance, but then again, I don't have the best eyesight anymore. Probably fine for 95% of the people out there... the display is not great in bright sunlight though. 2- I know it has it's own adapter, but is the mA draw something that can be used with a Godlyke powerall daisy chain with 4 other pedals? I am assuming no, but wanted to ask. The adapter is included - a "line lump" style, 9V AC, 2000mA (2A) unit. I wouldn't recommend attempting to power it with a DC adapter, although it MIGHT work. I didn't feel like risking mine by attempting to power it with a 1Spot. 3- is there an effect that does octave up and down at the same time with dry signal mixable in? If so, is it digital micropog octave or dirty octave multiplexor octave in tone? [by that I mean with a fuzz will it sound similar to a deep glitchy mxr blue box, or digitally sharp fizzy fuzz... No, there is nothing that does octave up AND octave down simultaneously. You could set up an "octave fuzz" (Tycobrahe Octavia model) and the "sub octave fuzz" (PAiA Roctave Divider), but that would require you to use two different effects "units". 4- anyone compared the phaser to a small stone head to head? No, sorry. I haven't even owned a Small Stone since, I dunno - the early 80s? 5- overall, does it feel and sound good, or just good enough? [for example, most multis prior to the line6 _m-4 line were meh, but those sounded better... is this another step up, or lateral to say a DL-4 If you're familiar with the sound of the _M4 series, then you should have a pretty good idea of the sound of the M9, since the models in it are largely derived from the earlier stompbox modelers. I think it sounds very good, and it's a fun and convenient little multieffects unit. A few niggles aside (mainly wish list stuff concerning the looper), I think it really is a great little pedal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratedge09 Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 I like the delays in it, but I agree the DL4 sounded better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 I'd agree with this. The chorus on the M9 is really disappointing for me. I don't think it's anywhere near as good as my favourite chorus unit (Yamaha SPX90). That yamaha unit is the tabletop effect 80s one right? I think it would be primarly: 2nd delay with time on expression pedal, reverese delay, a droney reverb or compression patch, octavevoice box modulaterand a weird filter setting after going through it For those settings it sounds like it would be decent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 No, an SPX90 is a 12 bit, rackmount digital unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 Phil- could you expand on the niggles you alluded to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I like the filters on the M9 a lot. A couple of the delays are quite nice, as are some of the modulation effects. The reverbs are in general, very good - especially the "spacier / weirder" ones. The tube compressor is one of my favorite models in the unit. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members One Man Banned Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 You can pedal the M-9 with the Pedal Power AC. It's what I use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members plushpile Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 2- I know it has it's own adapter, but is the mA draw something that can be used with a Godlyke powerall daisy chain with 4 other pedals? I am assuming no, but wanted to ask. Yes, works fine. I use mine on a powerall daisy chain with 6 other 9v DC pedals and it works fine... I actually got less noise doing it this way too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Phil- could you expand on the niggles you alluded to? Sure. I'd like the looper to have a few features that it doesn't currently have. First of all, the tap tempo indicator glows solid when you're in loop mode. You can still tap in tempos for your time based effects (delays, modulation rates, etc.), but the flashing light is gone in loop mode. I wish it was still there. I understand why it isn't - it is being used to differentiate between the two modes; letting the user know which of the two the unit is in at a glance. If the LED changed color when in the different modes, IMO, it would accomplish the same thing in that regard, and could still "flash" to provide a visual indication of the current tapped tempo. Since the other LEDs on the other switches utilize multi colored LEDs, I'm kind of surprised by the use of a red only one on the tap tempo / loop button. I also wish the looper could be set to quantize the on / off points to note values. In other words, it would be nice if I had a 120 BPM tempo tapped in, and I hit the "Rec/Odub" button, it quantized the start of the loop to the nearest quarter note downbeat", based on that 120 BPM tempo. In order to do that, it would have to be constantly recording into a buffer, even prior to hitting the switch, so that's too much to ask for probably... but if it would do that on the back side - when you punch out of the loop, it would be nice IMO, and would allow you to get a precise loop length that corresponded to tempo easier without a "glitch" when it looped back around. As with most loopers of this type, you have to pretty much nail the in and out points if you want the loop to be seamless. My other main niggle pertains to the way effects units are selected. When you recall a scene, the first unit ("FX 1") is displayed (say, a compressor), and you have a modulation in effect unit 2 ("FX 2") and a delay going in effect 3, clicking on the illuminated button for effect 3 disables the effect. That makes sense and allows you to turn on or off each of the three units in any scene quickly... but since all three units share a display, and share controls for modifying / editing their parameters, if you want to select a effect - not to turn it off but just to access its controls, you actually wind up disabling it when you click the footswitch the first time, then have to click the switch a second time to re-enable it before you can begin to adjust things and hear what you're doing. If you're someone who is doing a lot of tweaking of parameters, it can be a bit annoying. What I would propose as a solution would be an option to reverse that behaviour in the setup menu... allowing you to have single footswitch clicks "select and display" a FX unit's parameters, and requiring a second click to disable that effect. That way, tweakers could select without disabling and "double tap" to turn off an effect, or people who primarily used scenes and wanted to just be able to turn things on / off with a single button push could stick with the current / default behaviour. Again - it's probably a non-issue for 90% of the people out there. But taken as a whole, it's really a cool unit. It sounds very good. You can toss it into a guitar gig bag's accessory pocket and grab a small amp and have all you need for small gigs in a very portable rig. The price is more than reasonable for what you get. The looper is better than many, and you can have three effects (plus a gate) going even while looping. It's really a well thought out product overall, and largely avoids the deep menu paradigm that ticks so many guitarists off - it's quite intuitive and easy to get to grips with quickly. It has a good tuner and several "scene" memory slots for storing your stuff... like I said, despite my niggles, there's a lot to like about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobalt-60 Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 To me the biggest missed opportunity would be not being able to assign entire scenes to the switches. To me, that'd be a lot more useful, because then you could switch in and out many fx in a single stomp, say a intro setting, then a bridge setting. Say, 4 patches, then the other two switches could toggle the looper, or switch to the next "song". I'm assuming it doesn't do that, I've been reading about it. It doesn't, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members plushpile Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 look up "latch scene mode", that might be what you're looking for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobalt-60 Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 look up "latch scene mode", that might be what you're looking for... Really? Dude, if it can do that, I'm so in. Can it go direct into a PA? All I need is a good, rich, mid gain Marshall sound and a warm clean. How's the ring mod? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members plushpile Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 I don't know about direct to PA, i've never tried it. Someone else might have. I haven't spent any time with the ring mod other than when I first got it and went through all the presets. There was a lot of control for it tho, so it's pretty tweekable if i remember rightly... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 To me the biggest missed opportunity would be not being able to assign entire scenes to the switches. To me, that'd be a lot more useful, because then you could switch in and out many fx in a single stomp, say a intro setting, then a bridge setting. Say, 4 patches, then the other two switches could toggle the looper, or switch to the next "song".I'm assuming it doesn't do that, I've been reading about it. It doesn't, right? As was previously mentioned "latch scene mode" is what you want. The default setting is "momentary scene mode"; in that mode, once you select a new scene, the parameters of the first effect in the chain are displayed a moment after you select a new scene. From there, you can activate / deactivate individual effects within that "scene". In Latch Scene mode, the six scenes remain on the LCD screen after you select a scene... it doesn't switch to displaying an individual effect's parameters, and the downside is that you can't adjust individual effect parameters at all in that mode - but you CAN jump from scene to scene - and thus recall three different effects (a whole "pedalboard" setup) at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Really? Dude, if it can do that, I'm so in. Can it go direct into a PA? All I need is a good, rich, mid gain Marshall sound and a warm clean. How's the ring mod? It's a pedalboard / multi-effects unit... it's not an "amp sim", and it doesn't have any speaker emulation onboard at all - so it isn't going to sound very good going straight into a PA system - at least not without some additional gear to go with it. Then again, running into a overdrive pedal, a modulation pedal and a delay pedal and then running those straight into a PA isn't usually going to sound very good either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ollenorin Posted July 31, 2010 Members Share Posted July 31, 2010 Has anyone measured how much mA the m9 draws? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.