Since placing classic jazz, rock, pop and church organ sounds at the feet of guitar players with the release of its impressive B9 organ machine in 2014, EHX has expanded the 9 range to include more organ sounds, some piano tones and even a Mellotron tape replay machine. Now the company has added synth sonics to its 9 Family with the development of the Synth9 synthesizer machine, which is designed to give guitarists access to the kinds of synth sounds made famous by Kraftwerk, Joy Division, P-Funk, Peter Gabriel and more.
The Synth9 has a similar aesthetic, uses the same technology and is about the same size as other members of the 9 Family of keyboard instrument stomps. To the right is a nine-position rotary switch for selecting classic synth sounds including OBX, Profit V, Mood Bass and Poly VI. Above that is a row of four knobs for Dry (guitar only) and Synth effects level control, and two more for mastering presets.
The system has a reported tracking range running from an open A string on a bass guitar right up to the 23rd fret of a high E string on and electric six string, and the advantage of this synth in a stomp approach is that there's no need to modify the guitar or bass plugged into the Synth9 machine, nor do players have to attach special pickups or cook in some MIDI magic.
The EHX Synth9 will be available from the end of next month for a street price of US$221.30, and will come boxed with a power supply. You can hear the kinds of sounds on offer in the promo video below.
If you want many more synth sounds at your disposal and don't mind a computer being in the middle of the sonic action, we'd recommend giving the TriplePlay system from Fishman a whirl.
Source: EHX