How would you rank the H9 plugins?

[rod_zero]

Interested to know which ones people consider the best and the worst of the bundle or the meh! "i don't care",

[jamcat]

Best:
Blackhole
ShimmerVerb
TriceraChorus
MicroPitch
Crystals
Spring

Meh:
Undulator
MangledVerb
CrushStation
RotaryMod
UltraTap

[ChamomileShark]

I agree with most of the above but I've not found Spring very inspiring..I do use Ultratap quite alot.

[HAL76]

I´d say sugar. Really.

[dionenoid]

1 - Blackhole
2 - Mangledverb

I demoed others but didn't buy, so that says enough

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I really like Blackhole. I think Micropitch is great if you don't already have plugins that do that. Their ShimmerVerb is ok but not better than Irid or ValhallaShimmer, and I don't use Shimmer that much anyway. Micropitch does that Micropitch chorus sound very well. Tricerachrous does it's thing.

The others are just too weird for me if I'm being honest. Mangelverb? No thanks. Ultratap. Nope. Undulator. Thanks, but not for me. Don't think much of their Spring (but algorithmic springs are hard - I still think convolution wins there).

I've got an Eventide Space hardware pedal, and it's got Room and Hall algorithms that haven't made their way to the H9 collection that would make fine additions IMO. I think in general, the H9 stuff is just on the weird of end of the spectrum, which isn't where I work. But I bet lots of folks love some of those plugins for that very reason.

[jamcat]

Yeah, Spring was a hard one that didn’t really fit into either group. That’s why I put it at the bottom of “Best.”

Ultimately, my logic was that it is good at what it does, so if you ever needed an algorithmic spring reverb, it’s a good one to go with. You just probably won’t ever need an algorithmic spring reverb.

The order I put them in is also significant, starting with the best of the best, and the most meh of the meh.

[yellowmix]

Keep in mind they originate from a guitar pedal perspective, so it's all about knobs. They're non-linear, meaning they're tuned to give the most play where the most useful results are. Twisting a knob can change what other knobs do, and do drastically different things based on position (particular knobs with negative values). The best aspect of this is all parameters are live-adjustable, many continuously. So if you like performing FX/knob twisting worth looking at them all.

Blackhole is one of the most unique and normal ones but demo it to see if it's useful for your music. While you can adjust it to get "microreverbs" for ambience (which are plenty good), its strength is in large-space (much bigger than hall) blooming reverbs.

I will explain Undulator. It's a tremolo and delay so it's not competing directly against straightforward tremolos. What it's really good for is adding motion to instruments with sustain/decay like guitar, keys, and pads since the delay puts the buffer through the tremolo as well. It may not sound exciting but once you start modulating the tremolo it gets more interesting. Then set it to envelope or other triggers so it swells on each note. Also note Slow/Fast can be held for a "brake" effect.

Similarly, Ultratap is not a normal delay. For example, the Length knob isn't the delay time, it's how long the number of Taps have to do their thing. So again, it's geared toward sustain/decay sounds where the taps can bloom or rush. Slurm pitch-modulates and diffuses taps to smear them, and Chop is a tremolo to further shape the delay line. So you need to put yourself in a different mindset. Think of how many taps you want and how they are all spaced and gained relative to each other (as opposed to a traditional feedback delay where each tap depends on the previous one).

Micropitch is closer to a traditional delay, funnily enough. But a very specific effect. Good for thickening sounds.

RotaryMod, Crushstation, MangledVerb, TVerb are all about texture and motion once you get outside the "normal" usage. How many of these types of plugins do you really need. So they can be too specific depending on the type of material you are putting it on. If you're using an acoustic instrument then you may want as many options as possible. If you're synth-based then you would program your patch to be more interesting. But I will say these can still have their place due to the immediate and performance workflow.

It helps tremendously to read the manuals (or watch the official walkthrough videos) as many of the plugins are not typical. Peruse the presets; they're very good and cover a wide range of use-cases. If you want to make your own presets then they can be studied. Use Mixlock when browsing presets to lock the Mix knob if using as an insert.

The other positive is the GUIs are all very similar so if you are used to one new ones are familiar. "Info" usefully opens up the manual. The Ribbon has two states you can morph multiple parameters between. They all have an Active button to bypass.

[martiu]

1.Sp2016 - amazing reverb with short tails on drums, i just love this thing.
2.BlackHole - great for dark drones and pads, lush reverb most suited for long evolving stuff
3.Crystals - unconventional FX i like to put on granular synths to get weird sparkles out of them

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Keep in mind they originate from a guitar pedal perspective, so it's all about knobs. They're non-linear, meaning they're tuned to give the most play where the most useful results are. Twisting a knob can change what other knobs do, and do drastically different things based on position (particular knobs with negative values). The best aspect of this is all parameters are live-adjustable, many continuously. So if you like performing FX/knob twisting worth looking at them all.

Blackhole is one of the most unique and normal ones but demo it to see if it's useful for your music. While you can adjust it to get "microreverbs" for ambience (which are plenty good), its strength is in large-space (much bigger than hall) blooming reverbs.

I will explain Undulator. It's a tremolo and delay so it's not competing directly against straightforward tremolos. What it's really good for is adding motion to instruments with sustain/decay like guitar, keys, and pads since the delay puts the buffer through the tremolo as well. It may not sound exciting but once you start modulating the tremolo it gets more interesting. Then set it to envelope or other triggers so it swells on each note. Also note Slow/Fast can be held for a "brake" effect.

Similarly, Ultratap is not a normal delay. For example, the Length knob isn't the delay time, it's how long the number of Taps have to do their thing. So again, it's geared toward sustain/decay sounds where the taps can bloom or rush. Slurm pitch-modulates and diffuses taps to smear them, and Chop is a tremolo to further shape the delay line. So you need to put yourself in a different mindset. Think of how many taps you want and how they are all spaced and gained relative to each other (as opposed to a traditional feedback delay where each tap depends on the previous one).

Micropitch is closer to a traditional delay, funnily enough. But a very specific effect. Good for thickening sounds.

RotaryMod, Crushstation, MangledVerb, TVerb are all about texture and motion once you get outside the "normal" usage. How many of these types of plugins do you really need. So they can be too specific depending on the type of material you are putting it on. If you're using an acoustic instrument then you may want as many options as possible. If you're synth-based then you would program your patch to be more interesting. But I will say these can still have their place due to the immediate and performance workflow.

It helps tremendously to read the manuals (or watch the official walkthrough videos) as many of the plugins are not typical. Peruse the presets; they're very good and cover a wide range of use-cases. If you want to make your own presets then they can be studied. Use Mixlock when browsing presets to lock the Mix knob if using as an insert.

The other positive is the GUIs are all very similar so if you are used to one new ones are familiar. "Info" usefully opens up the manual. The Ribbon has two states you can morph multiple parameters between. They all have an Active button to bypass.

This post explains why I never clicked with so many of these. I just don't "get" them. I know Undulator is some kind of weird tremolo but why? What's it good at? How do things work? What's the utility in that? Same for UltraTap. I appreciate Eventide is doing something outside of the norm, but I just never got good results out of them.

[jamcat]

Tverb and SP2016 aren't in the H9 bundle.

They are both great plugins, though. Especially Tverb. All reverbs should be designed like that.

[telecharge]

I will explain...

Shout out to @yellowmix. I appreciate your thoughtful and informative posts here and on reddit.

[Plugintester]

I like Rotary Mod and Blackhole