Eventide H3500-DFX

I bought a GT-5 6 years ago ...it has to be tweeked also . I get a laugh out of these folks that don't like tweeking . Someday I'll own a eventide because I love good sound and enjoy tweeking .I've also read reviews of disgruntled GT-5 users . They have no patience . The ability to build a sonic value does not exist on all dsp's . I realize my GT-5 isn't eventide level ,however with practice many nice tones are possible . Someday I'll own the H3500 .

Eventide is the best there is ...work with the manual...start with your basic sound , add changes in small amounts ...

Eventide is the recording industry standard ...gig , backup ? These questions place you in a category that perhaps you should consider a lesser unit. See "Guitar Geek - Harmonizers " for full scoop on set-up information to visulize complexity of what you are asking. Live set-ups are not simple nor cheap . Pro's who do this don't sweat the price ...they demand the quality.

If you approach Eventide in a sensible manner your response should reflect the same . Like any person if you treat them with respect most of the time you will receive the same. Reviews all over attest to this truth.

Edward V.H. uses this and He sounds really good. He's the one that advised me to get the GT-5 if I couldn't afford the H3500 . It was good sound advice. Someday though , I'll have a H3500.

it is a great multi effect with tons of effects and great options and super high quality sounds, but its not easy to work out -it takes time to learn how to program and how to tweek things the way you want.

everything sounds cool-but it wont make you sound like the pros unless you use it like one- and that takes alot of practice and know-how

i advise to use the manual in order to get the best results.
this unit is a working horse -but you can get better results if you know all the options that are witten in the manual

i use it on every instrument i choose .
for me its a tweeking effect-to tweek my recording and to use as an additional effect

it has a unique sound that has that 80's-90's midrange that makes things seem bigger and more front -puts things infront of the mix.
its not noisy but it colors the sound -its a nice color but it might not fit every production that why i also have the DSP 4000 which is very clean.

the effects range from reverbs,chorus,delay,phasers,flangers.some dynamics, filters,pitch shifters and various post production and brodcasting effects (various noises and tones)

its works good and it is built good

i never upgraded it -

i am a musician and a sound engineer,i compose alot of types of music ranginf from avant-gaurde,techno,metal,noise,dark ambient,experimental,industrial and more.

i own tons of outboard gear (analog and digital,tube and solid state)
if it was stolen i whould be very sad and i will hope to find another
i use this unit alot


the price is not cheap but i am happy i put some saving on it.
i can"t recomend it to everyone because its not so easy to use and its price tag and its hard to find a good used unit.

this is terrible. all i want to do is figure out if the freaking sampling option can be used like a "realtime" midi looper (like an electrix repeater or line 6 echo pro)so i can loop live and control via midi foot controller. i've tried calling and calling eventide for literally over a year periodically on and off every week or 2 (like at least 40-50 times) at different times, and nobody even answers the phone! i finally emailed and got a reply! , but they don't want to help, they "no longer support the h3000 series" and i can buy a manual online for $35 plus shipping to find out and hope that its in there somewhere, or i can just buy one and dick around with it to try to figure it out (like i have $1500 to just throw down on a whim of hope)if anyone can answer this please post to this review site. why can't eventide just be a good company and list all their manuals for free download on their website? (like rocktron having manuals for discontinued products from over a decade ago)dont you people have any pride in your legacy and care about helping customers? Almost all you questions could be answered from your manuals if there worth anything and you would be less busy also. why do you have to buy one for $35, i mean, these things cost like $1500 used! from the sale of just 1 brand new one they could keep their site running for a long long time, (especially if they took the profit of just 1 h8000 !) i'm sure they are great and i remember momentarily using one in a studio and it sounded good, but this jerk around the customer and suck in every little penny with no support sucks. even if this does do what i want i would be terrified if it ever broke as it would probably never get fixed cause i could never contact anyone and it would probably cost a thousand dollars to fix anything on it, even a little knob i'll bet. Eventide, your whole attitude towards business, support, common sense, and doing whats right just sucks, so i'm going to boycott you and actively try to bring down your reputation from now on. this is fucking rediculous you pieces of shit. god damn you to hell! how's that for a rant! just kidding eventide, but seriously , i still do not know if this thing will realtime loop? why is it so hard to figure out? why can 't you get off your ass and look in the manual for me? what the hell! i guess eventide only wants business and props from rich people who don't have a musical vision and just need another chorus or pitch to add to the collection. don't worry i'll quit bitching now. bastards

I have figured out how to work it without the manual.

It has 800 pre-sets, but each pre-set is based upon 1 of 23 base Algorithims.

Think of it like walking up to a guys pedal board that has 10 stomp boxes on it. Now imagine 23 pedal boards each with a varying number of effects, but no 2 the same.

When you pick a pre-set, it is based upon an algorythym (like picking one of the 23 pedal boards).

You might have 10 pre-sets, which are all based upon the EXACT same algorythym. Which is just like tweaking a particular pedal board a particular way, and then leaving it at those settings, but then being able to push a button and all the knobs automatically go to new settings. Sounds different, but is based upon the same underlying chain of effects.

If each pedal on the board has 4 knobs, you then have 40 adjustments you could make to the pedal board, including turning each pedal on and off, plus varying the individual intensity.

With the Eventide, the "Algorithym" is like a particular board, and each knob on each individual pedal, is a "parameter" that has to be adjusted. So you pick a pre-set and have to work through each "parameter" one by one, just like you would if you were working with a pedal board with 10 pedals and 40 knobs. Would you think that is hard?

People that have a problem understanding the Eventide, can't grasp the concept that each "parameter" is just like turning a knob on a stomp box on a board that might have 10 pedals.

Sure, it takes some time, just like tweaking a 10 pedal board would, but it's really no different.

It can be complicated, but not hard.

Its an Eventide, what more do I have to say.

Let me dispel a myth. You aren't going to plug into one of these and sound like magic. You have to tweak it, just like a pedal board to get the best sounds out of it.

It takes time. Deal with it.

It is a "processor", so it takes what you feed it, modifys it, and spit it out. Crap in = crap out.

This is not a magic carpet that will turn you into Steve Vai.

It is set up to run at +4 decibels (pro-audio board) levels. It has jumpers inside that can be set to -10 db (guitar effects loop)

It works best running from the FX send of a mixer back into the board, not as a direct "effects loop" box.

You have to use the right cables, XLR to 1/4 balanced out of the FX send, and XLR back into the XLR of the mixer or XLR back into 1/4 balanced into the mixer.

If you use "unbalanced" cables, it doesn't sound right and can damage the unit.

You can get XLR to 1/4 balanced cables at most decent guitar stores.

OUT OF THE 800 PRE-SETS, a bunch are of no use to a guitarist.

But remeber there are actually only 23 Algorythyms. Just find a pre-sets using those algorithims, and tweak and tweak. If you can't get it to sound like you want, finding another pre-set which uses the same underlying algorithym isn't going to help.

I'm going to keep it and am happy I bought it, but I can see that I could play with it for months before I wring out all the possibilities.

When I first got it, I thought I had made a huge mistake, but I have played with it enough, to figure out I just didn't know what I was doing at first.

It took me 4 days to get one pre-set adjusted to the point where I felt like it sounded right (not 4 days on that one pre-set alone) four days of messing around till I finnally found one I liked after all the tweaking.

I bought my unit used and it is 10 years old and works fine.

Quite helpful, and you can join Eventide helps on yahoo for more information.

Plan on spending a month or two figuring it out.

If you can't find some usefull effects in here, you need serious help.