Electro-Harmonix Synth 9

The key to classic synth sounds

Electro-Harmonix is continuing its quest to usurp ivory ticklers

You 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 different synth sounds in total, and vintage sounds from the 70s and 80s is the order of the day. You’ll find 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.