Line 6 M9 vs analogue pedals

[Axe-Man]

I'm building myself a decent small(ish) pedalboard and I'm stuck deciding over whether I go M9 or spend potentially more money and get some quality pedals if they will do the job 'better' than the M9.

I currently have: Carl Martin Plexitone, Wobo relay looper, Suhr Riot and Shiba, Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire and Mk 4.23 Boost on a Pedal Train Jnr which I'm about to upgrade to a PT2.

I don't need any drive models or boosts etc and would pretty much use the M9 for gate, tuner, reverb, tremelo and maybe delay/chorus/flanger etc on rare occasions...so these last few FX aren't really needing to be considered but it is a bonus with the M9.

If I get an Empress Trem or a Red Witch Pentavocal and a TC Hall of Fame rev, will I notice the difference over the M9?

Is a TC Poly tuner or Pitch Black 'better'?

I own a HD500 and it has a decent spring reverb, op trem, gate and tuner so the M9 should be just as good.

Overall, will the 'real' pedals sound noticably better and are they worth spending alot more money on for way fewer FX?

If there is any tonesuck going on with the M9, I will throw it through its own loop (Wobo) and I can then easily exclude it with a click...so if 'tone suck' occurs, it can be managed...as long as it's not terrible! (I find the HD500 pretty good as far as transparency goes when it's setup correctly - had major issues early on though)

Ultimately, 4 analogue pedals will cost me more than the M9 costs for 100FX but it may just be worth it.

Anyone else been in this situation?

[weshunter]

M9 has true bypass so there shouldn't be tone suck

i think the M9 would be just right for your needs - as long as you aren't counting on the drives, i think you'll be really happy with it

[RockDC]

I had the same issue 6 months ago... Besides Drive I use high quality: Delay, Tremolo, Phaser, Wah, Tuner. I decided to take a leap and do the M9 to save space on my board. Drives SUCK!!! Delay is decent, Tremolo is lacking some, Chorus is good, Phaser is lacking, Wah's are difficult to tweak.

That is my brutal opinion but... I don't use mod that much. All those effects are definitely useable and in a live scenario hardly noticeable. So with that, I'd say its worth the risk to pick one up used and play with it... there is a large learning curve and you will need to spend the time tweaking. I also found it reacts very differently depending on the guitar.

[drbob1]

I'm debating getting another one for my church board. Right now I've got decent quality stuff on there but I'm finding I don't have a convenient way to go from dotted 8th delays, to straight quarters except to add a 3rd delay (one for solos/effects and one for ambience), at which point it would have been less expensive to just go with the M9. I found most of the mod stuff to be pretty good, delays and reverbs were fine. Drives were awful (got lost as soon as I kicked them on, lost in the mix). Filters and wahs were pretty tough to get a sound like a simple crybaby.

[DigitalHater]

I've never found the modeling pedals to be comparable against analog single pedals. If all you want is an all in one, with a whole bunch of "pretty good" options, I think it would work great.
I am of the opinion that I would rather be limited in options, but have pedals that give me 1 GREAT sound versus a bunch of workable sounds. Line 6 has come a long way, I keep finding myself debating the DL4, but when I come home from the store and use my actual analog DM2, there's no comparison. My pedal doesn't have tap tempo, delay times don't go nearly as long, no presets, yadda yadda. It sounds freaking perfect at what it does though.
-If I was going on tour, I'd probably do the switch, these things are way less important in a live context, but in the studio, at my house, I just want it to sound the way I want it.

[goodgodsey]

I had an M13, and I was very surprised by the quality of the drive models. However, when I A/B'd the M13 vs. my reverb pedal (Neunaber WET) and my delay pedals (Boss DD-20, DMM) I noticed a substantial difference. The M13 just wasn't as rich and lively as the other pedals. I found it noteworthy that this applied to the comparison between the M13 and my DD-20, which is also digital. The DD-20 just sounded better, fuller, richer, and crisper.

The M-series pedals are great, but I ultimately concluded that they aren't as good as the real thing. They'll get you maybe 80-90% there. And for me, I decided that the extra 10-20% was enough to justify buying the real things.

I do miss the looper though...as well as the flexibility of being able to call up ANY effect I can dream of...

[Theroyalconsort]

Hey look this is a simple one.

The M9 is alot of toys for not much money.

Of course the real pedals will sound better. BUT the flexability of any multi effects is vertually impossible to match with individual pedals.

You need to ask yourself one question.

What do I want.
50 additional damned good sounds or
5 increadible ones.

Both are pefectly reasonable answers depending on what you are doing.

[rsm]

I faced a similar decision awhile back.

I had a Nova System, got the M9 (used for 9 months) and went back to the Nova System. I was digging the Nova System enough that I considered building a board with the Nova pedals (long before the Tone Print pedals were rumored) to get the full features of the Nova Series not included in the Nova System. I already owned / used a Nova Drive as my main OD/Dist.

By the time I added the cost of a complete Nova series pedal board (without including the cost of a custom looper / pedal board controller, just the Nova pedals), it was close to, if not higher than, the G-System.

I got the G-System.

Very happy with my Nova System and G-System.

YMMV

[guitarboogie]

It seems that you have a pretty good arsenal of pedals right there. I think you (if you can) buy the M9 for the chorus and delay, maybe phasing, if you use it. I have a Line 6 POD xt Live and what I do is connect it to the return of my Laney GHL 50 head fx return and use the amp modeling for distortion. In terms of distortion (excuse the redundancy), I don't like the drive modeling of Line 6, so I use the amp modeling distortion (Marshall, Soldano) and then program the chorus and delays. For drive, I use an analog pedal like a boost or TS9. It is a good setup for gigs on the fly.

I'm rebuilding my old analog pedalboard, for those gigs that have an amp on site.

[Axe-Man]

Hey look this is a simple one.

The M9 is alot of toys for not much money.

Of course the real pedals will sound better. BUT the flexability of any multi effects is vertually impossible to match with individual pedals.

You need to ask yourself one question.

What do I want.
50 additional damned good sounds or
5 increadible ones.

Both are pefectly reasonable answers depending on what you are doing.

That is exactly where I am at present.

The main things I want are gate, tuner, reverb and trem.

I'm guessing a gate is not quite a gate but one advantage is that you can change scenes on the M9 and have it setup for clean, mid gain and high gain where with a stomp gate, you have to tweak it for your crazy high gain antics after using it for cleans etc.

A tuner is a tuner...if it works it works.

So it's really down to how much better the Trem and Rev sound. Mostly trem in fact. If a Empress or Red Witch completely destroy the M series for trem, I will investigate as I'd love a truely awesome trem...makes it easier to justify the quality reverb unit as well.

[TheReverendCommon]

M9 has true bypass so there shouldn't be tone suck

i think the M9 would be just right for your needs - as long as you aren't counting on the drives, i think you'll be really happy with it

THIS.

seems like it would suit your needs on a practical level.

[Bucksears]

I A/B'd the trem and reverb of my SRRI against the 'Opto-Trem' and '63 Spring' settings on my M9 when I had it and the Line 6 had it pretty much nailed.

IMO, I'd get the M5 just for those and use individual pedals for everything else.

[whiteop]

I've never found the modeling pedals to be comparable against analog single pedals. If all you want is an all in one, with a whole bunch of "pretty good" options, I think it would work great.
I am of the opinion that I would rather be limited in options, but have pedals that give me 1 GREAT sound versus a bunch of workable sounds. Line 6 has come a long way, I keep finding myself debating the DL4, but when I come home from the store and use my actual analog DM2, there's no comparison. My pedal doesn't have tap tempo, delay times don't go nearly as long, no presets, yadda yadda. It sounds freaking perfect at what it does though.
-If I was going on tour, I'd probably do the switch, these things are way less important in a live context, but in the studio, at my house, I just want it to sound the way I want it.

^:agree having owned the M9 and the HD500 plus a lot of boutique analog pedals the analog pedals just sound better and more organic, particularly the drive pedals though the Screamer isn't bad at all. If you are looking to save a lot of space on your pedalboard the M9 will do a descent job of taking the place of a lot of pedals though.

[tonegangster]

It all depends on the application. If you are in a church band where no one cares about your tone then the M9 will work just fine. Its also fun to play with at home and can make you practice and play things you never have. BUT, If you want the best tone, go for the pedals.

[Catoogie]

I had an M9 and for the things I wanted it for (tremolo, reverb, vibrato.... basically non-drive effects) I felt it lacked something single pedals had. The vibrato was nowhere near as good as my Malekko. The trems weren't as good as my cheapo Danelectro Tuna Melts etc... I sent the M9 back. However, it may work for you.

[Evansexcellent]

I have an m9 and a bunch of pedals and think they both get the job done. I think as far as a live setting I like the m9 w/ a few other pedals... having presets is awesome and you dont have to worry about changing knobs. Plus the audience can't tell. The only thing I don't like about the m9 is the od/dist. If you can get both.

[SyKrash]

I sold my analog pedals for the M9. Been on my board ever since.

The thread's outlined pretty much everything in the pedal, the drives are poor, but everything else is pretty good and will get you 90-95% of the way there.

I would still rely on a different tuner though, the tuner on the board is very very hard to see.

[fusionid]

I just bought one. So far my impression of it is that the it is ok.

I'll give it a couple of days but might have to flip if not gain

[sascha]

I A/B'd the trem and reverb of my SRRI against the 'Opto-Trem' and '63 Spring' settings on my M9 when I had it and the Line 6 had it pretty much nailed.

IMO, I'd get the M5 just for those and use individual pedals for everything else.

While I'm not such a fan of the '63 Spring model (I prefer the real thing from my BF Princeton clone with long reverb tank), I agree about the M5. If you don't need the looper on the M9, go with the M5 and use the additional real estate and saved money for an additional analog box. You might think about adding a Disaster Area switcher (DMC-2 or the announced Itty Bitty: http://disasterareaamps.com/wordpress/uncategorized/dmc-itty-bitty-prototype) for preset switching.

Here's a video I made with my M5 plus expression pedal that shows some of the potential of that combination:

SatDwPrmnf4

[Matticus]

My opinion on the drives might be slowly changing. A friend recently wanted to borrow mine, so I spent an hour or two setting mine up with some sounds I thought he might like. To do that, I A/B'ed some of the stuff on my main board (BB Preamp, Plexitone, RV5, Flashback). I was pretty surprised at how close I got. I'll post the settings whenever I get the M9 back. He's said he's almost nailed his typical OCD setting. We both feel like the delays need more work than the drives, which is surprising.

And the looper is very nice for on-the-fly A/B comparisons (in addition to what it already does well). Play a riff on your normal setup, give space to A/B: bam. This lets you hear things quickly, since you can now record on top of that with the M9 models.

[Cottage]

Well, I've always just dabbled with effects, so the M9's been good for me. Tuner works, and I actually like the reverbs and trems better than the Fender amp ones (there's blasphemy fer ya!). I didn't expect the drives to be worth a damn, so I knew that I'd be using my trusty Barber DD anyway. As for the other stuff....fun toys, but I don't know that I'd ever use them live though.

[Redhouse-Blues]

While I'm not such a fan of the '63 Spring model (I prefer the real thing from my BF Princeton clone with long reverb tank), I agree about the M5. If you don't need the looper on the M9, go with the M5 and use the additional real estate and saved money for an additional analog box. You might think about adding a Disaster Area switcher (DMC-2 or the announced Itty Bitty: http://disasterareaamps.com/wordpress/uncategorized/dmc-itty-bitty-prototype) for preset switching.

Here's a video I made with my M5 plus expression pedal that shows some of the potential of that combination:

SatDwPrmnf4

Great video!!! It shows many of the things I really like about my M9. :dude

[mjgnyc]

I have an M5 for this very reason. I used to have a bunch of analog pedals that only did 1 thing and took up a ton of room (and weight) on my board. I think it does the job just fine. Especially in a live setting.

No it's not as good as getting a ton of dedicated analog pedals, but it sounds pretty good, is small, is controlled by MIDI (big deal for me) and was $125 on eBay.

Plus there are a ton of sounds that you'd never think to buy and now you have them. Some of them quite inspiring too.

I am very happy with my choice.

[sick1982]

I didn't keep my M9 for too many reasons (pretty sure I posted most of them before in another M9 thread). Switching from the M9 to regular pedals always made me smile, switching to the M9 always made me keep tweaking to make 'em sound somewhat useful or to try and get the mix level of the delays etc right or to compensate for the volume drop in some (if not all) modulation effects. And 90% of the filters were really useless to me.

[JohnRegular]

I don't think you should get it for effects you're gonna be using very often, or effects you already have and love, and have no reason to ditch.

[Matt Ivaliotes]

I like individual pedals for the interface. Knobs and switches are all I want to deal with when I play. If you don't mind the LCD and the menus and the tweaking - none of which are particularly bad on the M9 from all I've heard, then give it a shot.

[charley]

I think the M series effects are decent. I do not think you will be unhappy.

BUT.....

If you read on the Digital and Modeling forum, many people like the Zoom stuff better for effects only applications. Plus, you get amp sims should your rig ever fail....nice to have a backup built in.

[eclipseall]

I think the M series effects are decent. I do not think you will be unhappy.

BUT.....

If you read on the Digital and Modeling forum, many people like the Zoom stuff better for effects only applications. Plus, you get amp sims should your rig ever fail....nice to have a backup built in.


I recently got the zoom g3 and the line 6 m9.
they are both great units.

I got them both for delays, reverbs, mod, filters not for drives and distortions.

I find that for live use I like the M9 better.

They both sound great but I like the M9 better. Although I wont be using the drives, they sound better than the Zoom. The filters also sound better on the M9. They verbs and delays sound great on both pedals.

I like the built quality better on the M9. More metal and less plastic tha the zoom.

Im currently selling my carbon copy, mxr chorus, mxr flanger. Although the MXR stuff is great and sounds great the M9 sounds just as good. I agree that it gets to about 90% there. In a live scenario though no oen will care. Plus no more tap dancing for effects.

[Waxhead]

I'm building myself a decent small(ish) pedalboard and I'm stuck deciding over whether I go M9 or spend potentially more money and get some quality pedals if they will do the job 'better' than the M9.

I currently have: Carl Martin Plexitone, Wobo relay looper, Suhr Riot and Shiba, Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire and Mk 4.23 Boost on a Pedal Train Jnr which I'm about to upgrade to a PT2.

I don't need any drive models or boosts etc and would pretty much use the M9 for gate, tuner, reverb, tremelo and maybe delay/chorus/flanger etc on rare occasions...so these last few FX aren't really needing to be considered but it is a bonus with the M9.

If I get an Empress Trem or a Red Witch Pentavocal and a TC Hall of Fame rev, will I notice the difference over the M9?

Is a TC Poly tuner or Pitch Black 'better'?

I own a HD500 and it has a decent spring reverb, op trem, gate and tuner so the M9 should be just as good.

Overall, will the 'real' pedals sound noticably better and are they worth spending alot more money on for way fewer FX?

If there is any tonesuck going on with the M9, I will throw it through its own loop (Wobo) and I can then easily exclude it with a click...so if 'tone suck' occurs, it can be managed...as long as it's not terrible! (I find the HD500 pretty good as far as transparency goes when it's setup correctly - had major issues early on though)

Ultimately, 4 analogue pedals will cost me more than the M9 costs for 100FX but it may just be worth it.

Anyone else been in this situation?


I'm surprised you're even asking this question.

Line 6 effects & pedals (all of em) are rubbish imo.
They sounds crap and the build quality is appalling.
You buy anything Line 6 at your own risk.
They're cheap but its a false economy cause they break, or get bugs, like nothing else.

All their effects sound rubbish too, including all the M's imo.

Good quality analogue pedals sound 100 times better and are actually cheaper than Line 6 cause they last and are reliable for gigging.

For tone quality the only digital unit that compares well with the best stomps is the Axe-Fx imo :)

[powermatt99]

I've had an M13 and then an M9. They do a lot of stuff really well but I just don't use enough of it to justify the space and the AC adapter headache. I really just want L6 to release an updated DL4 with a smaller form factor and some of the fixes that the 3rd party modders have come up with. I may be inclined to pick up another M9 to use as a one guitar, one pedal, one amp type setup.

[Dbwalker]

I have an M5 and I love it BUT: I only use it for a few seconds then I turn it off. Spot fx for a solo, a flange for a transition in a song, ring mod on a few notes, leslie for a flourish at the end of a song.

It works well for that sort of thing, but as an always on effect I've found it lacking ...

Everything, except for the dry thru delay models, those can be on all the time and they are killer.

[ERGExplorer]

My opinion on the drives might be slowly changing. A friend recently wanted to borrow mine, so I spent an hour or two setting mine up with some sounds I thought he might like. To do that, I A/B'ed some of the stuff on my main board (BB Preamp, Plexitone, RV5, Flashback). I was pretty surprised at how close I got. I'll post the settings whenever I get the M9 back. He's said he's almost nailed his typical OCD setting. We both feel like the delays need more work than the drives, which is surprising.

And the looper is very nice for on-the-fly A/B comparisons (in addition to what it already does well). Play a riff on your normal setup, give space to A/B: bam. This lets you hear things quickly, since you can now record on top of that with the M9 models.

Over time, I've noticed that most people never really learn to use any given multieffects unit to its fullest. Tweaking by listening is king, and doing a side-by-side comparison is a great way to dial in a particular tone... if one has that ability. Sometimes, people need a piece of gear which has a narrower range of capabilities, so they don't have to search so hard to find their personal "sweet spot."

Great suggestion on the looper!

I think the M series effects are decent. I do not think you will be unhappy.

BUT.....

If you read on the Digital and Modeling forum, many people like the Zoom stuff better for effects only applications. Plus, you get amp sims should your rig ever fail....nice to have a backup built in.

If you read the Modeling forum, you'll also see that the Zoom is crap for having instant switching between non-adjacent patches. In order to get the kind of switching freedom from the G3 as from the M9, you need to invest a minimum additional $140 for a USB MIDI host box, and then whatever more for a MIDI controller pedal.

I am liking what I've finding in my G3 and B3 (bought the bass unit because it has more synths), but it's not there yet for live use.

----

Having fooled so many of my friends who were analog-heads, and who supposedly had golden ears, I'm not too bothered anymore by claims of how nothing will ever sound like analog. If that belief makes someone play better within those self-imposed limits, then more power to them.

[HansIII]

Omar Rodriguez has the M9. He says it's a good replacement onstage for having a million pedals. That when he finds an effect he likes he dials it in the M9. Seems pretty good idea in theory.

If you get a M9 you could have the effects you need and eventually start to buy more pedals.

[Snap]

For me, the M9 is a quantity over quality.
I use it for delay and modulation effects only to save room on my pedalboard.
I don't have enough room or use to justify dedicated tremolo, chorus and flanger pedals, plus the M9 has decent delay effects and a very usable looper.

Does it improve on the functionality and sound of the DL4 and MM4 pedals, yes. Does it sound great or is it comparable to analog versions of effects, not at all. I almost never use the M9 when recording just because a lot of the effects sound so cheesy.