I am an admitted hardware guy, particularly when it comes to EQ's and compression. But less so when it comes to most time-based effects like reverb, delays, choruses/phasers/flangers, etc. Plug-ins for these duties are convenient and sound amazing.

But enter the EHX Effects Interface and one of my favorite guitar pedals the Eventide H9 Max (Generation 1). The pedal has some amazing algorithms and presets. And thankfully, the iPhone/iPad app really allows you dig in and do some granular editing of a given preset. I always wanted to bring this pedal into my DAW workflow but knew that I had to bring the pedal from instrument level to line level. There are 500 series, DI-size and rack mount solutions Radial and others to make the necessary level adjustments. However, I wasn't really feeling getting another 500 series rack or otherwise deal with more patch bay cables, etc.

The EHX Effects Interface just needs 1/4" patch cables for your pedal(s)' I/O for mono and/or stereo operation and the included USB-A to USC-C cable. (I originally wanted to use a 6' USB-C to USB-C cable to have the EHX pedal closure to my guitar rig but no dice. I had to use the included cable. Investigating other solutions but this may be a consideration based on your studio setup. The manual is silent on this cable issue).

But once I used the included cable, it was really easy to bring in the H9 into my DAW (in this instance, my favorite, Cubase) and use my iPhone to choose, control and edit the various H9 presets. Many modern pedals costing half the price of the H9 allow for app editing, saving and loading of presets, etc. So, you'll have a great time using pedals, with the option of printing the results within your DAW and being able to re-create the preset with the ease of a plug-in. However, some pedals, such as wah's are meant to be played. I've always found plug-in wahs particularly lacking. But now you can easily add the your favorite wah pedal and route a prerecorded track through the EHX, add a wah part in real time and record the wah pedal processed results.

If the EHX stopped there, I'd be still be happy. But you also get a 2-in/2-out audio interface. For me, not a big deal but it is sometimes handy with my setup to route the computer audio directly from my Mac to my powered monitors without having to turn on my mixer and my main audio interface. Works fine for this basic use.

I also tried the plug-ins through the EHX to use a plug as if it were a hardware pedal. Here, I was less impressed because of the latency. Yeah, I can get it low but it's just easier to use a real guitar pedal rather than a plug-in as a pedal. I know some guys get great results using guitar sims. They're just not for me and I'm plenty happy to use my real amps with some choice IR's. I could get the latency within playable and acceptable levels but, for me, why bother. If it's your thing, the feature is there. For me, being able to use my pedals is the chief reasons for the pedal and it does so really well.

If you've been tempted to use ANY of your pedals in your DAW, this is a no-brainer to add to your tool kit. I would give it 5 stars if the USB cable used were more flexible and if there were a way of loading a plug-in within the pedal without hooking it up to your computer but that would necessitate adding a microcomputer to the pedal. Maybe one day down the road?

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