If the pianos were a little more realistic, and the mallet percussion sounds were a bit more responsive, it would be a 5.

Well, I haven't had the time recently to play it, but I am familiar enough with similar electro-harmonix pedals to know that Key 9 will do exactly what it is supposed to. But I am very much looking forward to using it!

I have only had the EHX Key9 a few weeks and I am still tinkering with finding my sweet spots.
The recommended settings chart included is definitely great help.
My main purpose for getting this pedal is to add some effects and color to our acoustic set up (two guys playing without adding a keyboard player)
Finding some sweet settings but I am far from having completed my exploration. (I foresee perhaps an EHX String9 in my future as well. We'll see)
To boost the acoustic pick up signal I added the EHX LPB. Seems to be doing the job but her also am tweaking things to find the optimum settings.
My LP with the Key9 is fine as is without the LPB but sounds even better with the boost. Adds sensitivity.
Overall pleased with my addition. :-)
PS My Sweetwater rep Andy was great with the procurement process and follow up.
Cheers, Ben C NY

Really this is a review of three pedals. I have the B9, Key9, and Mel9. I cannot overstate how much fun these pedals are, or how much they bring to the creative process. I've had the B9 for years and use it both as a fill, blending guitar and organ tones, and sometimes in a loop with a volume pedal to blend it in as needed. This thing is fun. When I really want to raise the roof, I run the Organ side of the pedal out to a bass amp and crank up the Bach.
The Key9 is just as useful. If I want just a little bit of that Rhodes tone without having to play guitar and keys at the same time, I blend it in. The Key9 also has a steel drum sound that I love. Before the Key9, I created the steel drum tones with a stack of effects in the TC Plethora X5. This is easier and more consistent.
The Mel9 is my favorite to experiment with. Get it and you'll see.
Watch Josh Scott's video on Y__Tub_ "There's Nothing Like the EHX 9 Series" from Jan 2024 for a lot more info and examples.
Also, get yourself a compressor to go before the 9 series pedals. Compression makes them much easier to play consistently.

The sounds are not as clean as I thought it would be. I need to return this.

I previously purchased the Synth9, which is fine and tracks okay, but I was looking forward to something similar that had multiple models of electric pianos. Technically, the Key9 does have multiple models, but not nine. Five of the nine presets aren't even of an electric piano. Mallets is supposed to emulate a wood marimba, tri-glorious makes your guitar sound very digital and is just a chorus effect, vibes isn't terribly different than the mallets setting, and steel drums has terrible tracking. How many electric pianos does this emulate? TWO. The Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer. The organ doesn't even have a specific product its emulating. The Dynamo, Suitcase, and Eighty-Eight all model the Fender Rhodes with different effects. There's no way to disable the tremolo on the Wurlitzer and it sounds more like a guitar than keyboard. This product works. It has some nice sounds. Overall, it fails in scope, though.

I'm not one to write reviews, & I ordered it off a whim just to see what it could do. My expectations were low, & I got something even less than that. I tried it w/ electric & acoustic guitars, & several keyboard & guitar amps. None of them produced any useful sounds for my needs. In fact, the more I messed with it, the more the sounds seemed to just be poorly eq'd guitars, the treble being completely rolled off on the 88 key setting for instance. I own dozens of pedals I've been collecting for decades now, & this is one of the few I am returning. Couldn't be more disappointed, & honestly kind of shocked Electro Harmonix would release something like this. I probably won't be buying from them again anytime soon.

First off, I have the EH Mel9, (although the strings are really the only patch I find useful), and I have heard the EH B9 in action (3-piece classic rock band) and thought it sounded good. So I had some expectation for this device. However, I'm just not hearing the described sounds. I wanted to like this, and intended to use it for live solo/duo work with acoustic guitar; to add some colour to material that is either piano-centered or could benefit from some piano/keys. It doesn't really sound like anything in particular, just a guitar with bad tone, muddy. The only patch I could use might be the steel drums (for Buffet stuff) which sound just ok. In fairness, if you use an electric guitar and pick with precision as the guys in the demo videos do, you will probably get better results, but even so, again, I'm not hearing the classic keys sounds. I tried an Epi acoustic 6 string with piezo p/u and a Tele, and tried both blended and effected signal only. Strumming chords, forget it, just mud, more so on the acoustic. Precision picking, better, but still not great. I returned it with no problems (thanks TJ).

Got this today and immediately employed it in my studio. I'm in love! Made my Strat sound like a Rhodes! Tracking is spot-on and the sounds are all mind-blowing. Gonna enjoy this for a long time!

This is my third Electro-Harmonix keyboard related pedal, and by far it is the most fun - plus the sounds are unbelievable. Beyond the fun and great voices is just how usable I find it. It inspires me with the range of editing you can do with each voice. I find myself turning the guitar volume off just to experience the keyboard and mallet sounds. This pedal is more fun than when I had all the guitar synth gear on the planet, and it so simple to use without a special pickup or 13 pin cable required. Don't hesitate and buy the KEY9 today.

Am A Studio Track Writer.
The More Excellent Way To Bypass Midi
Guitar Issues. No LOSS Of Lick .
NO Latency .
The Bett'a The Finger Action The Mo
Bett'a Results.
I Have Been Doing This C9 Stuff On A
Keyboard Yet Has NOT The Predictable
LIFE Of Its On As The Guitar Licks
They The C9.

The Key Licks Have A Def Place In
Enhancing The Track As Licks & And Attacks Are Very Diff.

Mix The 2 On Your Tracks For The Creativeness Of Becker(Midi Guitar) &
Fagan , The Keys & Vocalist Of Steely
Dan.

The C9, B8 & B9 Electro Trinity Are
Tools To Bring The Virtue Out Of Any
Writer / Studio Musician /Collaborator.

Electro Harmonics Is In The Middle Of A
Copernicus Type Impact On Track
& Live Creations.

I Have Built & Supplied Studios In West Tx
26 Years & This Electro Revolution Is
Greater Than The Invention Of Digital
Audio As It Stirs The Creative Juices
ACTIVELY Whereas Digital Audio Contributes NOTHING W/ In Itself And
Is NOT Interactive In The Moment Compared To The Graduate Level
Virtuosos Coning Out Of You W/
Electro Harmonics.

Listen To All The Electro Demos On
UTube Then Call Sweetwater &
Get An Assortment Headed Your Way
W/ No Interest & Easy Segmented Payments.

I Admire Chuck Surack In His Investments
In America In Supporting The Players
Crowd Of Which I Am One .

For 25 Years Chuck Has Stood By Us In
The Field To Offer The Best ....

Thx Chuck
Agape Music
Larry Salter
San Angelo Texas

For my live solo gigs, this pedal adds a new dimension to my sound when I also loop my ideas to play. It gives an extra cool voice for my band Oui'3 when doing concerts across the United States. In the studio it gives a producer a new angle from the sounds that I can get from it. And, the sounds are truly amazing ! Buy this!

It did everything I hoped it would do and more. the quality can be heard felt and inspiring.Now I will order the key -9 with my md80 and mel this shoud cover every sound I would need for studio and live work.The people at sweetwater cant do enough to help they are awesome and I thank them for their assistance..

I have used Electro-Harmonix pedals for many years. I like some of the newer brands, but I consider the E-H pedals, original old school. Even so, they never stop trying to improve, and stay on the cutting edge with realistic, if not unique sounds. The key 9, and C9, both prove this point. I purchased them both from Sweetwater, and could not be more pleased..

At first I plugged it directly to my mixer, and it sounded good. Then I put my volume pedal in front to add some swells, and it was great. But then I put my other-than-Electro-Harmonix M9 processor behind it, and it was insane. It's the most fun I have had with my guitar in a long time. You know all those ridiculous effects that some guitar processors have... things like uber-long reverb tails, weird auto-volume, and all that, things you would almost never use with your guitar? Well, use those odd effects with the Key9 and you just created mojo magic. It is really a great pedal and exceeded my expectations. I love how it has a wet and dry output jack. I run the wet out through the M9, and the dry out directly to my guitar processor. It's perfect.

GOOD BUT NOT AS GREAT AS THE OTHER TWO PEDALES.

Perhaps I was hoping for too much. I really wanted this to work, but to my ears no matter what I did, none of the sounds sounded authentic. I am a trained classical guitarist and I can play in a pianistic manner using appropriate voicings. It still sounded far more like a guitar with an unusual tone than a keyboard. I suspect the problem is in the attack & decay envelope.

In it's favor: it tracked my playing flawlessly. The controls were easy to navigate.

I guess I will have to stick with synths and midi for the time being.

Not quite what I was hoping for but will still use it for other projects. Hard to get the Piano / Organ sounds clean and clear.

The only one i have right now is the C9 and it is the best fantastic sound i have ever heard in a pedal. I will probubly get the B9 before too long and then i will be happy, but for now i will enjoy the C9 and see what i can do with that. It is well worth the price, and it is like being in another world somewhere with all the beautiful sounds that it has and did not know how good it was till i watched the videos on these Electro-Harmonix Piano Machines. They sure have come along way in technology and all the effects that you can get in one pedal these days !

I own all 3 of the EHX organ/keys pedals. I love the B9 and C9, they have been extremely useful in the studio and live. I was hoping they would come out with a keys pedal, and here it is. After spending a month with this thing in the studio I have come to a couple of conclusions: 1. it's not quite as useful in the studio as I hoped it would, not as much as the organ pedals. 2. it sure does give some nice tones for live work! I love the 88 setting with my guitar run in stereo, it gives a sound that I've never had before, but which works quite well for that vintage trem and phase sound. The steel drum setting is mostly worthless unless you're playing very slowly, it doesn't track as well. Maybe that is by design. All in all, I think it's well worth the price and another winner for the best pedal company out there.

I own the B9, C9 and now the Key 9. The Key 9 has become my fav out of the series. I play Keyboards so I use the Key 9 for adding "color" to my rhythm and lead guitar playing. All of the settings sound great "clean" and the tracking is excellent!!!!

OK, so I'm a classically trained pianist, but mostly I play guitar now. There are MANY times where I need that extra texture but I don't wanna give up my axe.

THIS thing does it. It's a secret weapon that allows you to layer beautiful electric piano sounds (and steel drum, and mallets, and vibes) and mix with your own gtr sound however you see fit. The Acoustic piano is, well...meh, but still it is an extra texture that WILL thicken your sound.

Try it out, I think you'll like it if you need Electric Piano sounds and you play guitar.