Line 6 M9.....Any Experience??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chrisbarrett27
  • Start date Start date
Chrisbarrett27

Chrisbarrett27

New member
Alright so I was going to just buy a delay and reverb pedal to run in the loop of my Diezel Herbert, however, upon looking at a bunch of different pedals, for the price I could get something like the Line 6 M9. It's got reverb, delay and all kinds of other cool effects that I wouldn't mind having. The looper is pretty enticing as well. I'm sure the overdrive/distortion models aren't the greatest but I wouldn't even be using them so I'm not worried about that. I also don't use compressors at all. So I figure I'm safe running this thing in the loop for everything else. I've done a little bit of research/watched some youtube videos and it looks pretty cool. I never was a huge line 6 fan before, but these units seem to be pretty solid. Plus it's an effects pedal modeler and not an amp/cab simulator. Anybody have it? Suggestions for anything else in the same price range? I also checked out the TC Nova system but it looks a little more complicated and doesn't have the looper function. Any advice or reviews would be great. Thanks guys!!

Chris
 
i've got the M9 and just got the Nova System like 2 days ago

nova system is used in the FX loop of an amp at home , the M9 has been a staple on my pedalboard for around 2 years now

They share some effects, but Nova system has a lot less (27 or so on the nova compared to 100+ on the M9), which it makes up for imo in tone quality, real pristine TC quality sounding effects
the M9 has a ridiculous amount of effects on tap which are also very helpful if you're prone to experimentation (e.g combing weird pitch effects with synth filters and reverbs/tremolos etc etc..)

the looper on the M9 is also fantastic, you can set up some effects, enter looper mode, lay down some kind of riff, put on say a bass octaver effect, and lay down a bass line within the looper , very nice

depending on whether you find one used or a newer one you'd be well advised to upgrade to the latest firmware or least v.2.0 before starting to setup banks/patches, the bass octaver comes with that, one of the effects i can hardly live without =0

the nova system takes more time to setup, and the parameters for the various effects seem to go a bit deeper and do to my ears sound better, the M9 is very very easy on the other hand, even the various effects have very straight forward parameters, easy to dial in

the M9 has 3 effects that can be activated at one time
the nova system has 5 (6 if you count the drive) but which are divided into mod, pitch, delay, reverb, compressor and drive

the boost function on the nova is very useful too

to be honest i was thinking of picking up a second M9, but a nova system popped up locally for a good price so i decided to give it a go, impressed so far

the drives on the m9 aren't too bad to be fair, haven't tried the nova system ones just yet, but i'd imagine they're better based on the other effects

some particular effects on the M9 that the nova system doesn't have:
octo verb (shimmery stuff ftw =0
particle verb
modulated delays/lo fi delays/sweep echo
various synth filters (q tron effects and what not)
looper
uni vibe

the m9 despite only 3 effects active at one time is mode modular, ie. you could have say the 6 available effects to be all variations of delay for example, as opposed to the specific ones on the nova system, although they can be linked up into presets/patches

hopefully that gives you some idea between the two
 
get the m13. the ting is 100 pedals in 1 and it gets updates ( I use the midi uno) I has a HUGE board and replaced it with this. Only thing it couldn't do was the HR-2 Harmoist from boss. I dont use the looper but it does have one. I use the RC-2.
 
forgot to mention, the nova system effects activate when you release the button if that makes sense , when your foot releases off the switch

you do get used to it by just tapping on the effects in question or whatever, but it could get annoying i guess
 
No personal experience, but I sure have seen a lot of them on pro boards lately - Pete Thorn has a demo video of his new pedalboard which contains an M9.

 
The M9 is guitar level and not loop (line) level, and it doesn't have a proper kill dry for parallel use, that's why I didn't take it for my Hagen. I read several reports that it's not that great in the loop. Unfortunately :(
 
@University81 Thanks a lot man for all the info, that was a lot more than I was expecting. Thanks very much for taking the time to do that. Is there really that much of a sound difference as far as delays/verbs go between the M9 and Nova??

@Reiep That sucks man. All the clips I've heard on youtube have sounded decent in the loops, of course you have to take those with a grain of salt. Did you ever get to try it with your Hagen? Doesn't the Hagen have a serial and parallel loop? I know my Herbert does, but I'm not 100% sure on the difference. I suppose I need to dig into my manual a little bit. Also your loop should have a wet/dry pot, wouldn't that help you tweak your sound a bit? I think even the manual says something about putting it 100% wet then adjusting on your effect itself for the final volume. You should grab an M9 from a store that has a return policy and just go home and play with it. I'm not able to do that at the moment, but hopefully in a few months. The M9 is so tempting because of the way it's set up. I want nothing to do with a rackmount processor and a midi foot controller, that shit just seems way too complicated to get a good sound. I'm a simple guy, I like simple gear. Usually Line 6 makes fairly learning curve stuff, but this unit seems a lot more simpler which I like. I don't know, I guess we will see.
 
I have an M13 in the loop of my EVH 5150III 50 (well, four cable method actually) and it works a treat. Replaced a Nova System with it.
 
Chrisbarrett27":1zmdgz0l said:
@University81 Thanks a lot man for all the info, that was a lot more than I was expecting. Thanks very much for taking the time to do that. Is there really that much of a sound difference as far as delays/verbs go between the M9 and Nova??

@Reiep That sucks man. All the clips I've heard on youtube have sounded decent in the loops, of course you have to take those with a grain of salt. Did you ever get to try it with your Hagen? Doesn't the Hagen have a serial and parallel loop? I know my Herbert does, but I'm not 100% sure on the difference. I suppose I need to dig into my manual a little bit. Also your loop should have a wet/dry pot, wouldn't that help you tweak your sound a bit? I think even the manual says something about putting it 100% wet then adjusting on your effect itself for the final volume. You should grab an M9 from a store that has a return policy and just go home and play with it. I'm not able to do that at the moment, but hopefully in a few months. The M9 is so tempting because of the way it's set up. I want nothing to do with a rackmount processor and a midi foot controller, that shit just seems way too complicated to get a good sound. I'm a simple guy, I like simple gear. Usually Line 6 makes fairly learning curve stuff, but this unit seems a lot more simpler which I like. I don't know, I guess we will see.
Click to expand...

i never tried the M9 within the fx loop of an amp, since in the bands i play, run clean/semi dirty single channel kind of amps , everything is in front of the amp, one of my friends bought one to run in the fx loop ended up returning it for quote 'tone suck' reasons, the m9 i use is at our rehearsal space otherwise i could try it out in the loop of my jet city at home

someone made a demo of the difference in delays, not sure it comes across super well across the camera, to me the TC is more pristine for lack of a better word, perhaps fuller and clearer sounding, especially on delays, i'd qualify it as better sounding to my ears, with the verbs on the nova you can dial in some spacey type sounds and using some of the pitch effects a kind of shimmer (found this out today while fiddling around =0 , i prefer the verbs on the nova as well being a big fan of the hall of fame reverb, as said stuff like the octoverb or particle verb is missing but with the pitch effect and what not you can kinda get that back, i'll see if i can dial in something convincing

i will say the M9 is more straightforward, there's some dialing in/tweaking to do on the nova system, but i think for the sound quality it's worth it, the nova system can run in any kind of loop as you have to set input gain/output levels, it's cleverly implemented takes 1minute do do,

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top