I didn’t realize that Chase Bliss is going to start an entire line of analog pedals with faders. To me, this is a good example of a product that addresses enough basic needs that one could justify buying it instead of a bunch of other bits of gear. The tone shaping here is really nice.
Es-9 😵
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Is it still a pedal when there a bunch of sliders? Seems like it would be much easier to mess up your settings using your foot to tap the buttons at the top.
People who think that way need to be ushered over to the Boss pedals, so they can do cover tunes of overplayed 70’s rock icons. It isn’t a slight, I just feel like that pedal market was overly thematized for a while. It would make a fantastic synth pedal.
Its hard not to think about cv controlling the faders. Which got me picturing not a preset that snaps, but full dynamic live automation.
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Hello everyone,
Something I initially overlooked when comparing ES-9 and ES-8… The opticals IN/OUT are actually S/PDIF (only 2 channels IN/OUT), while the ES-8 has ADAT capacities.
Not a big deal for many, but I thought I should point that out.
I’ll be definitely looking at switching my ES-8/ES-6 setup to en ES-9. It was already a great setup, but these main out/ headphone look perfect for my 1U portable rack.
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What does this rack look like?
Hello all!
Just wanted to share the little box that I cobbled together so you get an idea of what I did with my ES-9… It came in the mail and I’ve been dinking around with it all weekend and am just so thrilled with it. Anyway, I bent a sheet of aluminum from work for the enclosure, added 36hp Pulp Logic rails/end cap (he really does a wonderful job of machine shop-spec manufacturing) screwed some wood panels on the side to keep the guts in (it’s not the best thing in the world but the ventilation is good and I think it’s pretty, plus it smells nice). I added MIDI jacks on the side and wired them to the es-9 breakout, then added a couple of preamps. The Music Thing Magnetophones are great but I have another Little Mikey on order and it’ll fit where they are now. It’s a great little preamp/interface/sound card and I’m just so stoked to mix software and hardware. The sound quality is excellent, I’ve noticed no latency even with round trips (and i set up a doozy of a round trip making a tape echo with actual cassette loop) and it plays really well with everything I’ve thrown at it so far. The balanced outs and headphone jack are the icing on the cake. Very clean. The balanced outs are a tad hotter than I’m used to, but that could be a software thing or it could also just be Pro Line Level. The documentation is a little obtuse and I haven’t messed with software configuration yet.
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Wow, that looks amazing! This is exactly what I want for myself, love the bent aluminum design and the compact form factor. Good stuff.
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Great work! An excellent job.
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Thank you!
Sure!
Here you go: Magneto Rack
It’s not quite there yet, I’ve yet to receive the ES-9, and I don’t have the mini Marbles nor the distings (these will come later…)
I didn’t realize how central the ES-8 (and soon the 9) would become in my setup, I initially got it for CV control or processing, but put together with an iPad, it makes for a great audio mixer / interface / recorder etc. And it doesn’t feel like a computer.
Now I just have to sell the regular size Marble (doesn’t fit in the rack anymore 
) and the ES-6. (if anybody’s interested… 
)
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This looks great!
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Hey all, another quick update, I’m assuming it is the same with the ES-8, but the guide isn’t super specific… I just put my Digitakt outputs to ES-9 inputs and they have more than sufficient volume in my DAW. I wasn’t sure if I’d need to boost or normalize or something, but it plays well with line level sources, too.
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Just a quick update here, as I have the ES-9 now.
As expected, it makes so easy the integration between the modular, other electronics instruments, Audulus…
Audio mixing and routing with the ipad is great as well. And as I mostly use Audulus for sequencing and cv control, I can use all the ES-9 outs and also have AUM for mixing audio sources.
Fun times! 
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Can the ES-9 can be used as an ADAT converter? I mean that I just want to use it to expand my audio interface, not have to create an aggregate audio device, which Audulus doesn’t support (because some of Apple’s code doesn’t support it).
EDIT: never mind! those are SPDIF ports not ADAT.
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Good catch, I actually had not noticed that. I wonder why he changed the design. I wonder if that means you can’t chain an ES-8 onto an ES-9.
ADAT and SPDIF are two different protocols. SPDIF can be implemented as an optical connection (Toslink) or as coax (usually RCA) but ADAT can’t be connected to SPDIF.
It’s just very odd to make two interfaces with unlabeled optical i/o and have them use incompatible protocol.
SPDIF is a two-channel protocol which was designed for electrical transmission (but can use optical transceivers), and ADAT is an 8-channel protocol intended for optical transmission. ADAT is fundamentally a 48Khz protocol whereas SPDIF is independent of sample rate; the data clock is embedded in the protocol and is recovered by the receiver. So SPDIF could in principle be used to transmit 384Khz audio.
I think more people would want ADAT so they could do what @taylor was planning to do (connect it to some bank of normal preamps without setting up an aggregate device) than stream two channels of audio at 384Khz.
I agree. Maybe the code running the ES-9 is limited to 16 channels for some reason. With the 14 analog inputs and the 2 channels of SPDIF you’re at 16. With 8 analog outputs, 2 balanced mains, SPDIF and a headphone you’re at 14 channels of output with another 2 reserved for an ES-5. That’s 16 in and out. I’m currently using SPDIF to connect my UltraNova to my Focusrite and I was using the optical version to output audio from my old Mac. Apple dropped the digital I/O from all its newer models. I guess not many were using it (or probably even knew it was there). It used to be built into the headphone jack.
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Wow, I’ve been a mac user forever but never knew about this!
Looks like my 2012 Macbook has the optical out, I’ll try this in the ES-9. Thanks for the tip!
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I was disappointed that they decided to remove it. I used mine with an external DAC to drive my old audio setup. I run everything through my Focusrite and ES-8 now, so I don’t really miss it but it was nice to have a built in digital output.