Electro-Harmonix KEY9 Electric Piano Pedal

Started by Rhcole, September 25, 2015, 09:34:17 PM

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Rhcole

I became an early adopter of this pedal because I have wanted to blend electric piano tones with my guitar for years. I can already get the best piano sounds imaginable using the Fishman Triple Play and the appropriate piano module, but that setup is fiddly and subject to the same tracking issues that all guitar-to-MIDI products are prone to. So the potential of enjoying piano sounds generated straight from my guitar was an easy sell to me.

The pedal is the same size as the C9 and B9 organ pedals and has the same control layout. By necessity, certain features are bundled together in these designs and certain controls are also left out. The solidity and strength of the case is good enough but not would you might consider to be robust.

Rather than go into all of the features of this product, I will let you review the videos and read the features spec sheet from EHX. I'm going to concentrate on the performance and sound of the pedal.

All of the pianos have a slow rolling chorus that sounds almost like a subtle Uni-vibe in some settings. It's set at a very low level. This is EHX's attempt to recreate the complexity of a real electric piano, where each note is struck or plucked individually. In real electric pianos, you get quite a bit of harmonic and tonal complexity because each note is a unique voice. The chorus effect mimics this but does not approach the liveliness of a real piano, but it is certainly a serviceable first step.

The rolling slow chorus is prior to the added tremelo, chorus, and phaser sounds that you can also add in on several patches. The control knobs vary by selected voice, sometimes blending in tremelo, sometimes controlling the tine and bass sounds, other times controlling the phaser and chorus. the Dynamo sound has a thick modulation effect that can't be switched off, so I will probably not use this selection often. 

On top of this, EHX uses a few other tricks to mimic electric pianos: a bass sound on the bottom strings for a few of the settings, an enhanced attack on the pianos, a tine metallic percussive sound, midrange boost on many of the voices, and additional FX to emulate classic e-piano tones. EHX does not attempt, nor is it reasonable to expect, the beautiful bell-like harmonically rich sounds that can be generated by electric pianos such as a Fender Rhodes. Similarly, the DX7 e-piano with its harmonic complexity is overlooked. I wondered before buying if any of the voices would have octave above or higher pitch-shifting to try to recreate the harmoic overtones of real e-pianos, but this is absent here. It's probably a good choice, because by leaving pitch shifting beyond limited octave-below sounds out of the mix, you can play harmonically complex chords and intervals into the pedal with no glitching or aliasing artifacts. The pedal provides clean reproductions of anything you choose to play through it.

So how does it sound? Well, it gets you 50% there towards creating dead-on electric piano effects using your guitar. The other 50% is in your fingers and your mind. This pedal in particular really requires you to phrase what you play like a keyboard player in order to sound authentic. If you do, it can create a very believable electric piano emulation. If you play it like a guitar player and the pianos are turned way up, you will sound like a guitar player with a thick midrange sound using a chorus and phase shifter along with a metallic striking sound on some notes.

That said, you might be surprised to know that I am actually not trying to use the pedal personally to convince listeners that they are hearing a piano. I want to thicken my guitar sound so that it covers the same acoustic/psychological space that electric pianos cover. By blending it in at a moderate to low volumes and setting it appropriately, I can make my guitar sound like a  lush solo instrument- still like a guitar but fuller and fatter. There are many interesting tonal variations that are unique to this pedal. This is a valid and very interesting use for this pedal as an enhancement for regular guitar sounds.

Of the pianos, I liked the Wurli, Suitcase, and Eighty Eight. The Suitcase and Eighty Eight are very similar, with different E.Q. and control settings marking their differences. The Wurli can be a very intimate sound and sounded particularly good with jazz voicings.

A few comments about the other sounds beyond the pianos- the Mallet sound is a good, hard striking tone. The Vibes left me a bit disappointed because the primary sound has very little different than a regular guitar to it. The mallet strikes are more distinct than in the pianos and it does have a luscious tremelo. The organ is OK but doesn't come close to replacing the B9 or C9 organs, and the steel drum sound is surprisingly good. The Tri-Glorious chorus effect is a good dense and variable modulation effect but not why I bought the pedal.

All in all, I like this pedal very much. Be aware that if you use this in a cover band to cover electric piano parts, you will need to do your homework. I can see this pedal blending piano sounds very well in a group context IF the player works at phrasing and playing the guitar like a keyboard player.

Rhcole

I got to play with this pedal all weekend, and thought I would update my own review.

First of all, the Vibes sound has a delayed and muffled attack on the guitar- it is not just like the regular guitar as I said in my review. When I tested it, I probably had too much of the regular signal blended in. I have come to appreciate the Vibes sound more, because the delayed attack on the guitar with the tremelo gives a great, liquid effect unlike any pedal I have ever tested out. It can sound like vibes adequately, but more interesting to me, it opens a new range of sounds when blended with other fx. I underestimated this setting.

Another setting I underestimated in the Tri-Glorious modulation effect. This effect could almost be a pedal unto itself, because while the number of controls is limited, it can span a whole broad range of sounds from vibratos to liquid choruses and flanging sounds.

What I really respect about Electro-Harmonix is that they often put more variations into their pedals than you expect. The settings in this box can do much more than fake a piano. People who check this pedal out are going to be thinking about sounding like an electric piano through it, of course. But, to me what makes this a special pedal is the tonal, attack, and fx variations that it presents to guitar players that you can't get elsewhere.

I stand by my earlier statement that if you want to sound like a piano on this, you will need to play piano parts. But I want to emphasize how interesting it is simply taken for what it does.

I ran it through my SY-300. THAT was a blast!

carlb

#2
I know this is a long time after you posted this, but thanks for the excellent review, RH.

Recently I've started looking for new sound possibilities to add distinctiveness to songs (live or recorded). An example is the GP-10's fretless guitar model, some great and different sounds can be created with that. (Wish the GP-10 had more of the 'different' things like that, that sound useful to my ears and tastes ...)

What you report on the Key9 has led me to sus it a bit further. And decided to buy it, especially to check out that "delayed attack on the guitar with the tremolo" with the vibes setting.

Just wish they'd make a patch-controllable floor pedal to combine all the great stuff they've been doing of late! Hmmm ... imagine a GP-10 like pedal, but with all of the cool EHX boxes piled in it. That's what I'd do next if I were them, heh.

ES Les Paul, internal Roland GK
Boss SY-1000, Valeton Coral Amp pedal
Morningstar MC8 & MC6
QSC CP8 powered speaker

admin

szilizard wrote
The SY300 is playing the changes in the background and adding a little texture. The Key 9 runs throughout. I'm driving it with a VG99 using a LIPS guitar model running thru a compressor and is going through a TH3 model of a Dumble. The bass is VG99 going through a TH3 Bassman and the guitar is going through a TH3 Dumble.



carlb

I've been using the GP-10 fretless into the Key 9 organ setting, getting some really great jazz organ comping sounds.

Hooked up the Key 9 in the GP-10's 'effect loop' (https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=18569.0), so I can setup many different patches for modulating the input or output of Key 9.

The band cracks up everytime I hit their horn lines on "St. Thomas" with the Key 9's steel drums.

Just wish I could setup patches to control the settings of the Key 9, have to do that by hand, not ideal for live.

ES Les Paul, internal Roland GK
Boss SY-1000, Valeton Coral Amp pedal
Morningstar MC8 & MC6
QSC CP8 powered speaker