Wish Freeze is heating up

[Alex Kolund]

EHX Freeze pedal was so popular that TC Electronic has cloned it (as the Infinite pedal), Game Changer has their version, and EHX has just released the Deep Freeze version that has additional, very cool functions. Check out this demo of it:

The Freeze effect has come up on these forums a few times over the years but the best we can still do with a Fractal is reverb holds that come close in some scenarios but just aren't the same thing. Furthermore, all of these pedals are mono which doesn't cut it in some scenarios. Fractal could really raise the bar here.

 

[blaggers]

Agreed, I’m just trying to setup a “chord sustain” type block to allow short riffs to be played over momentary footswitch held chords, and setting up an additional reverb block just to do this seems CPU wasteful.

 

[Alex Kolund]

Heh.

Until we get something like this from Fractal, I'm using Red Panda's Tensor pedal which can simulate the freeze effect (not quite and with some glitches but it's in the ballpark), and it is stereo.

The new Chrome Console from Hologram seems to have a nice Freeze mode, also in stereo: https://www.hologramelectronics.com/chroma-console

 

[unix-guy]

Agreed, I’m just trying to setup a “chord sustain” type block to allow short riffs to be played over momentary footswitch held chords, and setting up an additional reverb block just to do this seems CPU wasteful.

You'd have to include this new block type instead, which would likely use the same amount of CPU.

Additionally, the Reverbs on FM9 are on a dedicated core and cost nothing in CPU use

 

[blaggers]

You'd have to include this new block type instead, which would likely use the same amount of CPU.

Additionally, the Reverbs on FM9 are on a dedicated core and cost nothing in CPU use

The gapless patch changes is done by sustaining the previous patch until the new one is ready and only uses a few % CPU, so a slightly longer version of that would be more efficient that a full reverb block. Im trying to do this on a AXEFX and a FM9 - so want a common approach and the reverb blocks on AXEFX use normal CPU.

 

[blaggers]

That momentary mode in the EHX video is what I’m trying to get in the AxeFX.

 

[unix-guy]

The gapless patch changes is done by sustaining the previous patch until the new one is ready and only uses a few % CPU

We don't actually know that. The mechanism used has not been explained by Fractal.

a slightly longer version of that would be more efficient that a full reverb block

You have no way to know that...

 

[kcyrowolf]

I completely agree that it would be amazing to have this feature in the Axe FX as a dedicated block. It's a fantastic practice tool, as well as effect.

I understand that something similar can technically be done, but this requires workarounds which often involve sacrificing one of the two available reverb blocks. If we had a dedicated freeze block, it would make things much quicker and simpler to use.

 

[sprint]

Furthermore, all of these pedals are mono which doesn't cut it in some scenarios

Freeze is designed to go at beginning of chain, no? So mono makes sense as it's "freezing" the incoming guitar signal. I've shy'd away from using reverb hold to do this type of thing because it seems not to be the right chain location to do it (reverbs typically at end of chain) - I want my incoming guitar signal frozen so that subsequent fx etc get dynamically applied to the frozen signal. Freeze is in my outboard pedal wish list but I balk at the price for it which seems a bit excessive around here. Would be cool to have it on board.

 

[Deadpool_25]

Freeze is designed to go at beginning of chain, no?

Is it? I'd think it would be an end of chain thing like a looper?

Edit: I see they have it at the front in the demo video. I guess it could make sense in either/any spot depending on use case.

 

[sprint]

Is it? I'd think it would be an end of chain thing like a looper?

Edit: I see they have it at the front in the demo video. I guess it could make sense in either/any spot depending on use case.

ya, either way I guess, depending on what the player needs - but mono might not be ideal at end of stereo chain.

 

[moerker]

+1 for the freeze. I used to have one, and while the reverb hold works, there are some applications where it doesn’t. An extra block with separate CPU would be okay, since this thing sounds always like a mix of reverb hold & short sampled looper.
And since it’s an effect, I don’t know if someone will have it in all patches

 

[expertsleepers]

Just adding a +1 to this. I currently use a Helix with an EHX Superego+ as the only other pedal - thinking of switching to Fractal, but frustrated that I'd still need that one extra pedal.

FWIW I use it mid-chain - after some basics like EQ but before end of chain reverb. It's on a send-return loop, in parallel to the effects that make up the main tone for what I want to play over the sustained sound.

 

[weird guitar person]

At the risk of annoying the decision makers, if I had an arbitrarily triggerable ADSR option disconnected from note detection I’d be golden…