Home › Forums › Review Your EHX Gear › FREEZE sucka!
- This topic has 7 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 14 years ago by Will Chen.
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July 22, 2010 at 9:01 am #80523freshchopsMember
Just got the new Freeze in today (via Pro Guitar Shop, recommended – received 2 days later).
What a tool, what a toy, what an effect! I figured I could find a use for it in a unique situations but after a few hours of experimenting with it, it really can fill up any sound and application. You can capture notes or chords in matching octaves of whatever melody you’re playing and it creates wonderful faux harmonics and swell effects. It’s far from faux sounding though, it really captures a quality sample, indistinguishable from the dry signal other than by varied volume levels adjustable to your taste. It’s so cool to here what the sustained tone done as you play around it, it shifts tone based on the harmonic match, much like playing matching and varying notes on top of harmonics.
I found myself playing froze harmonics under a lot of melodies I’ve been experimenting with recently and it’s an improvement to each.
It is very much like a “sustain” pedal on a piano…. this is how I’ve explained it to people when they ask what it’s about. It’s also similar to the Ebow… it’s like a hands-free Ebow (but better with ability to capture chords, not just one string).
I’m still working on mastering the exact timing it freezes vs. strummed notes. It’s interesting how and when it chooses to capture. It really captures one moment and stretches or expands it…. it seems like the window of time w/ capture would be in milliseconds. definitely not one full second. It’s almost impossible to capture bends, delays etc.
It can be really pretty sounding, strong or subtle but can also be dark sounding. I caught some really dark and gritty stuff randomly that had a lot of energy…. I guess I’d explain it kinda like NIN’s kinda stuff.
A few hours straight of experimenting with it and I’m hooked. I want to be playing it right now (but it’s 3 am). I can already think of a lot of applications to try different things with it. Like most all EHX stuff, it’s such a creative tool. Good job guys!!!!
(next on the shopping list: the SMM, Cathedral and Voice Box)
July 22, 2010 at 1:34 pm #110427CryabetesParticipantcan you catch percussives for glitchy sounds?
July 24, 2010 at 7:49 pm #110472freshchopsMemberQuote:can you catch percussives for glitchy sounds?No, I’ve yet to capture anything percussive even though I’ve tried various ways. Simply put, it literally captures like a millisecond and stretches it out. Not even enough time for the sharpest little percussive tones…. it’ll just stretch out whatever the timbre of the sounds at the time it’s captured.
It’s pretty interesting how and when it captures, and it almost seems like it samples a collective signal and stretches it….. for example, if you are in the process of strumming a chord and capture, no matter when you freeze it, you won’t get any distinction between strumming each note, at all…. so in that case, it’s ideal to capture right as you’re completing the chord. In other words, the window of sampling is tight.
A lot of the questions and comments I see kinda hint towards the technology of a delay w/ tight and infinite timing or even a looper as if it’s just looping a tight little window of signal… but it’s worth noting, it’s definitely taking a split second of signal and infinitely stretching it out.
I thought for sure I’d be able to capture something percussive, but once it continually denies to freeze any variation in tone or timbre, you realize how instant it’s sampling window is….. and it’s cool like that!
July 24, 2010 at 8:17 pm #110473DarkAxelParticipantwell it makes sense, doesn’t it? the short capturing window
cool to hear you like it… i love the idea, but don’t know if i’d use it
August 3, 2010 at 12:28 am #110629valvestateMemberCool review! I can definitely use this for ambient/ drone like sounds!!! Now I’m thinking if my volume pedal will be redundant for this function?
August 26, 2010 at 2:42 pm #111109galspamMemberGot to play around with my new Freeze toy tonight. Wow! For the first few minutes I was very confused as to how I would get this in to our songs but then I worked out how to latch a sound properly and it is quite incredible.
I started playing it like another instrument. If you work really hard latching and unlatching your sound you can get some incredible results. Its amazing how much your tone changes from second to second and if you can work out when to capture those tonal changes, you can get some really inspiring sounds out of this pedal.
I then chucked my Big Muff Pi Bass pedal in front of the Freeze. I played a distorted chord then latched, turned the big muff off and then could solo with my clean sound over the top. Really nice stuff.
I do have a few niggles though. I would have put two switches on the pedal because I would use it so much in a song I need to switch back and forth between latch and the fast slow way of capturing. Double tapping is really tricky and in some instances I do it by mistake because I am latching so quickly.
The other thing is that my foot keeps hitting the effect level knob and turning it down during a song. I tried only using the very tip of my toe but I still managed to turn the nob down some how.
That said, this is one of the most inspiring pedals I have ever used.
October 28, 2010 at 9:50 am #112279selbydoodlMemberGot my Freeze yesterday too.
Sat up most of the night playing with it.
If you have ever seen the opening of David Gilmour’s meltdown concert then this pedal does it for me.
Great work guys.
November 22, 2010 at 4:38 pm #112690Will ChenMemberJust received my Freeze over the weekend. Just fantastic delivering exactly as it promises. Its a niche effect for sure, but I think it will fast become an effect like the Digitech Whammy as a staple in more experimental guitar/bass players rigs. I set it up with my Digitech Jamman Solo and had a blast. One could really be a one man band with these 2 pedals. Regarding catching percussives to sustain glitches, its possible you just have to get the timing right which is much trickier than the standard operation.
One little surprising tidbit about the pedal, it weighs nearly nothing! Nice for those who already have a rather heavy board…
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