TRUST THIS COMPARISON. I was after a sustainer pedal for a fly rig, so I done what we all do and checked out every youtube demo going of both the EHX and TC. This was the ONLY video putting me off the TC.... so I ended up picking up an EHX.....but, the TC would remove my need for a separate reverb pedal so curiosity got the better of me and after all.... no other review video of the TC highlighted this uneasy warble at all. Well what can I say.... plugged in the TC and boom... the uneasy warble - went straight up for sale that night. As Jeremy suggests, the EHX has this very rich harmonium-like sustain. It happily handles anything from single notes to chords with ease, doesn't matter where after the attack you engage it, works exactly as you'd expect and hope it to in your head. The TC on the other hand... it's like they've nailed all the extras in the pedal but not the actual sustain function. Whilst you might perceive this warble as providing 'movement' in the sustain... it warbles at a fixed rate...one that you'd want to adjust - but can't. Granted by the time you play your reverb'd lead over the top of the sustain this warble isn't as noticeable but if it's exposed on it's own at all, it does feel rather uneasy when compared with the EHX. I will also say that the TC really doesn't handle chords well, ended up having to settle for single notes... and even then it becomes a game of luck knowing when to engage it after the initial note attack to actually get the best sustained sound. So yeah, don't do what I did, trust Jeremy and this very valuable comparison. EHX Freeze hands down, and if you want more features, EHX Superego + is the way to go.

Honestly, I prefer the Infinite! The Freeze actually sounds more uneasy to me, and the Infinite’s random, warbley quality makes it feel more natural and less “tense” to me!

Not sure if something is wrong with my ears, but the Infinite actually sounded more organic and natural to me. The Freeze sounded more processed to me.

BEST review comparison ever for these sustainers!, thank you and I agree with you!

Great review. Each of these has its own place. I use my Infinite for creating semi-ambient pads, along with reverb, delay, EQ, and looper into a recorder/mixer. Based on your review, I'm now considering adding a Freeze for less modulation (which I can add with the other pedals, when desired). But I love my Infinite and it stays right where it is on my board LOL! Good job - very helpful.

I love this video. Thanks for providing all the comparison clips and the spectrum view at the end. This totally wouldn’t be the pedal for me too!

Thank you! I was considering this but decided on the Freeze pedal instead. I did that before watching this review, but this just confirms my decision. Thank you.

This is actually the reason I prefer the Infinite. I haven't tried it but supposedly you can do anything with the modulation using the TonePrint editor.

Excellent comparison of infinite sustain pedals. Thanks for validating what I have observed with the tc electronics infinite pedal-the erratic, warbly-like sustain signal. For some time now I thought there was something wrong with my pedal-but hearing you say that tc support indicated that this is a feature of the pedal and cannot be changed addressed my concerns. Thank you!!!

Very helpful! I don't want TC warbling. The harmonium comparison is excellent 👌

Appreciate the video. I’m in the market for one of those and your take is interesting.

thanks. i had been curious about that pedal. not at all what i thought it would do

Very nice demonstration with the analyzer! Yes they all sound different and i am one of those who really like the random modulation of the tc. I hope your complain doesnt disturbe them and change their sound design concept haha

Thanks, man. Excellent comparison.

Thanks so much for this man! Worth getting the freeze i think

Such a great video. Thank you

Thank you for the comparison and taking the time. I have a real harmonium but I still like the sound samples from the TC. You could try a compressor going in to the TC after Ditto... too to soften the initial attack.

Great video, thanks for this!!

The Infinite immediately sounds infinitely better to me than the Freeze or the HX Stomp. Thanks for demonstrating to me in about 100 seconds which I need to buy.

Very helpful and well done, thanks!

Meanwhile the warble of the infinite giving it that analog tape loop feel that you can adjust the swell and decay on is why I wanted it over the lifeless digital freeze sound. I preferred the HX to the freeze as well

Whatever kind of tone one’s after - very well made comparison anyway, thanks a lot!

Thanks for the comparison. I usually like TC but for what i would like to do with it, the Freeze will suit me better. For learning harmonies over a standing chord the TC has way to much modulation for me. Musically the infinite may be interesting but i like the pure approach of the freeze. In this case less is maybe more.

Hi, great video. a quick question: some people complain about clicking noise and hard switch on Freeze.. compared to TC...tho I can't hear any clicking or noise through your video any experience with the bad behavior of freeze? thanks

This is a very interesting point. Ive been looking at getting the tc electronic pedal for a while. But if you are showing that the freeze is better with the way it sustains samples then i wonder if i should get the freeze pedal instead?

I had noticed this on other demos and thanks for confirming it. Who wants this unintended tremolo like effect? Not me for sure.

I can't quite tell if you were running the TC pedal with the reverb on or off. From another YT vid, I've seen that the L1 Toneprint for the "standard, as supplied loaded onto the pedal" Toneprint has modulation on the reverb. I'm waiting for mine to arrive, so I can't tell for myself. Just curious...

Thank you. You just saved me from buying the tc electronic. Great comparison! I agree with you. Such a pity because like you say the functionality is great but the sound of the drone produced is inferior to the freeze pedal.

The Mooer A7 is the best pedal when it comes to infinite effects! the most natural sounding out of the bunch! I tried them all.

Thank you so much because I was going to get one of these things

I feel like you are neglecting the TonePrint technology here. I would be surprised if you can't turn down/disable modulation using the toneprint editor. Almost anything inside TP pedals are costumisable through that.

Jeremy, thanks for sharing your experience with everyone. As I'm a bit later than the other commenters, I'm wondering if you ever found a fix for this issue or if you did end up selling the pedal. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing this!

super demo. thanks

it's funny because the reason you DONT like it, is the reason I DO like it- I use it as ambient pad underneath to fill in for keys. Similar to the sound of the hold mode on the Mad Professor Cosmos reverb...before it shit the bed and its going to cost me 170 to ship back to Finland!

I have the EHX Freeze and I think both are great

I would prefer to handle modulation with a dedicated modulation pedal. It is a fundamental sound alteration like those provided by oscillation and filters. Like most TC pedals, it does a lot of integration and many may prefer editing and being able to download settings on the fly. This makes handling live gigs easier to manage sound wise.

Jeremy, thanks for the video. I'm wondering if using the TonePrint settings (TP1-TP3) would allow you to have a less modulated drone? I know you sold it off already, but there has to be a way (I would think) to limit the modulation/trem effect by adjusting the TP manager thing...maybe someone else has tried that? I'm still leaning towards the Infinite, but haven't completely decided yet.

I heard a comment in another video that the Infinite captures the original sample, but also plays back a reverse version on top of the "original" -- supposedly to offer a larger, bigger "modulated" sound. Maybe there is a way to turn that off with the TonePrint app? I do not know that answer.

Is it possible to take the warble effect of the TC out in the tone hub app?

Hi, Was this test done with the TC's verb switch on or off? Surely, if the switch is off then it doesn't happen?

I haven't the pedal but I've the freeze ... I think it's good , but limited especially looking on wet and dry sound and how it's treated... but all of that you're saying about the infine I think is valid but the manual give you the possibility of no modulation and "special treatment" about wet and dry signals .... I like this video because I didn't know the line 6 stomp ... which I would consider to buy BASED on this video , thank you for that!

I assume you cycled through all the fx type settings to see about eliminating that warble...TC infinite looked cool, but glad to see a EHX pedal that does basically the same cuz I'm a big fan of all they do.

Have you checked out the EHX Ravish Sitar pedal? Might give you that droning sound you are seeking plus adds the traditional Indian sounding tones.

You were at the L1 setting, did the same thing happen on the Infinite mode as well?

Gamechanger Audio Plus pedal has the worst incidental/accidental modulation imaginable. Tried every which way to get it right, but sold it in the end. I’m wondering, and maybe someone else has asked already, but might it be an interaction with the Ditto? How is it if the Infinite is ordered in your chain after some compression or gain? Or even before or after some kind of Lo-if modulation? The effects loop, attack/decay, and Tone Print features all put this on my get list, though your demo does give me some pause. Thanks very much.

You can also look at the Boss SY-1. This is a synthesizer pedal that als has a freeze function. I use the pad function a lot. It brings a ambient pad under my playing that follows my playing and can be freezed if needed.

Your voice has a similar cadence to Nick Cave's. Not sure I you've gotten that before haha. But thanks for sharing, man! Im new to this category of pedal. I think I'll wait on the freeze being in stock unless you have other recommendations. Cheers!

Yeah, the infinite sampler isn’t a “clean” freeze. In fact, it’s got several on-board switches and presets for various modulation options. (and you can reprogram them with your own tone prints if you want), and multiple Layers! you know that meme with Tiger Woods and John Daly? lol; that would be the Infinite Sample & Sustain! It’s wild. I love it.

Thanks for the video, have you tried the EHX superego? I'm doubtful between that one and the infinite :(

I guess tc uses crossfaded ring buffer while ehx uses phase vocoder as the implementation. I have just finished my new pedal prototype "advanced freezer", it has similar characteristic with ehx freeze but with more advanced features: continuous fade out speed control, adjustable trigger delay, and automatic transient avoidance.

Awesome review. Tne new EHX string 9 has 2 patches that utilise the freeze functionality

I just ordered the tc. I hope the warble doesn't bother me too much. The most important feature to me is the multiple layering.

Thank you for the demo. I might just get a Line 6 HX stomp or a similar modeler with a sustain pedal. I just want a pedal that can sustain one note for my leads without getting a sustainiac pickup.

hmm, you're right:I didn't notice this in the demos. It seems like I'll have to settle with the Superego and its EHX stupid big box, instead. Thanks for the video, it has been very useful

That instability might be a nice feature IF you had some control over how severe it is, but if it's just stuck like that all the time, that definitely puts me off. Thanks for the demonstration.

Thanks so much for this. I've had trouble with other TC electronic pedals in the fast and love everything EHX do so I didn't want to be biased but I'm happy to stay away from the infinite now.

Thank you for the video. The Freeze is muddy. That's why you don't hear the absolutes of your pulling the pick across multiple strings. Whereas the Infinite finely and more accurately records the actual sound. You will have to judge when you push the switch to record your tone to more finely adjust getting the sound of the guitar. I would suggest waiting a 1/2 second later before recording the chord. Or use a different pick, or adjust the speed in which you pull your pick across the strings. And certainly adjusting the dials affects your sound greatly.

How about going to the App and do the adjustments there?? I would think the App will let you do a lot of adjustments!

Glad I watched this before thinking more about buying the Infinite, I used to own the freeze but didn't like the fact it couldn't carry the other effects going in to it(if you were to switch them off after freezing), now the infinite has come out and its got an amazing selection of modes just unfortunately with that warble it tarnishes the tone :/

Wow.... That's a super bummer. Maybe they'll do a firmware update. They should... I love the Freeze pedal even though I'd love to see it have more functionality it does produce a very smooth and lightly modulated sound. Even the Plus Pedal by Game Changer Audio often can make very choppy drones. I bought one for a Cello set up and we often had trouble with it making stuttering drones which is the exact opposite you want when trying to make ambient music. The Freeze is awesome.

I notice you are only using the L1 position on the FX type... This just samples one note, and because you are playing an entire chord I am wondering if it may be getting confused about which note to sample? ... Does it improve if you use the L2 (2 note samples) L3 (3 note samples) or Infinite FX Type ...?

What sucks about the Freeze is it's not very small and the switch is the loud, clicky kind instead of a quiet one like TC's mini pedals. TC is coming out with an Infinite Mini now, which is tempting, but I definitely don't want to be stuck with that tremolo effect built in. I wish a brand would make the best of both worlds.

Did you try tweaking with the tone print app? I’m positive you can work on that wave sound so it doesn’t sound to deep and more straight…

can you do a video with the deep freeze pls

Does playing with the toneprint software affect this at all?

What does he means by “close to the chord”?

To my ears it sounds like the infinite is trying to hide some aliasing issues with some pre-built lfo... It might sound more natural but imo a static signal is easier to manipulate with more effects rather than a pre modulated one

To be fair, there's so many more options in the TC pedal, I imagine there's some modulation type effect that's making it that way? surely it's capable of a basic freeze sound.

i ve seen your video before i bought it.. i didnt believe you.. now i am selling it :) it wasnt too bad anyway (some people love this tremolo thing )and has a lot of other good things on it but i can do all of those with helix. i had the superego+ before absolutelly different sound. only tc electronics pedal i like is the tuner, all the other ones something is wrong with them

Have you tried the gamechanger audio sustain pedal? It's really expensive, but seems to have great sound and much more options than the Freeze. I thought the infinity had great features, but going by your demo here, I agree that the raw sound is not very good.

The Freeze is awesome. Had one for years. Wish it wasn't so clicky.

I wonder if this has been addressed by TC yet? Great vid, thanks.

i haven’t messed with one yet, but just grabbed one on reverb. tbh, i absolutely HATED how sterile and bad the freeze sounded. (in addition to only being mono.). the freeze always sounded harsh and mechanical. so i’m hoping the infinite will be the opposite of everything i disliked about the freeze.

I prefer much more the modulation and oscillation of the Infinite rather than the Freeze. I never bought the Freeze because I found it really blunt and annoying, in my opinion the TC Electronic sounds more natural and organic. Just my opinion

Thought there must be a batch of defective pedals. SAME PROBLEM HERE. After seeing/hearing your video, I hear the DRONE effect on them as well, though some are pretty well hidden. Seems the pedal should be named "Infinite DRONE effect" and should have parameters for the timing of the pulse, width, and amplitude. Just slapping on a random effect... well, was driving me crazy trying to find the problem in my gear. And, there are other compounding problems with my unite - on the Dry setting, the pedal does nothing at all... simply a bypass. When set to Verb, on mine device pressing the tap button does nothing, unless there's also a return input. Then, once the InfiNite starts working with the wild pulsating, there's no means to stop it... other than to get on the floor and turn the knob to another FX type. Eg, after stepping on the switch to start the sustain the switch has no further function until the FX is changed by turning the knob. it does not layer, double tap does not turn it off, etc... it's stuck running forever. When trying to debug the issue, tried starting the capture closer to the strum on my guitar - the results were a nightmare of horrid sound. At least now, thanks to you, a better understanding of the problem.. Sigh of some relief.. I like a Harmonium type of effect on a lot of things, and might find use for this on a few songs, but only when I choose it - not forced on every capture at an exaggerated level. There are many videos showing simple operation that works exactly as expected (eg, FREEZE). Spent way too much time trying to figure this out and missed the return date. Thanks for this video! I'll forward it to my sales rep instead of making my own video. On to check out your other videos!

To me, a note held on the Freeze sounds like a Hohner Melodica. I think it's the attack that's missing. Of course this wouldn't matter if you were playing a keyboard.

Definitely too much movement in the TC pedal. The poly sustain patch actually sounded the most stable but it was maybe a little too stable. Of course you could follow it with a chorus if you want some modulation so it's not a huge problem. The EHX definitely sounded the best on its own. I have a SuperEgo and it's essentially the same algorithm with more controls.

I already own a Freeze. Thanks for this video - now I know the TC sounds different enough to posibly justify the purchase price... [Not that i can control my addiction for still buying Fuzz boxes that basically all sound nearly the same...]

Give a try to the Chords of Orion Toneprint or use the FX Loop delivered…. it might make the difference

Thanks you just saved me some cash. Also I have an HX stomp and never noticed it has a sustainer. 😂

Hmm... I think I might stick with my Freeze pedal after all. You just saved me 138 euros!

Thank you!!! Thank you!!!! Thank you!!!! I am sooOOOOooo frustrated with how so many reviews are so deceptive, even the ones that aren't sponsored. Why? How? Really? - I've watched 4 reviews by "famous" KZfaqr guitarists on this pedal...... and NONE OF THEM, ever mentioned this, what I'll call Lo-Fi issue. I was about to buy this thing too, not now. This is TERRIBLE. How can you honestly put out a product like this. If anything - have fx on the pedal to add in the Lo-Fi sound, but that should NOT be the default.

I sold a Superego and was hoping this would work as a replacement. Maybe the old EHX wasn't so bad after all. Oh well. Live and learn.

Thanks for posting. I don’t mind the modulation but I might not want it all the time. I’ll stay away from the TC for now.

The InfiNite acts more like a granular sampler and I like the moving and changing artifacts but I can understand why you may not. For me, it's why I chose it 🤷. Good and informative video though 👍

Honestly, I think the comparison to my ears shows that TC electronic is the best. It has the most interesting sound. The others sound a bit bit bland. Maybe the erraticness does that.

Thx

I have the Digitech Freakout pedal which is really good.

Just open the tone print app and set up the pedal to do or not do whatever you want. You have very minute control over every aspect of how the pedal functions. In fact, you can save three presets to the pedal, so you can have three different types of sustainers for three different applications. Easy Peasy, but if you wanna sell it cheap to me, I've got cash, baby.

I believe the best sounding pedal you demonstrated was the Infinite.

I have the freeze, and use it. On down my pedal chain I add the tone you don't like. Most of the time more pronounced.

The TC Infinite is full of quirks that I hope they will fix with firmware updates. One “feature” I’ve noticed is that the Infinite takes a better sounding sample if the foot switch is held down slightly longer than I would if I was using the Freeze. Maybe it’s just in my head? There’s no in-depth manual for this pedal (why I can’t imagine) so is players are left to figure it out.

I prefer the modulated sound

Why can't anyone make a single pedal that sounds like the freeze function on the Boss Me 80. None of these pedals come even close.

The Infinite sounds more like a reverb and the freeze is more of straight up sustainer

It works best post amp modeling.

Get the EHX super ego if you want extra functionality

I wish I''d looked for this before ordering one, going straight back, didn't like the sound at all. Thanks!

Seems like the TCE Infinite would work better as a pad. The Freeze is more of a true hold. Like Limelight.