Electro Harmonix Freeze Sound Retainer Reviews

Freeze

I've had this Freeze pedal for a good few months now. I had wanted one for a while, but the price tab for what is basically a single feature put me off.

However this pedal is fantastic, the latch mode comes in really useful though I tend to only use the 'Slow' mode. It works really well with an EHX Pitchfork as well, as combined they can create sustained organ sounds.

This pedal is fantastic, and if you're thinking on buying it, just do it.

Great in combo

Great in a combo with other pedals but on it's own it doesn't sound great. I think the sample size is too small so it doesn't catch a very organic sound, it sounds too digital and thin. If it was a bit bigger it could allow for some movement in the sound, which would be nice and make it sound a bit more natural/less plasticy. Good pedal though and the end of a chain.

This pedal is amazing! Have used it for quite some time now and it is perfect for shoegaze-type stuff and crazy glitched out spasms if you do a fast stomp after hitting a chord or the strings behind the bridge. Also great if you want to practice soloing on top of a chord.

Just useless until you loop it

This is a very simple pedal with very few specifics... But still it can make interesting sounds especially for post rock and so on.

Great idea, very well made

This pedal is a great idea by ehx and a very good realization of this idea. The quality is very good and sturdy, nothing rattles when you shake it and the build quality is like a tank.

The freeze function has three modes: Two where you push done the pedal to hold a note or chord and the effect stops when you let go of it, and the "latch" mode where a note is held until you stomp on the switch again. The former two modes have the only difference in the amount of decay after release. Here I would personally like it if the mode with longer decay had a much longer decay, maybe adding another small control knob for this. But actually, I mostly use the latch mode.

The sound of the pedal is very unique, which is kind of organ like, and the sound changes a bit when you hold a note longer, it's something in the overtones and hard to explain, but I really like how this pedal does not just hold the note but has its own sound to it.

I can very much recommend trying this with a tremolo pedal, that's so far one of my favorite ways to use it, but it's also great for practicing, like getting familiar with a new scale. Also you have new possibilities to play cool upper structure chords which would be impossible on guitar without this pedal.

Hours of fun!

Use it love all the time, great for soloing and playing over sustained harmony notes.

Super

The effect with this pedal is a little hard to explain. But as its name suggest it freezes the notes your playing. When you play a note and switch the pedal on, the note keeps singing and you can play on it. The sound of it is a little like an organ. A simple way to use it is, you play a chord, make it sing in the background with the pedal and then play solo on it. It is a very simple effect but very useable and ut gives you a totally new way of playing. The first time I used it I played for hours. Worth every penny!

Recommended

Very solidly built, simple to use and good fun to experiment with.

I like it.

Good idea.

It is an great tool for modal improvisation. I use it to create drones and atmospheres in my solo work. It is awesome to don't have to rely on loose strings.

BUT!

It could have been better! It looses some bottom (I'm a bass player it might not be a problem for guitarists etc.) and the switch makes a loud click when i press it down, not good for intimate solo performances. The switch is also quite small for on the fly use, a piano sustain design would have been great.

And now after a while, it make a strange noise when i ignite the pedal.

To sum it up.

It is an great(!) effect but it is poorly constructed.

Electro Harmonix could have done this so much better and made it an iconic effect instead of a gimmick.

/J

A little wonder

The Freeze pedal was a real discovery for me. It's a very simple pedal with only one feature (usable in three different modes) but you like that feature, you're going to absolutely love this pedal.

You will like it if:

a) You like to create textured/ambient sounds for your songs. The chime-like frozen sustain you can make is great for creating a bed of sound for songs. Alternatively, freezing a single distorted note can add some real grit if that's what you're looking for.

b) You like to indulge a bit in David Gilmoresque solos. Just freeze a single chord and then start soloing over it like there's no tomorrow. You can practically play the first 5 minutes of Shine on you crazy diamond by yourself with a freeze pedal (and an ebow for the first bit).

It's a Electro Harmonix pedal so you can expect the quality to be good. It's very light but feels solid enough. I've found I only end up using two modes (latch and slow decay). The frozen sound you get is very good and clean, chime-like for trebley sounds and droning for the lower notes, though it works best without distortion/OD as too much OD will make it sound too muddy/heavy.

Cool trick I discovered recently: Freeze a note/chord, then activate a pedal with reverse delay on it and play around with the delay/feedback time.