Infinity just got a whole lot smaller as TC Electronic has fired up the incredible shrinking machine to reimagine the Infinite Sample Sustainer in a mini pedal format.
Infinite Sample Sustainer? You might be asking yourself, where have you heard that before. It’s definitely a more niche effect, an ingenious stompbox that – as the name suggests – allows you to create infinitely sustaining electric guitar sounds, just the thing for ambient pads, and if the name means something to you then the chances are it might have been its association with John Mayer, who packs the regular-sized version on his pedalboard.
This Infinite Mini Sample Sustainer is of similar stock. It’ll do all the same things. It too takes your guitar’s signal samples it and, you guessed it, sustains it indefinitely. It has an Infinite mode that allows players to combine different layers and morph them altogether, doing to your guitar’s signal what Christopher Nolan did to Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar.
Who hasn’t want to send some of their most elegant sounding chords into the gaping maw of infinity? By the time they return back to Earth, your Player Series Stratocaster will be a vintage piece. Everybody wins.
The pedal has a simple three-knob layout. Level controls output level. Easy. Fade In controls the the fade-in rate of sustain effect layer while Decay controls fade out. A little LED at the top of the pedal lets you know when the reverb is active, while a side-mounted USB allows you to connect with a mobile device or computer.
Speaking of which, there have been some concessions to down-sizing. The FX Type rotary dial is gone, but the workaround comes by way of the USB. The Infinite Mini Sample Sustainer is part of TC Electronic’s TonePrint family.
Simply connect to the app to access these parameters, design your own settings and download sounds other players have put together. The TonePrint app also lets you adjust how the Fade In and Decay controls behave so you can tweak it to your liking.
The Infinite Mini Sample Sustainer might be doing all sorts of clever things with your sound but it has an analogue-dry-through circuit as to preserve the original character of your guitar’s sound.
Sure, build soundscapes, go bananas, pile one note atop the other, stack chords and set controls for the heart of wherever, but your guitar's original signal remains unmolested. And you can make infinity as long as you like by disengaging via the ever-impressive MASH footswitch that allows for momentary or latching operation.
The Infinite Mini Sample Sustainer is available now, priced $119. For more details, head to TC Electronic.
