Pigtronix Infinity 2 looper?

[lkingston]

Some good explaining of the workings here:

https://youtu.be/bVTRlUjWnFc

[Goblin]

I've got one and it works well, but I do have a few issues so far which have me weighing whether it'll be a keeper:

1. If the loops are stopped, you can't erase them silently- it's a double tap and hold, so you hear the very beginning of the loop. This is not ideal in a live setting, and I've steered clear of all loopers that do this.

2. I'd hoped that with the external pedal, you could tap once for stop, or one long press for erase, but that's not the case- you still have to double-tap. I personally can't stand having to double-tap to stop, in any situation. I wish one-touch stop could be implemented on the external pedal via firmware update, but I have no idea if it's possible. I suggested it to them.
**EDIT: There IS ONE way to stop with single tap: if you tap Stop once WHILE the loop is playing, the loop will stop at the end of the loop. That is incredibly convenient when you want that, but often I want to stop on the fly.

3. I usually run my Ditto X2 looper after my TC Play Acoustic with an XLR-to-1/4" cable and it works fine. The Infinity 2 works too but it decreases the volume noticeably. I reached out to Pigtronix who recommended putting the looper before the TC, but that won't work for me.

4. Using only the mono in/outs, a couple times the unit did not pass audio- it was silent. I did the procedure in the manual to re-set the routing back to normal and that took care of it. I don't know why it happened, as I had not purposefully changed the routing. Also, even in Wet/Dry routing mode, the real-time audio should be going through the "mono" or 1st input/output anyway, which is what I was using.

The "Once" feature is cool, as is being able to have overdub/play/stop happen on the beginning of the loop automatically. Build quality seems great.

In sound-on-sound mode, it's important to note that the decay in volume of previous overdubs doesn't happen gradually in real time, but steps down at the loop boundary according to how the Decay knob is set. I thought it'd be more gradual.

Looking forward to hearing others' experiences.

[JWJ915]

Originally Posted by Goblin

I've got one and it works well, but I do have a few issues so far which have me weighing whether it'll be a keeper:



1. If the loops are stopped, you can't erase them silently- it's a double tap and hold, so you hear the very beginning of the loop. This is not ideal in a live setting, and I've steered clear of all loopers that do this.



2. I'd hoped that with the external pedal, you could tap once for stop, or one long press for erase, but that's not the case- you still have to double-tap. I personally can't stand having to double-tap to stop, in any situation. I wish one-touch stop could be implemented on the external pedal via firmware update, but I have no idea if it's possible. I suggested it to them.



3. I usually run my Ditto X2 looper after my TC Play Acoustic with an XLR-to-1/4" cable and it works fine. The Infinity 2 works too but it decreases the volume noticeably. I reached out to Pigtronix who recommended putting the looper before the TC, but that won't work for me.



4. Using only the mono in/outs, a couple times the unit did not pass audio- it was silent. I did the procedure in the manual to re-set the routing back to normal and that took care of it. I don't know why it happened, as I had not purposefully changed the routing. Also, even in Wet/Dry routing mode, the real-time audio should be going through the "mono" or 1st input/output anyway, which is what I was using.



The "Once" feature is cool, as is being able to have overdub/play/stop happen on the beginning of the loop automatically. Build quality seems great.



In sound-on-sound mode, it's important to note that the decay in volume of previous overdubs doesn't happen gradually in real time, but steps down at the loop boundary according to how the Decay knob is set. I thought it'd be more gradual.



Looking forward to hearing others' experiences.

Thanks so much for the review. I almost pulled the trigger last night, but I may hold off now. I really don't like the fact that you must double-tap to stop. That is incredibly annoying, in my opinion. Why not just a single tap... Also, it seems awfully odd that loops cannot be erases while stopped. I'm not doubting you at all, just really questioning why Pigtronix would design it that way. When loops are stopped, I want to be able to delete them without any sound. I may just stay with my trusty Boomerang. Thanks again for your thoughtful review.

[Goblin]

Originally Posted by JWJ915

Thanks so much for the review. I almost pulled the trigger last night, but I may hold off now. I really don't like the fact that you must double-tap to stop. That is incredibly annoying, in my opinion. Why not just a single tap... Also, it seems awfully odd that loops cannot be erases while stopped. I'm not doubting you at all, just really questioning why Pigtronix would design it that way. When loops are stopped, I want to be able to delete them without any sound. I may just stay with my trusty Boomerang. Thanks again for your thoughtful review.

Actually I remembered, there is ONE way to stop with single tap: if you tap Stop once WHILE the loop is playing, the loop will stop at the end of the loop. That is incredibly convenient when you want that, but sometimes I'll need to stop on the fly. I'm going to try and see if I can get used to this method of hitting stop earlier, while the loop is playing.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by Goblin

I've got one and it works well, but I do have a few issues so far which have me weighing whether it'll be a keeper:

1. If the loops are stopped, you can't erase them silently- it's a double tap and hold, so you hear the very beginning of the loop. This is not ideal in a live setting, and I've steered clear of all loopers that do this.

2. I'd hoped that with the external pedal, you could tap once for stop, or one long press for erase, but that's not the case- you still have to double-tap. I personally can't stand having to double-tap to stop, in any situation. I wish one-touch stop could be implemented on the external pedal via firmware update, but I have no idea if it's possible. I suggested it to them.
**EDIT: There IS ONE way to stop with single tap: if you tap Stop once WHILE the loop is playing, the loop will stop at the end of the loop. That is incredibly convenient when you want that, but often I want to stop on the fly.

3. I usually run my Ditto X2 looper after my TC Play Acoustic with an XLR-to-1/4" cable and it works fine. The Infinity 2 works too but it decreases the volume noticeably. I reached out to Pigtronix who recommended putting the looper before the TC, but that won't work for me.

4. Using only the mono in/outs, a couple times the unit did not pass audio- it was silent. I did the procedure in the manual to re-set the routing back to normal and that took care of it. I don't know why it happened, as I had not purposefully changed the routing. Also, even in Wet/Dry routing mode, the real-time audio should be going through the "mono" or 1st input/output anyway, which is what I was using.

The "Once" feature is cool, as is being able to have overdub/play/stop happen on the beginning of the loop automatically. Build quality seems great.

In sound-on-sound mode, it's important to note that the decay in volume of previous overdubs doesn't happen gradually in real time, but steps down at the loop boundary according to how the Decay knob is set. I thought it'd be more gradual.

Looking forward to hearing others' experiences.

Thank you for sharing all this.

1,2 and 3 are DEAL BREAKERS for me. So this pedal will not work for me whatsoever. Oh well. Not every tool is the 'right tool for the job'.

This pedal would never be considered or used for live gigging without the ability to stop on a single tap.

Volume drops are unacceptable. I always use my looper 'last' in my signal chain and I switch from playing to creating a spontaneous loop during the song, then soloing over that section. When I am done soloing, I stop the loop with one tap while continuing to play so it is seamless and transparent to the audience. The volumes MUST be the same or it sounds unprofessional and wonky. But whether the volumes are the same, I need the ability to single tap whenever or wherever I need to.

[Goblin]

An update on the silent erase issue:

I got an email from Pigtronix saying I should be able to erase silently if I tap/hold fast enough, but I can't get that to happen. I'm tapping as fast as possible but same result.

[Goblin]

EDIT:

I noticed distortion in the audio of the loops which were fading in sound-on-sound. I unplugged from all effects and ran my guitar straight in- same result. Also, as I said before, the volume was much louder plugged straight in than through my Play Acoustic and other effects.

After I removed the pedal from the board, I wondered if it wasn't getting enough power, even though the manual says current draw is under 100mA. I changed it to a power tap with 500mA and hooked everything back up. This time I didn't notice the same distortion, so maybe as it loads up with loop layers, it needs more power to stay clean. I don't know, but it sounds good enough now so I'm going to try it at my gig tonight.

I still don't understand why this thing doesn't pass through the same audio level from my guitar as my Ditto loopers do.

[Goblin]

I got through to Pigtronix on the phone today and I think I figured out my issues:

The distortion I'm hearing on loops comes from recording on 24khz; at the full 44khz there is no distortion. That also shows that it was not a power issue.

The erroneous Octave happening while pressing Stop was due to the TRS cable connecting the remote footswitch- I switched to another one and haven't had the issue.

The mixed-up outputs in Wet-Dry output mode is in fact correct- they amended the manual to reflect that.

The volume being lower while using my PlayAcoustic before the looper is due to me using Guitar/Voice output mode on the P.A., with the guitar sent to just one of the XLR outs. With my acoustic plugged directly into the looper, there is no volume drop.

So, basically, user error! I have a couple gigs this weekend and am really going to try to develop a workflow with this pedal before sending it back, because having 2 serial loops and automatic loop fading in sound-on-sound mode is really cool.

And since it can't be updated to one-touch stop with firmware updates, my new suggestion for a useful upgrade is: the option to change the Octave switch on the remote switch to Undo/Redo. That would let you have undo/redo and not have to dedicate the left switch on the main unit for that. That would be much more useful to me personally than half-speed, or double speed with distortion artifacts.

Here's a pic of my board- the looper is on a Stagetrix riser to angle the buttons a bit and to make it easier to fit my right-angle plugs in the back. And I've angled the EHX footswitch to make it easier to hit Once and Stop accurately without hitting Octave by mistake.

[Goblin]

Pigtronix has told me that it won't be possible to add "single-press stop" to this unit. Just FYI everyone.

[lppier]

Does it do the multi sync thing?
First loop 4 bars ,
Then second loop I can record 16 bars in parallel and have both tracks playing at the same time ?

Or is it really only a one track recorder that can play the two loops serially?

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by lppier

Does it do the multi sync thing?
First loop 4 bars ,
Then second loop I can record 16 bars in parallel and have both tracks playing at the same time ?

Or is it really only a one track recorder that can play the two loops serially?

Correct. It cannot do parallel which is a real shame.