If you could only choose one octave pedal

[dannybuoy]

1 hour ago, CameronJ said:

As a side note, I found running my old Aggy Filter twin into my Octamizer with the clean turned up a bit actually worked surprisingly well. Gave me a sort of parallel envelope filtered sound on top of my sub octave.

Lots of octavers fare surprisingly well near the end of the chain, and many people have never even bothered to try it after other fx due to having it drummed into them that octavers have to come first. 

I don't like feeding octave into most dirt pedals or compressors, but they do kick donkey into a filter. Best way around the whole situation IMHO is a filter with an FX loop so that it can react to your raw bass tone but blend it in at the very end of the chain. I see the COG T65 has an fx loop but it isn't clear how its wired up, e.g. if it applies the loop to the clean or sub octave?

Edited May 14, 2018 by dannybuoy

[Al Krow]

For me the key downside of the T65 is that it suffers from signal bleed (which Tom has confirmed is inherent in the design) so you can never quite get a true 'clean' blend octave down; there's always a bit of dirt in there even when the 'dirty up' is dialled right down to zero. 

Side by side next to it's baby brother the T16 below (it's not quite as petite as you might expect!).

[CameronJ]

Looks “thicker” too. As in, from floor to ceiling. Wasn’t really expecting that but now I think about it the t16 enclosure does sit lower than most full sized pedals so in reality I guess the t65 is completely standard.

[GisserD]

i far prefer Mastotron into Octamizer.
its mainly the octamizer that makes this work as It pretty much take whatever you put into it and halves it's pitch. Then the filters do their thing. wheras a standard octaver (synth voice,cog, oc2 etc) generates a synth tone an 8ve down.
this is why they need a clean input to detect pitch.

The mastotron dosent seem to like an octave in front either and it dodent really need one. it takes a basic signal and adds more very VERY harmonically rich content (almost square) AND subs.  so its win win.

I put a short sample together to demonstrate.

1. clean bass
2. mastotron
3. octamizer
4. octamizer into Mastotron
4. mastotron into octamizer

Gfuzznoctave.mp3

[Guest adi77]

oc2 or oc3 into ehx bass blogger (drive mode set v low) 

no other combination does that

[Quatschmacher]

1 hour ago, jposega said:

Why, why, WHY in the flying eff do musical gear companies think that a bunch of ad copy BS is going to sell gear? Someone once said 'Talking (or writing) about music is like dancing about architecture."

If they want to sell stuff, they should post a damn video or soundclip. 

Whilst I agree that the copy sounds a tad hyberbolic, Mike Beigel has created some of the world’s best-loved pedals (Mu-Tron III, Bi-Phase, Octave Divider, Q-Tron, Q-Balls) so it’s a fair bet this will be good. 

[Bo0tsy]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

PS - if this new pedal lives up to 80% of it's hype it could be something special:

"newly developed circuitry that analyzes the original signal and “pairs” it with the note one octave below, matching tone color and dynamics over an exceptionally wide range. The unique “stabilization” circuit (patent pending) enables the Mu-Tron OCTAVIDER to “lock into” the musical tone and sound a simultaneous sub-octave with accuracy that is not found in any other device. An important advance in electronic music technology, the OCTAVIDER has the same quality, ruggedness, and reliability that makes Mu-Tron the first choice of professional musicians."

The "stabilize" function is on the previous Mu-Fx Octave Divider (and it's on the original 70's version). It is usuable and allows you to play longer notes, however I find it introduces a bit of latency on lower notes. That feature was designed more for guitar according to the Mu-Fx instructions. I tend not to use it as the tracking is generally excellent on the Mu-Fx version. It would be interesting to see if they've improved that function on the new Mu-Tron Octavider version, but I'm not sure its going to give me anything over the previous version beyond smaller form and 9v power.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Bo0tsy

[Al Krow]

@GisserD - that's really useful thanks!

There's been a lot of excitement about this Mastotron Fuzz (and some of us even have got two of the things I understand)! As I have NO space on my pedal board, I've had to make do and mend, but have managed to get a pretty good "poor man's substitute" on my MS-60B: [Bit Crusher-->DirtyGate -->HPF (for good measure!)] = [Mastotron sim]

And if you add in an octave effect, all as a single "patch" on the MS-60B i.e. Bit Crusher-->DirtyGate-->Ba Octave--> HPF, it actually ends up as a slightly less glitchy alternative to the Mastotron into Octamizer.

If you have ToneLib and you want my exact settings of this BitC-Oct patch from me - please pm me: I think there is a facility on ToneLib for saving / sharing individual patches. 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Al Krow

[CliveT]

On 09/05/2018 at 20:26, dannybuoy said:

Got an Octamizer a little while ago... I really like the tilt EQ control on the clean channel, I wasn't expecting it to be as useful as it is. If you have your octaver early in the chain, adding the extra subs can end up feeding too much signal into dirt pedals, driving them pretty hard. By rolling off a bit of low end from your dry signal, you ease up on the amount of bass going into the rest of the chain which makes things sound much clearer and tighter as a result.

Yes, much the same as the mid boost on the MXR bass octave deluxe.  The mid focused dry really cleans up the overall tone of the octave pedal once the lower octaves are added.  It's the sort of sound that when played at low practice volumes seems to lack a bit, but at gig volumes or through FOH really works.

[Quatschmacher]

18 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

I see the COG T65 has an fx loop but it isn't clear how its wired up, e.g. if it applies the loop to the clean or sub octave?

It’s parallel so whatever is in the loop doesn’t get applied to the clean, octave down and octave up channels. Basically the original input signal gets split in two; one side feeds the loop, the other side feeds the clean, octave up and octave down knobs.

You can get the same effect by running your bass into an LS-2 on A+B mix mode, putting octaver in channel A and other effects in channel B. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Quatschmacher

[Jonathan Bee]

Has anyone tried the Gojira Octave Generator? Comparisons to OC2 in terms of soloed -1 octave? Volume drop? how does the octave up sound?

[dodge_bass]

2 hours ago, Jonathan Bee said:

Has anyone tried the Gojira Octave Generator? Comparisons to OC2 in terms of soloed -1 octave? Volume drop? how does the octave up sound?

I’ve got one. It’s great! Really really synthy sounds to be had from it.

But CAVEAT EMPTOR - do a quick search and you’ll find there are some issues with build time / products arriving etc. I got my Octave Generator 2nd hand so all good but had all sorts of issues when ordering pedals from new. And I’m not the only one. I don’t think this is libellous if I’ve actually experienced it in person? I hope not. *gulp* 

[Jonathan Bee]

Thanks man :-) I have heard some negative reports of this company already actually. When you say it's really synthy, can it do a decent OC 2-esque soled octave? Do you experience a volume drop using it this way? (as with OC2)?

 

[CliveT]

Anyone tried the TC Electronics Nether octave?  Looks to be a Boss OC2 clone from the layout but from the reviews the one octave down knob is more muddy than the OC2 or Growl knob on the MXR BOD.

[radiophonic]

41 minutes ago, CliveT said:

Anyone tried the TC Electronics Nether octave?  Looks to be a Boss OC2 clone from the layout but from the reviews the one octave down knob is more muddy than the OC2 or Growl knob on the MXR BOD.

I've not personally tried the Nether, but I've heard it demoed and it is worth noting that these pedal are TC in name only. They are re-badged Behringers, albeit with tougher enclosures/switches. You can probably find legacy demos of the old Behringer line. That's not to say they are necessarily bad but despite appearances, this isn't an OC2 clone in any meaningful way.  Also, I believe that the switch engages on release, which is a bit odd.  OTOH it's only £50!. Alas I don't think there are any free lunches where fat synthy analog octave down goodness is concerned. If it's a 'toe in the water' situation, it might be worth a punt, but if you are committed to 'that' sound, then either a real OC2 or something from MXR/Cog/Emma/3 Leaf etc will be needed. 

[Quatschmacher]

42 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

I've not personally tried the Nether, but I've heard it demoed and it is worth noting that these pedal are TC in name only. They are re-badged Behringers, albeit with tougher enclosures/switches. You can probably find legacy demos of the old Behringer line. That's not to say they are necessarily bad but despite appearances, this isn't an OC2 clone in any meaningful way.  Also, I believe that the switch engages on release, which is a bit odd.  OTOH it's only £50!. Alas I don't think there are any free lunches where fat synthy analog octave down goodness is concerned. If it's a 'toe in the water' situation, it might be worth a punt, but if you are committed to 'that' sound, then either a real OC2 or something from MXR/Cog/Emma/3 Leaf etc will be needed. 

The 3Leaf Octabvre MKII is the closest to OC-2 that I’ve played (disclaimer - I’ve never played an OC-2, only heard that in direct comparison with the Octabvre (which I own)).

[GisserD]

On 17/06/2018 at 03:32, Jonathan Bee said:

Thanks man :-) I have heard some negative reports of this company already actually. When you say it's really synthy, can it do a decent OC 2-esque soled octave? Do you experience a volume drop using it this way? (as with OC2)?

 

i just read on another bass forum that thee is a very simple mod that can be done to the OC2 circuit that increases the volume....

when i say simple, its as easy as snipping one leg of one resistor connected to the -2 circuit. (obviously to be reversible, desoldering is recommended)

you knowledgeable folkz probably new this already, but im learning all sorts of things today!

[dannybuoy]

4 hours ago, radiophonic said:

I've not personally tried the Nether, but I've heard it demoed and it is worth noting that these pedal are TC in name only. They are re-badged Behringers, albeit with tougher enclosures/switches. You can probably find legacy demos of the old Behringer line. That's not to say they are necessarily bad but despite appearances, this isn't an OC2 clone in any meaningful way.  Also, I believe that the switch engages on release, which is a bit odd.  OTOH it's only £50!. Alas I don't think there are any free lunches where fat synthy analog octave down goodness is concerned. If it's a 'toe in the water' situation, it might be worth a punt, but if you are committed to 'that' sound, then either a real OC2 or something from MXR/Cog/Emma/3 Leaf etc will be needed. 

I hear the Chord OC-50 is supposed to be a close OC-2 clone for £40ish. Never tried one though. There is also the Chowny Pitchcraft. Not a great deal of reviews around for either of them though unfortunately!

[radiophonic]

There's a YouTube demo by Scott Whitley of the Pitchcraft. I think it sounds OK but he just jams along with it, so tracking is pretty hard to assess - there's no long sustains attempted. If it's cheap, I'd certainly give it a whirl. Does anyone in the UK sell them? I didn't look very hard, but Google shopping returned zero hits. 

[Chownybass]

We sell them directly. It copes with sustained notes about as well as you would expect. It’s a analog Octave and suffers from everything that brings along with it. You have to work with the pedal a bit. 

[Quatschmacher]

I’m at the other end of this at the moment. I have 3 fantastic octavers (Octabvre, MXR BOD and Octo-Nøjs) and I'd like to let at least one of them go and am having real difficulty deciding. 

[dodge_bass]

On 25/06/2018 at 13:10, GisserD said:

i just read on another bass forum that thee is a very simple mod that can be done to the OC2 circuit that increases the volume....

when i say simple, its as easy as snipping one leg of one resistor connected to the -2 circuit. (obviously to be reversible, desoldering is recommended)

you knowledgeable folkz probably new this already, but im learning all sorts of things today!

Are you able to give us a link? I’d be very interested in this MOD!

[GisserD]

7 hours ago, dodge_bass said:

Are you able to give us a link? I’d be very interested in this MOD!

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/boss-oc-2-volume-mod.1051293/

[Jonathan Bee]

Thanks for the info, @GisserD I got a 1982 OC2 'Octaver' that I'm a little apprehensive about modding in case I wan't to sell it on eventually but the volume drop is a pain!

[Quatschmacher]

For sheer versatility and range of sounds the Cog T-70 is a very strong contender. I’ve currently got it up against my Octabvre MKII, MXR BOD and Octo-Nøjs. 

The Cog doesn’t track as well for me as the others but gets quite close to the bouncy, doink-doink sound of the 3Leaf on the Tim setting with the tone rolled off. It also sounds close to the fat blend of clean, high growl, medium girth setting of the MXR. It also sounds like it has more heft at the bottom than the Emma pedal, though the latter has a unique sound with its filter wide open that the Cog cannot match. It’s tricky to describe; when the Cog’s filter is open it sounds like there are two distinct sounds going on - a low subby one, then on top a growly, fuzzy sound. The ON by contrast sounds like a more integrated whole - fuzzy and fat, though not as deep as the Cog.

If I had to pick one (which fortunately I don’t) then I think the T-70 is the winner. The fact that one can quickly switch between three vastly distinct tone-blends is brilliant.