If you could only choose one octave pedal

[iamtheelvy]

Looks like Dave Swift may be a holder of insider information...

[Al Krow]

Oooh that is exciting news! 

[fretmeister]

Probably a Waza Craft version for £250.

 

I'd just like to say the existence of 28 pages on the subject of octave pedals is disturbing.

Envelope filters I'd understand. But Octaves? That's just wrong.

[Quatschmacher]

3 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Probably a Waza Craft version for £250.

 

I'd just like to say the existence of 28 pages on the subject of octave pedals is disturbing.

Envelope filters I'd understand. But Octaves? That's just wrong.

A mere 28 pages would be way too little for filter discussion. 

[Stub Mandrel]

26 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Probably a Waza Craft version for £250.

 

I'd just like to say the existence of 28 pages on the subject of octave pedals is disturbing.

Envelope filters I'd understand. But Octaves? That's just wrong.

It started with one comment, but they just kept doubling.

[fretmeister]

24 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It started with one comment, but they just kept doubling.

And the quality got lower with every one.

[bottomfeed]

I get it about the Boss OC2... but it was not always easy to control in a live situation... bad acoustics, etc... 

I used the EBS Octabass for years... & loved it.... but more recently needed something with a smaller footprint... for a tiny, live work board... & to cram as much as needed on it, I looked for a smaller alternative... The Markbass Raw series octaver... got my attention from this video: 

MarkBass Raw Octaver

He's a bit of an android... but get to the sound demos & they are interesting!

 

I bought one... & I'm pretty happy with it on my board... It's always subjective when it comes to sound.... but

Worth a look.....

 

 

 

[radiophonic]

On 07/07/2020 at 11:18, fretmeister said:

Probably a Waza Craft version for £250.

 

I'd just like to say the existence of 28 pages on the subject of octave pedals is disturbing.

Envelope filters I'd understand. But Octaves? That's just wrong.

In terms of nerding out, envelope filters for bass players are like drive pedals for guitarists. Win for us, I'd say. Boss really got something right about the OC2 though.

[radiophonic]

Returning to octavers, I recently picked up a mint DOD Meatbox reissue at a non-insane price. Oh boy, this is the first time I've worried about my speakers. It doesn't have the hollow resonance of an OC2 but it goes really - insanely - low. Thanks to the TRS out, I've been using it mostly for recording, bypassing the amp and just sticking a layer underneath via DI - the same way the original DBX 120 was used back in the day. Soloing the tracks, reveals a really synthy, subby analog thing going on under higher notes and rock solid tracking with no detectable latency. It won't be my only octave down, but it's a usable beast I'd recommend one if you can get one for a reasonable price.

[Al Krow]

5 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

Returning to octavers, I recently picked up a mint DOD Meatbox reissue at a non-insane price. Oh boy, this is the first time I've worried about my speakers. It doesn't have the hollow resonance of an OC2 but it goes really - insanely - low. Thanks to the TRS out, I've been using it mostly for recording, bypassing the amp and just sticking a layer underneath via DI - the same way the original DBX 120 was used back in the day. Soloing the tracks, reveals a really synthy, subby analog thing going on under higher notes and rock solid tracking with no detectable latency. It won't be my only octave down, but it's a usable beast I'd recommend one if you can get one for a reasonable price.

NIce. Fancy sharing some of your recordings?

[radiophonic]

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

NIce. Fancy sharing some of your recordings?

Album demos, so a bit sensitive. Not the material, just my sloppy playing. I'll have a dig around though - do you have one? It's an odd pedal. It almost sounds like a digital octaver on 50/50 blend,  but with no latency. Plus the whole 30 Hz thing.

Edited July 12, 2020 by radiophonic

[Al Krow]

8 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

Album demos, so a bit sensitive. Not the material, just my sloppy playing. I'll have a dig around though - do you have one? It's an odd pedal.

I did, for a short while, but I kinda felt it needed a BF Dubster 2 and a whole bunch of wattage to be properly usable (or the LF1400). I very briefly toyed with the idea of heading down that route, but fortunately for the street where I live Alex ceased production of the said monster machines!

Edited July 12, 2020 by Al Krow

[radiophonic]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

I did, for a short while, but I kinda felt it needed a BF Dubster 2 and a whole bunch of wattage to be properly usable (or the LF1400). I very briefly toyed with the idea of heading down that route, but fortunately for the street where I live Alex ceased production of the said monster machines!

You either need a rig with massive headroom or the opportunity to route it through FOH (which would kind of take the fun out of it). I understand that Juan Alderete ran it into his old Ampeg night after night and never blew anything, but it has that rep as a cone toaster. I've been playing around running it into a Manta in place of an OC2 and it does some really terrifying things with the filter sweep.

[bottomfeed]

Goes to show.... It matters and it's very personal! ... What works for you with your personal gear.... 🙂

I've always been quite passionate about octave sounds... Prolly ebs octabass does it the most for me... In a live situation, you sometimes have to compromise!... maybe always!? play with it musically whatever you have!  

 

 

 

[Doddy]

On 12/07/2020 at 22:35, radiophonic said:

Returning to octavers, I recently picked up a mint DOD Meatbox reissue at a non-insane price. Oh boy, this is the first time I've worried about my speakers. It doesn't have the hollow resonance of an OC2 but it goes really - insanely - low. Thanks to the TRS out, I've been using it mostly for recording, bypassing the amp and just sticking a layer underneath via DI - the same way the original DBX 120 was used back in the day. Soloing the tracks, reveals a really synthy, subby analog thing going on under higher notes and rock solid tracking with no detectable latency. It won't be my only octave down, but it's a usable beast I'd recommend one if you can get one for a reasonable price.

I love the Meatbox, but I never look at it as being an octaver because it doesn't do the traditional octave thing like the OC2 or the the EBS (for example) does. I look at it more as a dedicated sub, that sits under everything and sounds massive through the PA.  I nearly always take both out ( normally the 3 Leaf Octabvre and a Mantic Beefbag) and they both do completely different jobs.

[radiophonic]

11 hours ago, Doddy said:

I love the Meatbox, but I never look at it as being an octaver because it doesn't do the traditional octave thing like the OC2 or the the EBS (for example) does. I look at it more as a dedicated sub, that sits under everything and sounds massive through the PA.  I nearly always take both out ( normally the 3 Leaf Octabvre and a Mantic Beefbag) and they both do completely different jobs.

It's definitely its own thing, but on some apps I can use it like a regular octave and in some I can't. I need to dig out my MF101 and see what it makes of it. The TRS output is definitely a win and that's how I'm using it for recording. What I do like about it is the 50/50 blend sound into an amp though. It sounds quite like a digital octave down, except with no latency. You have to wind back the resonant filters a bit and watch your volume, and it's totally unlike an OC2 but I could definitely see that being a usable sound. I've not heard the Beefbag. I've heard conflicting descriptions with some saying it's more or less a Meatbox and some saying that he made a Meatbox clone but this was a bit different. Can you comment?

[Doddy]

On 18/07/2020 at 11:56, radiophonic said:

It's definitely its own thing, but on some apps I can use it like a regular octave and in some I can't. I need to dig out my MF101 and see what it makes of it. The TRS output is definitely a win and that's how I'm using it for recording. What I do like about it is the 50/50 blend sound into an amp though. It sounds quite like a digital octave down, except with no latency. You have to wind back the resonant filters a bit and watch your volume, and it's totally unlike an OC2 but I could definitely see that being a usable sound. I've not heard the Beefbag. I've heard conflicting descriptions with some saying it's more or less a Meatbox and some saying that he made a Meatbox clone but this was a bit different. Can you comment?

As far as I'm aware, the Beef bag is a straight up clone of the original Meatbox, which Mantic stopped making when DOD brought out the reissue. To me it sounds just like the Meatbox, but with much better build quality. Mantic still make the Density Hulk which is their version of a sub pedal. That sounds great too-it's more clean than the Beef bag.

I put it last in the chain, run the dry out to my amp, the effected signal to a DI, and crank all the knobs. You need a decent PA really, but it sounds massive.

[Quatschmacher]

For anyone who might be interested here are two octave pedal demos. 

First is the sub only of the Okto Nøjs. There are 8 bars of each of the following tone knob clock positions: 7, 9, 11, 12, 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Okto demo.wav

 

Second is the MXR Vintage Bass Octave which is a clone of Janek Gwizdala's Japanese OC-2.

VBO demo.wav

Edited August 23, 2020 by Quatschmacher

[GisserD]

Anybody played the mutron octave devider?

[radiophonic]

No OC2 Waza but now there's an OC5 then. The OC2 full wet sounded close to me. Definitely has that hollowed out sine wave thing going on.

 

[iamtheelvy]

I'm intrigued by the OC-5, but there's a whole lot of features I don't really want/need. A more faithful reproduction of the OC-2 would have been nice (may go for the MXR VBO)... 

[Al Krow]

Midlands based amp and pedal maker, Laney, seem to be continuing their foray into bass pedals. Their BCC-T85 was launched a little while back. Has octave down, plus sub-octaves down. So far not unusual. But then it also has octave up and here's the thing that sets it apart from the herd:  instead of "just" octave up, you can dial in a 5th up instead. And then add in an expression pedal input and it looks pretty cool!

 

According to the Anderton's review - it's got pretty glitch-free tight tracking (although they don't specify how low it tracks without glitching). They're also indicating that it's polyphonic allowing you to play chords. £159 from Andertons (£149 incl. postage from Bax).

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Al Krow

[itu]

On 16/12/2018 at 00:50, Al Krow said:

KMA Machines QUEEQUEG

Just has one knob for clean / wet blend... Lack of volume control on any pedal is always a big minus for me. 

I happened to get a used V2 for a reasonable price. I tried it few days ago in a rehearsal. Amazingly functional. The one knob UI is very easy, and the switch + coloured LED helps to find sounds.

 

The glitches of the OC-2 are absent. I think I like the voicing. Adjusting is easy, but there are still lots of sounds. One knob approach helps. This is most probably a keeper.

 

Addition:

Now I have been using this for a week. The simple UI is a breeze, I can dial minimal amount of grunt from the pedal easily. Some distortion is naturally there but it seems to add positive extra to my sound, especially in a band context. Next step is to try this with a HPF. OC-2 type of glitching is practically missing.

Edited March 24, 2023 by itu
learning to write

[mouthmw]

I did choose only one octave pedal, and that pedal was 3Leaf Octabvre MKIII. It's the best analog octave pedal IMO. It does the OC2 and Mutron thing, and everything in between.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 15/03/2017 at 20:55, ratman said:

I'm hankering for a go on a Sub n Up. Has anyone got some experience with one they'd like to share?

Rather late to answer this one, but might be of some help for future viewers of this thread.

 

I got a Sub'N'Up Mini on my current main board, which is using the exact same octave engine as the regular big version, but I use it for the 1 octave up effect, which tracks as good as flawlessly and with basically unnotable latency, and which with the default polyphonic Toneprint Template chosen and some dialing in the Toneprint editor can be made to sound very close to an authentic/realistic octave up, or at least as close as any basic octave up effect can be with no additional processing other than EQ can get (which will be pretty far from perfect, but as said basically as close as it gets with any existing pedals on the market, until EHX decides to make a guitar version of their Bass9 pedal for use with bass).        

 

It is also capable of a wide range of special effects using the Toneprint with it's build in modulation or loading the right custom Toneprint.

 

However the polyphonic 1 octave down effect on it frankly sucks as a standalone effect, it sounds floppy and muddy and unlike that octave up effect it got a painfully notable latency to it.

 

So while I would not hesitate to warmly recommend it if an as close as it gets authentic/realistic 1 octave up effect (for a faux guitar/8 string bass kind of thing), if what you need is a 1 octave down effect I would strongly advice against getting this pedal.

 

And if what you want is that classic analog monophonic 1 octave down effect nothing really beats the real thing.  

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash