Boss OC-5 Octave!!!!

[iamtheelvy]

1 hour ago, lee650 said:

Oc5 is 1 louder!!😉

*1 lower...

[MrCrane]

On 17/09/2020 at 12:57, CameronJ said:

I’m more interested in the custom prickguard he has on that Lakland DJ5!

On the basis of that, I'm going to have to put off watching the video until I'm off the work computer. 😁

[CameronJ]

Oh dear 

 

I’m not even going to edit it. It shall remain, as a memorial to my idiocy.

[Quatschmacher]

On 17/09/2020 at 12:57, CameronJ said:

I’m more interested in the custom prickguard he has on that Lakland DJ5!

Is it like this? Tort would look better.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Quatschmacher

[CameronJ]

I was thinking more cream pearl...

[Quatschmacher]

1 minute ago, CameronJ said:

I was thinking more cream pearl...

Filthy!

[paulo m]

Check out Jonathan Herrera's review of this pedal on the Moullon Forum 😁

Edited September 22, 2020 by paulo m

[lee650]

14 hours ago, paulo m said:

Check out Jonathan Herrras review of this pedal on the Moullon Forum 😁

Cheers Paul

 

Great review and it's got me thinking/hoping this is what we've been waiting for.

 

 

[Bo0tsy]

Yes great demo, both modes sound really good and the tracking seems excellent...count me interested

[cLepto-bass]

Yeh good demo right up until he introduced the Poly Mode Range control where he lost me. Am I correct in thinking that the Range knob only really operates when playing full chords/intervals? Slightly confused.

[Al Krow]

Cheers for sharing the review Lee. My key takeaways were:

(15.00) Good classic OC2 sound! And without the volume loss that OC2 suffers from on solo -1 Oct?

(17.37) Not bad digital octave up - more rounded and less 'tinny' than EHX / Pog pedals, but still prefer my Digitech Mosaic for oct up - which I think would do a better job than what I'm hearing at (26.50)

(22.27) Seems to be implying that it has analogue oct down in vintage mode (OC2) but digital oct down in poly mode (OC3)

Poly mode seems to be straight from OC3 - which never particularly impressed me. And they still have threshold the wrong way around - why would you want to only have Oct down on the low notes and not the high notes? The other way around I totally get!

But it seems to have improved / less glitchy tracking as compared to its predecessors. I still don't think it matches the Boss SY-1 for tracking (tbf there is nothing out there which does!) which is currently my goto Synth and Oct pedal.

Am I tempted to get one? Possibly - but really only because it gets so close to classic OC2 without volume loss. The rest I'd happily give a miss.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[Quatschmacher]

Still can’t ascertain whether vintage mode is actually analogue or not. From the video it seemed more immediate, poly mode sounded like there was a bit of latency which you could hear when he played a blend of wet and dry. 

Pretty decent price if it does the OC-2 thing properly and better. Octave up would be welcome. Still feel a dry kill switch would have been a good thing to add.

I’m certainly curious enough to try one. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Quatschmacher

[skej21]

Confirmed my suspicions... all that OC-2 character has just been killed off with the "fixed" tracking

[krispn]

Ahh OC2+OC3=OC5 clever Boss, very clever! 

[iamtheelvy]

I think the 5 is just the next number in the sequence (apart from “unlucky” no.4). The maths is just a coincidence...

[fretmeister]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Cheers for sharing the review Lee. My key takeaways were:

(15.00) Good classic OC2 sound! And without the volume loss that OC2 suffers from on solo -1 Oct?

(17.37) Not bad digital octave up - more rounded and less 'tinny' than EHX / Pog pedals, but still prefer my Digitech Mosaic for oct up - which I think would do a better job than what I'm hearing at (26.50)

(22.27) Seems to be implying that it has analogue oct down in vintage mode (OC2) but digital oct down in poly mode (OC3)

Poly mode seems to be straight from OC3 - which never particularly impressed me. And they still have threshold the wrong way around - why would you want to only have Oct down on the low notes and not the high notes? The other way around I totally get!

But it seems to have improved / less glitchy tracking as compared to its predecessors. I still don't think it matches the Boss SY-1 for tracking (tbf there is nothing out there which does!) which is currently my goto Synth and Oct pedal.

Am I tempted to get one? Possibly - but really only because it gets so close to classic OC2 without volume loss. The rest I'd happily give a miss.

@Al Krow How good is the SY-1 just as an Octave?

[Al Krow]

7 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

@Al Krow How good is the SY-1 just as an Octave?

It will track lower and tighter without glitching than anything else out there. I also really appreciate not having to modify my playing style or needing to select a particular pup to "keep the pedal happy", which is the case with a lot of octavers. Which is bliss in terms of one less thing to have to think about in a band mix. 

It has a very clean octave down tone though - which is fine for fattening up your dry core bass sound. If you want something more coloured then you'll need to add a dirt / gated fuzz / bit crusher pedal of choice. 

I'm finding it pretty hard to justify getting a separate octave down pedal, right now, 'cos I know they simply won't match the SY-1 on tracking. It's also obviously a bonus having one pedal that does both octave and synth duties in terms of cost and PB space saving. 

[krispn]

What tracks have you found it to be useful on? I’d be keen to hear some samples in context. I’ve tried with the HX Stomp but for the tunes where I think it might work I’m still undecided. We cover some 80’s stuff and I can ‘hear in my head’ what I think will work but until we get a chance to gig again and plan rehearsal it remains a hunch! 
Now I have played along to some heavier and electro stuff and messed about with sounds I think are ok but live is always the tricky one.

For context the Doom2, Proton and Octave from 3 leaf seem like a solid synth filter fuzz board. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by krispn

[Al Krow]

You and me both - just had one gig a couple of weeks back and no rehearsals in the past six months!

Agreed - it won't be for every track for sure. And tbf I have much less use for octave down now I'm playing 5ers exclusively.

But I guess an obvious example would be something like Bruno Mars - Runaway Baby to kick in the octave down part way through the main bass riff which I mainly play an octave above low E. Will save me physically playing the main riff an octave down starting on the 5th note of the low B string to provide contrast.

24 minutes ago, krispn said:

For context the Doom2, Proton and Octave from 3 leaf seem like a solid synth filter fuzz board. 

Yup, that would be an awesome combination - the Proton MkIV (I've got on my board) and Octabvre MkIII have both come out this year. And a combo that would also leave your bank balance a tad lighter too 😁

Edited September 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[krispn]

I love that you’re playing 5’s exclusively but using an octave down pedal so you don’t have to physically play the low B string. 

I do get the point and I always think of octave down bass parts played up the neck to get the best octave results. I can see little if any point playing an octave down below A on the E string but that’s just me. 

[Al Krow]

Haha - I was simply trying to give you an example that might work for you when you are playing 4 strings. 

5 string players have more flexibility of using or not using an octave pedal at all, as I think we have just demonstrated. Hence my earlier comment of having much less use of octave pedals these days!

And don't get me wrong having the low B string is great! Which is why I play 5ers. But it will be a somewhat different flavour to playing the notes an octave up with an octaver-down pedal added and two notes simultaneously ringing out, as you already know. 

IME octave-up pedals don't quite cut it in the same way: I find they sound much tinnier than the equivalent pitched note played normally, and often come with greater latency issues than octave down pedals.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[pete.young]

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Poly mode seems to be straight from OC3 - which never particularly impressed me. And they still have threshold the wrong way around - why would you want to only have Oct down on the low notes and not the high notes? The other way around I totally get!

 

It's what you need if you are an acoustic guitarist and you want to add some bottom octave on the lower notes. Particularly if you are playing a bass note then a chord on the offbeat (think 'Dum-chuck').

I think the OC-3 is the only pedal that does this, so that virtually guarantees the pedal is going to be a success whatever bassplayers think of it.

Edited September 22, 2020 by pete.young

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, pete.young said:

It's what you need if you are an acoustic guitarist and you want to add some bottom octave on the lower notes. Particularly if you are playing a bass note then a chord on the offbeat (think 'Dum-chuck').

I think the OC-3 is the only pedal that does this, so that virtually guarantees the pedal is going to be a success whatever bassplayers think of it.

Good point - that now makes complete sense (even if its the wrong way around for us bass players)! This pedal does have a switch to go from guitar <--> bass mode (similar to the SY-1) so it's clearly been aimed at both markets as you say.

Wouldn't it have been bloomin' marvellous if by dint of switching from guitar <--> bass mode the 'polarity' on the range sweep was also reversed so that bass players could select how low the octave down went? That way they would be keeping both bass players and guitarists happy - it would certainly have tipped me over the edge into getting one!

Boss if you're reading this thread...

Edited September 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, fretmeister said:

@Al Krow How good is the SY-1 just as an Octave?

Going the other way: there's a rumour on the TB OC-5 thread that Boss have put the SY-1's tracking into the OC-5. If that's the case, it's a bit of a game changer! Clearly the feedback to Boss on just how fantastic the SY-1 is at tracking has not been lost on them!

Obviously the SY-1 is a fair bit more expensive and can do a whole bunch of other cool stuff besides octave down (and up), and it also has a parallel loop facility and can be used with an expression pedal which the OC-5 doesn't.

andy rice said: ↑

I didn't get to compare it but the Boss rep told me that the tracking came from the SY-1...

fauxtoe said: ↑

Oh that's VERY good news then. For anyone not familiar, the tracking on the SY-1 is absolutely incredible. I don't recall being able to make it glitch out whatsoever with single notes all the way up and down the fretboard or with chords. It's really that good!

fauxtoe said: ↑

From a post early on in the thread I had asked about tracking and the reply was that it had the same engine as the SY-1. If it indeed does, then it should be darn near perfect. That's going by a response from a Boss rep and no personal experience from myself. I sure hope that's the case because I may make the plunge.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[paulo m]

This Pedal will most probably be a winner for Boss' in a very competitive market.. But  for myself like many others it leaves you slightly puzzled as to.... is the OC2 mode analogue ? & The Poly mode digital... & when combined are they mixed together as such..