Octave Pedals

[cabo]

I wasn’t sure how many octave users were around, Id be interested in hearing other fellow members thoughts/opinions on octave pedals they love.

For me it has been a long time search for the right small boxed octave pedal. I always liked a good octave down the most so that was always considered as well, and Im fine with digital or analog as long as it tracks well, or has a useful personality to it.

Ive been a long time fan of the octron, mutron and whammy other than size. I ended up liking the octron2 the most,,,add a green ringer clone in the loop and you have a Mutron Octave divider, but it is more versatile and is clearer and deeper imo.

Donner turned me onto a real fine unit, the Ibanez ot10,, but has been impossible to find. I was also thinking about the Mxr blue box.
Anyone here have exp with the Blue Box? reviews seem mixed.

The Pog was great too,,again size was issue, I was also curious if anyone was using the Micro Pog? and for organ or octave sounds?

The MI Audio Pollyanna was also just released,,and I ended up checking one out,, should see it in a few days. I have high hope for this one but we’ll see. The demo vids seemed pretty good, Im hoping it would work with bass too.

[Donner]

yeah its always inspiring to kick in an octave either up or down.......

I like old Pearl Octaver and the Ibanes ot10 as mentioned....

the Polyanna will be interesting to hear for sure - it could be a new favorite

just for sound quality the Octron is hard to beat ,,,,

the CAF has really good octave up


theres also the Scrambler and Octavia


lots of great noisemakers out there.....

[nichcope]

The Pog was great too,,again size was issue, I was also curious if anyone was using the Micro Pog? and for organ or octave sounds?

I've got a micro pog that I mess around with for organ tones. It's super fun to mess with and actually tracks really well. I've been meaning to send it to Donner to take for a spin.......Donner, I'll do that this weeekend (hopefully before a New Orleans evacuation! fingers crossed that hurricane doesn't come our way!!!). Maybe Donner will send it to you (Cabo) after he's done with it and then you can send it back my way!

[cabo]

The Pog was great too,,again size was issue, I was also curious if anyone was using the Micro Pog? and for organ or octave sounds?

I've got a micro pog that I mess around with for organ tones. It's super fun to mess with and actually tracks really well. I've been meaning to send it to Donner to take for a spin.......Donner, I'll do that this weeekend (hopefully before a New Orleans evacuation! fingers crossed that hurricane doesn't come our way!!!). Maybe Donner will send it to you (Cabo) after he's done with it and then you can send it back my way!

thanks nichope, sure I would love to try it out if possible. I can send you a pm with my info.

[zzpotato]

I really like using the Foxrox Octron. It works well with other pedals and tracks exceedingly well. Has octave up and down and dry signal control so you have pretty good control over mix levels. Octave up is fuzzed and down is clean. CAF is the sh%t for upper octave though- couldn't live without it.

[Eskimo_Joe]

I've tried to find one I really like and I haven't so far, still hoping though. Ones I've tried:

Fulltone Octafuzz -- Not bad I guess, but pretty much one dimensional
Fulltone Ultimate Octave - Fuzz was a bit noisy, but I liked it for modern stuff -- octave was piercing and I liked it alot, but again, very one dimensional but much better than the Octafuzz

Those are the only ones I've owned. I tried a Chicago Iron Octavian in a store with high hopes but it sounded kind of flat / without life...could have been some other part of the rig though. I also had fun playing with a POG. If I had to buy an octave pedal tomorrow, that would be the one....but most of what it is capable of I cannot envision ever using....and it's gigantic...and it could use some editing imo

Given how great Bjorn is with:

(1) all things fuzz
(2) creating more useful/tasteful versions of old ideas (Trem / Comp / Phaser)

...he's the man to create an octave/fuzz that breathes much needed life into what could be very fun.

[mills]

So, my experience with octavers on guitar is sort of secondary, but I always found that tracking issues kicked in low on the bass, and if it worked on the bass it was really good on the guitar.

Otherwise, I kinda have a love/hate thing with octavers... I always tell myself "I'll just grab one good octaver and hang onto it even if its not getting used much" but that never actually happens. So, I've had a pog, oc-2, ebs octabass, guyatone mini octave, and mxr bass octave (not the bluebox).

The real pog was amazing, but if the lowpass was up at all, it sounded "digital" or organy... I think that the low pass had to be set too far down to get a natural, not organy guitar sound when I used it. tracked perfectly though... really nice that way. I think the micro looses the lowpass though, so I never really considered it.

The EBS tracked the best out of the analog octavers I used, and the three postitions were great to go from boomy deep presence, to middy or high obvious stuff. Didn't do synthy low mid stuff the way the OC-2 did... the midrange mode was just not quite different enough from the low mode. It seriously blew me away on the guitar for tracking though. I was really blown away by the tracking every time I plugged my guitar into it.

OC-2, you probly used, and everyone knows it pretty well. I actually think its a decent option for price/size/etc, but not up there with the good ones for tracking. When you want synthy or just something something to run with a muff and make noise, its great... never natural sounding though. I kinda just use it as a comparison for tracking.

The MXR octave (m-88), I liked a lot. Tracked well, sounded relatively natural, even if not really like your bass/guitar... a bit too low pass filtered for that. I remember it being close to the ebs for tracking, but i did use it a few years before and could be remembering wrong. Beat out the OC-2 for a natural tone with a strong fundamental, and I thought it really out tracked it. Those two got compared side to side.

Had some time on an old EHX octave multiplexor, but not enough to get past the glitchy crazyness to the clean octaves... I've heard it does a good octave and tracks on par with the OC-2, but the people I've heard using it well wanted some controllable, glitchy crazyness... So probly not what you were looking for. The Guyatone is its own thing entirely... it seemed to hold onto your notes a little better than the OC-2, but didn't track any lower. It was a super dirty, synthy octave pedal. Managed to be versitile and cover some bluebox territory, but never cleaned up so I sold it. Lots of fun to be had with it, but not what I needed at the time.



Umm... so, that's a lot of rambling, but I always ended up feeling like I couldn't get the perfect octaver. Either had "character", or it tracked exceptionally well. never both. Ebs tracked well, but the midrange mode just didn't quite have the presence that the OC-2, m-88, or multiplexor had. I keep meaning to grab either an mxr bass octave, or a ebs octabass and just keep it, but just never quite get to it... I just can't decide which one to hold onto. Should try an octron or pollyanna one day too.

[cabo]

Yeah Donner the CAF is fun to use and octave setting does sound great,,probably gets the most , ”hey what was that pedal…” response from other players.

I think I might end up with a regular Octron,,I didn’t realize how small it was,,about the width of a bjf box w/ jacks, and about as deep as analogman delay w/power plug, both I would consider small and yes sound quality of the O2 I have is top notch, works great on guitar and bass.

Question for ZZpotato and others with standard Octron,, can you dial out all of the Octave Up signal? And just have direct and down.

The Pollyanna I have more hope for a lead synth sound than a standard octave,,,always hard to tell from videos, as there are so many variables so who knows. There was one sound in particular that really caught my ear, very funky synth, most demos were more video game like which I don’t see using too much.

Thanks EJ and Mills for sharing. Interesting on the POG , I only had one for a short while and used it for organ tones,,,never really got to check out the more straight forward octave sounds. The Micro POG looks like a decent candidate for that.
Any issues with sound when the Micro POG is off?

Had a EBS years ago, but I didn’t ever use it enough then and sold it,,into different stuff at the time. Always nice to find one that works with bass And guitar, I will have to keep a look out.
Never tried the Mxr bass octave, but for some reason I couldnt seem to dig the bluebox, but I now see there is a simple mod to make it better, maybe that was it.
Anyway Mills you should definitely check out Octron on bass, great tracking and maybe has enough character that your looking for.

[zzpotato]

Question for ZZpotato and others with standard Octron,, can you dial out all of the Octave Up signal? And just have direct and down.

Yes. You have three level knobs for upper octave, direct and lower octave respectively. All the controls work together when the pedal is on. It's a nice simple unit- good utility octave pedal. You can change the style of upper fuzz and low bass tone inside the pedal too.

[cabo]

thanks for the info guys,,,
just thought I would update on the Pollyanna after a few days with it...not much to be said outside what you see on most demo vids,,,I thought i could squeeze out some more useable sounds other than the old commodore64, but didnt find many for my intended application. The octave up was good, the ocatve down was different but ok,,the 2down was a big ? for me. not much use for it, tracking was a bit scattered.
so off to bass camp it went were I experienced pretty much the same results,,, found one sound i would use( 2 down off, 1down slightly audible, and octave up a little more than half) but I already have that territoy covered, so back it went .
Good price, great size, lots of variety of sounds in the pedal,,just not something I can work into the mix at this point.

So i did end up getting ronsound to make a GreenRinger with blend, null, filter, and bass mods, hopefully this will play interesing and well in the Octron loop Seems like a great deal,, Anyone have experience with Ronsound?