hi there,
i recorded some clips of all my analog octavers for sound comparison. i used a looper like
this guy to have exactly the same sound source for all pedals and settings. the lick is played on a passive jazzbass through these:
boss oc-2
aguilar octamizer
ehx octave multiplexer
dod octoplus (modded)
chunk systems octavius squeezer
i did all the clips with no clean signal blended in, to make the tonal character more evident. and i use octavers just for synth sounds, so no clean signal is needed anyway...
i'm not sure if the octoplus-clips are 100% representative, as i bought the pedal true bypass-modded and with some additional filters installed. i didn't use the filters in these clips, so i think the basic character is still remained.
also the octavius squeezer is not really comparable to the others, as it uses a real oscillator, no divider circuit. it's more complicated to get a smooth tracking on this unit, and i didn't spend any time to adjust the parameter for the sensitivity perfectly. so it gets really messy, especially in the clip with the trapeze waveform. normally you can also blend in some clean signal to cover that, which i did not.
oooops, and i also forgot to dial back the tone control on my bass for all the clips, that makes the tracking for that circuit even more difficult.
CLIPS
1. oc-2, -1oct
2. octamizer, -1oct
3. octamizer, -1oct, filter open + closed
4. octoplus with distortion
5. octoplus without distortion
6. multiplexer sub bass
7. multiplexer no sub switch, distorted
8. multiplexer filters open
9. octavius squeezer triangle octave
10. octavius squeezer trapeze octave
for me the octamizer did win in terms of performance, followed by the oc-2. the aguilar is a little bit more stable and can easily go down to an A on the E String, the oc-2 behaves well only to the B on the E string with my bass. deeper would be useless anyway with normal speakers... also the octamizer isn't that sensitive to the usual critic spots on a jazz bass neck, around the 5th fret of the G string as the oc-2. all other the octavers had more problems there. both, the boss and the aguilar give me good control over articulation and dynamics and react precisely and without any delay. multiplexer and octoplus are also quite good, but sometimes a bit more on the sloppy side.
it's not a fair comparison, cause it's another technology, but the octavius squeezer is the most difficult unit to control and has a short delay when it reads out your pitch and starts the oscillator. but i don't know any other unit in this category, that does this faster or better. syb-5 and the behringer copy have the same issues, and have no analog sound generator. the freqbox does not produce real waveforms in hardsync mode, and i wasn't able to test a mothership or any other analog oscillator based pedal yet.
option-wise the octamizer, the multiplexer and the octoplus are comparable, as they all have filters to adjust the tone. the most flexible one here is the multiplexer. it covers extreme subbassy sounds as well as distorted ones. it just lacks a volume control to get unity gain for theses settings. for that the octamizer with it's separate volume control for each voice is king. oc-2 and octoplus seem to have a slight volume drop with just the -1oct soloed. but maybe that's just some kind of illusion cause they have are lowpass filtered and have less harmonics, compared to the dry signal. (i tried to improve this by removing some resistors at the volume control of the unused voices of my oc-2. now i have a real volume control with the -1oct knob. works fine)
also the octamizers octave signal sounds pretty compressed, what might give that accurate playing response. unlike on the dod and ehx especially the attack is really tight.
for me the oc-2 wins as a fake oscillator in a classic octave > fuzz > filter setup. it has simply the most convincing sound and a stable performance. octoplus and multiplexer are also quite good for synth stuff an even more flexible soundwise, but the basic character is a bit more organic in my opinion, and also are harder to control. you can get some special characteristics in extreme settings, i.e. the multiplexer can sound a little bit like a ring modulator with all filters open. finally the octamizer is not that good for simulating a synth. while the oc-2 has that fine edgy grid (as many others also stated here before...), the octamizer sounds pretty smooth, round and more like a bass guitar.
pros & cons: boss oc-2
pros: nice gritty synth sound, good performance, relatively cheap
cons: can distort with too high input, not that flexible (sound), slight volume loss at 100% -1oct (?)
aguilar octamizer
pros: great tracking, punchy / articulate sound, flexible sound (filters), perfect volume control
cons: not really synthy (IMHO)
ehx octave multiplexer
pros: very flexible (sound) , relatively cheap, signal splitting possible (dry/wet outs)
cons: no real volume control, sometimes not that stable sounding
dod octoplus
pros: quite flexible (sound) , relatively cheap
cons: slight volume loss at 100% -1oct (?), not that stable sounding
chunk systems octavius squeezer
pros: real oscillator sound, very flexible (waveforms, filter, fuzz)
cons: real tracking > not that stable, light delay
hope this is useful to anybody, cheers!
