Chunk Octavius Squeezer Owners (past & present) - what did you like/dislike?

[surfingbird1]

If you own or have ever owned an octavius squeezer please comment.

Why did you sell or cant sell?
What did you like or dislike?
Why did you get rid of it?
How useable in a band setting etc!!!!

Thx

[Lindsay]

I bought mine when they were first released - on the basis of TB hype - and I have kept it.

I like it because of its flexibility and range of sounds, but in my view, the interface isn't very user friendly, to the point that I gave up trying to master it long before I created any useful sounds myself (other than minor tinkering with the presets).

If it had a PC interface with clearly explained controls I'm sure I would get more out of the pedal.

Having said that, I REALLY dig Chuck Systems pedals. The OS presets are great, particularly the filters and octo-fuzz. I used the Pimp Daddy preset for a while on a Hip Hop track and, while it required supper clean playing, it killed.

The Agent 00Funk and Brown Dog are favourites of mine.

[rottenramone]

i still have mine as well. like what linsay said, its a great pedal. but i think u will need a basic understanding of subtractive/additive synthesis before attempting to get the most out of the OS. its definitely not a stomp n go pedal. tracking is one issue that i'd like them to fix.

and so far the updates hasn't been very frequent. but the 1 to 1 emails with richard have been prompt.

[surfingbird1]

would a comp before help tracking?

I have more than a basic knowledge of synths and the chain of functions that control the sounds, but I am a master by no means

thx guys

keep the responses coming

[bass.bert]

Originally Posted by surfingbird1

Why did you sell or cant sell?
What did you like or dislike?

for me it's the filter. full controll over attack, release, resonance, frequency, hp/bp/lp, blend, static/envelope/lfo. with the killer feature to save these. the only thing i'm missing here is a trigger input/effect loop.

usability is… meh… a pc editor would be very useful here. but as you have presets you don't have to mess around with that on stage.

fuzz is great, i only miss a simple tone parameter, but you can do that with the filter.

the sound quality is excellent and clean. unlike on some other stompboxes where even the bypass sounds like plastic…

oh, and it's not the cheapest. so if you just use a few features maybe the single chunk systems pedals are the better choice.

[gillento]

I am guy who really likes to tweak amps and pedals, but this one was too much for me!!!

I got lucky a and got a Deep Impact for less than 480$.
That's what I am using now.

[jucas]

It takes some time to get used to, but even if you don't master it I found you can get some decent settings.

Other than whats been mentioned (no computer interface), I don't like that the controls all have a different maximum number associated with them. I have a bit of a hard time adjusting everything when the filter settings go from 0-255, resonances are from 0-31, and attack/decay times from 0-15. Maybe its just the lack of a physical control to see the settings.

I do really enjoy it once a sound is set up, and haven't had problems with tracking.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Sold mine due mostly to the interface issues- that pedal needs a PC editor badly. I also had sensitivity issues- I don't pluck hard or use a high output, so even with the sensitivity firmware change they gave, I had a bit of an issue triggering the filter when needed. The octaver also not a highlight of the O.S. to be sure.

It was a very good sounding and compact pedal though. I wouldn't be opposed to getting one again in the future is some minor changes were made. MIDI control on this guy would be awesome, and very useful considering how many parameters can be altered.

[Jared Lash]

In short, I loved the sounds and form factor but hated the interface and was a bit disappointed in the tracking and octaver.

I dug the sounds so much that after I sold my OS I bought the Brown Dog and 00Funk. I missed a lot of the very cool features of the Squeezer, but it was just too complicated to build patches for me.

[surfingbird1]

thx so much guys, I got a bonus, and I am a bit torn between the squeezer r getting a boss vf-1 and midi foot controller, I had the vf-1 before and have missed it everyday since I sold it, but the demos of the squeezer had sounds similar to what I was doing with the vf-1 but the chunk pedal nailed them with a little more class

but adjustments scare me now

[Bryan R. Tyler]

I've owned both, and wouldn't put them in the same category. There are some good synth and envelope sounds you can get out of the VF-1, but overall the Chunk is going to be much better at those functions as it focuses on that one aspect (as well as having a great fuzz).

Side note: the VF-1 now has a fully usable PC editor that a user made; it's very handy and well done.

[kevteop]

The sounds on the O.S. are really excellent. The fuzz is excellent, the filter is excellent, the only downside is that while the oscillator sounds excellent the tracking struggles to keep up, it can be very unpredictable even if you're used to applying all the tricks you need to make tracking pedals work their best.

If you use filters for a lot of different stuff it's worth getting one just for the programmable filter with ADSR, LFO, sample & hold, tap tempo etc. If you use fuzzes in conjunction with filters a lot then again it's probably going to be useful to you. If you want the waveforms then look elsewhere - it just doesn't track reliably enough.

The last time I emailed Chunk they were working on an improved approach to the tracking problem but it's been over 18 months since they put out a firmware update (well, there was the .10 update but that was just to fix some stability issues) so I wouldn't count on the tracking improving any time soon.

As for the interface, it's fiddly but not hard to understand if you read the manual. I don't have any trouble getting the sounds I want out of it.

[phatbass30]

Originally Posted by Lindsay

I like it because of its flexibility and range of sounds, but in my view, the interface isn't very user friendly, to the point that I gave up trying to master it long before I created any useful sounds myself (other than minor tinkering with the presets).

If it had a PC interface with clearly explained controls I'm sure I would get more out of the pedal.

+1

i love mine, but i sold my board last year to add some money to buy a car. that's the only reason why the OS got disposed. if not for that, i would still be playing it til now.

i love the fuzz and the filters on that one!

[Blah114]

I got rid of mine because it was bulky and very difficult to use, for me.. or difficult to tweak. I can do the same sorts of things, or more, with the Eventide Pitchfactor.. that's just me.

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by Blah114

I got rid of mine because it was bulky and very difficult to use,

Bulky? It's tiny.

[CrayZee_One]

Ya, I echo most ppls sentiments here...
Liked the sounds and range of possiblities, form factor, etc.
Disliked the interface and fiddly knob system and lack of a simple PC based editor or the like. I sold mine in the end.

[Largedon]

I can sum up the OS in 2 pics.

When using the OS with the presets.


When I start trying to program new sounds.