MXR bass ocatave deluxe

[Floyd Eye]

I recently bought one of these and while I think it is majorly cool when I am playing on my own, when I turn it on in a band mix it gets lost and sounds very confused and busy. It is better if I only play high notes. I have the mid boost on the factory settings. Would cranking it up help? What settings do you guys use? I very much wanted to use this pedal for beefing it up during guitar solos ( I am the bass player in a 3 piece hard rock band) but so far I have not been able to utilize it with my band. Any advice?

[jmattbassplaya]

Make sure you keep your dry knob up as well because it'll help you be heard. I believe you can adjust the mid switch, so it might be worth opening it up and trying a few different settings too.

[ksandvik]

Might be worth eq:ing out some of the low end (bass, amp, pedals...) during the use to avoid the muddiness and push for the highs so the bass sound is more distinctive using the effect.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

Make sure you keep your dry knob up as well because it'll help you be heard. I believe you can adjust the mid switch, so it might be worth opening it up and trying a few different settings too.

Ah, the dry knob. Thanks Jmatt. I think maybe I'll take the backplate off and leave it off for a bit at the next rehearsal until I find what I like best.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

Might be worth eq:ing out some of the low end (bass, amp, pedals...) during the use to avoid the muddiness and push for the highs so the bass sound is more distinctive using the effect.

Well, I can see why you would think that, but for me, if I have to change a bunch of crap on my preamp to use an effect I probably won't use it. At least with the band.

[droo46]

I love to run my octave pedal with a healthy amount of distortion. In a three piece setting, fuzz+octave would be great while the guitarist solos.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by droo46

I love to run my octave pedal with a healthy amount of distortion. In a three piece setting, fuzz+octave would be great while the guitarist solos.

That was my thinking when I bought it. I am hoping it turns out to be true.

[droo46]

I'm in a three piece and I use that combo when my guitarist solos. My fuzz is a Bass Muff Pi which does get lost in a mix because it lives in the same frequency range as a guitar. For that reason, it works great when the guitar drops out. Add to that an octave pedal and you've got a very beefy sounding bass perfect for filling in the gaps that exist in a three piece.

[scottfeldstein]

I have been lusting for that pedal for months. I anticipate that I'll run it with the dry and the Growl up. Don't think the Girth sounds very usable, at least in a live situation. Not really sure how (or if) I might use the mid boost. I supposed every little bit helps to cut through, but not sure where I'd run it.

All of this is based off nothing but really careful listening to demos of it on the web, so you already know way more than I do.

If you're still with me, I anticipate using it on higher registers. Perhaps in conjunction with my MXR envelope filter. I'm sure you've seen this video.

MXRBassOctave - YouTube

Near the end he fires up the envelope filter--dig it.

One of my bands is a pretty hard rocking group where I hope to use it to fill out the mix when the guitarist goes for a solo. My other band is a highly engineered trip-hop group where I hope to use it just to get weird, making some interesting bass lines in higher registers.

[scottfeldstein]

Whoops. I meant you can see both pedals together in this video. At about 7 minutes in.

MXR Bass Envelope Filter Pedal - YouTube

[alec]

Originally Posted by Floyd Eye

I recently bought one of these and while I think it is majorly cool when I am playing on my own, when I turn it on in a band mix it gets lost and sounds very confused and busy. It is better if I only play high notes.

in a band mix, you'll have better results if the octave note isn't much lower than normal low E or D.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by alec

in a band mix, you'll have better results if the octave note isn't much lower than normal low E or D.

That's what I figured. I'm going to try cutting the Girth and bumping the Growl and Dry knobs a bit. If that doesn't do it I will adjust the internal mid boost. If I can't get it to work for me with my band it will be for sale at a nice discount. The pedal is 20 days out of the plastic currently.

[the low one]

I can't decide at the moment if I like the mid boost or not

It's there to help the dry signal cut through the mix but sometimes I find it a bit thin on the dry tone. If you push the dry knob to just below 3:00 the dry volume is the same as when bypassed and I find the dry tone then to be fuller than with the dry at say 12:00 but with the mid engaged.

But then it's not as defined as when using the mid boost.

What do you guys think of the mid boost, do you think it's better than just turning up your dry level ?

[HolmeBass]

I find some OD after the octave helps squelch some of the super subs that cause muddiness, and adds some harmonics to help the punch. I was definitely going for a no-dry synth tone with my BOD, but finally found that dialing in just a touch of dry, with the mid boost added (I think my EQ is 800 hz setting IIRC) also helped. It still sounds like a bass synth, just with a touch of polyphony.