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Boss OC-3...I don't get it

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

Dec 23, 2007
659
670
London, UK
#1
I just bought a Boss OC-3. I've watched quite a few videos of it and liked the sound, and I think I'll be joining a cover band shortly so I think it's one of these pedals you just need for that sort of thing.

I put it on my board last night, just after my compressor and before my fuzz and pre-amp, and it just sounds a bit weird. It cut in and out a little bit on occasion. I thought it might be the batteries in my bass, but I changed them and it still did it. I did then notice that my compressor was turned all the way down to zero, so that might have been the issue.

So I played a bit, fiddled with the knobs a bit, and on the whole I just found the tone really odd. What am I not getting?? Can anyone give me any tips?

And what does the poly mode do?? That seems to be the nicest one, but I'm still not 100% with it.
 
#3
crguti said:
What's odd?

I guess you're the people who don't Read the Friendly Manual. The Poly Mode (Polyphonic) means several notes played simultaneously, so it can handle chords and arpeggios.
Click to expand...

That's fair. I got a bit excited that it had arrived and completely forgot about the manual.

Any other tips? Aside from reading the manual? :D

EDIT: just had a look at the manual. I don't have the pedal in front of me as I'm work, though. Should I be using direct out or the output?
 
#4
Try putting it before the compressor. Hit it with your full, uncompressed, signal and it may track better.

As an experiment, take it out of the board and run it straight bass --> OC2 --> amp. Then you'll at least narrow down whether or not it's the pedal itself, or how the pedal is reacting to everything else on your board.
 
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#5
Octave pedals are one tricky pony. The tracking is not 'perfect' and you have to learn what the pedal is capable of doing right and adjust to that.
Analog octaves don't work in all the fretboard and are very glitchy. You have to adjust your technique for a snappy attack. Digital octaves work better but always has that 'digital' sound.
 
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#7
On top of the other advice given, the monophonic octave requires you to play one single note and be on top of your muting.. any other notes (open strings) ringing out will mess with the tracking. Also, don't expect it to track well below D2. I mainly use mine for just the wet signal, and the -1 octave and play around the 12th fret and it's pretty much party mode.

Like others said the polyphonic mode will track more than one note at at a time..but imo the money from the Boss OC series is that mono -1 signal by itself.
 
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#9
Octavers and envelope followers are effect types that you have to develop the right touch and feel to play, or to put it another way you must in some ways adapt to them to get them to function their best or worst. You have to play precisely, cut off notes precisely and be sure you are dampening other strings. Playing harder may cause distortion or modulation, playing softer may cause glitches. Sliding or bending, slapping, changing where or how you pluck or pick or pickup choice can also make a difference. Changing effect order and stacking effects is a way to create complex or mimic synth tones. Once you have a feel for it you can use your playing dynamics to colour the sound or get glitches intentionally. Mainly just have fun and give the OC3 time it is a fine pedal.
 
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#10
Also, octavers can't go much lower than what you'd get on a 5-string. It varies from pedal to pedal, but anything below an open A string will start getting muddy and cutting out/glitching more and more. You typidally don't play the same line you would without the octaver, you shift the whole thing up an octave to get a doubling effect.
 
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#14
dirtychinchilla said:
I just bought a Boss OC-3. I've watched quite a few videos of it and liked the sound, and I think I'll be joining a cover band shortly so I think it's one of these pedals you just need for that sort of thing.

I put it on my board last night, just after my compressor and before my fuzz and pre-amp, and it just sounds a bit weird. It cut in and out a little bit on occasion. I thought it might be the batteries in my bass, but I changed them and it still did it. I did then notice that my compressor was turned all the way down to zero, so that might have been the issue.

So I played a bit, fiddled with the knobs a bit, and on the whole I just found the tone really odd. What am I not getting?? Can anyone give me any tips?

And what does the poly mode do?? That seems to be the nicest one, but I'm still not 100% with it.
Click to expand...
This:
lz4005 said:
That's one of those pedals where you have to adjust your technique to maximize its function. You can't just play normally and have it modify what you're already doing.
Click to expand...
I would add that using the compressor in front of the OC actually improves tracking.
My OC2 is my most used pedal, after my CS2. I used to also have an OC3 and it was great, too.
 
#16
I had my OC3 about six months before it occurred to me to read the manual. I actually only consulted the manual to find out the mA draw to run it in a daisy chain, but figured, "Hey let's read this." It was a huge help to me (go figure). I use the OC3 on higher notes upwards of the 7th fret and get some sweet texture especially on 80s rock ballads (I'm looking at you, Scorpions). I deliberately keep a mid-sized pedal board and rotate my pedals in and out based on frequency of use. The OC3 has yet to rotated out, though I admit that it's not a 'go-to' pedal like my RAT. I love my RAT.
 
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#17
i mostly play my OC3, set after my compressor, and before my dirt/drive.
typically, i play through a passive bass with lower output and i get great results on the OC3.
last night i played my G&L L-1505, set in both passive and active modes, and my OC3 sounded terrible with the same settings. i didn't bother to adjust the settings, but i did notice when i rolled off my direct signal, i was able to get more control on the pedal.

So, you might look into how much signal you are sending to the pedal, as i've found that rolling off a bit of signal helps with both tracking and tone shaping on the OC3.
 
#19
TNCreature said:
As other's have said. I was wondering why you thought you might need one for a cover band? it's a pretty specific effect and I can't imagine it being needed much (or ever) for a popular music cover band.
Click to expand...

There's a ton of pop music with synth bass, or with synth doubling the bass in the original recordings. An octaver is an easy way to get a similar sound.
 
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#20
dirtychinchilla said:
I just bought a Boss OC-3. I've watched quite a few videos of it and liked the sound, and I think I'll be joining a cover band shortly so I think it's one of these pedals you just need for that sort of thing.

I put it on my board last night, just after my compressor and before my fuzz and pre-amp, and it just sounds a bit weird. It cut in and out a little bit on occasion. I thought it might be the batteries in my bass, but I changed them and it still did it. I did then notice that my compressor was turned all the way down to zero, so that might have been the issue.

So I played a bit, fiddled with the knobs a bit, and on the whole I just found the tone really odd. What am I not getting?? Can anyone give me any tips?

And what does the poly mode do?? That seems to be the nicest one, but I'm still not 100% with it.
Click to expand...
I'll mirror what a lot of people are saying: octaves are tricky bastards. Take your time to figure out the right tone/technique to send it.

I felt like you do at first, but now I've got a better handle on it.
 

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