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Help me pick out an octave pedal

calmb4tehpwn

calmb4tehpwn

Jan 2, 2011
607
0
Burnsville, MN
#1
Hey, guys!

So my issue is pretty specific. I Used to play a lot of metal, and my rig is perfect for it. Absolutely clear and true bass, g&l custom fretless 2000, gallien Kruger preamp, power amp, and two acme B4 cabs. It's a monstrosity, and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Well, I'm out of the military now, back home with my old friends, and we're getting the band back together, but this time we're all sick of metal. So we're going with a slow, melancholy, atmospheric haunting sound. Think Anathema. So here's the problem, I want to bring some atmosphere to my rig, and I think I've decided how. An octaver. I need an octave up, with two outputs, dry and octave up, that can be run simultaneously. I want to run the dry to my acmes, and the octave up through some effects and through the PA.

As ideas go, am I crazy? Is this going to work? What octavers can give me simultaneous dry and effect outside? And finally, what effects would you suggest on the octave up? Chorus? Envelope filter? I have minimal experience with effects as a whole, so any advice is welcome!
 
#3
I don't really use any octave ups - so recs come from what seem to be loved around here - and yes the POG seems like the best choice.

I do have experience with atmospheric cool bass sounds though - I love phase modulation on bass (much more than chorus or trem). Some favorites there are the MXR script Phase 90 circuit or the Mu-Tron Phasor II (little harder to find until Mr. Begiel gets around to reissuing it). I also love delay on bass - current favorite there is the Moog MF-Delay mini-fooger with an expression pedal tied to either time or feedback.

Reverb is a little newer for me and I tend to use it mainly on guitar. The HOF mini TC pedal is killer because of the toneprint function that allows you so so so much flexibility. I just scored an Afterneath on Reverb in the Andy Richardson auctions and I look forward to experimenting more with that little piece of madness.

Past that - well - filters are always great for spacy work and there my recs will always be Mu-Tron or Mu-Tron type filters.
 
#4
EHX has a brand new octave pedal out called the Pitchfork. I don't know if it does everything you're looking for, but I know it does octave up/down and it's a lot cheaper than a POG.

As far as "atmospheric" pedals go, three immediately come to mind: digital delay, flange, and EHX Freeze. There are lots of great digi delays out there, but I really like TC Electronics delays - they have a good crisp sound (I have found that analog delays make my tone too dark).
I've always preferred flangers to phasers on bass, but that's just a personal thing. There are expensive ones out there, but I really like my Boss BF2 (BF3 is good, too). Finally, the Freeze is great for drone. It's sort of like a looper, except it only retains one note (or chord) and just sustains it (as long as you want). You can then play on top of the drone and make some pretty crazy noise.

Hopefully you have a good music store nearby, so you can go try out ALL THE PEDALS. And don't forget to check out the classifieds here on TB. There is always an amazing selection of pedals on here.
 
#7
I think Ari_Smith nailed it with the earthquaker devices organizer suggestion, personally. Why overload your pedalboard with multiple pedals that this one seems to combine into one? I don't think I'd use Octave much myself, but if I wanted to this pedal definitely peaked my interest.

Regarding Envelope Filters, I'm not sure I'd go that route for the purpose of adding atmosphere. To me I hear funk and pretty much only funk... that being said, I have a Morley Dual Bass Wah (still a filter effect like envelope) which when used effectively can add all sorts of atmosphere. The trick is to move your foot to a very different tempo than the music (often slower for me). Envelope filters use dynamics, so they pretty much have a uniform in-time effect as you play, which again sounds funky but not much else (to me). Just my thoughts.
 
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#8
As to the question of atmospheric effects, I have been experimenting with a few things lately that I really like. I recently got a SA dimension reverb and the enormo-dome (E dome) setting is really cool, gives a very long bloom to the note with crazy sustain. I like to build a chord one note at a time and then kick in OD to use this tone over the Edome chord sound, the combined fuzz and reverb sounds really good to my ear. Have also used a ditto X2 in combination, capturing a short section of the Edome "chord" sample to make a pulsing loop sound, then using the 2nd pedal function on the ditto to slow the loop by 1/2 (drops down 1 octave) and then reverse it. This creates a cool organic, pulsing drone that is a good foundation to add some of the spacey OD+reverb sounds on top of. Think a really high note on the G string, like bending a b3rd up to a major third or a 4th to a b5th, pre-bending the note up 1/2 step and then letting it relax back to the un-bent note, etc you get the idea.
 
#9
My favorite octave pedal with a dry out is the MicroPOG. I've never used a full POG or POG2, but I always wanted to. My favorite octave pedal overall is the Bass Whammy, and that's what I still use. If you've got space and need a separate dry signal, I'd suggest an ABY pedal (in the ABY, one out to the ocatave, the other out to where you want your dry sound to go). That's what I do when I want a pure dry signal mixed in. I used to own an Organizer, and I absolutely loved it, but it's a very unique sound, not what I'd call a "pure" octave. I also own a B9 which is amazing (but not simply an octaver, though it does add octaves).

You could also look into the Epitome, which is a great pedal for atmospheric music. It's got the MicroPOG right in there. I owned one for a while and loved it. It's a Micro POG + Electric Mistress + Holy Grail in one pedal. The only thing I didn't like about that is that they went with a stereo in/out rather than a dry out. So it might not work for what you want unless you split the signal first.

EQD Rainbow Machine is also a killer pedal for ambient echoes and tails and modulation. It can be hard to find the exact sound you're looking for, but if you do you'll love it. And it can give you sounds no other pedal will.
 
#13
Midak, it's a great thread but IIRC it's all about SUB-octave generators. The OP seems to want an octave UP.
....And that's mainly EHX turf. The best ANALOG alternative (unless you want fuzz with that - in which case look at a Black Cat) might be the Foxrox Octron. Basically an analog MicroPOG - one up, one down, one dry. Separate controls for the volume of each.
BTW, +1 on the Freeze for spacey, atmospheric drones. Haven't tried a Superego (also EHX) but I'm told it's the Freeze and a lot more besides.
 

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