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Octave pedal recommendations?

#21
I will also throw in and say that the OC-3 is pretty good octave pedal. It sound great by itself, plays well with other pedals, and can be used with bass and guitar. The polyphonic setting actually works well, unlike some of the other units at this price point. So, you get a lot of bang for the buck.

I have also used an OC-3 to thicken up keyboard sounds on home recordings. It can make a cheap Casio keyboard sound huge. You are only limited to your imagination.

As far as signal chain, for bass guitar: I agree that it should be the first effect in your chain. If it doesn't track well, you can try putting a compressor in front of octaver. That may help.
 
#23
If you're looking for something analog and less synthy, the Foxrox Octron or the MXR BOD have great tracking, so does the EBS Octabass, but I like the voicing better on the Octron and BOD. If you need pefect tracking, go digital with a EHX POG2 or even a couple of steps above with an Eventide, the pitchfactor I believe..
 
#25
Venom of God said:
...realised last night a head I've been gigging with [...] has one built in and it was part of the reason I loved that head...
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Are you sure it has an actual octave divider and not one of those low freq. acoustic enhancers? (like dbx used to market for DJs)

An octave divider usually sounds distinctly synthy, cuz it adds a new synthesized sound source. Whereas those "pump up the lows" gizmos just manipulate the audio already coming out of your bass.

Hard to believe you've been playing with a synthesized tone added without noticing.

That said, for trad Octave sounds, I like my Digitech Bass Synth Wah set to ocatve. On that one setting, it tracks well, sounds good, and is cheap.
But it's not for just beefing up lows.
 
#26
whitefuneral said:
Micro POG
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Yup. I'm pretty happy with mine. I initially wanted an 8-string bass, but then I got to thinking...I like the octave for effect, like in a part of a song, not necessarily the whole song. That's pretty tough to pull off, so someone suggested the MicroPog. I can get a pretty good 8-string sound on it, without having a one-trick pony bass.

When I got it, I didn't realize that it could also be set to octave below, which is kinda cool for heavier stuff.
 
#27
pbasswil said:
That said, for trad Octave sounds, I like my Digitech Bass Synth Wah set to ocatve. On that one setting, it tracks well, sounds good, and is cheap.
But it's not for just beefing up lows.
Click to expand...

The octave setting on that thing is the only thing it does well. I bought one of those and I was very disappointed in the rest of the settings. I use a Boss OC3 for octave stuff, so, the Digitech sits in a box.
 
#29
GreggBummer said:
The octave setting on that thing {Digitech BassSynth Wah} is the only thing it does well. I bought one of those and I was very disappointed in the rest of the settings. I use a Boss OC3 for octave stuff, so, the Digitech sits in a box.
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I mostly agree with you -- although a couple of envelopes work fine for me if set up right. But it's a pain switching back and forth between those and the octave (which works really well for me) so I just use it as a perfectly good octave.
 
#33
randysmojo said:
Right now I'm torn between the Boss OC-3 and the Digitech Bass Synth Wah myself. I'm just trying to add a little oomph to the low end to make up a little for not using an extended range bass. Which one out of those two would be better?
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I have both. The OC-3 is much, much better. It is polyphonic, tracks very well, and you can tweak it so that it just adds some beef, or, you can make it sound very synthy. It can also emulate the OC

In comparision, the DBS is one of those products that tries to do a lot of stuff, but does none of it well. It does not track well, the filters sound thin and cartoonish, and most of the effects I have a hard time finding a use for. I have seen some people who like it here on TB, more power to them. Mine sits in a box and awaits eBay.
 
#35
fitz420 said:
i'm with snyder as i usually am when the octave pedal discussion comes up. if you haven't used an analog octaver before and don't want to spend the time learning how to make them track properly i would go digital. analog octavers like the aguilar, mxr, oc-2 are analog and don't track low notes very well. the best choices for digital octavers that will track anything are, as snyder said, the oc-3 in poly mode and also the electro harmonix micro pog. both will do a good job of what you want but the micro pog sounds a tad more synthetic or digital to my ears.
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I would argue the complete opposite. My MXR tracks so much better than my OC-3, and the tone out of the OC-3 is nowhere near as useful in a band as the MXR.
 
#37
Seem like the POG/Micro POG is the only one that can give you UP and down octaves. Everyone esle is down only. Looked all over the youtube demos but only started to see "up" stuff by straying into pitch shifters---while it seems the POG stuff is pretty direct and easy. Any ideas?
 
#38
T Rex makes the Octavius, which is another polyphonic digital octaver with an octave up and octave down. I set out to buy an octaver a couple of months ago, and had whittled it down to the MXR BOD and the T Rex, and ended up leaving with the MXR. The tone out of the MXR was a lot more "inspiring" to me, if that makes any sense. The T Rex tracked really well, is truly polyphonic (it doesn't rely on a clean blend to pull off polyphony), and the octave up was pretty cool, but it just seemed to lack the attitude the MXR has.
 

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