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Pedal newbie question

Jfever

Jfever

Guest
Feb 28, 2015
84
8
49
#1
Hi,

I am new to pedals and bought an octamizer by Aguilar. I have a preamp with a di out and no amp. I have studio monitors and a sub. When I play the bass clean I have the input connected to the passive jack on the pre. When I engage the pedal it is overdriving my monitors. If I use the pedal in the active jack it sounds good but then is too low when I disengage the pedal.
 
#6
I guess I have problems and will need to follow up with Aguilar.

The first thing in the video doesn't work. I set the clean level and tone to 12 o'clock and it is Not the same as disengaged. There is more fullness disengaged and it sounds thinner engaged. From there it goes down hill.
 
#8
Sure I am plugging my jazz into the octamizer then into the passive input of my tube preamp (bmax-t), from there I have 2 outputs: 1 trs going into channel 3 and 1 di xlr going into channel 5 of my a/d converter. Now I am monitoring the mix via mixer mode in my a/d converter. This sound quality isn't the best but gives me low latency to track to. When I engage the octamizer wet knob even a little bit it raises the input signal into the a/d. My preamp has a built in compressor and maximized, and the compressor freaks out when I engage the wet signal. Even disabling both the compressor and maximized it is still pushing hard and create a fuzzy distortion on my monitors. I have to roll back the wet knob almost all the way and when I do it then has a overdriven thump sound but a lot less noticeable.
 
#11
Well this sort of sucks. Sorry for being negative but has anyone ever tried this in a pre-amp -> DAW (non-amp) scenario? I contacted Aguilar and they think the pedal is fine and that my system can't handle the "bold" nature of the pedal. Well that sucks because I like the boldness, I just don't want the crap sound i'm getting (distortion) when I try to use the octave efx. Basically the pedal works fine but not on my rig and no one else has ever had this problem. See my annoyance?
 
#12
As a bmax-t owner myself, I know it can be very finicky. Trust me when I say I’ve been through the ringer with it. We have a love/hate relationship. Some days I love it and some days I’m listing it for sale. However, after re-configuring my rig a zillion times, I’m pretty happy with it. I run the gain at 2 ½, maybe 3; and the master at 1 ½ to 2. Compressor at about 6-7; Sonic Maximizer off. Recently (for the past 2 months or so) I’ve been trying to contact BBE to replace the two prong plug with a 3-prong for a ground; however, no one answers and no one calls me back or responds to my emails. I don’t know what’s happened with BBE recently but I’m starting to wonder since they used to be super helpful and responsive years ago.
 
#13
I solved the problem and talked to the maker of the BMAX. He was super helpful. It turns out that the problem was the bass. The bass on a bmax is massive, therefore coupled with a octamizer is devastating and creates tons of distortion. So, roll back the bass and the problem is solved. Only thing is that after you disengage the octamizer, the bass is weak and needs to be turned back up on the bmax. I went to their website and tried their 888 # and then tried extension (which was listed on the website but the phone system had no record) after extension until I got the one with someone answering then they connected me to this guy. He was very helpful.
 

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