Best Octave Pedal (Octron Content)

[Wheeler004]

Well, after a six month love affair with the Micro POG, I've decided to move on. I loved being able to dial in the organ sound (especially with my Dynacord CLS-222 Leslie simulator), but ultimately it wasn't enough. The sub octave on the Micro POG is great, but it's a little too hifi. The octave up is practically unusable for anything except organ tones- it has that cheesey, digital pitch harmonizer effect that sounds fairly close in tone to Alvin and the Chipmunks. I think what I like least about it is that it doesn't seem to work well in front of drive pedals, let alone a fuzz (the buffer makes the overdrives sound brittle and thin and the fuzz just completely freaks out). Without being able to place the octave pedal up front, it makes it impossible to get that warm, chunky octave tone that only comes from the sound of distorting the shifted pitch rather than shifting the distorted pitch. Don't get me wrong, it's a great octave pedal, probably the best digital octaver that I have come across. It tracks really well and can cop true bass tones with no effort at all. Still, I need my analog fix!

Enter the Octron. I plug it in today, starting with it after my drives to see how well it can track. It tracks beautifully and the octave down sounds great, but the octave up sounds thin, garbled and lost in the mix. So I put it out front, expecting it to destroy my fuzz tone (I'm using a Fulltone Soul-Bender MKIII clone). Holy sh*t!! I have never heard such gorgeous octave tones! The octave up volume issue disappears, and I get great, Octavia bite, even with the MKIII clone. The octave down is monstrous and can easily be used to conjour Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" from the Album Live Rust. Perhaps most impressive, the tone of my direct signal is fully intact! Anyway, I just could not help but share my love for the Foxrox Octron. This is truly an epic octave pedal and I very much doubt a better pedal could even be imagined.

For those who care, here are my settings: Octave Up Gain- full clockwise; Octave Up Tone- full counterclockwise; Sub Octave Tone- full clockwise; for octave up tones, I keep the "direct" pot at 3 o'clock and the "octave up" pot at 1:30; for octave down tones, I keep the "direct" pot at 3 o'clock and the "octave down" pot at 3 o'clock.

Please share your "Best Octave Pedal" opinions along with your settings!

[wingwalker]

Im with ya! The Octron is my fav octave pedal hands down, it took a while to tune in but after tweaking it sounded killer.

I keep the octave up gain at around half to 3/4, the octave up tone around 3/4 or so and the octave down almost all the way down...

If Im using the Octron for a sub octave I keep the Octave up control all the way down and the octave down and direct at around 2 or 3 o'clock, for octave up tones I keep the direct around 9 o'clock and the octave up at around 3 o'clock...sometimes I'll all controls around 2 or 3 o'clock...that is a cool setting because on low notes the sub octave comes in nice and strong and fat but the more you move up the neck the more the overtone morphs from a sub octave to a screaming upper octave sound.

[peacebone]

A good ol' MIJ OC-2 is all I need.

If it's good enough for Tim Mahoney, then it's good enough for me!

[Wheeler004]

Originally Posted by wingwalker

Im with ya! The Octron is my fav octave pedal hands down, it took a while to tune in but after tweaking it sounded killer.

I keep the octave up gain at around half to 3/4, the octave up tone around 3/4 or so and the octave down almost all the way down...

If Im using the Octron for a sub octave I keep the Octave up control all the way down and the octave down and direct at around 2 or 3 o'clock, for octave up tones I keep the direct around 9 o'clock and the octave up at around 3 o'clock...sometimes I'll all controls around 2 or 3 o'clock...that is a cool setting because on low notes the sub octave comes in nice and strong and fat but the more you move up the neck the more the overtone morphs from a sub octave to a screaming upper octave sound.

Do you use it before or after your fuzz and dirt pedals?

Do you notice a lot of noise when you turn the octave up to around 3 o'clock? I've noticed the noise floor gets pretty loud when I crank the octave up, so I can't really bring it up past 1:30. I have the octave up gain cranked way up, but it's loud even when I turn the gain down. Anyone else have this issue? It's easy enough to work around, but if there is a way to bring the noise floor down on the octave up I'd like to know...

[Lolaviola]

I have my "octave up" gain trimmer nearly all the way off...because of the noise.
I still get a good sound, but I hate the noise. I noticed you said yours was cranked.

[Wheeler004]

Originally Posted by Lolaviola

I have my "octave up" gain trimmer nearly all the way off...because of the noise.
I still get a good sound, but I hate the noise. I noticed you said yours was cranked.

I thought I tested it both ways, but I'll check again. Hopefully that will fix it.

[wingwalker]

I use mine before dirt and fuzz boxes...it does add noise with stacked with a dirt of fuzz pedal if Im using the upper octave but what the hell...it's rock and roll and the noise doesn't bug me too bad...

All that said I just looked a minute ago and saw thae the octave up gain trimmer is set a good bity lower than I thought. I used to keep it almost all the way off but found out that you can crank it to close to half or more and there is no more noise then when it's almost all the way down but the octave sounds better and stronger to me.

[Loud Librarian]

I have this and it's killer. I have all three knobs at 3 o'clock and switch the octaves in and out at will. The upper octave + direct gives me sweet octave feedback at gig volume at the stomp of the switch.

[Wheeler004]

Originally Posted by Loud Librarian

I have this and it's killer. I have all three knobs at 3 o'clock and switch the octaves in and out at will. The upper octave + direct gives me sweet octave feedback at gig volume at the stomp of the switch.

That's a sweet pedal and I've thought about ordering one. The only issue might be the size as my board is tight as it is. How much bigger is it than the regular Octron?

[Wheeler004]

Originally Posted by Lolaviola

I have my "octave up" gain trimmer nearly all the way off...because of the noise.
I still get a good sound, but I hate the noise. I noticed you said yours was cranked.

I just took a little time to adjust the octave up gain trimmer and I've managed to dial out a considerable amount of the noise floor (not all of it, but a lot of it). I'm keeping it turned up about a third of the way. Any lower and the octave effect seems to disappear. Thanks for the help!

[Loud Librarian]

Originally Posted by Wheeler004

That's a sweet pedal and I've thought about ordering one. The only issue might be the size as my board is tight as it is. How much bigger is it than the regular Octron?

Octron: Width = 3.85" Depth = 5.15" Height = 2.85"

Octron 2 (same as ZIM box): Width = 5 1/2” Depth = 5” Height = 3”

so...not that much bigger.

[oceanofnoise]

How long does the Octron 2 typically take to get made?