Octave Pedals: How do You use it?

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I donā€™t have anything to compare to other than reviews on YouTube.

It is a digital pedal and everything Iā€™ve seen says it tracks better than anything else out there.

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Oh wow, so they took the OC line digital? Interesting. Yeah, should track a whole lot better than analog.

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Yeah, I wasnā€™t looking for the vintage glitchy-ness. I wanted the best tracking and most authentic reproduction possible.

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Here is a really good in depth review if anyone is curious.

THE DEEPEST BOSS OC-5 REVIEW ON YOUTUBE!

At one point he comments that there is a learning curve once you get in to some of the extended features of the pedal. Iā€™ve also read this on talkbass.com and experienced it myself.

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This is a great video.
Sounds to me like tracking is fixed, still get all the greatness of the OC-2, and a few extra features that were attempted in the OC-3. Canā€™t wait for it to show up.

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Wow, I would like to know how to play that cool groove he played at about 2:00 minutes in to the video! Seriously I would like to know. I tried to figure it out but being a beginner itā€™s hard sometimes to follow what a guitar player that has great left hand technique is actually doing. Sorry for not having any input about your question. I havenā€™t figure out pedals either. I have the old Digitech BP200 that I am still trying to figure how to get the most out of it instead just playing around with the different tones.

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Do you mainly play in middle to upper registers when using sub octave effects? It seems to get messy trying to put a lower octave on an already low note.

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Hey badasses, do you have any octave pedal recommendations like around 50 bucks?
OC-5 seems dope but I donā€™t think that me as a beginner can pull out its potential nor I have a lot to spend for gear at the moment :-/
( I want to get the multi-effect pedal by zoom at some point, do you think itā€™s better to grab the zoom or go for an octave pedal?)

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I liked the TC Nether a lot, itā€™s an OC-2 clone in that price range.

Overall long term I would recommend to get the Zoom.

  • Digital octavers track better than analog anyway
  • It has one octaver and one octofuzz built in

Youā€™ll need to learn to use it to set up your own effects chains though as I am not sure any of the presets use the octaver. On the plus side, using it to set up your own effects chains is the best way to use it IMO :slight_smile:

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Oh thank you Howard for being fast again :slight_smile:
Would I be able to use Zoom like letā€™s say, octaver & compression at the same time?
I am asking because I am not looking forward in building a pedal chain yet XD Too noob!

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Yeah thereā€™s two ways to use the Zoom: use the builtin presets (some are good, about a third are useless); or make your own little pedal chains in it using its effects, in ā€œstompbox modeā€. I learned a whole lot doing the latter and the Zoom units are excellent for it.

So you could, say, set up a chain with a compressor, the octaver, and an Ampeg SVT amp sim with a cabinet, and save it as your own preset.

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So awesome. Nice, now I am very relieved!

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I have had 3 zoomā€™s
B1-four
B1x-four (same but with expression pedal, I still have this one)
MS-60B
The MS-60B is more expensive, and does a little less then the other two, but it is built like a tank, it is the size of a regular MXR pedal, and it is very rugged, this is the cost difference.
not to say the others are not built well, they are, but they are made as more of a STAND ALONE unit, and you can put them in your gig bag pocket or case, and they get treated with a little more care.
The MS-60B is more built to be thrown around on a pedal board with other pedals and stand up to more punishment.

First I got the B1-four.
Used it like Howard said, PLUS, i used it as my headphone AMP with AUX in and did the whole B2B course on it thru headphones and on my Ipad.
Pam offered me her B1x-four, for a price I couldnā€™t resist, so I got it. At the time I was gonna give my daughter the other one, but now I have plenty of stuff for both of us.
I got the MS-60B after watching a VERY COMPREHENSIVE Compressor pedal review by an Australian YT channel. They broke them into 3 categories. $500 and expensive - $under $300 and around $100 budget compressors.
They actually picked the MS-60B for the best budget compressor, BECAUSE it has 5 compressors to choose from, and clones / models very famous studio compressors that cost around $2000. It does not do a Studio job, but it does a damn fine job of it for what it is and what it cost.
All 3 have the same compressors and same pedals to choose from (and amp and cab sims).
So, being the compressor GEEK that I am , I modeled up about 10 patches just for compressors and put it in the beginning of my chain (it is also great as a compressor, because it also has a GATE patch, so you can keep the compressor QUIET (not something they are typically known for) while not playing or touching your bass.
After getting 4 compressors, I changed it up and used it as a Chorus pedal. It has a clone of the TC Electronics Corona Chorus pedal. I bought a Corona pedal from Amazon (and returned it for credit) and did side by side testing, and with the Corona on the STOCK setting (it has toneprints, and can be changed a little), with the settings set the same, they sounded IDENTICAL to me, thru my SWR WorkingMan15 amp, thru my Hartke Kick Back 10 (I had at the time) and thru my Zoom U-22 DAI into Garage Band with decent monitor headphones.
So, they are truly amazing devices. They are so much fun and BANG for your BUCK.
The amount you can learn from them makes them invaluable, and the cost is nothing compared to the payback in knowledge.

So the basic unit, I have also used inline on my pedal board, so I had one working as a compressor, one as a chorus, or sometimes one working as a patch I created with all other pedals off. possibilities are incredible. You are really only limited by itā€™s capabilities that other expensive units may have, like doubling as a DAI with balanced XLR out, not having a dedicated FX loop, and other linking options you can find in other more units like MIDI, expression pedal capable (for the B1-four, the B1x-four has expression / wha pedal), but for the money it is so worth it, and even if it had some of those features, I still would not be using them, so it was never a hindrance for me.
rest assured that this purchase will almost be guaranteed to be one of the best bass / music / gear purchases you ever make, and if you end up going the pedal board route in the end (like many / most of us do eventually), you can still sell it for close to what you paid for it, just keep the box and documentation and the resale value is close to the MSRP for new one.

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