Octave Q

[Jay Bones]

Finishing a Dallas Arbiter germanium fuzz clone kit.  First build and nice simple circuit to cut my teeth on.

I'd likd an octave and have found the circuit(s- up & down) schematics.  Anything but simple!

Maybe that's why I haven't found any kits.

Anyone have any recomendations/advice on where to look?

Thanks.

[Marcos - Munky]

Take a look at Tim Escobedo's Rambler. You can't go simpler than this one. There's the Pushme Pullyou, again by Tim Escobedo, a little bit more complex but still simple.

Another great one is Dan Armstrong's Green Ringer. More complex than Tim ones, but still simple. Also, it's a classic one, so you can probably find a kit for it.

[thermionix]

Welcome, from the next state down.  "Octave fuzz" circuits, like Octavia and Green Ringer, are octave up only, but vastly simpler than any kind of octave down (or "clean" octave up) circuit that I'm aware of.  It all depends on your goal what kind you should be looking at.

[Jay Bones]

Looking for octave down, and already have a fuzz.

[Marcos - Munky]

Well, so now you learn a new thing. There's no easy or simple octave down. Well, the simpler you can get is 8 Bitar by Parasit Studio, but it's heavily distorted. Also, there's no easy or simple clean octave up. And keep in mind we're talking about monophonic octave circuits, polyphonic is another different beast.

[Mark Hammer]

1) Octave down is always mono.  That's no reason to avoid it.  Just know what you're undertaking.

2) Octave down requires certain compromises to work properly.  They don't like bridge pickups.  They don't like lighter gauge strings.  They don't like a bright input tone.  They don't dislike anything below the 7th fret, but they don't play well with it, either.

3) Getting octave up AND down in the same unit is not impossible, but not a simple build either.  And while octave up is not restricted to mono, octave down IS.  So don't expect lush polyphony or chords.

4)  Octave down comes in two analog forms: using the fundamental to produce a square wave output at half the frequency, and using that square wave to essentially gate the audio input at half the frequency.  The first one is decidedly fuzzier.  The second one is somewhat cleaner but generally a bigger and more complicated circuit.

Not an impossible build or an unusable pedal, but one has to be willing to meet them halfway before the fun begins.

[Danich_ivanov]

Probably "as simple as it gets" octave down, yet not very simple, and most likely will require tweaking to get it right, all descrete.



For non descrete, look up bit commander, and ehx got some, octave multiplexer I believe it's called, but it is not very good, just saying.

[Jay Bones]

Bought a new Behringer Ultra Octave for $22 shipped.

Heard a few negative reviews on this, aside from the usual anti Behringer bias.  Poor note tracking, distorted note reproduction, etc.

Unboxed it, installed new battery, plugged in, turned up and channeled Jimi.

Have to say the level control(s) on the octave(s) was pretty slick.

[Mark Hammer]

Analog octave down is legendary for hit-and-miss tracking.