Log in
Log in

or
Create an account

or
< All Electro-Harmonix Octave Multiplexer XO reviews
Add this product to
  • My former gear
  • My current gear
  • My wishlist
Electro-Harmonix Octave Multiplexer XO
Images
1/183
Electro-Harmonix Octave Multiplexer XO
Price engine
Classified Ads
Forums
Captain Savon Captain Savon

« Octaver very dirty as it should, but difficult to master »

Published on 08/28/10 at 05:06
Octaver analog rather low, but with a lot of harmonic HF leaving.

Three pots: High filter, filter and low bleed.
A switch "sub on / off".

A footcswitch, bypass structure. LED operation (red). Standard metal housing EH. An input jack, two jack output (dry and wet).

UTILIZATION

Given the lack of buttons, the config is simple.

The manual is as usual with EH rather succinct, but it&#39;s not very serious. They state that this is an effect expected for the mono. At least one is warned ...

As with all EH effects, the battery is only accessible by unscrewing the bottom (4 screws). Not ultra convenient. But it is the 4 rubber feet that bore me to put it in my pedal board, as they raise on-the bottom of 3-4 mm can not put the velcro without turning the rubber feet. What repulses me.

The LED is highly visible. I could not test the autonomy given that I used exclusively with my pedal board power supply.

Dry output must be capable of leaving the unprocessed sound on a separate line. I confess that I&#39;ve never served me.

SOUND QUALITY

I was looking for a octave-down with his dirty and deep, analog-to-the-Jack White, whatever. Well, I&#39;ve found is the Octave Multiplexer.

She goes out of octaves can be very active (when you put the bleed-bottom, equivalent to a depth control for the effect). There are many strange artifacts when it grows much effect. It is true that I&#39;ve watched too aps how the circuit worked, but since it is obviously a purely analog stuff (I have not seen anything that closely or remotely to a DSP / codec inside, and that&#39;s not the kind of home) I wonder if this is not some kind of monophonic synthesizer, which "scan" the frequency of the signal and re-created a pseudo-sine wave one octave below. I wonder how we could make an octave-analogue down otherwise ... In any case it would explain why the effect works well in mono, and does stuff in crados polyphonic.

Regarding the sound quality is pretty clean, or rather regular when we do not put too much effect, but then it is rather light relative to its dry. If you push, you get artifacts irregular, it is boring. There is a filter for high-frequency and one for bass frequencies. It&#39;s convenient to mitigate some of these artifacts, but it has the drawback of many filtering his total. Sub button allows you to add more octaves. The sound is even more dirty, it&#39;s cool, I like.

The biggest problem of this pedal, besides his side a bit messy, is that it greatly reduces the overall sound, and as there is no volume control ... I&#39;ve found the trick, I use it routinely with a Little Big Muff. This way I can adjust the volume, and I have a good sound monstrous to many of the solo (which allows me to have a good solo sound with my Jaguar, which is not really cut out for solos, especially next to a guitar player who plays with Les Paul). With that my keyboard sound at the beginning of Space Truckin &#39;on Made in Japan Deep Purple. With a Telecaster it also makes good.

Incidentally, the output is separated Dry afford to make a little more advanced setups (like putting a foot on the gain on continuously wet for not having to activate every time you activate the Octave) but it&#39;s true that I have not yet exploited this feature.

Same comment as the Little Big Muff (must be valid for all EH pedals): The footswitch is very noisy, and we hear a little amp. on the other hand, this pedal adds no noise. Or at least I am not able to hear it.

OVERALL OPINION

I&#39;ve had a year and I used with my band Songs on one where I&#39;m just solo, almost, so with the Big Muff&#39;s going well. I cut and I do that the Big Muff is the chorus chords (that falls well ...). Frankly, it really adds depth to my sound, in this particular case. I intend to use it in other songs later.

It&#39;s a bit of a pedal to occasional use, even unique. Like many EH pedal, it will say, yes, probably. Still, I believe that it fulfills its function.

Analog octave pedals are not common, especially in this kind of price (Moog? Anyone?). I tried a few of Octavers digital sound and I did not really. Too cold, too ... digital and artifacts are really present. Here too I will be told. Yes, but the advantage is that its remaining analog, I do not get AD-DA conversion in my chain of effects. Which is anyway a huge advantage. And imprecise and rough side gives him a real personality.

In hindsight I do it again this election, because it really brings something unique. But it must be coupled with a gain or distortion, it is difficult to use alone.