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DIY Stompboxes => Building your own stompbox => Topic started by: stezza on January 25, 2011, 01:44:46 AM

Title: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 25, 2011, 01:44:46 AM
Hi Guys,

I can't decide if my next project should be an octave up (octavia, green ringer etc.) or octave down (MXR Blue box or similar). So I think I'll do both. Does anyone know of an existing pedal/schematic that does this? As these pedals split the signal and then blend it back in, ideally there could be 3 signals - normal, up and down, with knobs to blend in the up and down. More likely I'll need to split the singnal at the start and run into 2 existing octave effects, then combine them at the end??? Any ideas guys?

Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: snakey on January 25, 2011, 02:19:58 AM
build a green ringer and a blue box and put them in the same enclosure. have them running into each other and have true bypass for both.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 25, 2011, 05:22:44 AM
Yea thats sortof what I was thinking. But how would that work? Would I need to split the input signal and run the effects in parallel? I'm guessing that if I ran them in series I would have problems with both on at same time. Has anyone used both types of pedal at same time? Does it work?
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: snakey on January 25, 2011, 05:55:26 AM
i've done this to a blue clipper and a green ringer. Built them on 2 boards and wired them in series, true by pass for both.

Wired like this:

(input jack) --> blue clipper --> green ringer --> (output jack)
                   \                       /     \                   /
                     ---> DPDT ---         --> DPDT --   
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 25, 2011, 06:12:09 AM
Sounds good, do you have any pics? How does it sound with both on? any mods?
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: snakey on January 25, 2011, 07:00:08 AM
I have been meaning to up some pics i'll get around to that soon. it sounds fine both on, both off, 1 on 1 off. um its pretty much all salvaged parts so whatever i have that works i use :D. but no mods to get it to work no.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 25, 2011, 07:53:43 AM
Thanks mate, I'll start breadboarding with my scavenged parts :) do you use PCB? I'll either go perf or vero if possible. U up late or down under?
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: Ice-9 on January 25, 2011, 08:27:20 AM
I could be a good idea to do a bit of redesign so the two parts of the effect are fed from one input buffer and are fed parrallel to a mixing section and buffer out. this way you can control the amount of each octave level in the mix.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: Mark Hammer on January 25, 2011, 09:59:38 AM
Pearl OC-7:  http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=60962.0
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: SISKO on January 25, 2011, 12:00:04 PM
http://ampage.org/hammer/files/SuperOctaver.ZIP
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: thedefog on January 25, 2011, 02:43:20 PM
This is essentially what the EH micro pog does, right? Only you want an analog design that you can build obviously.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: slacker on January 25, 2011, 02:59:10 PM
If you don't mine your octaves fuzzy and dirty you could have a look at this http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=76695.0 (http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=76695.0).
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: Mark Hammer on January 25, 2011, 03:51:32 PM
Quote from: thedefog on January 25, 2011, 02:43:20 PM
This is essentially what the EH micro pog does, right? Only you want an analog design that you can build obviously.
yes and no.  MicroPog delivers octave up and down, but does so digitally, and polyphinically.  Big difference.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: zombiwoof on January 25, 2011, 04:03:05 PM
I have an old Ibanez 10-series Octave pedal, the OC-10, that gives you any combination of the fundamental signal, one octave down, and one octave up.   It's pretty cool, although like many octave pedals I like the sound of it feeding another OD/distortion pedal to keep it less "digital-sounding" (although I think it's analog).   Cutting out the fundamental tone, and leaving only the octave down and octave up is an interesting sound, and you can also get an Octavia-type sound by mixing the fundamental tone and octave up only.   Also like many octave pedals, it sounds best through the neck pickup with the tone rolled off, which is also how I use my Proctavia.  I don't know if there is a schematic available for it, but it might be worth checking out.  The upper octave is called "edge" on the pedal.

Al
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: Mark Hammer on January 25, 2011, 04:44:54 PM
Has anyone ever pondered a "scaled-back" EHX Microsynth that skipped the filter and envelope stuff and just gave you octave up/down stuff?

I bet that would make an interesting project, and a board that could easily fit into a 1590BB.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: snakey on January 25, 2011, 05:32:04 PM
Quote from: stezza on January 25, 2011, 07:53:43 AM
Thanks mate, I'll start breadboarding with my scavenged parts :) do you use PCB? I'll either go perf or vero if possible. U up late or down under?

i usually pcb, looks alot neater to me :D. Um it was 11 oclock at night in Newcastle Australia :D
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 26, 2011, 06:58:43 AM
Quote from: Ice-9 on January 25, 2011, 08:27:20 AM
I could be a good idea to do a bit of redesign so the two parts of the effect are fed from one input buffer and are fed parrallel to a mixing section and buffer out. this way you can control the amount of each octave level in the mix.

Thanks for all the info everyone,

Can you explain what sort of input buffer and mixing section would work? This sounds pretty much what I'd like to do. The Pearl OC-7 and Super Octaver (although a translation would be good) also look cool, any more info on them? There's lots of good stuff out there, I saw a good demo of the bass blue box (meant for bass) which sounded really good. Anyone used one of these?
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: thedefog on January 26, 2011, 01:44:27 PM
What about that ADA Harmony synth pedal? Or I should really say ADA Harmony Synth Workstation. That thing is a beast.
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: nocentelli on January 26, 2011, 03:28:51 PM
Quote from: stezza on January 26, 2011, 06:58:43 AM
The Pearl OC-7 ... looks cool, any more info on them?

I was contemplating having a go at the Gaussmarkov DIY version of this bad boy a while back, but this was a few years back and it was just too daunting a task. I managed to snag an original on eBay, and I would heartily recomend having a go if you're up to the challenge. The two sub-octaves are much like the Boss OC-2, i.e. solid tracking, big sound, not too synthy. The upper octave is a bit like an octavia, i.e. slighty fuzzy edge, ghostly artifacts on double string bends, works best around the twelfth fret with neck p/u and tone rolled down, but it does a superb "robot ring-mod fuzz" if you play chords high up on the lower strings. With all three octaves on together + a bit of dirt, it sounds absolutely massive:

(http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j190/Leeroyfunk/OC-07_half.gif)
Title: Re: Octave up and down in one pedal
Post by: stezza on January 26, 2011, 08:15:21 PM
This is what I've been able to find on the OC-7 build

(http://i54.tinypic.com/24o0cp5.png)
(http://i51.tinypic.com/2d136g5.gif)
(http://i52.tinypic.com/2lvo8y8.gif)

Anyone attempted this or have links to any further info? All I'm getting is alot of dead threads.