...I just acquired one of these....it tracks like crap-is this normal for these? are there any mods that would help the tracking? Thanks!.....dr......

....bump.....anyone please?.......

more info... where is it in your signal chain?  How hot is the output of your guitar?  Have you tried a new battery?

It works good for my bass, down to about D, on a good day it will track a low A for a short period.

I've heard that if you are using it with a fuzz put it BEFORE the fuzz not AFTER because all the extra harmonics in a distorted signal will just confuse the hell out of it.

hth ...

My OC-2 tracks like a charm! Put the OC as far towards your guitar as you can because otherwise there's too much info to process.

....I didn't put anything else in the signal chain;just a cable in and a cable out.....It does appear that a couple of the wires may have been resoldered (hopefully to their correct spots..)the solder connections do look a bit dull-this is the older made in Japan "Octaver" version..does anyone have any idea what color wires go where?there are numbers on the board....I am getting octave,just very "glitchy"....my EH Octave Multiplexer sounds better than this one does!....

As a temporary measure try sticking a booster or something in front of it to see whether the problem is your guitar pickups (are they single coil?) or the effect.

The answer is "Yes, octavers do track like crap", because that's how they work.

Consider what an octaver has to do:

1) it has to distinguish the difference between a note and random audio crap like finger noise or hum

2) it has to distinguish between the fundamental of a note and harmonics (please note that harmonics of lower notes are also fundamentals of higher ones)

3) it can only divide down one thing at a time despite the possibilities for multiple things to arrive all at once

Add on top of this the fact that the division process universally applied to these tasks prohibits the octave down from trailing/fading out in the absence of substantial additional circuitry.

You can eliminate false triggering by setting a threshold below which any input is treated as noise rather than notes, although few units allow you to set that threshold differently to accommodate your picking style or signal level.

Certainly the appropriateness of the threshold can be improved by sticking a compressor ahead of the Octaver, squishing the hell out of the signal and setting the compressor output level just right.

Of course, what the compressor does to the attack of your note, and decay of your note are two separate things.  Octvers have a problem latching onto a note, but even if they accomplish that well, you still have the issue of them letting go a latching back on during the trailing off of a note, leading to an unpleasantly sputtery sound.  Different manufacturers address this in different ways.  The MXR Bluebox uses a crude gate that only enables octave to pass to the output if the input signal is robust enough.  The PAiA Rocktave uses a compandor to have the trail off track the input and kick out just before it becomes problematic and sputtery.

You can keep the unit from misinterpreting harmonics as fundamentals by using the neck pickup (fewer harmonics), rolling off the treble at the guitar, picking cleanly and suitable filtering in the pedal itself, but not without cost to the relative sensitivity across the entire fretboard.

The one-note-at-a-time thing depends entirely on your "picking hygiene".  Pick cleanly and it will work better.

There are some pedals you turn on and then neglect while you play away.  Other pedals require your cooperation, diligence, planfulness and willingness to compromise.  Octavers are in the second category, along with noise gates and envelope controlled filters.

Some pedals do need tender loving care for them to work right