Can Anything Beat The Boss OC-2? Analogue Octave Pedal Demo Comparison 

It’s called the brown note because that’s what happens to your pants when you see what a vintage OC-2 costs on Reverb.

It's a shame that the octave multiplexer by ehx does not get enough credit. It recently replaced my OC2...it's very cheap as well. With the high filter it can replace the bit commander as well. Highly recommended.

Toss up between the ebs and the mxr for me. Thanks for the video very informative and fun!

the last one allows to hear the riff =) but I got no idea about octavers use, so I'm not sure it's most important for all the needs and situations

BASS player here , MXR with growl on. not as agressive as my 20CAD Berhinger octaver. And it does produce a sound on the loiw B string!!!!

I've owned all of these except the EBS. The IE SubT and the 3Leaf Octabvre (MKII, and in Tim mode) are my favorites. I now just have the Octabvre. That second footswitch makes this already great pedal monstrous!

I thought about eventually picking up an octavbre, I have an aguilar right now. Is it me or was the tracking wonky on the faster low note stuff?

damn that girth knob crushes all

the EBS sounds like has a low pass filter on it, but I really like the low end of it - I would probably split my signal and run one into the octaver and have some form of High pass on the other one (I like some overdrive as well) and blend them in after. There's lots of potential! The 3 leaf is ultra synth-esk, and somehow the Iron Ether is even more so. I like the 3 leaf except when it seems to distort on the low end of the strings - you might be into it but honestly, probably just fudging with the settings would get me where I want to be. Nothing does an OC-2 better than OC-2, and nothing ever will - and so I really wish people would stop trying to get just that sound. You could probably get closer with all of these if you just introduced some EQ and compression. And the mighty OC-2 isn't inherently perfect either ;)

Check out the mxr vintage, it comes a lot closer to the OC-2 than most others and seems to have a little more power behind the sound, along with (I think) better tracking (and a LOT cheaper and easier to find)

A good one too: Foxrox Octron 3

The MXR BOD made me sell my OC2. I just found it a little more versatile. But I thought it tracked just as well.

Man, that EBS sounds soooo good! I had no idea...

Have you ever tried the EHX Octave Multiplexer? listening through my Cerwin Vega studio monitors, all sound the same...

In this comparison my favourite is the MXR. I'm a little disappointed about the EBS... But overall, they will all do the job. Even in a live situation, I'm not sure if anybody would hear the differences.

I heavily recommend Foxxrox Octave and Ibanez OT-10

For me, octaves are like fuzzes. I pretty much like all of them and keep at least two around at all times. In a pinch, any of them will get the job done perfectly fine. But when you’ve spent the time and money to sit down with a pile of octave pedals, you can appreciate the subtle complexities of each. Like many, I love the sine-like FM quality of a pure oc2 octave down sound. Also like many, I like the punch of the dimed girth knob. IE pedals are obviously fantastic and worth the money. When I picture using a dedicated octave pedal, I often convince myself I need two. One for pure sine woofiness, and one with a bit more texture to stack dirt pedals on top of when things get silly. For me, the bass octave deluxe has exactly those two things. It’s not an exact oc2 sound, and that’s okay because it ticks the boxes, and it has a separate circuit and the mid+ button. But let’s not forget the hx stomp has some great octave sounds and detune effects. I still need to keep several flavors of octave around.

EBS for tracking and low note definition.

not a single mention of the subterranea in the comments. i have a BOD i love, but goddamn the iron ether sounds GNARLY

the octavbre is actually quite a bit better than the oc2 in my opinion because it has: dry kill switch + sub boost (invaluable imo) true bypass tone control for more growl if you want it tim tuning switch on the mark 2 (you have mark 1) so you can either have it voiced for a more synthy keyboardy sound or a super subby sound with tim tuning on

I think the Electro Harmonix Octave Multiplexer sounds as good as the oc2, though it’s a bit quiet

MXR with all growl was a lot closer to the Oc2 than I expected

what about yamaha octaver from the 70s i think its oc-01

BOSS OC-2 is best!

Next time play “Like A Prayer”, by Madonna. If Guy Pratt used the OC2 on one of the baddest bass lines ever and one of the most iconic bass sounds ever, that’s good enough for me. Then again, I’m the engineer and know that myriad manipulations can leave your decision making abilities in outer space, soooooo, keep it simple. So when trying to figure out how to play the song, I only had mixers laying around, so I patched in my X32 Rack and used the Sub Octaver effect. The secondary octave is a bit too much for reality, but both octaves can be blended with the dry by percentages. Very cool. It makes for a FAT bass sound. Make sure your wall hangings are secure. I “accidentally” rattled some action figures off of my kid’s dresser on the other end of the house. But my sound system is stoooooooopid. Now I’ve got the subs in cardioid so it pretty much stays in the FROG. All of that said, I would pick the Three Leaf-A-Ma-Jig, as did our gracious host. But to really hear the effect, it would seem you would need to stay in a range that most rigs can actually reproduce, and matched with the natural dry note in volume. The octave by itself removes the harmonic point of reference. If all you heard from a low E was 42hz, and only 42hz, you would never be able to articulate that tone for any interval reference. It would sound like mush, in a mix of course. Solo, fine, but Victor Wooten already wore that shtick out long ago.

They’re all close enough, IMO. The EBS sounded a little weak to me, while the IE, although not bad sounding at all, just sounds different. I don’t know... more artificial? But I still prefer the OC-2. And to be honest, they’re not necessarily more expensive if you live in Europe or North America - I actually bought mine on eBay for half the price of a brand new EBS. In fact, there’s several OC-2 for less than EUR 110 on eBay right now and even if you want to get more fancy and get a Japanese one (which sounds exactly the same, but is more rare) you can buy one for EUR 200, only 10-30 euros more than an MXR or a POG.

I like the iron ether, but if memory serves me right, those are more expensive than even the OC2.

OC2 is the most desirable for a reason

Demonstration might have helped a little to play a little higher and slower sometimes, maybe as an alternative riff, to show off tone better. The OC-2 has a hard-to-describe overtone depth that the others mostly lack, imo. Most of the others do seem more punchy, though, if that's what you're looking for. MXR especially.

Ryan Gossling now plays bass?

Try Multiplexer

I think I've been a little unfair about the MXR. It and the EBS actually sound really good.

wow... that ebs is.... not my favorite at all

And in your opinion, the winner is?

The OC-2 sounded best. But I didn't use headphones haha! Brilliant video sir.

The MXR didn't track very well. There were a lot of unclean attacks compared to the OC-2.

Is it just me or does the MXR not track particularly well? I borrowed one recently and I couldn’t get it to track properly on any of my basses. I tried passive and active basses with a variety of settings. I made sure I had a good clean signal and was playing above the eighth fret. Your first example of the MXR sounds like a similar thing is going on. This surprises me as I thought people often opted for these as they can handle hotter active basses where the OC2 can become overwhelmed.

MXR (by far) = the Worst. Did not care for the EBS. The 3 Leaf is fantastic. I do like the OC-5 - too. Nice comparison. oNe LovE from NYC

Slight Rant: There’s so much Hype and Romanticism about the *OC-2...* I owned that pedal for so many years.. and I call ‘phooey’ on all this hype.. sure, it does the ‘muddy synth bass thing’ when you isolate the lower octaves.. that’s cool,.. but it *never tracked well,* which is what you need it to do, right? & it made all my basses sound “thin & quacky” on the direct part of the effect... Got rid of it around 15 years ago,... and shortly after that, it became _“ 🎵 the Holy Grail of Octave Pedals! 🎶 ”_ 😒 (with the original 1982 OctaveR commanding hundreds of dollars!, which is the Same Damn pedal! Same Sound!, just the first run of it) There are so many octave pedals out today that sound and handle much better than the ‘old brown box’... that blue MXR (especially the micro VBO,) sounds ALOT like it and I’m pretty sure it tracks ALOT better... and it’s probably gonna be cheaper than alot of the old OC-2s you’re going to hunt and fight for on CL, eBay, Reverb, etc Just my 2 cents, but talk about the ‘power of suggestion’..

EBS sounds the best

OC2-MXR Gold, Both do the work so perfect. Octavre Silver, Iron Ether bronze,. If youre wondering about the EBS: EBS: Shit, it sucks! OC3 is dope too!

good video but not the best riff to show off the effect

Behringer is 20 bucks and same circuit as the boss pedal. Simple

Why didn’t you pick a bassline that you could play consistently without fluffing every time