Analog Octave Up

Pauleo1214

Pauleo1214

Well-known member
Has anyone built this circuit? Is it based on any existing pedal?

Is it different than the Johnny Octave or a Green Ringer? I have an idea for a combo build and am looking for something to do an octave up for fuzz that is not limited to having to select the neck pickup and play above the 12th fret.
 
I've had the best luck adapting Escobedo's Push Me Pull You. There are things you can do to get a clearer octave, but any analog octave is going to sound better with the neck pickup near the twelfth fret.
 
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An analog octave just rectifies the sound wave. As in, all the negative parts of the wave are reflected to be positive. So if you visualize a sine wave, it becomes a bouncing shape. This is a crude wave, but it’s double the frequency. The closer the input is to a simple sine wave (neck pickup, near 12th fret), the clearer you hear the octave.

There’s a few ways to accomplish the rectifying, but they all sound similar. (Green ringer uses transistors and diodes, EQD bit commander uses a transformer. You can also do it in digital (output = absolute value of the input)
 
Parallel fuzz is superior to serial fuzz. A relatively clean octave up might help with articulation when combined with other fuzzier fuzzes.
 
Aleph, what do you mean by 'relatively clean octave up'? Do you mean the Escebo, or a digital octave up? I've played with the FV-1 octave up (absolute value) which should be as clear of the rectify as it gets, and I found it pretty similar to the green ringer circuit. I haven't tried the Escebo but I would have expected it to be in the ballpark?
 
I mean something like the Escobedo circuit as compared to something like an Octavia at the other end of the spectrum. A Green Ringer might sound nice with a Fuzz Face. Gated contrasting with saturated and smooth.
 
You'll have to forgive me but my understanding is limited to looking at pedal demos, getting an idea of the sound, and cutting and pasting.

So far analog octave up won't get me to where I want to go. I guess I could cannibalize a couple of these.

 
I saw a demo once where the reviewer noted it was pretty good all over the neck.

Can't find it. Was it Mick & Dan on That Pedal Show or was it Andy, or Joe Gore?
Might've been a review of Joe Gore's octave-fuzz... Frustrating when I can't remember these sortsa thingetyuz.
 
I was looking for an alternative circuit to the Green Ringer to fit into a 1590A enclosure. I followed the Tentacle schematic and it sounds fine. It's not very clean, but it has some grit, which is not bad.
 
Tentacle is the same circuit as the green ringer.

Digital octave shift is difficult to pull off really well. My hunch is the Lekato would be the “simple method”, which has some noticeable latency and a warbly tremolo type artifact.
Pedalpcb Pythagorus with EEPROM builder has a patch that implements this simple method. It’s fun to play with. Kind of a lo fi 12-string emulator, but you get the delay and those artifacts and it might not be great for your project. The eqd organizer is like this too.

The pitch shift algorithms used by the POG and Whammy are complex and proprietary, so lekato couldn’t copy them directly. And they need a more powerful chip than the fv-1.

TC sub n up mini is pretty good, maybe you could find one or two of those used for not too much more than the lekato.
 
phi1 said:
Tentacle is the same circuit as the green ringer.

Digital octave shift is difficult to pull off really well. My hunch is the Lekato would be the “simple method”, which has some noticeable latency and a warbly tremolo type artifact.
Pedalpcb Pythagorus with EEPROM builder has a patch that implements this simple method. It’s fun to play with. Kind of a lo fi 12-string emulator, but you get the delay and those artifacts and it might not be great for your project. The eqd organizer is like this too.

The pitch shift algorithms used by the POG and Whammy are complex and proprietary, so lekato couldn’t copy them directly. And they need a more powerful chip than the fv-1.

TC sub n up mini is pretty good, maybe you could find one or two of those used for not too much more than the lekato.
Click to expand...
Some latency might actually be useful. Like when you record vocals and guitars, copy the recording and paste it a few thousandths of a second behind the original to get huge sounding layered effect.
 
If you want fast digital polyphonic octaves, there is a daisyseed program that will get you in the same latency territory as the proprietary stuff.

Steve Schulteis

Thread 'Terrarium Polyphonic Octaves Code & Demo'

I got another one for y'all. This time we're doing polyphonic octaves, like a POG or a Sub 'N' Up.

Project page: https://github.com/schult/terrarium-poly-octave
Firmware binary: https://github.com/schult/terrarium-poly-octave/releases/download/v1.0.0/TerrariumPolyOctave.bin


Not the best demo, I know, but I'm wiped out, and I want to get this thing out there. I also probably could have done a better job matching the settings of the Sub 'N' Up with the Terrarium. Regardless, my take is that my implementation landed pretty close to the Sub 'N' Up, but the...
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I would check the Rambler, also from Escobedo, super easy build and just few components
I made one to run in parallel with an envelope wha and I'm super happy
If you have all the parts, max one hour you can have your Rambler rambling
 
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