tommy wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:01 pm 3) There is a pretty huge volume drop with guitar from bypass to effect. Especially with both engaged. I haven't yet tried it with keys to see if it's an impedance thing. But I've owned two separate Musitronics Phasor IIs in my life (one half of the Bi-Phase) and they boosted signal a little bit, they didn't kill it. This might be a deal breaker for me. There's a 90% chance I'm returning this unless there is an internal output level control or something. Maybe the effect output seems so low because the bypass is true bypass? There's also a pretty big thud when using the bypass switch. I think I'd let that slide if it was unity gain though. Worth a mention.

I read about this somewhere else (think it was gearslutz) and it was noted that with both engaged the volume drop is fairly severe. Someone said it's normal (relatively) and happened on the originals also.

Alright, ducking in for a sec to offer my $.02 on the Behringer Octave Divider, which just arrived...Keep in mind this is a non-professional's take...


Simply put, it's a nice pedal. Built well. Sounds good too. In conjunction with dirt boxes, I found that it sounds much better stacked in front of fuzzes, overdrives, etc. than behind them. This seems to be the conventional way with octave pedals. Also found that it sounds better with leads/single-note playing than with chords, though that would probably be par for the course as well. Obviously, not having played it a lot, I can't say how well the Octave Divider would hold up over the longterm, but it didn't strike me as shoddy at first glance. However, will probably be parting with it for the following reasons...


It is BIG. I have a few somewhat cumbersome pedals but the footprint here is massive. It comes equipped with large-ish rubber feet (albeit easily removable ones) which seems to imply that it might function better on a table next to a synth, in one's studio workstation, or off to the side of one's pedalboard than on it. This might be in keeping with the original design, even if it's slightly smaller, but I don't really want to attach something to my board and have to remove it every time it gets packed up. It would also just look a little weird to have a pedal sticking a couple of inches off the top of the board.

The other issue is that the "in" and "out" inputs for the patch cords--as per the original design--are in the "wrong" order, the opposite of where they usually would be. This would create further clutter on a board, though again, that might not be an issue for some.


So in short, a first impression is that I think the Octave Divider is good value for the money, provided one understands what it is, an homage to the original Mu-Tron Octave Divider, that doesn't offer its features in a much more compact design.

Yeah, analog octave pedals don’t track well with a lot of harmonics in play. If you want consistent response, the neck pickup or at least rolled off tone is a good approach, and drive pedals after it in the chain. Of course, you can get some wild noises by not doing that, which some people like a lot.

Tracking might never be 100% accurate.

Was looking at YouTube demos for the FoxRox Octron3 (mentioned upthread) and I think that'll do it, once I sell this one back and part with one or two other things. Without having knowledge of its circuitry/internal parts, I still think the Behringer is a pretty cool pedal though.

Curry Pervert wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 6:49 pm

tommy wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:01 pm 3) There is a pretty huge volume drop with guitar from bypass to effect. Especially with both engaged. I haven't yet tried it with keys to see if it's an impedance thing. But I've owned two separate Musitronics Phasor IIs in my life (one half of the Bi-Phase) and they boosted signal a little bit, they didn't kill it. This might be a deal breaker for me. There's a 90% chance I'm returning this unless there is an internal output level control or something. Maybe the effect output seems so low because the bypass is true bypass? There's also a pretty big thud when using the bypass switch. I think I'd let that slide if it was unity gain though. Worth a mention.

I read about this somewhere else (think it was gearslutz) and it was noted that with both engaged the volume drop is fairly severe. Someone said it's normal (relatively) and happened on the originals also.

biscuitdough wrote: Sun Mar 27, 2022 7:19 pm Yeah, analog octave pedals don’t track well with a lot of harmonics in play. If you want consistent response, the neck pickup or at least rolled off tone is a good approach, and drive pedals after it in the chain. Of course, you can get some wild noises by not doing that, which some people like a lot.

As with other analog octavers, pitch shifters, synth pedals etc, putting it in a true bypass looper with a compressor in front can help with these issues to some degree.
[TBP Loop send> compressor> Mutron> TBP return]
Using a clean sounding compressor, like a Demeter or BBE optostomp(something optical), you can even out the note response and improve the tracking.
You can then make up some of the level drop with the compressor output, but depending on your unit, it could clip before reaching "unity".

Playing mostly old single coil guitars, this has been essential in making stuff like my MXR blue box or Line 6 FM4 worth a shit.
Doesn't help with a convoluted pedalboard, but worth trying/considering!

After more experimentation, I'm keeping it! More thoughts.

tommy wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:01 pm 3) There is a pretty huge volume drop with guitar from bypass to effect. Especially with both engaged. I haven't yet tried it with keys to see if it's an impedance thing. But I've owned two separate Musitronics Phasor IIs in my life (one half of the Bi-Phase) and they boosted signal a little bit, they didn't kill it. This might be a deal breaker for me. There's a 90% chance I'm returning this unless there is an internal output level control or something. Maybe the effect output seems so low because the bypass is true bypass? There's also a pretty big thud when using the bypass switch. I think I'd let that slide if it was unity gain though. Worth a mention.

There was something wrong with my signal path the other day. Tried it again, and while there is a slight volume drop, it's not any worse than a Small Stone. Totally usable. Totally great. The bypass is still pretty thumpy. No longer sure it's relay because it passes signal without a power supply. But the footswitches aren't clicky.

tommy wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:01 pm 4) I haven't been able to try the expression pedal foot sweep because I can't get it to work with my Moog EP-3 (that I really can't seem to get to work very well with ANYTHING (guessing my exp is broken). Who has a good reco for a super universal expression pedal?

Got my EP-3 to work on something else (the og cable was bad) but it still won't work with the Bi-Phase. I can control the expression input with an LFO out on my synth though. So this seems to need a TS connector and maybe something active? I can't find a spec other than 0-5V.

benadrian wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:21 pm

TylerDeadPine wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 11:10 am Yes!!

Were there any full on brawls between coworkers with team “keep the aesthetics the same” and team “change it up”?

Not at all. This pedal is basically for people who know and love the DL4. It had to operate exactly the same, so the footswitch spacing is exactly the same for the looper crowd, and the knob layout is exactly the same for the knob tweaker crowd. Plus there's a bunch of extra shit (mic preamp), newer and better sounds in addition to the exact old sounds, it can be run off a lot more power supplies, and it's still smaller. Not to mention it's the same price or cheaper than the original DL4 when it was released 22 years ago.

So, in short, the idea was to have the same user functionality, which had to keep it the same size, AND we want people to know exactly what it when they see it on a pedalboard from 100 feet away.

Awesome - that's all just perfect, great job. "Do you want more stuff, for the same money, but you don't lose anything you like?". It's that kind of respect for the end-user that goes a long way for enjoying life.

tallchris wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:37 am

TylerDeadPine wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:30 am If only we had someone that could give us the inside scoop!

I was wondering when Line6 would release a new one - the most ubiquitous delay of the 2000s?

I remember one weekend in fall 2001 where almost every single band at multiple different shows had at least one on stage (Les Savy Fav, Mars Volta, Built to Spill, Ugly Cassanova), didn't take long for that pedal to become ubiquitous!

Apparently?

Boss ain't goin' out like that...



(That said, you gotta seriously love you some Space Echo for it to be close...)

I know which one I'm getting.

Teacher's Pet wrote: Wed Mar 23, 2022 4:30 pm

penningtron wrote:

TylerDeadPine wrote: what you need if you want to be cool is..

ugh.. that's FM Dave Grohl's guitar.. no thanks.

FM Trini Lopez is gonna be pissed when he reads that...

To be fair, the Trini version is cooler.