MXR Bass Octave Deluxe (noise problem?) vs Aguilar Octamizer

[tedmanzie]

Just thought I'd post this for anyone interested.
I just demoed the MXR Bass Octave Deluxe vs the Aguilar Octamizer
Both brand new. Had them in my studio for a couple of hours.

I'm looking for a fat sound veering towards synth. Also tried both of these into an MXR M82 envelope.
I play a medium scale japanese P-Bass strung with Thomastik flat jazz strings.
There is a noise issue on the MXR which I'll come to later, but here are my findings:

[b]Octamizer[/b]
Built like a tank, heavy, nice rubbery knobs. Battery included.
Has a nice variable tone control to effect the dry signal, as well as a dry level knob.
The octave (1 oct lower) also has a level control, and a separate knob which is a low pass filter.
You can really get a loud volume on this pedal. It was way louder than the MXR. I'm not saying this is a plus, just saying how it is.
The octave sound is a nice thick bass tone, quite clean but with a growl.
Increasing the low pass filter makes the bass smoother until you've really got a great sub tone, or degrees in between.
The tone of the octave is nice enough to play on its own if your that way inclined.
Tracking - I've read great things about the tracking on these but for me it certainly had issues, especially with open strings. The MXR was much better at tracking.

Overall I could not sculpt the sound in quite the way I wanted, but this certainly is a very nice effect. Very thick natural sound and if you have the low pass on it is SO smooth. It could be described as 'synth-like' but a clean smooth deep fat synth.

[b]MXR BOD[/b]
Good build quality, not very heavy. No battery included.
Three knobs - one for dry level, and two for different types of octave level (both 1 oct lower).
I would describe one of the octave tones as [i]very[/i] similar to the Octamizer (with its low pass filter set at half way). MXR describe this as a 'deep tone'.
The other octave on the MXR is described as 'throaty', its more mid range but to me it sounds a little more soft square wave, and in my book that's a good thing.
By mixing different levels of the two octave voices + the clean you can change the sound a lot.
It also has a mid range boost button, which I liked on, although I thought it was fairly subtle.
Tracking - I've read people saying this doesn't track as well as the Octamizer, but I've got to say the tracking on this is excellent and miles better. Open strings, fast (ish) playing, right down to the first few frets on the low E, it never misses!

Of course I liked bits of both units, and neither one could everything that the other did. However overall I prefer the MXR as to my ears its got a bit more synth like sound, a bit more flexible tone-wise, while also being able to [i]pretty much[/i] duplicate the cleaner sound of the Octamizer.

The only reservation I have about the MXR is that my unit was producing a very quiet 'zipper' noise, a bit like static. Appreared on dry and octave channels (where the noise was 1 oct lower funnily enough.) I thought it was because I was using a power adapter but it was the same on battery. SO I'm hoping its just a dodgy unit. If its a general issue then it would be enough to put me off. Any other MXR BOD users getting this?!

Cheers
Ted

Edited April 19, 2012 by ted_manzie

[dudewheresmybass]

Long time bodder here. Never had any issue with noise in my rig
I also found similar issues with the aggy and me

[tedmanzie]

thanks, i found another post on talkbass with the same noise issue. seems like its a clocking problem or something.
anyway, what ever it is its going back for a new quiet one!