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Emma Electronic Okto-Nøjs (Octave Fuzz)


CameronJ
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So I was browsing the FXPedalRental website the other day and came across this pedal. Watched a few YouTube demos and knew I had to have it! My octave GAS is unstoppable :lol:

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/hQWvrVgRUaI

https://youtu.be/xx5gjnwzHhg


Andertons only had one in stock and I nabbed it - it arrived today! Can't wait to get it on my board when I get home tonight :D



Edited by CameronJ
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Had a chance to play with it last night for a little while. Still getting to grips with it to be honest but my early verdict is that there are a lot of sounds available.

The Okto circuit is very simple. You've got your usual octave level, octave tone and dry level. The tone all the way to the right is OC2-esque but becomes rounder and darker with the tone knob rolled to the left. The Okto soloed doesn't seem to have enough juice to get much past unity gain so I've been running it maxed out and taking the fuzz level down to match it. How much level control I need to apply is obviously dependent upon how aggressive the fuzz settings are.

The dirt circuit is more complex than any I've ever used - but bear in mind I'm not exactly a "dirt specialist" and have only recently developed an interest in drive pedals. The way the gain, tone, colour and nøjs knobs interact with each other makes for a seriously broad palette of sounds. At certain knob settings and with the Okto engaged you can get a 3 octave split with the octave up being generated by the Nøjs harmonics. I think it's gonna take me a little while to really dial my sound in on this one!

I suspect I'll need to make a decision as to exactly how I want to use this pedal and therefore how I'll need to dial it in. Tones that I'd love in isolation on either the octave or fuzz side won't necessarily sound great married together. So do I dial it in for use as two separate pedals or do I dial it in as a permanently combined octave fuzz? My gut tells me it'll be the latter. I also thought I might be able to run my other octave pedals into the soloed Nøjs with the onboard Okto circuit disengaged but for some reason that doesn't seem to sound good at all...not quite sure what's going on internally but I'll have to do some more knob twiddling and playing around with my signal chain to investigate.

I suppose the Redwitch Zeus or MXR Sub Octave Bass Fuzz are direct competitors but based on what I've heard of them the fuzz on the OctoNøjs has much more character and tweakability. You can't really control the tone of the octaves on MXR or the Redwitch either. To be fair, their relative simplicity probably makes them easier to dial in and they may well beat the Okto-Nøjs in terms of their available octave volume.

The Octo-Nøjs is also narrower than the MXR or the Redwitch as the knobs are much closer together. It would have been nice if the jacks were top mounted but that was probably difficult to do given just how many knobs are crammed in up there. Even with side jacks it's still fairly compact for what it is.

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It turns out I'm an idiot. Upon further inspection, the Okto side of the pedal has plenty of juice and is easily as loud soloed at max volume as my 3Leaf Octabvre Mini at the same settings! Also, I have to admit I think I slightly prefer the variety offered by the sweep of the Okto circuit's tone knob over the Octabvre mini's...

I have to say also that the Okto-Nøjs is such a well behaved and quiet pedal when active. The octave side is one of the least glitchy octave pedals I've ever heard and the fuzz side has zero hiss going on at all. I literally maxed out all knobs and it was completely silent until I plucked a note, at which point my ears were ripped off :lol:. There must be some gating/filtering going on inside but it doesn't feel artificial at all and I didn't notice how clean it was until I found myself double checking if I had the pedal engaged! This pedal would be an absolute dream in the studio or live.

Edited by CameronJ
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Do it Peter, FXPedalRental have one in stock...;)

[quote name='foxyFuze' timestamp='1505572161' post='3372938']
Bloody hell, something else I need to buy!
Does it actually track well down to the low E??
[/quote]

It seems to track a low E, but I can't reeeeally tell at that pitch as my headphones are just producing an I distinct rumble. Anything but the meatiest of PAs would struggle to produce that properly. I wish your cabs good luck! Starts to glitch out on sustained notes at that pitch which is to be expected but it'll take the low E for staccato notes. Even when it glitches it seems to do so in a fairly smooth way which doesn't sound as harsh as some other octavers. It may well be the best tracking analog octave pedal in my arsenal - and I have about 5 of them at the moment!

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  • 6 years later...

Reviving an old thread, as one of these arrived for me this week.

 

My old octaver broke. I'd heard great things about the tracking in the Okto, so here we are.

 

Octave side does not disappoint. Goes from dubby to OC-2esque, and tracks really low. Probably justifies the price alone. Genuinely as solid and versatile as any octave I've tried, including the 3 Leaf stuff.

 

 

Fuzz side is synth city. I won't have much need for that live, but it makes for some proper fun. Low gain sounds very much like demos of the 3 Leaf Doom (though I've never played one). Really unique. High gain is chaos.

 

Not a big fan of the sub-octave distortion, but there's more than enough going on with the synth-fuzz and octave.

 

Love it!

 

For 170 quid delivered from Bass Direct, this seems one of the better bargains out there. Surprised there's not a little more hype, as it ticks many boxes for bassists.

 

Someone had said above they wondered whether they would set it as a single octave fuzz, or like 2 separate pedals. I'm thinking of it as a standalone fuzz alongside a standalone octaver, both of which sound great into an envelope filter. Using it live on Saturday, and can't wait!

 

PXL_20240514_1735007782.thumb.jpg.379a443071b8717b32c571a4e41db223.jpg

 

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