Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer

[ped]

...just bought one. Should be fun to play with... I have just looked at the manual and it all looks logical enough, and tbh I much prefer not having to use the computer for things like that.

 

Two main reasons for buying - it sounds amazing and runs on batteries, even with a 'save battery life' mode... seems like a great design and should be interesting to compare to my Future Impact.

 

I wondered if anyone here has had one (I seem to recall someone has?)

 

Cheers

ped

[Quatschmacher]

53 minutes ago, ped said:

...just bought one. Should be fun to play with... I have just looked at the manual and it all looks logical enough, and tbh I much prefer not having to use the computer for things like that.

 

Two main reasons for buying - it sounds amazing and runs on batteries, even with a 'save battery life' mode... seems like a great design and should be interesting to compare to my Future Impact.

 

I wondered if anyone here has had one (I seem to recall someone has?)

 

Cheers

ped

@carlitos71has one and @Bo0tsy.

Edited May 5, 2022 by Quatschmacher

[Bo0tsy]

Congrats, these are fantastic pedals Ped, one of my favourite pedals, I've had mine for several years. The gated fuzz and filter in particular sound especially amazing on their own, or when combined, and a lot of the standard presets are very usable and tweakable on the fly. There's sounds in the Squeezer that you definitely can't get out of a Future Impact or other synth pedals and the filter circuit from the Chunk 00Funk is one of the best filters around. (Very different from your Mu-Tron).

 

On the flipside, there's a few design flaws though in my opinion:

 

Be prepared to spend a LOT of time with it, the manual is actually well written, but the software interface is quite complex to say the least.

 

The ADSR retriggers/tracks too slowly IMO to be really usable.

 

Be warned there are no save errors on the Squeezer - you also have to be sure to unlock all settings and allow presets to be overwritten in the setting parameters to update or overwrite a preset.

 

If you are going to use an SD card use a really cheap lower capacity one, higher spec cards don't seem to work.

 

If you haven't already seen it there's a great site from Gastric, a TB user, with lots of good custom patches and last released v11 of the firmware:

 

http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/octavius_squeezer/

 

Enjoy it though, the sounds you can get out of these are unbelievable.

Edited May 5, 2022 by Bo0tsy
.

[ped]

17 minutes ago, Bo0tsy said:

Congrats, these are fantastic pedals Ped, one of my favourite pedals, I've had mine for several years. The gated fuzz and filter in particular sound especially amazing on their own, or when combined, and a lot of the standard presets are very usable and tweakable on the fly. There's sounds in the Squeezer that you definitely can't get out of a Future Impact or other synth pedals and the filter circuit from the Chunk 00Funk is one of the best filters around. (Very different from your Mu-Tron).

 

On the flipside, there's a few design flaws though in my opinion:

 

Be prepared to spend a LOT of time with it, the manual is actually well written, but the software interface is quite complex to say the least.

 

The ADSR retriggers/tracks too slowly IMO to be really usable.

 

Be warned there are no save errors on the Squeezer - you also have to be sure to unlock all settings and allow presets to be overwritten in the setting parameters to update or overwrite a preset.

 

If you are going to use an SD card use a really cheap lower capacity one, higher spec cards don't seem to work.

 

If you haven't already seen it there's a great site from Gastric, a TB user, with lots of good custom patches and last released v11 of the firmware:

 

http://www.cgraham.com/chris/music/bass/octavius_squeezer/

 

Enjoy it though, the sounds you can get out of these are unbelievable.

Thanks! Yeah it looks complicated but I don’t mind learning how to navigate complex menu systems (vbass user!) and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. I’ll probably not change any settings or saves for a while but I guess I’ll reset and update it when it arrives (how do I check current firmware and is updating easy?) 

 

I’ve got loads of old 2gb cards as my favourite camera (Epson RD1) uses them so that should be ok 👍🏼 

 

I’m sure I’ll be asking you lots of questions! Have you used yours on batteries? What’s the life like? 
 

 

[ped]

3 minutes ago, ped said:

Thanks! Yeah it looks complicated but I don’t mind learning how to navigate complex menu systems (vbass user!) and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. I’ll probably not change any settings or saves for a while but I guess I’ll reset and update it when it arrives (how do I check current firmware and is updating easy?) 

 

I’ve got loads of old 2gb cards as my favourite camera (Epson RD1) uses them so that should be ok 👍🏼 

 

I’m sure I’ll be asking you lots of questions! Have you used yours on batteries? What’s the life like? 
 

 

I’ve just read the firmware update bit so that’s answered my own question!! Sounds easy enough 

[Bo0tsy]

Yep, when you switch it on it'll tell the firmware version. 

 

An old 2gb card should work fine.

 

I haven't used mine on batteries for a vey long time, from memory I probably got about 14-15 hours max, but I could have that wrong.

[carlitos71]

3 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

@carlitos71has one and @Bo0tsy.

Thanks for mention, indeed have one and looking to sell it…

[NoirBass]

I tried one of these and whilst it sounded great I found it really awkward to program. Good luck, I’m sure with patience you’ll have some great results.

 

I also have the VB-99 which in comparison is a doddle. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by NoirBass

[ped]

On 09/05/2022 at 18:18, NoirBass said:

I tried one of these and whilst it sounded great I found it really awkward to program. Good luck, I’m sure with patience you’ll have some great results.

 

I also have the VB-99 which in comparison is a doddle. 

It arrived today so I’ve had a literal 10 minute whirl through some patches and it sounds fantastic so far. I find the menu system ok to be honest, I’ll probably modify existing patches rather than build my own from scratch at least for a while. I’ve been a VB99 user for years and love mine to bits but I don’t really use it as a synth, more as a Swiss Army knife pre/interface and multi fx. It’s got the best compressor in I’ve ever tried (including cali big box and FEA). Awesome thing, and I love the form factor. But with that many buttons it’s easy to work of course. 

[ped]

I spent a little while last night setting a default envelope filter sound. It’s great - by setting a higher VCF attack speed you can get it sounding really bubbly and squelchy. 
 

Can anyone tell me how to add a clean blend, is it to do with the premix settings? (Ignore me, found it)

[NoirBass]

15 hours ago, ped said:

It arrived today so I’ve had a literal 10 minute whirl through some patches and it sounds fantastic so far. I find the menu system ok to be honest, I’ll probably modify existing patches rather than build my own from scratch at least for a while. I’ve been a VB99 user for years and love mine to bits but I don’t really use it as a synth, more as a Swiss Army knife pre/interface and multi fx. It’s got the best compressor in I’ve ever tried (including cali big box and FEA). Awesome thing, and I love the form factor. But with that many buttons it’s easy to work of course. 

Yeah, VB-99 is a great price of kit. I recently got a SY1000 and whilst in some areas it’s a step forward, in many others; form factor, poly effects, etc. it’s a bit of a step backward.

 

Sorry for the thread derail, enjoy the Squeezer.

[ped]

[Kev]

So I've just become a member of the rather dwindling Octavius Squeezer club!

 

 

Have to say, I'm absolutely loving the sounds I'm getting so far.  The UI isn't as bad as I thought, just getting my head around the signal chain at the mo.

 

Does anyone still use it, and does anyone have any settings to share?  I've got a spreadsheet going to keep track of setting changes (thanks to TB for that) but would love to try some more, will help me learn it all!  OSX files would be cool too, once I've found an SD card that works!

[AinsleyWalker]

So, I bought Kev's Squeezer, and it's great!

Not quite as difficult to use as I had heard, I was expecting far far worse. 

 

So far I've factory reset it and just been tweaking existing standard patches, learning the menus etc. There's a few presets like Double Chin that can be tweaked to be something quite useable, but unfortunately there's only like 5 sounds that are worth using. I plan to download some of the sounds from the cgraham site which has a bunch of simple useable sample sounds etc, but I need an SD card reader. 

 

My main takeaway from using this for a few days is how much I love the Future Impact. Way better tracking, way easier to dial simple usable sounds on the fly, and has a global master volume!!! Pretty annoying having to turn down the volume on single patches, or having to enable 'all params' via the Squeezers menu just to turn down the clean blend volume on any patches - why are the Paul Turner patches so loud for example lmao? The clean blend is boosted so much. Volume jumps across default patches is a problem in general, tbh. 

 

I have spent years making lots of very useable/recognisable synth sounds on the Future Impact, so I'm sure in time I'll get the Squeezer to a more useable state but for now, it's a lot of squelchy fun! 

 

(Quick photo of my board last night, currently switching the Squeezer in/out for The Pill side chain compressor)

Edited 7 hours ago by AinsleyWalker

[Kev]

I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed this pedal so much was for the fuzz and filter circuit, which no digital synth I have tried can touch.  Removing tracking and the VCO from the equation entirely, you can get some marvelous sounds.  I preferred to use an external octaver with it, but with the onboard waveforms like any synth it can track pretty well once you get used to how it wants you to play.

 

But do pursue the building blocks etc on CGraham, it can fast track you to figuring the signal chain and understanding how everything interacts.

[AinsleyWalker]

14 minutes ago, Kev said:

I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed this pedal so much was for the fuzz and filter circuit, which no digital synth I have tried can touch.  Removing tracking and the VCO from the equation entirely, you can get some marvelous sounds.  I preferred to use an external octaver with it, but with the onboard waveforms like any synth it can track pretty well once you get used to how it wants you to play.

 

But do pursue the building blocks etc on CGraham, it can fast track you to figuring the signal chain and understanding how everything interacts.

 

Yeah you're right there, I'm a fan of every aspect of the pedal, just need to build some solid patches to suit my needs.

 

And yeah in terms of tracking, I have definitely found a lot of patches have a certain sweet spot on the fretboard.

 

I think my Future Impact will stay as the digital jack of all trades synth, quick access and adjustibility, and then the Squeezer can serve a very specific role playing to its strengths 👍🏼 rather than trying to get it to cover as much ground 

[Quatschmacher]

10 hours ago, AinsleyWalker said:

My main takeaway from using this for a few days is how much I love the Future Impact. Way better tracking, way easier to dial simple usable sounds on the fly, and has a global master volume!!!

You need to get a v4: tracking is even better. And some tasty treats coming soon. 

Edited 18 hours ago by Quatschmacher

[AinsleyWalker]

10 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

You need to get a v4: tracking is even better. And some tasty treats coming soon. 

I know... I've just grown attached this guy, been on my board around 7 years now and does everything I need it to do. 
I've moaned about technical issues/headaches on here before, but I really do love it. 
Can I load on my current patches to a V4? Or will I need to start from scratch?

[Quatschmacher]

2 hours ago, AinsleyWalker said:

Can I load on my current patches to a V4?

Absolutely!

 

The update we’re currently working on will bring lots of great new goodies. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Quatschmacher