Octave pedals - what sort of tracking delay?

markv

I got a ZCat Poly-Octaver in a trade with @Alnico a few weeks ago and I'm having great fun doing very bad Cocteau Twins impressions.

Now, there is - unsurprisingly - a small delay between playing a note and the octave up or down being played.

I've never played with an octave pedal before. The ZCat web site says the delay between the dry signal and octaves is ~ 30 ms. Is this about the same as other pedals? I can't find much info.

octatonic

Some pedals are better or worse than others.

I've come to embrace the delay- it makes riffs sound bigger.

Think of it like AC/DC (the band).

The reason they sound huge is they are all a little bit out of time with each other, which gives the downbeat huge, huge weight.

fretmeister

Not a clue about the times, but the MicroPog seems very fast.

markv

octatonic said:

Some pedals are better or worse than others.

I've come to embrace the delay- it makes riffs sound bigger.

Think of it like AC/DC (the band).

The reason they sound huge is they are all a little bit out of time with each other, which gives the downbeat huge, huge weight.

That makes sense. Although I think it must be more to it than that with AC/DC. If playing out of time was all there was to sounding huge, I'd have it nailed.

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

Not a clue about the times, but the MicroPog seems very fast.

same for the Whammy V

english_bob

30ms is a significant delay. I don't think I've used an octaver or pitch shifter with anything like that sort of latency. Most are a few milliseconds at most. On the other hand, the shimmer reverb setting on my reverb pedal has a sort of fade-in effect on the upper octaves that's there on purpose.

octatonic said:

Think of it like AC/DC (the band).

The reason they sound huge is they are all a little bit out of time with each other, which gives the downbeat huge, huge weight.

I can believe this if the out-of-time-ness was within a few milliseconds- the equivalent of the thickening you get from using chorus or double tracking in the studio (if done well...), only more complex in that it's done by people, not electronics. If they were 30ms out from each other it would sound like a sack of shit. It's all about being just out of time enough, but not too much, which might explain @markv's problem

not_the_dj

I've had a Micro Pog for years, and recently for a Whammy V, no noticeable delay on either, certainly nothing like 30ms.

markv

So if it's possible to achieve (much) less delay then presumably it's done on purpose with the ZCat pedal?

Don't get me wrong, it's a good pedal and the overall effect is not at all a "sack of shit" as @english_bob surmises :-) ... it's quite effective and clearly aimed at more atmospheric effects, what with the built-in chorus and reverb.

I wasn't complaining actually, just curious. I will clearly have to try some other octavers. Gosh darn it, does that mean I have to get more pedals?

english_bob

markv said:

Don't get me wrong, it's a good pedal and the overall effect is not at all a "sack of shit" as @english_bob surmises :-) ... it's quite effective and clearly aimed at more atmospheric effects, what with the built-in chorus and reverb.

Ah now, be fair. That's not what I said at all. I said if AC/DC were that loose when playing in unison they'd sound like a sack of shit. Clearly the people at Z-Cat didn't have people who wanted to cover "Whole Lotta Rosie" in mind when they designed the Poly-Octaver.

markv

english_bob said:

Clearly the people at Z-Cat didn't have people who wanted to cover "Whole Lotta Rosie" in mind when they designed the Poly-Octaver.

LOL - nice understatement :-)

Now I'm going to try that when I get home ...

Drew_TNBD

Yeah 30ms is a huge amount of time. 

GavRichList

Drew_fx said:

Yeah 30ms is a huge amount of time. 

that's what I keep telling my wife

frankus

Drew_fx said:

Yeah 30ms is a huge amount of time. 

Drew_TNBD

Ah you macro level fuckfaces!

markv

Drew_fx said:

Ah you macro level fuckfaces!

Awesome name for a pedal.