Re: OCTAVE DIVIDER

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
>      QUESTION FOR Mike Curtis (re your post yesterday) and other harpers:  
>      Can you share a bit more about your experience with the octave 
>      divider?  why do you use it?  do you keep the effect on all the time, 
>      or cut it in and out?  what effect does it have on your sound?  Can 
>      you adjust the octave blend, i.e. independently increasing/decreasing 
>      the volume of the doubled note in order to shape the blend?  what 
>      make?

I use it to give a "fuller" sound on certain soloes.  You could use it to 
give a dual tone sound, but I prefer setting the octave a little below 
the level of my normal harp sound., to give an almost "horn" like sound.

The octave divider divides (gives an octave BELOW the note you play)

I use mine about 10% of the time.  The only effect I run most of the time 
is the digital delay (used for a little slapback echo) - and I suppose 
you could consider an overdriven all tube Fender Champ an "effect", too - 
so I run that full time.  When I want a "clean" harp sound, I just grab a 
harp and play through my vocal mic.  I usually do  a single, playing bass 
with my feet (MIDI bass pedals), so I'll either leave out guitar, or play 
using hammers and pulls (.

>      
>      About 15 years ago I experimented with octave dividers in a music 
>      store and they didn't add a thing.  The store techies said the box 
>      couldn't effectively process the signals -- the harp sound was too 
>      thin and high-pitched, they said, and the box also was not very good 
>      at handling signals coming from a mic.  I gave up that line of 
>      exploration.  Guess I gave up too easily -- or the technology has 
>      changed.  I was trying to find a clean but fuller bodied sound 
>      appropriate for main stream jazz.  I'd still like to find that elusive 
>      sound I'm looking for, but I admit I haven't been searching very hard 
>      in recent years.

I went through exactly the same thing, and well remember those terrible 
octaver dividers back then (YUK!)  They used them for horns, and they 
didn't work worth a hill of beans on harp.  I bought one anyway, figuring 
I could clean up the harp signal enough to make it work.  No way!

The newer ones are FAR superior, and are great for jazz.  The one I'm 
using is the Boss (I think - might be DOD) OctaPLUS.  My rack pickup is 
based on a Green Bullet (R-47 controlled magnetic cartridge), and I run 
it directly into the Octaplus.

It of course only works for single notes, and covers most of my C major 
diatonic, except the 2 highest notes.  I've not tried it with other keys 
(I always use C major diatonic when playing solo, and get other keys 
using different positions and bends.)  (I use windsavers to bend all 
notes.) 


-- mike curtis
wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx