What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

General Gear Discussion - effects, synths, etc.

Moderator: Ghost Hip

Post Reply
Roseweave

What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

Post by Roseweave »

It's one thing that really bewilders me, especially looking at some of Devi's schematics where swapping out a few components turns a very unoctavery fuzz into one with an apparent upper octave effect.

As far as I know, an Octaving effect can be achieved by full-wave rectificated, where you swap everything up above 0 thus giving twice as many peaks, and twice the apparent pitch.

Where does the Scrambling effect come from? Why do some fuzzes have a harsher, more metallic scramble than others? Why does the octave/scramble effect of the fuzz seem related to gain?

I'm not sure what happens in a fuzz pedal, or indeed a standalone Octavia type pedal.
User avatar
Bellyheart
IAMILFFAMOUS
IAMILFFAMOUS
Posts: 5791
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:23 pm
Location: Richmond, Va
Contact:

Re: What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

Post by Bellyheart »

It probably is the components and sequence.
User avatar
Scruffie
Admin
Admin
Posts: 4647
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:46 pm
Location: London.. ish, Uk

Re: What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

Post by Scruffie »

An octave is a frequency ratio of exactly 2:1, With octaves the negative portion of the waveform is folded up into the positive, which doubles the frequency, which gives you a note one octave higher.

The scrambling effect comes from the errors in the electronics, they're not getting a pure sine signal, they get confused, it comes out even less pure because instruments produce a note which is the sum of a fundamental, near-harmonics of the fundamental, and other stuff which is not related to the fundamental.

It's all down to the math at the end of the day, you'll have to read up on it, it's less to do with the circuit really you can also look up fundamental nulling which is what the EHX octave multiplexer was good at, hence being one of the few good clean analogue octave circuits.
Roseweave

Re: What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

Post by Roseweave »

An octave is a frequency ratio of exactly 2:1, With octaves the negative portion of the waveform is folded up into the positive, which doubles the frequency, which gives you a note one octave higher.


I know this. Full wave rectification.

What I want to know is how in a lot of Devi pedals especially just swapping a few resistor values etc. seems to change it from a Torn's Peaker style Fuzz to an Octave fuzz like the Never Drive.
User avatar
Scruffie
Admin
Admin
Posts: 4647
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:46 pm
Location: London.. ish, Uk

Re: What causes a fuzz to be an "octave" fuzz?

Post by Scruffie »

Roseweave wrote:
An octave is a frequency ratio of exactly 2:1, With octaves the negative portion of the waveform is folded up into the positive, which doubles the frequency, which gives you a note one octave higher.


I know this. Full wave rectification.

What I want to know is how in a lot of Devi pedals especially just swapping a few resistor values etc. seems to change it from a Torn's Peaker style Fuzz to an Octave fuzz like the Never Drive.


In that case

Scruffie wrote:It's all down to the math at the end of the day, you'll have to read up on it, it's less to do with the circuit really
Post Reply