tc electronic Nether Octaver

I use this pedal with electric guitar and bass. I think it would also work great with mono synthesizers. I have years of experience as producer/engineer as well as instrumentalist. Now I work in the MI branch. (No affiliation with this brand)

For me, this octaver is best for bass. Adding a compressor pedal before it boosts its note-tracking performance. It can make synth-like bass with the dry tone set to zero, or set the dry tone to unity gain, then dail in a subtle octave for thundering presence. The stop response time is tight enough to avoid sounding like mud.

How well this pedal works depends on the signal it gets. (True for all octavers like this) With the right kind of guitar/bass, it sounds awesome, for example strat or p-/j-bass. A different type of bass I use which already has a solid, explosive low-end and precise treble doesn't profit much from the sub octave - it doesn't complement the tone. In any case with a compressor before it, you can get better performance by tuning the level characteristics of different instruments so the octaver can work at its sweet spot.

I would improve the design of this pedal with a toggle switch to an alternate sub-tone more suited to some instruments or other sonic textures. How about a clipping waveform? (Less low-end, similar perceived "depth" thanks to low-mid harmonic content)

I am basically a one-man band in that I play everything myself. I don't have a bass guitar so I would have to make do whereas bass lines are concerned. Sometimes I just leave the bass out altogether, but when I do a bassline, I rely heavily on the Nether Octaver. You can really fine-tune the low octaves of your own guitar to make it sound just like a bass and it works great for me. Alternatively, if you think your rhythm guitar sounds a little thin with too little body, you can use this pedal to slightly make your rhythm guitar have a little more of a fat body and fuller sound. You'd have to fiddle around with that a little bit though, because if you put it up too much it quickly sounds as if you're playing chords on a bass, which is what you don't want. Just add a little at the time until you think it's full and fat enough. Really happy with this pedal: it's reliable, gives a good sound and again, does exactly what I bought it for. No frills, just a good sound for a very decent price! I would most definitively recommend this if you're looking for an Octaver!