This school year, we're pledging Octa Psi
The crew over at Keeley Electronics is always working toward innovation on both the largest and smallest scales. Always invested in making exciting sounds with the closest of considerations, Keeley designs pedals for immediate playing and endless experimentation. We're always anxious to see what they cook up next – and wouldn't you know it, today we've got a three-course feast of octave, pitch, and fuzz effects.
The Keeley Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz is a three-way polyphonic octave, pitch shifting and analog fuzz effect. Housed in a compact, monolithic casing, this assortment of effects loads a board's worth of sounds under five dials and two footswitches. Keeley's ear for great tones and intuitive controls all appear in this latest creation, and we're absolutely psyched. This is the Keeley Electronics Octa Psi.
Shop the Keeley Electronics Octa Psi
For octave and fuzz fans, there's quite a bit to get swept away in with the Octa Psi. With its independent footswitching, responsive controls, and interesting mixes of effects, there's a lot to take in. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however. Let's get this started with the fuzz.
A Slice of Psi Pi
The Octa Psi's fuzz is an all-analog, transistor-based drive with extensive gain staging. What this means in the short term is that the Octa Psi touts a ferocious, Muff-style voice to really flex some distorted muscle. The fuzz side of Octa Psi does a lot of tonal heavy lifting between its three dials and three-way voice switch. Across these controls, it doesn't take long to clock in a hefty, fuzzed voice like your favorite Muff and Pi-style effects. Level, Fuzz, and Tone dials play familiarly and make things quick to cut to the fuzzy action.
What stands out particularly about these dials is the scale to which they ramp up to get their message across. On any of the three Fuzz voice settings, the Fuzz and Tone controls act responsively and serve heaping portions of kick and output even at lower settings. There's no trouble in balancing output for dialing in a more conservative fuzz, but in the event you want to go all-out, Keeley is there for you. In short, you won't run out of space on the dials to crank the effect.
The gain stages on the Octa Psi stack up impressively to make a statement while retaining distinct elements of sustain and articulation. Keeley's fuzz is easily sculpted for reeling in your sound while also allowing for that devil-may-care approach to distortion. Either way, across any of the settings on the three-way voice switch, this fuzz triumphs.
Octaves All Over
We all love a good fuzz, but let's talk about the true showstopper of this pedal. Let's talk octaves.
A good octave effect can go a long way to give an instrument a new kind of voice. Whether you're dealing with octave ups, downs, or anything in between, a somewhat unsung hero of effects, octave, can really get the show on the road. The Keeley Octa Psi gets that proverbial show rolling with an eight-way dial to bring on a host of harmonies to create with. Circling the Pitch dial, you'll come across six harmonic interval spots and two octave spots. Through these, the Octa Psi starts really coming to life to great effect.
On your two octave spots, you can access one and two-octave intervals to punch in with your playing. Utilize these positions to lay down rumbling rhythm riffs or screaming high leads. The beauty in this effect is that, through the Octa Psi's three-way directional octave switch, you can decide whether to send your octave and pitch effects upwards, downwards, or in both directions at once. This is where some real sonic experimentation comes into the mix. Using the three-way toggle switch, the Octa Psi can compound up to two octaves above and below a single signal to seriously beef up a lead line or make thunderous work out of a riff. In either direction, the octave effect put in full swing is a bold move for octave fans new and old, alike.
For its six other spaces, the Pitch control dials in nearly every harmonic interval for getting truly down to the nitty gritty with your pitch effects. Across these six options, the Pitch control opens the field totally for classic, organ-like pitch octave effects. Punch in any of these positions for great, rounded octave voices. The Octa Psi touts close tracking with low latency, so play without fear as you hit the most exciting, octave-rich riffs you can imagine.
Interactivity and Expression
This whole experience would not be the same without Keeley's knockout functionality. To compound on the great tones this pedal plays with, Keeley fit in a number of great control capabilities to expand the interface and inspire more creative ideas. Two expression outputs allow for remote switching, effect expression control, effect order switching and more. This effect order switching is already available via the two footswitches, but if you're looking for that added bit of functionality, the choice is yours.
Holding the Fuzz switch will swap the octave effect between momentary and latching engagement, allowing for deep, on-the-fly creative control while an onboard Blend control for the octave effect offers added customization in mixing in clean signal to the octave effect balance. This control can be bypassed, however, by tapping the Blend control and swapping the effect over to a fully-wet mix. Across all of these controls, the Octa Psi plays responsively and expressively to get on the fast-track to inspiration.
Keeley Electronics Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz Final Thoughts
With the Octa Psi, Keeley empowers players to play boldly with octaves and fuzz. As an effect duo, octave and fuzz goes back quite a bit for delivering on thunderous, bluesy sounds to really knock your socks off. This dynamic is alive and well today with Keeley's expert design. For any fan of either effect, this combo is definitely worth a spin to see how your own ideas come to life and get expanded upon. Keeley's high-quality designs and assembly make the Octa Psi a reliable and endlessly inventive effect pedal to get creative with. Build this pedal into a board or play it on its own and it's poetry in motion.
In short, Keeley brings the thunder and plays matchmaker for an iconic duo. Take on this monolith of a pedal and see the monstrous effect mixes impress eight ways from Sunday.
