Mono Division Pulsewave Octave

The Pulsewave Octave is a waveshaping octave effect from Mono Division, a New York-based boutique pedal builder. It is an all-analog design: rather than tracking pitch digitally like most octavers, it reshapes the guitar signal itself into a wave similar to a pulse wave. Dialed correctly, the maker's coverage in Delicious Audio says, this produces an effect that sounds like multiple octaves above the original tone¹. It belongs to the wider family of octave and pitch pedals, but its approach is unusual among them.

What it does

The pedal works by waveshaping, and its response depends on how hard you drive it. As Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio described it¹:

In practice, that means your guitar's input level, and where you set your instrument's volume, becomes part of the effect: a hotter signal narrows the pulse width of the shaped output, changing the character of the octave tones it produces¹. Players used to conventional octave pedals will find this input-sensitive behavior is the pedal's defining trait.

Design and layout

One distinctive hardware detail: the Pulsewave Octave places its jack and power inputs on the front of the pedal, on the same face as the knobs, rather than on the sides or top as is typical. Delicious Audio called this "rather unique"¹. For a player, that layout can matter on a crowded pedalboard, since patch cables and the power lead exit toward the player instead of along the board.

Background

The Pulsewave Octave was released in late 2020, one of two pedals Mono Division brought out at that time¹. No list price, power specifications, or current production status for the pedal appear in the available coverage.