This is a follow up post which perhaps questions a few of the assumptions made in a thread from a few years back … some of the statements have been taken to be a statement of fact (not least because of what is stated in the manual and in terms of how evaluations were thought through originally)
I’ve revisited this afresh in a new thread in light of the general frustration with managing levels throughout the OT, particularly for capturing Live (and especially now we know the inputs are easily pushed by comparison to the MKii) … but it also relates to a passing comment i picked up from someone at that some the truths that permeate on Elektronauts about the OT are not quite what they pretend to be.
So, one of the recent comments I also read related to the absolute need to avoid going into the red and i had a long held question in my mind about whether the ‘Gain’ on the Mixer page was indeed a gain or an attenuator with on offset to encourage better level preparation for stacked tracks
There is one truth about the OT inputs, the do pass every signal through an AD converter, so even if you pull up the Dir, it is now Digital and coming out again via a DAC, but the legend tells that ‘every input is subject to a -12dB gain reduction’ and that is optionally re-applied via the Gain Parameter on the Sample Attributes page in the Editor (this defaults to +12dB) … in the manual it is documented as follows
So i’ve got used to these two statements (often red really does equate to awful clipping btw), but tonight I tried to see how hot I could push the Inputs and opted for a loud unfiltered Doepfer DE MK1 Osc … manually dialling the VCA level up (to 4 fwiw) until the waveform was nearly clipping the screen (wait what ! not merely taking up a quarter of the screen with -12dB hit !) as I had already set the Gain to +63, the Meter was way way into solid red (same as track button) - I also set the same test with the Mixer Gain at 0 and it does indeed look like a -12dB drop (i could have regained to check)
So i’m wondering, as i have previously wondered, is the OT offering real Gain or is it all managed attenuation … have these recordings gone through a gain reduction (inputs -12dB ?) and then boost (+63) or has the +63 nulled the ‘gain reduction’ (i.e. what is 0 really) (note the inputs were way way into the red, but there’s no clipping) - Note the sample attribute Gain is applied only to playback (it’s not applied to the sample)
I’m wondering if we can find out what’s really what by doing a bit of thinking/research (or asking the question direct) it may all stack up as originally proposed … is there any further comment from MKii users (besides smug ones ) ? At the end of the day, this is not an academic exercise, i was a little disappointed about how quietly i had the Rytm set to feed the OT without it seemingly overloading, just keen to bottom out what’s happening inside if possible
Here’s two images of the direct recording (T1 + CD) then (CD + Edit) {no vertical zooming by Enc D btw}
Depending on whether we uncover some new truths this may yet get merged back into an older thread
I’m wondering if @PeterHanes and @sezare56 or @Open_Mike have any MKi opinions or if @AdamJay @LyingDalai or @William_WiLD have any MKii thoughts to throw into the pot, or indeed anyone else ?
I’m hoping to build up a visual picture of all the gain/attenuation stages for all signal paths through the OT, especially for the inputs and Thru machines
edit : update below, there is a significant clarification