Thru machine sound quality

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hello all,

(First post on new forums, and first post in several years. Picking the habit back up - I hope everyone is doing well!)

TL;DR:
Running the Four through a Thru machine seems to lose the airy reverb I have coming out of the Four, even with no effects on the through machine. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Long version:
So I’ve recently collected a few synth modules (Rytm, Four, Virus TI2) and an Octatrack to act as a sequencer and some global effects. Who doesn’t like to reverb and bitcrush all the things?

Tonight I was trying to figure out my ideal module/mixer/effects routing arrangements and was checking levels by switching A/Bing between the Four’s sound straight through the mixer and routing it through the Octratrack (sent out the alt 3-4 mix on my Mackie 802 and back in through channels 1-2 panned left/right respectively) to make sure everything was at about the same level with/without the Octatrack in the loop. Unfortunately, in the process I found something I can’t explain.

One of the sounds from the Four I was A/Bing has this wonderful, wide, airy reverb on it. That is, unless I run it through the Octatrack on a Thru machine. Even if I remove all effects and put all the levels I can find at 0, the Octratrack/Thru machine seems to strip most of the reverb off of the sound.

I tried different just-about-everything: different cables, different inputs on the mixer, I tried taking the mixer out and just connecting the Four directly to the Octatrack, and it still is missing much of the Four’s reverb.

The difference is significant enough that I can only imagine I’m doing something wrong, but I checked all the differences I could think of* and none of them seem to have an effect, except not passing the sound through the Octatrack.

  • Two things I didn’t try: (1) Changing which inputs on the mixer the Octatrack is plugged into (2) Recording to a buffer and playing back - I’d be really surprised if #2 affect anything - I’ll try #1 after posting this.

Ramble off. Is this a known phenomenon? Anyone else ever experienced this? Is the Octatrack that lossy as an effect processor? I hope not :frowning: Any thoughts, even confirmation, would be appreciated - thanks!

#2

I can’t say if what you are hearing is normal or not, but I guess is not about simple level problem, right?

In my current setup I have A4 running into OT’s input C/D (then listen by THRU).
To match the level I would get using the DIR@127 in the Mixer, I use the following:

C/D VOL = (default)
AMP VOL = +63 (max)

So,if say I record the input C/D(not the THRU Track) , the level of the recording and the Thru matches perfectly.

Can you post your sound comparison? Even a little snippet…I am curious and worried of this huge difference.

NOW

I am going into the obvious But…did you check the Scenes are bypassed? Or the LFO are all at zero?

#3

Noise gate settings?

#4

Take a look at your AMP page and maybe turn HOLD and REL up.

#5

Is the Thru machine set to A+B instead of A/B?
If it is it will produce a mono sum of both signals & you’ll lose any stereo width!

#6

There’s a lot to be read on this, i suspect it’s related to internal conversion and gain, remember it will sample at 16 or 24bit, so use 24bit to keep the quiet stuff intact and look at the gain threads for ideas

i’ve calmed down since that post as i see the device as a live instrument rather than a dedicated recorder, but it’s good to understand the nuances and get user feedback on best practice etc, make sure your A4 signal is as hot as you can manage too

#7

Could you please record an audio example? Even if it was affected by sub-optimal gain staging, it shouldn’t be THAT noticeable.
Best regards,
Boland

#9

Thanks for all the replies! Will try to make recordings tonight, and then play with the suggestions in here.

#10

Boom! That was it! How embarrassing! A classic RTFM moment.
I never even noticed there was an ‘A B’ and an ‘A+B’ machine - thank you so much for the astute observation! Everyone else, thanks for all the replies! Hopefully this thread will serve someone’s searching later.
I haven’t recorded any samples yet, since this solved the problem, but I can make one and post it if anyone is still interested.

#11

Hehe no worries, we’ve all done stuff like this then spent ages scratching our heads wondering what the hells going on :slight_smile:

#13

I had the same problem though the A/B was set right.
My solution was to clear the LFO page. I had used the track for something else before and changing machines does not reset the pages.
If the above mentioned, A/B, wont work. This might :slight_smile: