The reply from Elektron Support:
“The Octatrack samples 44.1kHz, 24-bit and the thru machines are digitally routed.”
Regards,
Rudy
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Did a little messing around yesterday with sending a stereo sine sweep and a stereo pink noise from my DAW via RME Multiface II to the OT thru machine (levels perfectly matched) and back into my DAW and comparing with the original wave file. Not much to report except that the frequency response was 99.9% identical in the return audio, some definite variation in the resulting waveform when zoomed in deep, and a good amount of DC offset which is not good but would be unfair to say was caused by the OT without further testing (but might help explain why the “perceived” volume of audio is lower after passing through the OT).
Then I started feeling like I was wasting my time and moved onto other things…
edit: though now I’m feeling inclined to waste more time tracking down the source of my DC offset as this describes my previous observation perfectly…
"A sound that has DC offset will not be at its loudest possible volume when amplified or normalized. This is because the offset reduces the headroom between the peak level of the audio and the maximum possible level without clipping. This problem can possibly extend to the mix as a whole, since a sound with DC offset and a sound without DC offset will have DC offset when mixed. "
I recall doing a somewhat similar test. Uploaded a pure sine in the ot, and then plyed it back. The resulting sine from the ot had flattened peaks.
Ok, so I repeated my tests from scratch, sine sweep and pink noise played through OT had such a minimal amount of DC offset that it is pretty much irrelevant. I do seem to have a difference of about 1.4db between left and right channels from two output channels on my soundcard.Not sure why I was seeing DC offset issues yesterday…
I blended a pre fab drum loop and bass loop in Ableton Live (lazy) and did a comparison between the original and the audio passed thru the OT and I cannot tell any difference. Same with the THX-DVD sound.
I am now of the opinion that any coloration or peaks being squashed or "flattening etc is due to variations in approach to gain structuring, and that when set up properly, what you put in is what you get out.
Mind you, my hearing is far from perfect so maybe someone else can easily spot the difference…
First A/B example, maybe not the most hifi, but I was being lazy and mostly looking for a fair amount of dynamics in the sound. One half (4 bars) of this loop is the source audio file, the other half is the audio passed from my DAW, to the OT’s inputs and thru machine and recorded back into my daw. Can you tell which is which?
https://db.tt/7fCzA8U9
(files are 24 bit, some media players etc may not play them)
Next is more “hifi”, the THX-DVD sound A/B compared as above , this file is bigger so maybe not practical on a slow internet connection. Again, can you tell me which is the audio passed through the OT?
https://db.tt/XIBbULmD
Now back to my life…
Interesting…
But I experience audio degradation when playing back audio which has been transfered by USB. How would gain staging be relevant there?
Good point.
I’ll get past that by disabling the tempo stretching and see how I go…
in the ab i prefer b in 1st a in 2nd.
i don’t care which is which, i’ve never had an issue with octatrack’s sound, but i’m curious if they are from the same?
I preferred B in both examples…
– Alex
Kotare - how do you set your levels on the OT? I’m suspicious that AMP may be driven too hard, as it is pre FX and therefore can clip. I found similar sound “shaping” going on and was very confused, did some reading and found out AMP is pre FX, and thus can clip/distort/compress in funny ways.
I run all my AMP settings to 50% or less on normalized wavs (boosts are fine for quieter wavs or some small variations). Once I started doing this my problems were over. I also run the mixer output to maximum, as I found the Octatrack’s output was a little low for me after lowering all my AMP settings.
I truly believe what goes in, comes out clean on the OT.
Couldn’t tell for the first example of the beat, but for the second example of the crazy synths I preferred A (1st half). Probably psychosomatic, but seemed to have more detail somehow and better presence, especially at the start of the synth build. Which is which?
So how does the Octa compare to an MV8800, or an EMU E6400 Ultra in terms of depth and punch? Both (fairly) modern samplers with modern bitrate/KHz sampling.
Owned both previously. MV8800 had a lot of punch/kick and kept it in the summing when combining sampled synths and drums to build whole tracks, really great sounding machine… and the Emu was just superb sounding, rich, deep and full.
Actually, how does the Octa’s filters compare to the Emu’s?
Very interesting night read. I have had my octa for one month now, and I am still trying to get warmth out of it. Elektron gear always comes first with an ici flat sound, but I know for a fact that these machines can be tweaked into a nice warm punchy sound. I had a monomachine before and it took me a while to discover the sweet spots of all parameters to get a cosy sound, and I hope I can eventually do this with the octa too, which is harder cos its a sampler. They are a bit like the nord modular g2. It is much colder than the ready-to-go-sounding g1, but it is known that with deeper programming it can sound as good. Not for lazy people (which I am unfortunately).
Sorry to add to this but the Octa has always seemed to have a slight roll off on the very very sub bass to me, probably the freq of the dc filter would be my guess. Saying that it does it in a nice way and sounds slightly compressed in the bass region to my ears but my ears are sh*t so I could be way off. 
Gotta check that the time stretching is off though, cos that can screw with your signal matching.
Loved the rounding off of the peaks on the sine wave earlier! That some crazy sh*t. 
I think the OT has a much warmer and more balanced sound than the MD and the Mono, which lean towards the cold side, with a lot of sub bass, mids and treble but seem a little light on the “normal bass”.
This is all my opinion though and as said my ears are shot!
anybody remembers an ebay octatrack that had a hacked spdif out? It was really intriguing.
Hi everybody, i´m pretty sure about the degradation of the sound not only when i´m sampling but when an external sound sound source is passing through the OT, so the input and output stages are really crappy to me, but you can get very powerful sounds from single samples even cycled sample chains, not the same from loops, I get powerful sounds of single samples using the filters and EQ´s also the LFO´s does very good job when they are applied to the FX settings. the compressor also helps, but the loops and sequence in itself must be done in the OT 
(your comp). Using third party loops or sampling the Rytm 8, an analogue ´s sequence synth or using third party loops is not the best way of using this wonderful gear which is OT, Any musical production tools have they limitations. But the producer must to know them and use the tools in the best way possible. it is a 1100/1200 $/€ sampler midi sequencer and lot more useful function device cost, don´t expect an I/O stage and AD/DA like a Prism sound by example which can double or triplicate the cost of the OT. But if you want punching drums like old MPC´s or my EMU esi 4000 does you can get them in the OT, but not from already sampled or just sampling loops or sequences from other machine or keeping them from Pro Libraries, for this purpose the device works better in resampling what you have done inside . + it is stupid to sample your modular synth in the OT if you have a good sound card, to not to mention to sample the Rytm 8 now there is Overbridge. But as it is mentioned above in a live situation the things are different this sound degradation is not perceived by the audience. Know your tools it is the first rule if you are a producer´s pretender. Anyway i´ll be happy with an hardware upgrade from Elecktron for a better sound or even Overbridge. I´ll happily paid for
Regards
Ah man I agree % 100, as do many, but hold tight for a shit storm in response including scientific tests, WAV analysis, and the snide implication that you are an Elektron hater
I see this whole argument as completely academic.
You can’t tell me that the A/D and D/A on the Octatrack is going to be the limiting factor in the quest to make some kicking tune. I think the raw talent of the user has more to do with that.
And let’s not get lead astray by our golden eared Kotare and his subjective analysis of the audio spectrum. Let’s look at the facts, figures and data, after all it is audio engineering we are talking about here not someone’s perception.
I´m a very bad English language writer and speaker, but i do not mention nothing about the fact if you can do amazing tunes or not with OT. For more i love to work with the OT and i will never sell it. To me OT it is the most innovative and inspirational instrument ever created. About sound it is normal nobody needs science here, a good sounding devise is equal to a lot of $$$$$ or €€€€€. But feel free to believe what you want about the OT sound. What i want to really point is the fact that i like to use OT like an instrument. not really as a sampling device (unless creatively chop loops in a live situation and get them instantly sliced, which is very creative). I get very punchy and bodied percussive sounds out of OT, using the OT in the way i describe in my post above(i´m pretty sure i can get the MPC´s punchy drum feel with a good midi pad and samples coming from drums single elements or Synth sampled chains, not from complete loops bass drum, snares HH and a TB303 in the same loop) . All change when it is passed through the In´s of the OT to the outs (that is a fact), usually in a dirty way, so i use it for doing punchy dirty stuff which is often desirable in production (in fact MPC´s was famous for that dirty sound they produce not for only they punchy drums. But a MPC can sample with lot more fidelity then the OT can as well reproduce back the sampled sounds with a high original definition, the best is to have both ). I use to pass the main outputs of the OT through the In´s of the Xone 92 analogue mixer and the sound becomes a lot more pro and smooth and i can tame a bit the bad signal to noise ratio of the OT with the Xone 92 superb EQ and circuitry, I own an EMU esi 4000 (the bass frequencies, the Lfo´s, The Filters and FX , mine comes with the Turbo card, are amazing!!!). I frecuently do A/B tests easily (cause all my rig pass through my mixers it is easy route the In´s and Out of my gear and compare the results) The EMU is lot more original in it´s audio path to the real sound source before you process than the OT, i like to see if a degraded sound loop is convenient for my production in a background of a mix by example, and do lot more experiment with it like passing this OT or other device loop through a very good FX eventide processor and others experiment (i add in mind to buy a DBX 1066 it sound amazing to me and can do it all at the compression stage paired with a good parametric EQ that can probably multiply x 10 the result from the OT), this constant A/B test when i´m into the production stage force to me to know how my gear sound. So to me me how OT sounds it´s a very clear answer, don´t need grafic, don´t need science for that. I also own an Apogee which sound a lot more Hi Fi than the OT. But i can do a complete good tune through the OT lying in my bed and the OT can give to me ideas that non other instrument can do. After that there are lot of ways to translate the OT tune to the pro sound today´s level. Though on what would help to the OT actual sound deficiencies is what is the interest of the most of us. and some solution from Elektron would be cool but we can dial with it ourself. To me the final problem is the signal to noise ratio resulting of the entire audio signal path. As other pointed above i had read all the post, and yes i agree a devise sound is not bad or good in itself it depend on how you use it and how much you know is limitation as well how this sound sit in your mix and production. Rytm 8 sound very great but it perform better in the lows than in the highs, the bass drums and toms are more easy to work than to get an astonishing HH sounds through the Rytm the Cowbell can do amazing things also. But for my HH i prefer to put samples in the OT i use at least 3 tracks to do my HH grooves on the OT mixing short hits on the bell of the hat mixed with longer hits in the base and OH, also lot of PLocks time displacement and accents, if i can chop a clean HH groove from a real drummer. the loop as i had already mentioned is very usable in OT (cause it is moving in a specific frequency range and it is easy to filter EQ to taste and get a good resulting sound in OT) also easy to came up with your own HH Loop from the original one. By the way thanks to Mr Merlin for is in depth tutorial about the OT it is a time saver!! Be happy with your OT nothing can compare to it, it is an unique machine. My last advice is take your time in knowing as much as possible your tools it is a great money saver.
Digging out this very nice thread since I’m experiencing similar quality degradation when sampling my Moog Subharmonicon throughout OT input. The Sub bass territory seems to be a bit flattened.
I am using good old OT MK1 tho. Does anyone know if MK2 has upgraded or better A/D converters?
Ha! Back from the death.
I’m getting a mk2 soon, no longer have the mk1.
Have you tried removing the filter, quite a few folk think this affects freq response.
Also, to actually answer yr question, from what I’ve read the mk2 has louder inputs, possibly as a result of being balanced or perhaps as well as.
So seems possible it may not have the same issue.
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