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.