Analog Heat 50% Dry Wet sounds like low pass

Elektron Gear Analog Heat
#1

Sorry, noob here just got my AH Mk2. I’m using purely USB, no analog connections, Overbridge, AH as VST in Ableton and everything seems to work great except for this issue.

Even with filter completely off, 50% Dry/Wet on the dial sounds like a low pass filter, the highs are gone and it sounds like it’s phasing a tiny bit. 100% and 0% Dry/Wet sounds fine and seems to be working as it should. Starts sounding weird at 45% - 55%.

Does this on all presets and init blank preset. I’ve tried adjusting latency settings etc. Anyone else come across this issue?

#2

Hi @MikeAirstrike welcome to the forum!

I’m curious what others will say for explanation, but my Heat also loses a lot of volume (never paid specific attention if it’s lowpass) when in the middle. I would even say in a wider area than 45-55. I’ve always assumed it to be normal, maybe some kind of phasing as a result of the two signals mixing. I use it with audio cables instead of USB.

Curious to hear from others if this is indeed normal and if so what the explanation is for it.

1 Like
#3

Did you try to record it?

It sounds like a monitoring issue more than a AH issue.

Remember you can also change the wet level to help volume match/check differences. The circuits are definitely not flat which is a reason the EQ curves are different for each (to help strategically make up for that).

4 Likes
#4

My first thought would be phasing issues due to some other routing adding latency.
Which in this case would more likely sound like high pass the low pass… so I don’t know.
I don’t own the Heat by the way.
Damn that was helpful ! :grinning:

3 Likes
#5

Uhhm, assuming the two signals aren‘t inverted, a low pass type phasing would be expected.
Kind of like a veeeeerry tight comb filter, where the first notch is in the uppermost treble region.

edit: although I‘m not sure if latency is the root of the issue – the dry/wet mixing is done in the Heat itself, not somewhere later in the DAW or something.

3 Likes
#6

Haha, damn I was even less helpful than I thought then.

5 Likes
#7

Is the dry signal also being monitored in you daw? Mixing that with the AH’s return could explain unwanted phasing and filtering.

5 Likes
#8

Appreciate all the replies here, thanks! I’m not using any i/o just the usb cable that came with the AH. Overbridge installed (works great), using AH as a VST dropped on a track in Ableton. Main soundcard is a RME Babyface Pro.

Recording of me changing the dry/wet dial from 0-100 and 100-0 on Clean Boost, Classic Dist and Saturation circuits :

Filter is off, I’ve checked there’s no modulation going on, low/high EQ dials at 50. LFO is routed to “none” same for the envelope destination.

Made sure I had the wet level as close as I could get to the dry by using the bypass switch to A/B it before recording. You can hear the high end start dipping like a low pass filter in the recording.

I love this thing so far and I can always fix it in the mix, but I was wondering if this was intended or something’s off with my setup.

@dtr after I drop the AH VST on the track there’s a brief audio cut out then I assume I’m hearing the output of the AH via Overbridge so no dry signal monitor at all until I disable the VST.

#9

Kinda sick hearing that phasing move in and out at 0.30 tho :mechanical_arm:

3 Likes
#10

When i had the AH i found that a 50% wet setting was useless because of what you described. I could only use it up to 35% or so. After that i would hear phasing. And then it would stop at around 70%.
I used the analog inputs only, no usb. And i only processed whole mixes. I think it’s a normal behaviour if you blend two similar signals.

2 Likes
#11

Nothing like that on my mk1 and analog i/o. Don’t use USB though. Ask elektron support?

1 Like
#12

Just tried disconnecting the usb, and switched to analog i/o and it sounded fine on monitors and headphones, now there’s minimal to no low pass effect/phasing around 50% dry/wet.

Seems like there’s something wacky going on with Overbridge/USB mode maybe. Not the end of the world, I’ll avoid the USB mode for now. Having loads of fun with this crazy little box. Thanks for the advice, appreciate it!

#13

Are you also using it as your sound card?

#14

I’ve been planing to post about this issue for some time.

I’ve noticed this and I’m not using it through USB but just with audio cables connected to mixer.

An interesting experiment would be to set AH to 100% wet and blend it with the original signal 50% by using a mixer. If phasing is indeed the problem then we should maybe see that as well in that setup. But I do have a hunch that this is not how it’s supposed to be.

Best probably to just talk to elektron directly.

2 Likes
#15

I’m not using the AH as soundcard, using the RME instead.

1 Like
#16

Did this ever get solved? Experiencing the exact same thing over here, so basically see the dry/wet as a pretty useless knob!

Using Overbridge.

#17

It’s not as prominent when using analog i/o as it is when using USB/overbridge, but not really solved I’m afraid. I worked around it by keeping my AH2 permanently on 100% Wet and using Ableton for dry/wet signals.

2 Likes
#18

I can see how this can be solved using Ableton racks, but still pretty annoying. This shouldn’t really be an issue! Thanks for the update!