I’m having this same issue, roughly -20db inactive output. Seems like a lot, almost hard to believe that’s by design and not a bug, unless I’m missing something. Makes it very difficult to A/B with Overbridge active/bypassed. I understand some people may prefer the extra headroom depending on workflow but it would be very nice to have the option. If anyone has a solution (besides adding a gain plugin) that would be very much appreciated!
Welcome Steve.
-20 dB seems a lot.
Is this with full volume?
Yes, with the “Active” button in the off position, I’m getting about -20db compared to when Overbridge is bypassed.
While “Active” is set to on, I need to have Volume at 127, Drive at around 75% and Level at 100% in order to reach unity gain.
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Yea, the volume loss is a huge bummer, just a hassle to deal with and really messes up the flow of working with this box.
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Came here to say I’m also having the issue with about -20db in volume output. From everything I’ve read it seems intentional but it just makes it frustrating to use.
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is this only when using overbridge?
For me it’s both with overbridge and through the direct outs. Via my OT main outs direct into ableton I can get to almost 0db, same source through the heat +fx I can barely scratch -20db with volume and level all the way up
Bummer I should’ve read all this before pulling the trigger.
Wonder if it will get sorted out?
Ans this is not the case with the mk2 or mk1? Weird.
Did you optimize the other volume settings? Like the input sensitivity etc?
Well it probably is a matter of proper gainstaging, @DaveMech put a post up sometime ago explaining how.
But are you saying whenever you hit the inactive button and disable all fx you always get a 20db cut? This seems like a lot indeed and a potential issue for live use? @DaveMech and @Voltagectrlr can you confirm?
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Adjust the wet level.
By adding drive you add gain to the original signal. So you need to compensate for that with the ‘Wet level’. This is the same on mk1 and mk2. Lower the wet level and keep A/Bing until they are as loud.
The volume drop is to create headroom. The many ways heat adds gain makes for a huge boost in volume. For example when using a high resonance filter sweep.
I do hope they add a setting in system settings or something to boost by 12db or something. In live situations I tend to need to set all volumes to the max to get the level to be hot enough (cranking gain on a mixing desk is a last resort but potentially highers the noise floor way too much.
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I’m anxious to get mine and try it out.
I generally run all my gear pretty hot, and I rarely use OB or software
Hey all.
Good news! I’m in discussion with someone from the Elektron team and it looks like the attenuated signal situation is something they’re looking to improve in the next update. I’m guessing they’ll just make it a secondary mode or add a boost button in which case you’ll have the option, but we’ll see. Thanks everyone for the input. I was happy to hear they’re on it and just wanted to share!
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Yes setting the volume in the menus to 127 helps. Input/output meters are in the 80-100% range. Input sensitivity helps some but even with it set to the loudest setting it’s a pretty significant volume cut, doesn’t matter if unit is active or inactive. It does sound like this is by design and present in the mk1/mk2 units as well.
Good to hear Elektron is aware and working on it!
surprised to hear people talking about the 20dB drop as ‘creating headroom’ — implying it was something natural or positive, or as if it resulted from the (user’s) gainstaging mistakes or Elektron’s preventive intervention to correct those (the latter minority report approach would be wrong practice anyway, btw). do any of your other (classy) distortion units behave this way? guess not.
because it’s employed not to CREATE headroom, it’s to compensate the headroom missing in the Heat’s analog circuitry in the first place.
hence it’s been like this in all Heat revisions (the dist.circuit itself didn’t ever change). it drops the incoming signal level to mask its incompetencies, by the concsious choice of its designers, despite it creates obstacles for the proper gainstaging, not corrects user’s possible mistakes but multiplying them (esp. if it’s in a longer chain or on master).
the device, like many others, is great for what it is and for its uses. one doesn’t help to find those by misrepresenting its problems as virtues… needless to say it was never a proper ‘mastering’ unit, but the drop speaks of something more.
That’s quite a statement. And based on what exactly?
The amount of headroom is present in every Elektron device. Go check the overbridge topic ;). To say it’s there to compensate for incompetence is quite bizarre.
How many overdrive/ distortion units do you know that have a resonant filter with a monster resonance range like the heat ? If you want users to utilize its full range without insane clipping artifacts, you need to create headroom. It’s really that simple. This is the case with every Elektron instrument that I know of and has nothing to do with incompetence of the hard/software.
I’m fairly certain it would be possible to safely boost the internal signal by say 12db without an issue so long as one doesn’t go mental with filter resonance.
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There were a few gain staging adjustments made during testing to mitigate the relative ease with which it was possible to clip in the digital blocks based on flow order etc
I’m reading this as being a conservative base-camp starting point and wouldn’t be surprised to see tweaks to address this … if you think of all the elektrons it’s not really an end-user concern to be worrying about internal clipping - i can see the possible thought process here which is to keep clipping off the table, that is a bad look !
Not sure why we’re picking the bones of this (or making random comparisons to things it’s nothing like), it’ll apparently be looked into and if it wasn’t you’d have to ‘clip’ me to pry it from my hands, it’s mighty right now and can only get better !
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