Analog Heat mk2 GAIN STAGING

Elektron Gear Analog Heat
1

When using the AH2 with Ableton and Overbridge via USB I find that the signal is way too hot and all modes but the clean boost will saturate heavily at the lowest drive setting

If I pull the volume down 20dB before going out to the AH and then making that up afterwards there´s a bunch of hiss

In Live I produce and mix with the kickdrum at -0.1dBFS out of convenience and visual level feedback (Been doing it that way for 15+ years, not been using hardware)

Would you recommend me to lower the volume in my projects or is there something I´m missing?

Cheers

2

I think it sounds better going in hot, but obviously depends on what you want to achieve. If you want a clean signal? Not sure if Heat is the best thing to use :loopy:

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3

What input sensitivity is it set at? It has 3 or 4 levels in the settings.

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4

I like it hot as well, but would be nice to do more subtle processing with it :slight_smile:

5

I´m running it in Overbridge so the input sensitivity has no effect

Also the Master volume does nothiing

Cheers

6

There was this thing when i first fired it up with ob (mk1)…some kind of setting where i was getting feedback and the AH sounded really blown…everything normal in the control software?

7

By the way - theres an input stage in the AH ob plug isnt there…? Look in the top there…

8

I m not using OB so can t comment further.

9

If your kick is already peaking at 0dB I guess your master fader is at -20dB or so to keep the mix under 0dB?

I don’t know how much headroom OB digital-analog conversion has and it also depends on where in the signal chain you put it but with such hot levels you might very well run in trouble at the conversion stage.

10

Software looks fine, I´ll have a look at twisting that knob

11

Master is at 0dBFS, 3dB´s of limiting is all I need, busses also 0dBFS

It´s a level issue I think, I´ve totally disregarded the levels in the analog domain as I´ve been all digital

12

I think you mean your level faders are at 0dB gain, not that the signal is peaking at 0dB. What s the volume of the signal going into the AH? I mean the measured dBs, not the gain fader setting.

13

-18dbfs=0dbv in analog.
so just try to have all channels around that level and a lot of other plugins that you might have could behave nicer too.
Then again you might want to drive in something hot…
Look at this short video, it’s ableton live but info aplies to all Daws

14

I´m always maxing out the level, much easier to mix visually for me as the meters cannot be trimmed so that -18dBFS is equal to 0dBFS, and the track is going to ennd up there inn level anyway

My pre masters are -10 on master fader and usually peaks at -6dBFS

15

That´s actually not true afaik

-18dbfs=0dbv is a false statement as one cannot be converted to the other

It all all depends on what voltage your DA´s put out at 0dBFS

My Apollo Twin mk2 puts out +20.2 dbu max

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16

It was a simplification that -18dbfs in your daw would roughly equal 0dbu in analog world. So that analog modelled plugins for example can respond correctly to levels inside DAW.

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17

Yes, cheers

1 Like