Gain staging is a huge one! It’s definitely worth spending some time sorting it out. You can have audio coming in, being sampled and processed, and played back out at about the same volume (and quality) it came in; I promise! Know what the defaults are at each stage (mixer gain in, sample edit, amp section, track volume, master volume), how they interact, and which FX boost or cut volume.
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I just spent two days with my 2nd Octatrack getting this set up. There are some great threads on here about Octatrack gain staging etc.
and
(In the end I have +20 on the input gain in the Mixer page, +10 on the cue out (so resampled cues match the level of whatever they’re recording), and that’s it. This is using a Mackie 1202 VLZ4’s ALT 3+4 outs)
I have Quick Record enabled so I only have to tap the REC buttons. But my main point was that accidentally-armed record trigs can be a disaster.
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With the OT I always recommend recording out to a two channel recorder of some kind. That way no matter what happens, you’ll at least have a stereo file backup of a session.
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This is turning into a really helpful little thread! Gain staging is a really interesting one because I’ve noticed it’s a little tricky to visualize what’s going on, but haven’t had any actual issues with it yet (I don’t think?). I’m curious to read those linked threads. I’m also coming out of a little 10 channel ZED mixer into the OT, though, so maybe that helps? (OT’s on the Playback channel, so I just switch my headphones over to it and turn the Playback level on the ZED down when I sample… can get some interesting feedback loops if I turn it back up, which I’ve used for effect a few times).
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I think coming out of a mixer first into the OT will be helping a lot, because the OT lacks any metering precision; if the mixer has any, you can adjust it to a sensible level going in and not have to change your input gain.
The general advice I’d give people is to try and get that level right, and if the recording is too quiet, to adjust the gain at the sample edit level. So you’re a step ahead there.
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Do you recommend this over increasing input gain on the MIXER page?
I think adjusting input gain in the mixer is the ideal place to try and get it right, if you don’t have a lot of ability to change the output gain on the source. I think in practice it would be most convenient to keep the mixer input gain at a default level and adjust the output of the source, but this isn’t easy because of the unhelpful metering on the OT; or the source may just be very quiet or very loud and need that adjustment. So adjusting the mixer input gain is good. But if you have something already recorded in the machine and it’s too quiet, better to boost the sample level than the amp level, or find you have to red-line the track level later on and give yourself a mixing headache.
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OH MY GOD! After 2 years with the OT I finally understand pickup machines! Thank you so much for this, haha.
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these three paragraphs are worth gold! <3
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