Yea I was using the meters in my daw. -60 is quite a high noise floor. For example, in a film, when setting the level for BG’s, depending on the environment, they will sit at -60dbfs. Incidental sound effects range from -60 to -6dbfs. Dialogue sits around -24 (ish depending on whispering or yelling). I think both Chiron and I were using Ableton’s track meters to monitor the noise floor. As an example, when I had my Polysix, it’s noise floor was around -74dbfs, and when you would filter it you could hear the noise over the low pass filtered signal. To me that’s pretty unacceptable. Though everyone has their own standards for this kind of thing.
I know it’s kind of already stated by other people, but I’m pretty sure inputs over about 50% introduces clipping/distortion/saturation, which would be emphasising the input noise floor.
Hard to say if it’s intentional/by design, but it’s something to be aware of. I like having the extra amplification to push an input, because on the OT I often find it’s the opposite.
It may have changed since the first firmware, which is why some of the presets may be using 100. If you switch to a new patch is defaults to 0.
I’m thinking the Digitone does, considering this summing mixer needs 30 dB of make up gain, and the Digitone is 20 dB hotter than the Octatrack. I think I’m just going to pull the trigger on this one.
My OG Digitone inputs are terribly noisy. Sounds like I’m having the exact same experience you describe. I went through all settings and turned all OD and FX off. I swapped the cables, tried balanced cables, and tried a different input device. Even at input volume 50%, the noise is still quite noticeable.
Nothing helps, but as soon as I unplug the inputs altogether the noise goes away.
I plugged the exact same device into my Syntakt with no issues or noise whatsoever. Syntakt inputs have minimal noise even at 100% input volume.
It’s definitely a design flaw in the OG Digitone. I gave up on routing any audio through the Digitone.
Does anyone know if this has been resolved in the Digitone 2, or does it have a similar issue?