Hi. Check your settings twice. +12db is needed for unity. Maybe you increased something elsewhere.
There’s no reason to have a difference between MKI and MKII, they share rhe same OS.
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I actually reread through this and almost edited it to correct some of the typos and weird phrasing but decided not to.
I’d like to say it was because the keyboard I was using back then was so worn out the spacebar and E hardly worked at all (which is true) but the fact is I’m just mediocre at typing and don’t proofread anything.
Glad it seems to have helped some people out, there’s a lot of fuzziness in there as far as how well thought out the tests were but I think the main points hold up, and I’ve been happily not clipping in the Octatrack ever since (mostly).
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Thanks to everyone for this thread!
I haven’t done my own tests yet but am very inspired to get my head around this fully 
Is it safe to assume the 8db difference that was talked about previously is from the combined +4db leaving interface then again leaving OT (with balance cables)?
I love this diagram. (@sezare56 )
How does it differ for MK1? The OS is the same, but does the hardware differ in terms of volume gain?
I see you add max gain on thru machine’s playback page. I understand that’s just for removing the attenuation. Does if make any difference if you add gain here or on the Amp page, or on the Mixer’s window input gain? (Im guessing the only difference is in value, so 64 on playback page might not mean the same as 64 in Amp page?)
I push the signal into OT pretty hot as well, yellow verging on red. I do find that the OT somehow flattens THRU signals with lower gain, nice to see an explanation.
Maybe. I just wrote unity settings, trying to make it as simple as possible…
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Yeah I just think that new users might find it handy.
BTW most of the time I have input gain in mixer set to +63 
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I have an MKI. It should be similar.
No différence between THRU machine SRC/Playback GAIN and AMP VOL, but I’d be more carefull with MIXER GAIN. Tests needed.
Dammit i am mostly around -30…
This thread makes me think i should run some tests.
It depends on the source, I find that most of the time if I have a thru machine of the source I’m sampling and set xfader to switch between sample and source it means that the sample is loud enough but also at same level as thru.
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I really need to dig the volumes settings seriously. I’d like to set the tracks below 100 as said above in the thread and also start to be more ordered concerning sampling and samples volumes.
The THRU is for me a guitar without preamp for now… 
I find that even with an instrument level signal I have to keep the input volume on thru machines [EDIT: I was actually talking about mix AB/CD gain; in the past I used to keep them around -15 to -20 but for whatever reason these days I can’t even come close to that without clipping using the same sources as before) at -40 or lower to avoid obvious clipping (and closer to -50 with line level usually), which seems really weird to me. Everything else is at default values. I definitely notice a loss in audio quality this way but even with a guitar plugged in direct, if I get above -35 or so it’s easy to clip.
The other thing that’s frustrating about this is that it means even with the track and main level controls all the way up the output peaks around -20dBFS or lower in the DAW. I don’t remember having this issue before last summer but I don’t know what’s causing it.
Easiest way to tell if input level is ok is to start new project leave everything at default, set up a flex on track 1 and assign record buffer 1 to the slot, then connect your source and sample, check in AED for level, I try to get it near to top of screen at peaks, such that there are a few pixels of headroom, like this:
Adjust gain in mixer as necessary.
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my experience is not to put thru src/vol to +64, you will distort (hot e.g. modular) signals before it gets the track anywhere near max gain. ( * )
as @darenager mentioned above, Ive found the best way is to use mix inab/gain , set to when the red lights just come on (mk2) - this will maximise the input signal for recorders/thru machines
this means you do not need to use thru src/vol, instead use amp/vol to adjust track volume. (***)
this allows me to capture audio input (from my modular) at pretty much normalised levels, without clipping - either via recorders direct from inputs, or resampling thru tracks.
the only thing i can see thru src/gain being useful for is on mono signals, where you need to boost the levels to normalise them.
( though obviously it wont affect recorders, so you’d need to resample for that)
( * ) if you experiement with this, you’ll find thru src/gain is a bit odd…
mix inab gain, is obviously the (hardware) codec gain, and amp/vol is a digital track gain. ( ** )
but thru src/gain, appears to be acting somewhere in between the two stages, since it maxes out and distorts well before the track amp/vol .
( ** ) I think mix gain is the hardware codec, everthing else is digital - so for gain staging, I try to get source input right, then use mix gain to boost if necessary.
( *** ) I found I needed to set amp/vol=+64 if i was resampling a track, to not loose gain
to build on @darenager excellent tip/post above about using recorders/aed to check levels.
what I found really useful to ‘hone’ my gain-staging was to send a sine wave thru your signal path, an look at the output as described above - zoom in on time axis.
you then can try maximising the gain from source to OT, and then mixer … till you get as loud/strong a signal as possible but without distorting the sine wave.
once I did that, I had a much better feeling for where the various ‘gain’ levels in my system could be, esp. in eurorack, I found there were lots of places where I could distort the signal whilst not noticing…
but with a sine wave you can hear and see it really easily 
of course different content, will need adjusting , as it may need more headroom etc, but it gave me a kind of baseline
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Yes, that’s the first thing to adjust, if signal is not appropriate. Close to red, or eventually red.
I experimented with a sine wave, it was red at -12 db. I could increase untill -0.3 db before clipping, checking with OT noise gate.
Surprising. At 0 you loose 12db.
If you want unity compared to a Recorder / Flex combo, you need to SRC/VOL at +63.
Yes.
I didn’t experienced that. Any way to test it?
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not if you push amp/vol to +64
yeah, have a reasonably hot sine signal, one thats orange. (when mix gain = 0)
have thru svol =0, and ampvol=0
now crank up mix gain, to find the point you can hear it distort… lets say this is +32, take note, then put it back to zero.
now turn thru svol up, you’ll find it distorting, at the same point
(but the overal track volume is still pretty quiet)
you can then record this using INT=Tn, and you’ll see its distorted, but no where near full amp.
now turn svol down a bit, just before it distorts,
go to amp/vol page turn it up … viola, it gets louder but no distortion.
again you can record this using INT=Tn, and the level is dramatically higher, but no distortion.
of course, like a lot of gain staging, at low levels - the difference is not noticable, its only when you starting hitting clipping levels that these things become apparent.
this is how I first noticed it…( a while back now)
Id read somewhere (not sure where) here on Elektronauts to always set thru vol=64,
but one day when playing with the modular i noticed my sample recording were always a bit quiet, but if I pushed them they would distort… and tracked it back to this setting.
since ditching this, Ive been getting much better levels for recordings (via flex, both direct and int), and avoided all distortion.
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Ah yes if you set SRC/VOL and AMP/VOL at +64 it can distort, for sure.
I’ll try as you said to check SRC/VOL AMP/VOL differences…Too busy these days!
no, thats not what im saying…
thru SRC/VOL can distort, with AMP/VOL = 0, and below the nominal track clipping level.
the issue is for some reason, the THRU machine output is clipping at a lower threshold.
(I’ve got some ideas about whats going on, essentially there is a gain stage that we kind of dont see on the ui - but thats for another day )
I’ve got another octatrack video planned - that will likely contain a section on gain-staging… and I’ll make sure to demonstrate this.
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I tend to leave thru src vol at zero too - I use mixer input AB/CD to adjust input gain.
Edit - ^ for general use or more typical sampling duties. But if using the 4 inputs as 4 source mono mixer then the src vol is handy with different levels in each input.
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