I’ve had the DT for a bit a couple of years back but I much prefer the OT. I don’t know if the DT still auto normalizes, but that’s one thing that bugged me with the sampling. Although sometimes it also lead to unexpected positive outcomes. 
With the OT I get out what I put in and it’s in stereo.
Personally I don’t find it muddy. I like that we have a couple filters on each track to clean stuff up and help out with the mix. One thing that kind of bothers me about the Digitakt is that it normalizes samples, no matter what. I would love the option to skip normalization… But I doubt that contributes to any muddiness.
And I also don’t think the Octatrack has bad sound quality 
I think you get what you put into it, really. Yeah, every sampler can have a “flavor”, but it’s like cooking with a cast iron skillet – the skillet is seasoned from years of what has been cooked on it, which can slightly affect the end result, but you’re still in charge of composing the meal.
Also:
I loved reading that. So true.
haha agree! I think that’s more to do with the alchemy of gain staging on the OT than anything else, but I don’t have any personal quality complaints.
And yea the self-contained circus is a great analogy for the OT 
Complete with a car full of clowns
But it doesn’t normalise samples one loads into it via Elektron Transfer …?
Yeah, if you import samples with Transfer it normalizes them. It will also normalize if you record samples internally
Yes the auto normalise only happens on sampled not transferred samples (edit or maybe not, it has been a while since I had a DT but I’ll take @lowph word for it ) , it can be a problem, along with the emphasis added, in this sense the OT is far more transparent (although as well noted not entirely, very close to what you put in at least in my tests and usage of it) It is quite important to get a good level as the metering on OT isn’t the best, but pretty easy to get consistent results once you figure out the best level. You can use the AED to view the waveform and I found a pixel or two from the top of the screen on the peaks tends to give the best result. For years I have been asking for better OT input metering, but I doubt it will happen now.
Okay, @lowph says it does, @darenager says it doesn’t? 
I may do just the test a bit later. But that’d be crazy, importing drum machine samples and end up with (compared to kicks) too loud snares and insanely loud ear shredding hihats?
I completely agree with this, but was giving a reason I could see for using the term in this context. I do think it’s good to understand that (slightly inconvenient) limitation of the sequencer though.
Well, now you got me wondering if that’s correct. I know Transfer definitely resamples and converts sample rate and bit depth if needed. I’ve been under the impression that it changes the levels of my samples when importing with Transfer, but maybe that’s a change in bit depth causing volume differences? I glanced at the Transfer manual and they don’t mention normalization, so perhaps I’m wrong on this. I could test later, but not at my DT right now.
Regarding the pixel or two from the top of the screen in AED: at that point, would your internal meter LEDs be red? I’ve been trying not to obsess with the lack of metering on the OT lately. I’ve been finding the best results are already showing red LEDs before clipping, but I should look at the waveform and count pixels (lol) — I know we can also use our ears, but I use a lot of distortion and at times the sound of intentional distortion can be hard to differentiate from clipping, especially if there’s a lot going on with the composition. It would be really nice to have a more scientific way of metering on the Octatrack.
By the way, you’re talking about the OT mk2, right? I think the maybe mk1 has different headroom.
I agree, it ends up being sort of somewhere between the two, unlike sequencing polyphony in, say, Ableton.
Some more poly focussed sequencers have things like strumming too which can help a bit with making the polyphony feel more natural.
So if i sample myself walking through mud it would sound even muddier on the Digitakt but on the Octatrack it would sound as muddy as it was in reality.
Muddier, normalized and in mono, with possibly a slight bump in the mids.
… this thread wants me to spend money I don’t have …
Right. And if you walked through mud, hopping on a single foot (preferably the left) it would sound just as muddy on both channels
It’s okay. We’ve all been there.
On rubber boots?
Made a quick test, and the result:
Digitakt does NOT normalise samples that are transfered via Elektron Transfer. That’s a relief! 
Yes just in red zone. In the end I just got a 1U rackmount VU meter, calibrated it to 0db and for a while used that for metering, but now I rarely use it for that because the AED method is pretty (mostly) fool proof.
Yes I’m talking about mk2, but mk1 has same principles too, just in red zone for best results.
For me too, though my old brain was mis remembering 
But you DID remember correct 