You understand the function of the instrument and 48V is to toggle between a phantom power input and an instrument line input?
Not implying that you don’t, just clarifying to take some of the mystery out of it. When 48V is selected the unit delivers power to the input for a condenser mic which requires the phantom power to function.
:(((
What a sad and tragic life for such a brilliant person. This film is heartbreaking.
I know the government supposedly bullied his partner into working with them to build a case against him, but it seemed to me that she was the one looking for a deal and actively sold him out or gave them information which sounded bad on him to try and make herself seem innocent.
Full film above for anyone who is interested.
Just searched it up and better understood the difference. I didn’t think my synth needed more than just line-level gain, but here we go. Running it with INST, no XLR cables on me.
As for the OBS latency problem, it’ll likely stick around for a good while.
Your synth or any synth for that matter is likely a line level output. 48v is only for microphones which require phantom power.
Some mixers or other devices use XLR without phantom power, as it’s just a connection type with the 3 pins, but phantom power (the technology) is a form of constant power delivery for condenser mics specifically. Maybe some other applications but mostly mics or like, you’ll see some inline preamps that are phantom power also (maybe cloudlifter or fethead, I can’t remember).
A shure SM58, for example, uses an XLR connection and will not require phantom power.
By the way elektron devices output line level when the volume knob is all the way up. The volume knob acts as an attenuator up to line level.
Also, the elektron device (DN2) is in itself an audio interface and can deliver it’s own audio over USB via overbridge or as a standalone track in a DAW and can also accept a line level signal from other devices plugged into the inputs and be the intermediary to record into your DAW without an external interface.
What it cannot do is provide phantom power and does not have a direct XLR plug for input of mics nor does it contain a mic preamp like the Volt does. Also, there is therefore no need to plug an elektron into an interface unless it’s a special interface or special setup which requires one like there’s a couple of interfaces with DSP effects built in, but other than that, you just want to record the elektron audio over usb straight to the computer, not through physical connections into another audio interface.
Just to make it really clear (I think from your posts and Shiggs explanations you get it, but just in case), if you have a synth plugged in, never push the 48v button. 48v is specifically for sending electricity through the XLR input to power a connected condenser microphone. You don’t want to accidentally send that to a device that’s not designed to receive it.
With a synth, you also shouldn’t need to push the INST button either, as this is designed for plugging in a guitar or a bass. INST refers to instrument-level. If your synth has a really quiet output you could try switching INST on for a volume boost.
I can give audio over USB a try but there may be some latency or whatever. Plus audio over USB is not universal, my audio interface may come in handy for one or two other devices.
I think you can run a round-trip latency test and check them against each other. From what I understand most people report the elektron device is superior to a lot of audio interfaces but I don’t know about how it fares against volt specifically.
I have a volt 476 and when I record elektron stuff into a daw (rarely) I just plug in the USB and don’t bother with an interface.
In regard to latency, are you planning on sequencing it with the daw and trying to sync up the elektron or other gear to the daw playback? That’s when latency would matter. If you’re just recording the device’s patterns into the computer, I’m not sure you should worry about it but I also don’t know your intended workflow so I can’t say.
I think I resolved my problem, for now. DN2’s directly via USB. I may record the audio directly to a computer with my Elektron, but if I add something without USB over audio, I’ll have to rethink this setup. For instance, I’d like the KO2 to be the device that puts everything together, and I’d have to hook that up to an audio interface and record audio from there.
MIDI I’ll worry about later.
If it’s only 1 device I’d see if you notice any difference in audio latency or quality between the external interface and the external mixer input into the elektron physical inputs. Just do your own tests I mean.
For one thing it will have the exact same latency as the internal synth over USB so if any, it will be the same which ultimately makes it easier to line up on a timeline, and if you use overbridge, you can record them simultaneously as the external mixer input can be assigned it’s own dedicated track in Overbridge.
The audio implementation on elektron devices is really next level compared to many other companies. For everything else that it does, my mpc live 2 doesn’t even record audio over USB.
Good to know this. I hope others will be OK though.
If I’m recording computer audio and stuff it might be a different deal, hence why I considered an audio mixer (e.g. for recording gameplay footage with desktop audio in the background). Virtual channels to me may introduce latency.
Look into latency compensation before you spend the money but really at the end of the day you have to do what makes you happy. I think you might be surprised and pleased at what you can accomplish with what you already have.
I have a big interface in the studio, but any time I’m in another room of the house I use the DN2 as my interface. It works amazingly well, and is extremely easy to set up. At least on a Mac where you just plug it in. I’m guessing a driver is needed on Windows. I stopped using all Microsoft products though, so it’s been a long while since I’ve connected anything to Windows 
Elektron really did an amazing job in their implementation though!
Oh, one other thing that phantom power could be used for is to power devices that use it (not to muddy the discussion here though). The only one I use is the Rupert Neve Dual Transformer DI but it does that as a pint of reference.
I would guess there are zero synths that would ever use it, and as mentioned could be potentially damaged.
If you aren’t using overbridge (i.e. you only want the stereo track) and just select usb midi audio as opposed to overbridge mode it’s plug and play for Windows as well. Super easy.
I know there are crazy (or let’s say “demanding”) people or recording environments where they want single sample accuracy / no latency, but I’ve never had an issue recording tracks with with even up to a couple tens of milliseconds of latency. 
If I elaborated on my setup someone’s gonna think I’m a tinfoil hat freak. Well, I kind of am, but not the “moon landing was faked” kind. Only other thing stopping me is how I’m just lacking energy right now.
Would like to know what other devices have a good implementation of USB over audio, I feel kinda bad for those who don’t have Elektron devices and neither want nor can afford them.
Nothing wrong with honing your setup the way you like! The only thing I suggest is for people making music, focus on the music and less chasing hardware ideals. There is definitely a point where that becomes detrimental to creativity IMO.
I can’t remember who it was, some YouTube musician guy who kept buying fancier and fancier recording gear, and chasing minutiae only to end up getting frustrated with it all and selling the lot. Not even sure if he still makes music
It’s good to have nice gear, but it’s better to have fun and write music on gear that’s “good enough” too. 
I’m running my Claret 8Pre+ over USB C into a Mac Mini M4. Zero complaints. Using its phantom power for the DI I mentioned above. I don’t need a DI, but like the sound of synths through its transformers. I mentioned elsewhere I have no scientific data for what it is about the sound I like, other than to me it sounds really good
My setup isn’t really that conducive to audio quality and a decent workflow for music production. If I cared a lot about that, I’d have bought a MacBook and installed only Arturia, Cubase and/or Native Instruments software on it, using controllers and other hardware from those companies and Yamaha.
But I don’t have a MacBook and I don’t want one. In fact, I’m debating on doing a full system reinstall later because I can’t seem to get a game to work on it.
I can at least say I’m sticking with the free version of Waveform for my DAW, and maybe Soundtrap if I were masochistic enough to rely on others’ samples and loops.
Which game?
(Another hobby and former profession of mine.)
Incidentally, I’ve written all of my recent music on just a Digitone 2, so minimal setups are quite conducive to making good (and good sounding) music IMO.
Whatever you have, it I’m sure you can make excellent music on it. I’ve known people that use old tracker software on no special gear that make exquisite tunes. The mai. Thing is to push what you have and learn it inside and out, develop your own tricks etc.