I was just watching Cuckoo’s wild exploration of the Heat when I noticed on his Heating of the OT the volume knob is way up. This, literally, does nothing on my OT. I have sort of always wondered why it is there.
I use my OT all the time. …just never touch the volume knob. Anybody else?
OT’s volume knob is specifically for the headphones output, it doesn’t affect the main output
well, that settles that. MODS please delete my post. Thank you. I can’t find the button
Ok dear 
Done !
The octatrack is labeled hard to use/understand. I say it myself. Yet, with a tad bit of study it makes sense. I’ve been trying to figure out why it gets this reputation and… I think I know a possible root cause :
The volume knob.
Sounds silly right? Yet when a new user unboxes their Octa and plugs it in, the first thing they find is that the Volume does … (seemingly) nothing.
Yeah, it adjust the cue/headphones only but you likely don’t know this on day one. Combine that with the two identical red “record” buttons (mk1) and you have a pretty poor new user experience.
Even now there are moments when I reach for the volume knob and get a slight bit of a ‘f you’ from Elektron. Maybe crazy but I think all this makes the new user subliminally start thinking that the Octa makes no sense. Most of the rest of the UI is shared with other Elektron boxes and most people get along with those ok.
The volume knob should default to controlling the master volume and only work for cue if the user sets it up that way with a user preference.
How would you “fix” the volume knob?
It is hardwired to the headphones/cue mix. No software update and no fix can change that.
Actually it is fixed with MKII ! 
MKI :
That doesn’t bother me. On the opposite it can be useful for DJ cueing.
I can set my Main and Cue Levels with a external mixer, FN+Level or Mixer page.
Fn + Level is a bit hidden indeed. But not too hard too reach once you know it.
It’s more this small inconsistency in the UI of the whole gang that bothers me.
Founded argument for your request @tr909. 
I suppose consider my posts more philosophical that practical. A bit of a meta-discussion of our dear Octatrack. I do think that a machine on which the volume knob does not control the volume leads to a first impression of “this machine makes no sense”. Nice it is “fixed” on the mkii.
You convinced me, sure.
Indeed such little knob could be a good part of the reputation. This and Parts
I fought the OT’s logic for a bit when I first got it…
Then I decided to learn its ways and just go with it…
Surprisingly, I now agree with most of the things I fought in the beginning…
Volume knob doesn’t bother me, I mix around the OT and have only changed its output volume a handful of times in a few years.
If I were to use headphones to mix things in with cue, I’d probably prefer the knob controls headphones as I’d want a stable output volume especially in a live performance, but would want to tweak the phones volume more often for my own personal mix…
I think of the OT more like a final stage before a sound system, like a mixer… You want to set your mixer main volume at sound check and leave it, maybe raise it a smidge later in the night.
Different than a drum machine or synth which would be fed to a mixer, or an OT. With those if you need to mix you can change the source volume or a level on the mixer/OT.
But you don’t want to change the mixer mains so much…
If you accidentally bump the volume on a drum machine, it just affects your drums, on the OT it might affect your entire feed to the sound system…
A lot of the things that bother people about the OT I find are actually very good design decisions that lead to a better workflow for me…
If one is fighting the OT’s workflow, surrendering to the OT, forgetting everything you think you know, and then revisiting, relearning, and practicing with how the OT works, can often lead you to a better place than you were originally trying to go…
The OT is a misunderstood genius that people want to be normal, but if it was normal it wouldn’t be a genius…
parts goes without saying. anyway the playful title i had for this thread made a lot more sense. mods merged the thread to an older one (why, why, why?) and it just looks like i’m bitching now.
I see where your coming from and don’t think your bitching…
It’s definitely odd and can see how it can throw people off right from their first impression!
But still thought I’d explain practically why I think it’s like that… 
I like it… 
I was wondering how this thread was reborn
great points here!
IMHO your points are valid, and it was obviously judged interesting to merge threads that were centered on the same subject.
Such practice turns duplicates into comforting similar points, way I see it 
having a knob labeled simply “Volume” for the headphone output is weird enough - but then they also dont even bother putting an actual Master Volume knob on there at all… unlike every other Elektron box … which is even more bizarre
this whole matter is perhaps THE most mysterious and puzzling thing about the OT
“phaelam” - read the manual, eh? RTFM manual? Thanks. Not sure by your “smile” if this is meant friendly or if the second line (“It helps a lot.”) negates the first? Please enlighten me.
