Noise/artifacts when fading between scenes with reverb and delay

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Just noticed that when fading quickly between scenes where one scene has reverb or delay, I can hear some pretty loud, unwanted noises.

I never noticed this until I tried fading between a “dry” scene and a 100% wet scene. Scene A, delay send is 0, scene b, delay send is 127. Delay time is less than 48. Sample is a very clean vocal.

With these settings, I can hear some serious static when fading back and forth. If I turn on tape delay, the static sounds like tapestop effects.

The same thing happens with reverbs.

Has anyone found a way to solve or work around this problem?

#2

I don’t have an OT, but I do have some insight.

It may just be the reverb parameters being different between scenes, and the change causing the issue. Set them the same (with sends and/or output kept at zero on the dry scene), and hopefully you will be good to go. The tape stop effect is a pretty strong indicator that this is (at least in part) what is happening.

The only other thing I can think of is some poor logic causing a dirac spike style transient when the gain is opened up. I really doubt Elektron would make that mistake though. Otoh, the DN sometimes pings its reverb this way (or it used to, I’m an os version behind) but it isn’t a strong impulse and isn’t enough to bother me.

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#3

Likewise, I unfortunately have no firsthand experience but I recall reading a thread about artifacts of the crossfader when used with volume or some other parameter and I think there was some discussion in there that may be relevant to the issue in question:

If nothing there is useful I’m sorry I don’t have any other related data in memory.

#4

This doesn’t happen for me unless there is some parameter being changed that I’m not aware of.
Crossfading from dry to wet sounds clean for me.

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#5

Check every parameter for each side of your scenes. There is an assignment somewhere causing this, most likely delay time for your delay, and Reverb decay for your reverb.

There is no bug, it is user error.

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#6

This is a pretty likely option, considering how easy that state would be to get into.

Perhaps focus some energy checking back and forth into which scene has the more undesirable parameter combination. Once you’ve narrowed that down, see if you can pick up the parameter itself so you can tweak it in isolation?

Annoying to go one by one, but starting with the understanding that morphing parameters can lead to artifacts is easier to address than assuming there’s a specific glitch!

Elektron sometimes gives a much wider set of creative possibilities than tunes for one specific sweet spot, y’know?

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#7

Thanks everyone for the ideas. :slight_smile: I spent some time trying to reproduce this today and figured out it was because I had 2 delays on the source. One on the track, and another on the master track. The time parameter on these was slightly different. Seems the fx engine did not enjoy having to process that, which caused the noise. Went down to a single delay and the problem is solved.

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#8

It’s great of you to follow up with the resolution as someone will inevitably do the same thing and find this in their searches, glad you resolved the issue.

#9

Hehe. Looks like I spoke too soon. I tried it with a thru machine and a mic and reproduced the issue.

Track 1: Thru, input A, VOL +63, Mixer gain +63,
Scene A: muted
Scene B: Track 1 FX2 delay send 127

Sing into the mic with fader on B, then move it over to A while continuing to sing to hear the static.

Curious to see if anyone else can reproduce this or if it’s something up with my setup. All other tracks and scene locks were cleared prior to the test.

#10

Even without fx, there are potential noise artifacts with scenes locked to Lev, Vol, filters…more or less noticeable, depends on audio material. More noticeable with low signals and reverb imo.

Scratchy noises on audio while lowering volume caused by Octatrack AB fader

@staticwarp it would be much easier to analyse with audio recordings…
Impossible to reproduce exactly the same conditions with a mic…