Noise/interference when moving between empty scenes with the crossfader?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

I’m not sure if this is an issue with my OT or just a normal behaviour (which would be quite strange) but I noticed that my crossfader will create some distortion to the sound coming out of the OT even when scenes are completely empty.

For example: I have my A4 connected to the AB inputs of the OT, I start a blank new project and setup T1 to be a Thru machine, remove the FX to be sure it isn’t the filter or something else colouring my sounds, start the A4 playing through the OT and if I move the crossfader from Scene A to B (both empty, no parameters have been changed) I can hear quite some noise being generated (and that gets much worse when going through my outboard FX chain in the mixer), it sounds like some distortion and bitcrushing slowly weezing, when I leave the crossfader on Scene B I can definitely tell there is some noise that isn’t coming from the A4.

If this example sounds too convoluted I can record a take of what I hear later today when I’m back home.

Has anyone noticed/experienced that before? Is that normal from the OT? Because it’s quite noticeable for my ears :confused:

#2

You are potentially not alone!

For me, the problem was ground hum from a cable connected to the same sound card as the octatrack. When I disconnected that cable, the strange screeching noise when moving the crossfader disappeared.

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#3

Never, not normal.
You can check with muted scenes (Func + Scene A or B to mute them).

You can check without midi plugged.
By default, OT sends CC48 on channel 1, which corresponds to A4’s fine tune, track 1.

You can check without USB plugged.

#4

Could definitely be some grounding issue, my apartment is old and my bedroom has few outlets so I have been using quite a lot of them to plug monitors + mixer + compressor + pedals + 4 synths and my KeyStep, will try to use the OT by itself with my external battery and see if this could be a cause.

#5

Thanks for the input @sezare56 (I’ve seen you quite a lot around these parts, thanks also for a lot of the tips you shared around here, they definitely made me use my OT much more), I will check with the scenes muted and unplugging my MIDI chain from the OT tonight :slight_smile:

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#6

@victorcampos did you find out?

#7

Not yet! Unexpectedly had to have my girlfriend and her friends to renovate their apartment, got back home today to the amazing news of the OS 1.40 for my A4 and gotta test out what could be happening with the OT.

Will report back when I have done some tests, thanks for the input so far :slight_smile:

#8

@sezare56 I think I’ve solved it, I did some tests and the OT and found out it was the cables I was using on input CD, they were causing some interference and they were my lowest quality ones (and also quite long) so for now I will blame them, I believe that was it because the OT played flawlessly when I had it connected only to an external battery or another outlet in my house without MIDI or other inputs.

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