Octatrack noise recording main/master

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Hi, :wave:
I’m a new member of this awesome forum and also a new owner of Octatrack.
I tried to search for this question inside various topics but with no result, I apologize in advance if this topic has already been addressed somewhere.
I’ve noticed that, if i record using the SRC3 the MAIN or T8 (master), the sample has a slightly audible noise, but capturing audio directly with INAB result in a more clean sample. Is that normal?
Furthermore, the INAB record is not affected by the -12dB gain.
If can help, i’ve noticed by accident that if sampling, for example input A B (INAB = A B), using REC3 (with SRC3 = - ), a very very weak sound coming from external instrument is still captured, summed with some noise.

Thanks for your time guys, and forgive my bad english, please :astonished:

#2

What effects are on T8 master?

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#3

No effects applied, i’ve set ‘none’ both for FX1 and FX2

#4

This is usually a gain staging problem. Try to turn up the sound source and down the input. Are your cables balanced? What is the input?

Are you talking about a thru channel here?

2 Likes
#5

Thanks for your reply :slight_smile:

Volume knob from my external instrument (DIGITONE) is set to max, input AB GAIN on the OT in mixer section is set to +/- 0, gain in SRC page is set to +/- 0, cables are unbalanced.
i don’t know if could be correlated to cables the “problem”, because the noise is audible more with sampling via MAIN and T8 then via INAB.

Yes, sorry, the channels/machines i’ve used for the test are:
T6 for the flex machine (i don’t know if necessary).
T7 for thru machine in which enter audio signal from the digitone.
T8 for master.
Samples are captured via T6 in three different ways:

  1. AUDIO RECORDING SETUP 1
    INAB = A B
    INCD = -
    SRC3 = -
  2. AUDIO RECORDING SETUP 1
    INAB = -
    INCD = -
    SRC3 = T8
  3. AUDIO RECORDING SETUP 1
    INAB = -
    INCD = -
    SRC3 = MAIN

Recording is started by pressing T6 + REC1 in the first case, T6 + REC3 in the second and third cases

#6

Turn up the volume of the amp page on the Thru track all the way. Maybe that helps to get a better signal from your Digitone.

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#7

Why do you want to sample from T8 with no fx? Wouldn’t it make more sense to capture the signal with the least possible processing? (I’m not implying “you’re doing it wrong”. I’m sure you have a good plan. I’m asking so we understand your situation better.)

If you’re trying to establish an optimal baseline set-up, and plan to later do sampling with effects on T8… will this noise matter?

#8

Main and T8/master will have all the other tracks summed into the signal. Do you have anything else on THRUs? Any other gain controls, compressors, amp settings, on T1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7? What about the DIR settings in the mixer page? Main will also include all the DIR feeds.

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#9

For the moment i haven’t a specific purpose for this, but say sometime i wanna sampling from input and sometimes from internal, maybe similar sounds with other stuff summed, i will have some sample with little noise and some without, and the difference could be noticeable, especially in big systems i think.

Pardon, what do you mean? Other external gear in input? In this case, no.

Maybe, but will affect also if muted?

DIR and GAIN for both AB and CD are set to 0 and 0

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#10

From my memory to make a thru track sound like mixer dir @127:

  • Thru Track SRC page gain at center default; 0
  • Thru Track AMP page; +63
  • Thru Track LVL; 127
  • T8 Master track LVL; 127

Flex machine recordings are different, I’d need to fuck about to find unity gain with them and I’d be lying if I said I knew off the top of my head. I’m pretty sure you set track LVL to 127 and leave the amp at 0, then set the gain page in AED to +12db but I’m not sure.

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#11

I’m pretty sure you just need to turn up input gains.

Exactly, when you have a little bit of noise it usually means amplify the source, your Digi, or turn up your input signal on the OT. In this case turn up the input and turn down the Digi, until you reach unity. … or shit just sounds good. Hopefully, I’m not completely off on where your problem is.

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#12

Off the top of my head, OT will add the +12db setting for you if you did the recording on the OT, and wont do it if you import the sample over USB. For those who’ve not seen it yet, the OT saves a file alongside samples with all the AED settings in. The file will have the same name but a different .extension (maybe it’s sample_name.ot ?)

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#13

It helped, thanks a lot to you guys :love_letter:.
I don’t know why sampling via INAB doesn’t cause this noise, but turning vol all the way up solved the problem.
I’ve noticed that with INAB there is no necessity to increase gain by 12 dB in AED attributes.

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#14

And if you record INAB or INCD the sample is not reduced -12dB, so +12dB in AED attributes is not needed.
I would like to know if recording using REC1 or REC2 bypass Thru settings or not(without touching DIR values on mixer, so with a value of 0), i’ve not tested it.

#15

The recorders come before the audio tracks (or you can think of the recorders as separate tracks/layers if that helps).

So, IN A/B/C/D are “from the input” into the recorder.

THRU machines are at the audio track layer, so they’re “after” thhe recorders. You can only record the output of a THRU machine by recording the Track it’s on, or T8/master, or Main.

DIR is separate again. They’re a direct (digital) line from input to the final mixer stage. I assume you can record them if you pick Main as the source, but I’ve not tried it.

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#16

Have a look at the charts/discussion in this thread:

Many more threads are to be found too.

Btw, no shame to be confused. It s complicated…

2 Likes
#17

I’ll take a look at it, thank you sir :slight_smile:

It is, but with the help of the manual, guides and this super forum (and also a lot of patience :sweat_smile:) i’ll learn to use it properly.
I think could be the hardware i was needing.

Thanks again to all of you for your help.