Personally I find that I cannot just make the OT sound as good as my DT or SP16 with ease. So I’m actually not disagreeing with those that find the OT’s sound quality to be less stellar than other hardware.
I just feel that dismissing this box as an unserious bit of equipment on that basis is totally missing the point.
There’s nothing like the OT out there in the world of hardware samplers! The hands-on quality, the immediacy, the flexibility, the speed at which samples can be mangled into something completely different in a MUSICAL manner is unmatched for me. I think that little bit of less openness and clarity in its sound out of the box is nothing compared to the many benefits and wonders it offers.
Also who ever made “hi-fi” the definition of good sound? People spend thousands on devices such as the MPC60 etc because of their specific sound signature that is most definitely nowhere near to hifi.
The OT doesn’t sound super hifi to my ears, but that doesn’t mean that it sounds bad! As a matter of fact, I like what eg the timestretch and lofi effects do to my samples and I use & seek out exactly that sound in my performances.
I do think that strong statements should be accompanied by strong logic or otherwise a certain degree of openness and consideration for other opinions. For that there already is one Gearslutz forum, no need for more (just kidding ;))
Look, if there’s even a debate on this topic, it has to mean that the difference is so subtle, you have to talk about it for ages and still not know for sure. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such a long thread, would it?
So in that context, does this really matter? If we keep talking about it and end up with different opinions, then it must mean that whatever’s going on, it doesn’t really matter to most people anyway.
It’s like when Tidal launched. I’m sure there was a difference in there somewhere in the quality of their streams. But Daft Punk’s records sounded amazing before Tidal. They sound great on Tidal, too. But most importantly, they’re just great records.
A great song will sound fantastic through the Octatrack cause it’s a great song. The rest doesn’t matter all that much.
I think we all overlook the point, that there is a huge difference between, how much people care about these things.
My father built high-end custom speakers, and from the age of 5 or so, I’ve been sitting in on countless listening sessions, talking about and listening for differences between components. So it’s in my blood and in my upbringing to care deeply about the sound itself.
So I’ll be the first to acknowledge, that I should probably care less about sound quality, and more about music. Which again lead back to my earlier conclusion - I’ll stay out of this subject from now on. We all enjoy different things
I’m 40, and I’m losing top end as well, sadly. But there is no way around it. Did you try the ear-age test posted here a while back? Mine clocked in at about 38, so at least I haven’t trashed them completely. Much more careful these days, that’s for sure.
I think what really killed the OT for me, was the fact that I had a Akai S3200 next to it, when I got it.
I’ve never been sure about the quality of the sample playback on the OT - the things I found lacking in that department, might very well be down to gainstaging.
But when I pitched down the same sample on both machines, the OT felt like a gust of wind, and the Akai felt like being hit by a tractor.
And I want to stress that I think the OT is a work of genius. Nothing less. But the effects and the pitching makes it not for me.
I don’t know, sometimes it happens, that I think I hear a difference when I sample into OT and switch to sample playback, but it’s soo subtle, it could easily be due to the track level or something else attenuating the output a bit.
Pulling down a fader by 1db can make such a big difference in the mix.
Ok but aren’t we talking about straight sample playback, thru mixing? It’s been mentioned a number of times in this thread and others (so.many.others), wrt to timestretching / FX, the OT is easily beat.
It was never about straight playback for me. Or it was, but I have always been aware, that there were too many variables, and to little time with the machine, for me to say anything about that for sure.
And the effects. And every time I’ve done so, I’ve made that clear. Maybe not in this thread? But in every other thread on the subject. This one was more about, how some people handle the discussion for me.
(just kidding ;))
