Sampling empy inputs leads to white noise

…ok…i might be a bit fast with complaining, since i got my digitakt only the second day now…
but i’m used to elektron gear and updated digitakt yesterday right away to 1.04 before i started anything with it…

so here i am, stretching my mind what could cause the trouble…
i’m in for the digitakt for quick and dirty sampling right away…BUT…i constantly end up with results of white noise like a constant sound…
is that a common thing to anybody else…?
is that white noise something that comes up with the lack of a true signal input while sampling, ending up this way because of that auto normalize thing…?

but i also wonder, if so, why the sample screen shows me full level signal mess right from the beginning of sampling…

if i catch a sample via threshhold, it worx fine…if the signal i wanna sample is already running and i just hit record straight away, it also worx fine…
but whenever there’s silence first, or even nothing plugged into the inputs, or from internal input resampling procedure but without letting it play for real, i end up with that white noise thing…!!!

messes my mind up, big time…what is that?..and as said, main reason for digitakt while owning two mpc’s anyway, is, that i want it to be my session machine…
so what i need is, to be able to sample external sources along with the beats as the playback coming out of the playing digitakt whenever i want to…outside from the studio and whereever i might get lost in a session…

thanx in advance…

Doesn’t the Digitakt automatically normalize the sample? So if you sample nothing you’re just going to get the boosted noise floor.

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Yes it’s perfectly expected. You can use that same boosted noisefloor for sculpting sounds. Incredible tracks can and has been done with just a single noise sample.

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…ok…so i’m right and confused at the same time…
in fact it’s a nice hissing, that white noise thing…

so i clearly overreacted, was too fast with complaining indeed…shame on me…i’m tricky to deal with these days…

this digitakt is a really nice machine…and elektron did an even better job on this one…but end of the day it’s still an elektron machine anyway…puh…
two knobs more, a dedicated open/close menu knob for example, would do a good job on this one, really…all the arrow and yes/no knob combos, function here function there double tap behind the curtain are playing lots of tricks on me, still…slows me down a lot instead of speeding up…but next week i’ll be better…and got used to it…i guess…or hope…

and one thing’s for sure…these manuals never gonna get better…and the elektron ones are the only ones i ever had to make sure i gonna read them…more or less…

thanx anyways, guys…

If the lack of knobs bothers you, get a knob by midi controller.

If the functions are not want you wanted, try the OT instead.

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…thanx for the tip, mate…
but i have an ot for years now and the only reason for the digitakt is the fast session anywhere, anytime factor…an xtra small but pro set up that frees me from all the rest…
an instrument i can grab and carry anytime…and fluently back into the studio…see what i found on the way while i was gone, studio…let’s make something for real out of it now…

beside that, i needed a quick and dirty club set up…the ot is racked and fixed connected with lots of ozher gear in one top/front loader live rig which i play on a custumized stand with rolls…but that’s only for real stage performances…and way too much to handle when it comes to small setups right next to a dj mixer of some club…therefor i also depend on small external gear add ons that eat up all midi options the digitakt provides…
not to mention the travel aspects…and the simplicity of the digitakt, still have’nt found it yet to be so, but the ot is another kind of planet when ot comes to simplicity for sure…that much i can tell already…

but sooner or later i need an xtra backup octatrack anyway…because the stage rig is always used in tour context and therefor needs to work properly night after night…but i will stay with mk1’s i’m afraid…so will find me a used one next year…
and since there is still no way around the ot if u want to avoid laptops on stage, i’ll better be prepared with a second one on hold…'cause even elektron machines can let u down from time to time…

Did you not research the DT before purchase?

I don’t understand why auto normalize isn’t an option. What if you make several records of the same intrument ? Levels won’t be respected.
Deal breacker for sampling.

Hi all, when I use the DT to sample the external synthesizer sound, even if I don’t play any notes, the DT will still record some white noise. I connected the L/R output of my DT and synthesizer with a pair of 1.5 meters cable. The threshold display from my DT shows a noise floor of around 18 to 20. If I don’t connect any cable on the external input of the DT, the noise floor display is not, but the recording is still a white noise, not the kind of soft analog noise which I imagined. Is this normal?

I just bought my DT few days, I made a stupid mistake when I installed it. I connected the EXT input jack of DT to the microphone input (1/4") phone plug of my Siemens LS-100 recorder, even worse was my LS-100 turned on the 48V phantom power, and when I found out, I quickly stopped the operation. Will this damage my DT?

The Digitakt normalizes samples, even silent samples. It’s probably that.

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So today I received my DT I bought on Ebay and there is noise when I’m sampling.

When I’m on the sample / direct screen and I press yes to sample, if there is no audio coming into the inputs, there is a wave of white noise being recorded. As soon as I play something from my mpc output into it, it records it but the noise is not in the sample.

You can see in my second recording, the noise wave is being recorded (no sound playing), as soon as I hit a pad on the mpc, the noise disappears and continues recording.

Even when I use the Rec Arm function, since there is noise, it will automatically start recording.

I’ve made a video to demonstrate the issue (excuse my slowness, I only just received the unit today so still getting used to the functions lol)

I have tried sampling from my audio inteface output, same issue. I have used the same cables to sample from my computer to my mpc to rule out the cables and it samples into the mpc with no issues.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Is it to do with the auto normalisation?

Cheers

The Digitakt does normalization of the recorded stuff, if you record “nothing”, the incoming noisefloor gets amplified a lot until it’s nice and loud.
If you input some sounds into the Digitakt, the normalization won’t be as strong. And by the same manner, the noisefloor won’t get amplified as much.

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Ok yeah that’s what I thought.

But even when I don’t have anything plugged in, is the floor noise just coming from the power?

That is strange but I guess if I set my threshold a little higher and use rec arm its not too bad

yeah, I mean, there is no silence. anywhere.
in a black hole maybe! or almost in an anechoic chamber.

it’s normal behaviour for the DT anyway.

Yep, there’s always some bit of noise in analog audio paths.

Uhm… actually I don’t know what happens if you choose to record silence from the internal audio bus. I’ve never tried it, but technically there should be no such noise, since the recorded audio is coming from the digital domain within the Digitakt with none of that analog noisefloor.

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seems like it won’t record silence from the internal destinations - it just goes back to the arm screen

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ah, ok; that happens if the sequencer isn’t playing, otherwise it seems like it is recording the with the DAC as it records a little click.

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Personally I appreciate the ability to sample the noise floor. It’s free white noise, for you to sculpt in in any way you want. I guess I see it as a feature not a bug.

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