I‘m still wondering if it that‘s really normal behaviour. Crossfader works smooth on my OT. A fast one shot inverted exp wave lfo on amp vol (to duck a track) sometimes produces similar artifacts, but still mild compared to what’s happening in the recordings here.
I forgot to do sine wave tests, yesterday, but I did do some cutting and fading tests.
Try setting it higher.
@Schnork - Thanks for your feedback. In general, the problem only occurs at lower frequencies, eg when Bass Drum is playing. At high frequencies, e.g. HATS, there is no such issue. And I’m skipping the fact that it’s probably not related to the crossfader, because FUNC + Level resulting in the same. I don’t know, but maybe my unit is faulty, if in your case you are not getting a similar result.
@darenager - It doesn’t work, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be a right option for me.
As said before I think the best way to check such artifacts it with a sine wave (I use a 256hz one iirc). Will check in a couple of hours.
Not a deal breaker for me, you can hear it only with particular situations, I noticed it after a few years.
My OT does not as well, but it‘s really not as severe as in your recordings.
Like @sezare56 said, it‘s not really something that’s obvious.
I switched to using the filter for ducking instead of modulating amp vol to avoid those issues. Filter ducking also reminds me of very smooth compressors, so I don‘t mind using a filter just for ducking.
But I‘m on an mk1. Mk2 might look like merely a facelift, but they actually changed a lot under the hood.
Maybe someone here with an mk2 could test it, using a sine wave ideally and you also test with this sample to compare it?
What do other mk2 users say to the recordings?
8Hz sine sample (in order to hear mostly artifacts)
256HZ sine sample.
Default project. Using Scene B, XLEV. It can be obvious and problematic.
Apparently same with XVOL and VOL (-64).
Sunday Morning. Apparently no problem with that kind of audio (original is noisy).
Thank you for your investigation. I wonder if it’s a hardware related or this is bug in firmware.
Anyway, I will pack the OT in the box right now and will be sending it back tomorrow. I had a dilemma of Octatrack or Deluge and I think now the answer has come. While it looks really interesting (and in my opinion it’s not as hard as everyone says), it probably isn’t worth the full price (in my opinion). In addition to the issue I described here, I also experienced the one related to USB - which is quite popular (OT freezes after some time if it’s connected to my Mac, issue never occur if USB cable is not connected).
Maybe if I find a good offer with OT MK1/2, then I will buy a second hand unit. But now I’ll pick Deluge.
I’d say firmware, common to all Octatracks, MKI or MKII.
I can’t tell if it always behaved like this, I experienced it recently, after 9 years with OT.
Doesn’t happen with all types of sounds, and filter width reduce the behavior @Schnork mentioned.
Have fun with Deluge then…
Here is the sine I used. 256 Hz
Rate = 1 for 8 Hz.
120 bpm to avoid loop clicks.
No difference between XLVL and XVOL, couldn’t get my OT to produce those side-effects. Here are two XVOL/XLVL crossfader tests. The sine is far from clean, but at 6 am my wife was signaling to switch off my machines.
I’ll do a test with a 1 bar clean sine loop later.
Tried to cut the kick at the transient, in the middle and at the release stage:
Same with the sine, tried to catch it during at the start of the wave, in the middle, at the end:
256HZ sine loop, 120 bpm.
Originally I heard artifacts with another sound. Then I used this sine, it was much obvious.
You can use lower rate values for tests : 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1.
Rate 8 seemed a good value for low range tests…
I have my Rytm basically hardwired to a thru machine and regularly use a scene with xvol to mute the Rytm when I’m doing sound design or mixing etc. and I never heard these side effects.
I’ll try to provoke it later when I find the time, though.
I’m wondering if it’s firmware related and if there are certain factors that influence it.
It seems low freq content seems more prone to causing it, possibly related to longer wave cycles, but what else could play a role?
Anything that could be done to help avoiding it?
If it’s a bug, it could be that seemingly unrelated things influence it.
Would you guys consider it as a possible bug?
Code optimization?
I think it is related to the way the crossfader/scenes interpolates values, as it doesn’t seem to happen with VOL encoders, nor LEV.
I used default settings, same behavior with fx1 and fx2 set to none, no timestretch.
If we can’t find anything we can do ourselves to prevent it…and it doesn’t seem there’s much left to experiment on.
Curious what Elektron’s position is.
Please also check also FUNC + Level encoder. In my case it resulted with same behavior as changing value with crossfader.
Did anyone try it with a silent sample? The 8hz one by @sezare56 definitely gives a clearer indication of the noise, probably worth sending in a bug report too.
Which corresponds to Master Level…
I forgot to add that at the end I moved the crossfader faster : higher frequency noise.
I’m surprised you have not made a track out the noise yet 
But anyway good idea to use the low frequency to highlight the issue better 
Very different boxes, I have both Deluge isn’t going to give you much that OT does, and vice versa, aside from they both sample they have very little in common.