Yep. And it has to be recorded at the same time from OT and the sound card, synth variations can also influence the comparison.
(The peak of the synth sequence can be different depending on pitch, velocity, phase, filter frequency, pulse width…)
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Other things to consider:
Colouration on soundcard/mixer
Same signal path
Complete elimination of possible user/method error
Probably easiest to sample the soundcard version into OT then compare that.
To me on a less than optimal listening environment the soundcard version sounded louder, I did a quick level match by ear and did not notice any significant loss of quality, but I can’t listen properly at present, maybe tomorrow.
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As had been said, second one is obviously louder and the audio clips aren’t the same.
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After wasting way too much time reading OT sounds like shit threads and rolling my eyes so much it would count as a workout, I decided to put my MK2 to the test.
I plugged MicroMonsta 2 into AB inputs and routed it via Mix page (no FX on the master track) to OT’s headphone port going into Ableton via Focusrite Scarlett 18i6. I played and recorded a sequence and repeated the process with MM2 connected directly to the Scarlett using the same cable.
Here are the results after level matching without any further processing. The files can be downloaded here.
Sequence #1 Direct:
Sequence #1 Octatrack:
Sequence #2 Direct:
Sequence #2 Octatrack:
Sequence #3 Direct:
Sequence #3 Octatrack:
Even though the waveforms differ a bit and there are some audible sonic differences between the recordings, I fail to see how such minute details would amount to anything in the whole mix, especially after post-processing.
The whole OT sounds flat/boring/bad seems like a plain user error or a lazy excuse people use to keep themselves from making music.
I think @Ess put it best with some additional thoughts on psychoacoustics:
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Timestretch doesn’t have any effect on thru machines.
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FFS
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I was ready to 
this thread, but there is a lot of useful information here that I’ll apply to improving what I’m able to pull out of the OT.
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Let’s A/B it. Can you share some samples?
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Thanks for this.
the side by side comparisons have lead me to this conclusion:
I do not hear a difference.
They both sound good.
The OT sounds good.
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If I understand, he only plays the sound through OT’s converters without recording it in the OT.
So, it’s direct recording to an AI
vs
Sound > OT’s converters > AI
They mentioned thru machine in the first post. Either way, timestretch doesn’t apply to audio running through OT without being recorded.
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I was answering @Motas. I thought he was comparing OT’s recording vs DAW recording but after re-reading his post, I understood what he did.
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Ah right. This forum interface doesn’t make that clear!
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I should have quoted a chunk of his post.
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If only you knew the brick wall topped with barbed wire you would have to climb to get anywhere with this topic here……
Just go sift through all the other threads and you’ll realise there are some hoops you have to jump through just to get OT to some kind of baseline where it isn’t changing the sound and decide if you still want to deal with it.
People who love OT also seem to love that it’s a pain in the a$$.
Clearly, just based on the sheer number of reports and posts, people aren’t imagining this issue, whether it’s user error or it just really changes the sound (I believe it’s a bit of both and got rid of it before the return period was up).
Just get a sampler that’s easier to use and doesn’t take extra steps to make it sound 1 in 1 out and get on with the music making.
(Edit: also, listening/ A/B tests are useless unless they’re double-blind. Too many possible arguments to support confirmation bias.)
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It’s a few decibels quieter, OP matched peak levels not loudness.
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OT sounds a lot more different than I expected. Similar to the differences I’ve noticed but more pronounced. Sounds like through the OT there’s a little bit of rolloff in the high end, the low-mids seem a bit more forward and there’s an overall loss of detail that could be a slew rate thing, or phase distortion, or aliasing, or some combination of all of those things.
Both sound good, but to be honest I’ll spend a fair amount of time in a mix using hardware or plugins or both to make recordings that sound like the direct clips sound more like the Octatrack clips, so objectively the OT is definitely coloring the sound more than I’ve ever noticed with my MKI, but it’s coloring it in a way I really like.
Not what I expected.
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This is the thing. ^^
If the signals are truly 1-1, then peak level matching would suffice for a cancellation test.
If one is “louder” than the other and the peak levels are the same, then obviously the audio content has been altered on one or the other.
OT fans just don’t really want to hear about it anymore. I kind of don’t blame them, but it’s getting tougher to just totally deny
Regardless of whether it does or not, buying the OT and not wanting to modify the incoming sound in some way seems a bit odd to me 
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