I’m talking about basic audio function and recording quality by today’s standards, this isn’t the 80s.
I can only respond to the OP. I can’t speak to the sound preference of every individual who’s ever used a sampler.
1 in 1 out without some secret combination of settings is not a huge ask for a $1500 piece of modern gear is all I’m saying.
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How do you know he recorded correctly? Maybe his cables are broken. Soundcard settings are wrong. Could be anything.
I‘ve been using OT for 10+ years, and I never encountered the audio problems some of the mostly new users seem to have.
Edit: other issues, sure, but audio quality is not one of them.
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I don’t. It was probably a broken cable, that’s exactly what it sounded like in the clip. I could almost guess the color of the cable from the sound of the midrange.
I heard it immediately in my setup. Changed all the magical settings as prescribed and it still had a kind of “smeared” stereo image (I couldn’t describe it other than “smeared” or “less tight”) and change in the upper mids, no matter what I tried.
User error or not, it had to go. No device should take that kind of work to get to a clean starting point, if it can get there at all, for me, in my setup.
In your case, I’m super pumped that you enjoy it, I really want everyone to happy.
On a side note, do you ever get the impression that everything produced on Maschine sounds like a sample pack?
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I suppose it would for everyone using sample packs.
I only use it as a sampler for my hardware. After a rough arrangement, I drag em straight over to the DAW.
Like I said, it’s 1 to 1 as far as recording quality/fidelity. It’s basically a daw. It doesn’t sound anymore like a sample pack than Ableton or whatever people are using.
I understand your decision, I would have done the same. Guess I got one of the good OTs, or something.
We can’t exclude the possibility that some lemons crop up occasionally.
I think it’s a really badass piece of kit. I suppose I’m more of an instant gratification kind of guy so it just wasn’t for me. I’m not saying it isn’t cool, it’s way cool.
It just seems like this pops up here and on Reddit weekly, and I don’t think everyone is just completely full of shit like they are made to feel about it. There’s something to this. We aren’t all crazy or deaf.
User error: probably in most cases.
Sounds different: I believe so, a lil bit. But for me, lil bits add up over a production.
That’s it.
If I was a techno guy with a live setup, I’d probably use the OT.
…running through an xtra instance on converters is running through an xtra instance of converters…
and u got the classic here…ur direct signal is louder than those inputsignals for ur converters…
make sure u got ur ot level compensated in comparsion to what ur used to hear when listening back to ur take 5’s direct signal…
Does the Pro5 have balanced outs? I’m guessing not.
Otherwise, maybe try a different cable.
The OT likes a hot signal.
If it maxes out on a -10dbV soundcard, that’s still low in comparison to what the OT can handle.
#flatearthlogic
The OT can be a bit trickier for inexperienced users to use, no doubt about that, to get the best sound quality you need to understand how to use it properly, there are tons of threads about this.
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The Octatrack is designed first and foremost with maximum flexibility in mind. The byproduct of this is that you have to figure out how to use it to get what you want from it.
For every example of it sounding like shit, there’s an example of it not sounding like shit. If it just sounded shit, there would only be examples of it sounding like shit.
User error.
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This kind of polls have never shown people could tell any difference. Yet the claims that OT is muffled or whatever keep resurfacing.
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I have had two octatracks and tried all tricks to get it good sounding. And always the sample sounded less big sounding than the original audio. Not that the sample was sounding majorly different at all, it was just sounding smaller.
Very much usable for sure and not sounding bad, just the magic was a bit missing after the recording. Had that on both of the octa’s.
And for instance on my mpc x I dont have this “issue”
Just my own experience and I am sure it wasnt user error.
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Psychoacoustic phenomena and difference in loudness are difficult to deal with. A difference in 0,5 db peak level can make a huge difference in listening already.
What the Octatrack does to input sources, at least what I found out is very slight attenuation in the 20-30 Hz area and very slight attenuation in the 20K Hz area. You really have to look for it in the spectrum and imho it’s nothing that you can clearly hear.
That is when everything is set up and levelled correctly.
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Good luck selling that on this forum
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@Supercolor_T-120 posted some detailed findings demonstrating exactly where any differences between source and OT sample occur, if you are interested look it up.
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I mean, it is certainly possible to get a not so good sounding output, but nothing that can’t be fixed imho.
When I bought my Rytm, I experimented with different ways of gainstaging for a few weeks and some time later when I plugged it into my OT it sounded pretty much horrible.
The way I had my Rytm setup and the way the thru machine was setup (I copied the part from another bank earlier) when I decided to plug it in all contributed to it. Properly levelling the Rytm and OT solved any issues.
If the sound you’re sampling/processing with OT is prominent in the 20-30Hz range, it might be possible that the sample/processed sound sounds different in comparison - but you’ll probaply cut that frequency range in the mix anyway.
The slight attenuation in the 20K hz range shouldn’t be a problem either and most of the time, there is no audible difference at all.
I have all my gear hooked up to a patchbay, so I can easily A/B between direct output of my gear and the output processed by OT and I frequently do so. Just out of curiosity.
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Problably below 20khz. I think it’s audible, slight harmonics loss, but it really depends on audio source, you need high frequencies content…and obviously good monitoring.
I heard that high frequencies roll off in a “recent” blind comparison (maybe from @Supercolor_T-120), and the funny thing is that someone complaining about OT sound quality chose OT as the best. 
I’d like to make tests myself with my RME soundcard but I need another hard disk. Testing with Zoom H2 maybe…
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easy fix:
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