Howdie,
got now some new toys, which are improving the sound dramatically…
Rytm in Octatrack then into the SPL Transient Designer, then UA 1176LN and finally the SPL Machine Head…
JUST WOW, the sounds far more analog, any digital samples become life again and a pinping groove…
Can anyone recommend any other tools? Summit DCL-200 
or the FATSO? (ps. guess the SPL MAchine HEad is doing what the FATSO is doing now)…
will do some stuff over the weekend… not cheap… well yes, but you can get good price on the bay… overall paid 2K but worth it…
guess spend too much money always on hardware without thinking on perfect speakers and such gear…
no this changed everything and will sell a lot, will focus more on my elektro gear and sounddesign with it, rather having rare drum machines, because they look cool…
Honestly, the Rytm through the Octa sounded terrible to me, had it set up like that for a short time but all punch and detail of the Rytm got lost in the conversion of the Octa…
Not gonna argue with PROVEN FACTS, oh no…
Good luck!
Glad to see you at least lost the caps, but still… Jesus…
Again, good luck.
Jesus that escalated quickly
Maybe next time ask some questions before you go all caps and call people an idiot. You might actually interact and even have a meaningful discussion. Very unpleasant, and my first time running into this sort of aggression here, or on the old board. I’d even prefer kitchen salesmen over this sorta attitude…
when I had the octa in between my rytm and my babyface I heard a difference that was big enough to take it out and hook the rytm up to the babyface directly. The octa was fresh(empty reset) so just the input signal was turned up to go straight through as I just wanted an easy setup and expand the inputs as the babyface is just 2 in 2 out. Headphone was an HD800 on an SPL Phonitor straight into the babyface. Punch was lost, and sounddesign was hard to do in this setup. I really need to hear my sweet spots when designing drum sounds.
I have all elektrons except for the MD so we’re in the same team 
Funnily enough I hear a lot less difference when monitoring through my monomachine.
Direct, and nothing else going on, turned it down on the rytm and the octa to see if that would give me dynamics back but I couldn’t find an acceptable balance so took the rytm out and hooked it to the babyface mumbling something about Overbridge
Loaded samples sound fine btw, but then I don’t do sounddesign on the source material.
Will be this weekend, I’ll try and prove me wrong as being able to use the octa as a mixer would be very convenient. Reading threads about gain-structure too, some weird shit going on, but that’s a different topic.
I can’t hear any difference …
blimey @baddcr, a tad overzealous back there, glad it calmed down, visions of pistols at dawn - to be fair, when i did a quick A/B/C test, there was discernible differences in that particular material, but where it mattered, in that instance it didn’t matter too much to me, it was encouraging and was evidently unclear to those that listened in which take was which or which was the original ! However, touching on 154’s observation, it’s possibly helpful to consider the experience of listening analog through the outs and comparing to a digitised version via anything.
Anyway, source is important here, i think if you compare a variety of sources it may be more valid to draw conclusions, plus don’t forget everyone has different eyesight, hearing etc …
on the bar test - i can’t get passed the fact that it is a bit full on (not to mention brief) to listen to intently
it’s also difficult to listen passed the fact that the kit is differently tuned, i.e. it’s not the same take, there are other differences
psychologically one gets drawn to the higher pitched first bar hits as this ‘seems’ brighter, but i’m not getting drawn in to assessing different passages
i’m sure the nord is great, i have lots of nord gear, but i wonder just how much life, magic and sparkle is present in the sound to begin with before it could potentially be lost having been A > D & D > A (and gained internally)
i certainly thought the trace of the sampling was evident in the noise colour or air around the instruments or the perception of the roomspace in the test i posted and that i had no crisis over the body of the sound which I expected (partly based on opinions here) would be obvious, it wasn’t, i was happy to proceed with the gain fixing the OT needs if you sample
I’m curious to try a more focussed test soon to consider whether the magic is still there for some material
the important thing for me was that the OT didn’t feel at all compromised, and lets not forget lots of OT audio gets churned through a time stretching algorithm that is hardly all about fidelity
this thread is well derailed now
the first bar
Listening on Sennheiser Amperiors, the kicks in the first bar have marginally more punch to my ears…so for me OT is second bar.
My take then, if i’m forced to commit more transparently, my bet’s on the first being direct and the second being OT’d
I would add that if you used the loop as is, it wouldn’t make a significant difference imho
I tried through MOTU w Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro btw
and when i mentioned different frequency i guess i meant frequency distribution or weighting of harmonics and such, the first kick plays out way different to the 5th, the earlier emphasis of the higher freq content is more dominant than in the second where the next phase seems to grab more - either way i guessed it may have been a random timbral thing, but if the loops were identical it spells bad news for the OT
So 2nd Bar is OT because the kicks sound rounder in the first, however, intuitively i’d imagine that the ADDA process would perhaps introduce higher spectrum emphasis, a bit like the way old 12bit samples sound crunchier and livelier for it
i just realised i left my Ultralite on 44k, tried 96, same tbh, so i’m saying the 2nd is OT
that makes me convinced i got it wrong !
anyway, standing my ground
use a patch bay or splitter cables to send the audio direct to input 1+2 and also record the OT feedthrough on 3+4 so both recordings are contemporaneous - i also had a quick listen to A4 and OT dir’d A4 w same headphones, until I added a big dollop of gain the OT sounded limp, so I think the DIR passthrough at 127 still leaves the signal short by 12db - based on headphone evidence, but once gain was evened out iit sounded less alarming but there was more airiness to the A4 direct, it was a rushed 2min test so not thorough or blind - i do hope these reports of squashed sound people are reporting isn’t just because the level has dropped, it does sound underwhelming as well as quiet at -12db !
Edit : Inputs not attenuated on OT, see here
Maybe you shouldn’t be so set on a certain outcome. And also realize that different folk have different methods and priorities.
I stated that monitoring through the Octa made a difference in dynamics. The setup where Octa is used to expand inputs is likely a setup where its about being able to do sound design. At least in my case. I have zero interest in static source-material as it is irrelevant for my case. A sine recorded might look exactly the same for both chains. But carving a delicate kick might prove to be a difficult task in the setup including Octa. Those are my findings at least. If its a setting that should differ from the empty reset-state of the Octa please show me and perhaps explain.
I give up…
The OT, just like any converter out there, WILL change the sound of your source material. Whether everyone can hear it or not, is not the issue. When 2 people come on here and say they can’t hear a difference (in fact they said they could), it’s not a conclusive test.
Furthermore, some people have ears that are trained to hear minute differences in frequency. I don’t know many people who can hear a 2db boost at 1khz, but the big mixing engineers in the world certainly can.
What I’m suggesting :
A/B tests are not the definitive answer, as we’re relying on people’s ears, feelings, expectations and experience while comparing.
not everyone’s ears are trained to detect minor differences in sound, ESPECIALLY when doing a blind test.
people are not necessarily honest during blind tests, they each have their own expectations and have, usually, already arrived at a conclusion before even starting the test.
What IS sure, is that the OT applies some heavy compression on the output, past a certain point. It’s some kind of limiting/overdriving that is VERY apparent when pushing levels a bit too hot. This, indeed, results in a squashed, flat sound, which the OT is infamous for. Sure, this has to do with gain staging, BUT, some other instruments out there don’t flatten the sound when overdriven. The OT does.
I think most people’s complaints are because there is no way to monitor levels in Electron kit, except for the input lights, which flicker red long before the inputs are actually distorting.
In conclusion, any attempt at A/B 'ing the OT and a pure source, is somewhat compromised by the fact that the gain structure of the OT is multi staged and not informative. Furthermore, and as it has been pointed out already, the kind of material you A/B has a massive influence on the results.
I wouldn’t get all excited about it. Every single professional around me hears a noticeable difference when running kit through the OT or straight in the board. This may have to do with gain staging, but since we don’t actually know what is “perfect” gain staging, it’s pointless to obsess about it.
The real question is if you like the sound of your kit running through the OT, or not. Personally, I use it as an FX unit, so i do. But I would not run my main elements through it, not necessarily because of the degraded sound fidelity, but simply because i want a signal as clean as possible.
Cheers