[Syntakt] OB Different Levels main vs track // signal routing

Elektron Software Overbridge
#1

Hej there folks

I’ve just started with both the Syntakt and Overbridge and while making a template in Ableton I came across something weird:

The main-stereo-out from OB-Syntakt is significantly louder than the individual track.
I put an init-patch on and tested it with every kinda digital & analog track. No FX track or anything, in fact I lowered every other track to zero.
Also, the manual for the OB & Syntakt routing doesn’t show an output for the digital voices.

I found this:
Track 1 (both digital or analog is the same behaviour), with a simple BD (Track & Amp Level = 127), if I pan hard L/R inside the AMP section of the Syntakt, the Main-Out gets panned accordingly, not the Track1-Out. However if I reduce the amp to zero, both Main-Out and Track1-Out get simultaneously reduced. I don’t understand where the difference in signal levels comes from.

Any ideas are welcome what and why that is :slight_smile:

cheers,
Cat

Attached are two screenshots, one normal and one hard panned, plus the manual

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Screenshot 2022-07-24 at 19.57.06
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Screenshot 2022-07-24 at 19.57.17
Screenshot 2022-07-24 at 19.57.174096×2304 1.06 MB

#2

Just out of interest, does the main out still have some gain on it if the Drive on the FX track is set to zero instead of the default 1.00?

There is definitely some weirdnesses with OB, in terms of panning and summing etc, I guess it’s assumed that if you’re spiltting out single channels to a daw, you’re going to pan them yourself.

There’s also difficulty for some folks in the fact that the effects are sends which can make mixes a bit weird with multitracks in OB.

#3

The drive on the FX track (which is set to zero as any other track) has absolutely no effect on the levels. Also there is no routing to the FX track anyways. I left it at just this one track specifically to rule out any summing issues that might occur.

I scanned the manual back and forth and there is no mentioning of that this is by design (as mentioned somewhere else in here). It’s rather sparse on the inner-daw out-routing itself.

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#4

I’m surprised there’s hardly any discussion on this. It makes multitracking with the Syntakt a huge PITA.

All of the individual tracks need to be boosted like 12 db… but then the FX track for some reason is like 20db louder than everything else!

#5

It’s been discussed a lot. It was intended like this. It gives plenty of room to mix and master.

#6

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the sum of the individual tracks to match the Overbridge main stereo out? The main output is a healthy level that is consistent with common gain staging practice.

That explanation also doesn’t address why the FX track is so much hotter than all the other tracks.

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