For over 2000 years bloodletting (the process of tapping blood from a patient to make him/her well) was used with great success. It was used by medical professionals to cure even stab/bullet wounds and “everyone” was absolutely convinced that it was effective treatment. Doctors and patients alike saw it working. In fact, George Washington died from a sore throat because the best doctors in the world kept tapping blood from him to fix it until he eventually died from lack of blood.
My point with this is that the kind of statements KOTARE is making above isn’t trustworthy. I’m not questioning his skills, ears or experience, it is just that all of us (and I really do mean ALL of us) gets tricked by our brains. I just use him as an example (I hope you don’t mind, KOTARE). If 2000 years of medical professionals not only didn’t notice that something as spectacularly stupid as tapping blood from patients about to bleed to death was a bad idea, let alone believing that it actually helped, vague subjective notions on how this and that gear affect sound isn’t reliable either.
A more relevant example from 1984. A professional expert and “digital audio-hater” reviewing a 16bit AD/DA converter and making statements on how it sounds are put to the test in a serious listening set up. He can’t tell the difference between the all-analog signal and one passing through the AD/DA converter, and afterwards admit that the conversion didn’t change the sound at all.
http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_speaker/abx_testing2.htm
If an expert can’t hear AD/DA conversion on an 30 year old converter, I’d argue someone being able to hear the conversions on a modern-day piece of gear seems unlikely. The claims to the contrary are more likely tricks of the mind.
But of course, musical gear is more than just conversion between analog and digital. The Octatrack might very well be doing something to audio passing through it even if it strictly speaking has nothing to do with the conversion process itself. A proper listening test should reveal this, though. The differences, if any, are likely to be extremely small and of more academic interest than of any practical relevance for music making. If not, the rest of us should have been able to hear what the few claim to hear, too. In short, my view is that there are many pros and cons for getting an OT, but the “sound” of it is not one of either.
