Tonverk vs. Overbridge ? What´s the info?

Feels refreshing to me if they (Elektron) will leave Overbridge behind now.

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The limit is the data transmission rate of USB 2.0, because TV and DT2 both use USB 2.0.

The theoretical limit of USB 2.0 is 480 mbit/s, but the practical limit is much lower, due to protocol overhead, error correction and other devices on the same bus, I’ve read that on Windows the maximum is more like 30 MB/s.

Apparently Toneverk can do up to 96 46kHz, and up to 32 bit, that would double the bandwith for each OB track compared to the DT2.

A stereo channel at 32bit/46kHz will eat up a bit less than 0.4 MB/s (if my math is correct).

Edit TV is 48kHz, not 96

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Tonverk can use samples that are up to 96kHz, but I’m not actually sure it internally uses that samplerate. It could also resample those 96k samples on the fly to 48k. Havent found any documentation which could clarify this.

You’re right, my mistake, it actually works with 48kHz internally.

see Comparing the Tonverk to Digitakt 1, 2 and Octatrack - #2 by StudioES

If Overbridge for TV releases – which would make me reconsider the whole device – it would probably not offer to multitrack all the 64 potential subtracks individually, but the eight audio tracks + busses. Ableton Live limits the number of plugin-tracks to 15, which already is a minor annoyance when using OB with DNII and DTII.
Ofc Elektron shouldn’t feel restrained by this, but I would imagine that a large part of the Overbridge user base at least owns Live, and multitracking the individual subtracks would make us loose out on the ‘parent track’ insert FX anyways. If I’d be them, I probably wouldn’t spend time developing subtract-tracking.

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I think you’re probably right. OB would most likely expose tracks 1-16, but not subtracks individually

OTOH, 16 input limitation is on Ableton, not Elektron, to suss out. Other DAWs can probably manage more inputs

yeah, It looks clear to me, looking at Tonverks routing diagram, that the subtracks are already internal, early on, just a stereo sum. ´d not expect anything else to see vs. OB

ahh, i see. that sliped out of my brain at some point in time.
True, many have “Live”

i think we´d come at around 40 tracks/streams vs. OB if we take all ins and outs, but not the HP out.

Yes I would really like for Ableton to finally fix this issue, but I’d imagine it’s quite low on their list of priorities. One workaround is just using the USB multitracking and tbh that would be enough for Tonverk to win me over. Although the latency is worse compared to OB, at least for me.

Whether the track limitation is really on Ableton-only issue, I’m not entirely sure. Pro Tools seems to be affected as well.

USB 2 is more than plenty if the driver (TV OB) is solid.

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Hi,
I think they will release overbridge for Tonverk because i don’t find a line in the manual on how to export tracks in audio files for importing theses in a DAW.
It would be completely stupid to have such a machine and only be able to output a stereo pair with just the complete mix…

Different people have different needs. I wouldn’t need Overbridge anyway, but the more I understand about TV’s design, the less I see any need for Overbridge.

Maybe it’s intended to work the other way: you run the mix out of your DAW into TV :wink:

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Well, OB will enable you to mix a finished track in your DAW. Yes, you can do it in-box, but that will be pretty limited. So right there we have a pretty huge use-case that will probably matter to a large portion of users.

It’s also been standard tech on their products since 2012(?), so it seems like it’d be a strange move to casually drop it.

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The workflow of the Tonverk (I’m gathering from the manual etc., I don’t have one yet) seems to be largely about the onboard effects, and the possibilities afforded by routing things through those and processing them, and sequencing those effects chains. Breaking out individual tracks in a DAW to mix them loses all of that. (Or at least a lot of it.) So TV to me seems like one of the current Elektron devices that “needs” OB the least.

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Presumably with OB you’d be getting the bus and send tracks as well. What would be losing, exactly?

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They would be static. If you muted a track say in the mix in the DAW it would still be present in the effects bus you recorded. So how are those related now? This at least is the issue I’ve always had with doing an OB mix from DTII. I have all the parts, and I have the effects send tracks, but they are now divorced. And the effects are always such a big part of any track I make on the DTII (and I think it could be more so on the TV). At that point it feels like I might as well just use the stereo master mix I created in the first place. I ended up never finding it useful just to have the raw parts separate. But maybe that’s just me!

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I was thinking of RME as well

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Or Ableton can fix their shit like other Daws.

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I think you mean “with” Overbridge, not “vs” (which means against).

Pedantry aside, I’m of the school of thought that would prefer development to be focused solely on the hardware, rather than resources being diverted elsewhere

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Ah, but this is just your personal preference.

For example, if I was going to make a “serious” recording with my Syntakt, I would eschew using any of the on board reverb / delay effects, and would route all tracks from the ST 100% dry, into my DAW via OB. From there on out, I could then bus out things to individual stereo busses into my main analogue mixer, where I could apply parametric EQ and hardware fx to the individual buses, and finally to run the whole mix into my outboard tube and solid state compressors, recording the final mix into my Reel to Reel running at 15IPS with good levels.

You cannot hope to achieve a similar result inside the Syntakt alone. You could achieve something different perhaps, but not the same. The beauty of OB2 is that is allows as high “production value” to your session as you want, without requiring extra physical outputs or anything like that, which would increase the size and cost of the box considerably.

This is why modern Elektrons are desirable items for beginners, performers and professional studio musicians alike.

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Exactly, this is how it works in DTII so presumably (hopefully!) it will work the same for TV. Since we are talking about mixing finished tracks, the issue you are mentioning isn’t a huge problem. It’s only an issue if you are editing and mixing and your bus/send tracks no longer match.

But it’s probably not worth getting in the weeds on this yet as whether or not TV gets OB or how it will work is of course up in the air.

I’m just saying the use-case for it is there and probably important to a lot of people.