I’m glad that it became available to someone besides me, which means that I didn’t go crazy
i like the compressor. it’s rough and good for smashing the shit out of my patterns, i don’t use it subtly at all. it’s useless for sidechain. i don’t expect it to sound pristine as i’ve always seen it as a ‘bonus’ feature (was intro’d as a surprise update while people were gnashing their teeth awaiting the much-delayed OB release). if people bought the DT expecting a “surgical” comp, maybe that’s an unfair expectation. i’d report your finding to support though.
(fwiw it took elektron 7 months to fix a much nastier clipping/distortion bug in the DT filter’s eq, so if you do report this to support, don’t expect a quick fix, or even a fix, but you never know)
I just tested this using Digitakt, powered by its provided psu, TRS cables into RME UCX II, no USB involved, and can hear the same thing once I cut the lows and boost the high end by 6db with Pro-Q 3.
I tested with my usual settings where I don’t go past 6db makeup gain and I had to boost the high end on the eq by 6db to hear it again, which is expected. I don’t hear it at all once the eq is removed though.
I did a couple more quick tests with some software compressors and don’t get the noise at all.
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I read " only at high volume", and I see the master volume is at 100%. And you have to boots the frequency at which this distortion occurs? Its likely distortion; on digital devices it sounds like crap.
I bet your just pushing too much signal.
If you hearing requires high volume you would need to route you devices into a amplifier/ powered speaker. You can turn up the amp to get high volume and keep the Digitakt at a reasonable level to prevent distortion. If you just want higher volume in your headphones ( be careful, or too late) you can get a mixer and you’ll have more headroom in the headphones.
it is not the distortion that amplification introduces. in my video, DT is connected via usb and the volume knob does not affect
ok here’s the default kick, into comp with specific settings at 100% wet.
i’m adjusting the release of the comp which changes the ‘fall’ speed of these chirps.
low freqs rolled off in audio editor and boosted to make the noise clear.
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Yes it is it!!!
This almost sounds to me like the sample rate of the attack and release envelopes of the compressor are not running at audio rate, so you get some quantization zipper noise from it.
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Turn down the kick level and see how the artefact is effected…?
this only happens when the compressor’s threshold peak reaches a certain level and is independent of the volume of the sample or channel.
Did you test that? “Threshold peak reaches a Certain level”? What happens if you back it off; how much do you have to back it off to quite the distortion?
I can’t name the exact figure, since there is no scale on the threshold indicator. But it’s about 3-4mm down
Exactly. The title of the topic/video is an exaggeration. Imho.
Just don’t low cut and boost highs by 20db on a part of a song that only contains a dry kick and you’re fine 
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I think it’s an artefact of the compressor functioning rather than distortion. Really the test should be with 0 makeup gain and boosting that after with an EQ to see/hear if it’s still there. I wish I tested that but given the relationship I found turning the makeup gain down I suspect it would still be there.
yes, but this will not remove the distortions, they will simply become less pronounced
oops for using the wrong sample originally - can hear it on mine too, but more with the factory sample than other kicks. Recording them into a DAW and normalising it feels to me like the noise does disappear a bit if you back off the track volume though?
Also notice the unaffected sample gets louder AFTER the transient, so wonder if that combined witht the release is causing distortion.
I dunno, could also be a bug and my cloth ears of course!
They will be unnoticeable as its many db below the actual kick. So destroying the sound it does not.
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I’m pretty sure lots of compressors do this. Meh 
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it all depends on your ears, if there are few sounds of the upper middle in the arrangement or only a kick, it becomes very noticeable
…it’s an inbuilt digital compressor simulation…
it’s there to mock traditional compressor behaviour, but it’s not based on any serious modeling…
it’s first purpose is to make ur sum pump/duck…and that, it’s doing pretty well…
putting it under the microscope by using a single signal is not that relevant and by no means a real world scenario…
even hi end compressor modelling, especially with no real oversampling headroom, will cause artefacts in certain settings…
and dt’s in built compressor is no such thing…
i’d say…use it as it’s ment to be used…a pretty convincing compressor simulation to create the quick and easy impression, ur sum is pumping and breathing…
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