Gain structure

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

This question was discussed several times on EU but without any practical findings.

We have Track Level, Routing Vol, EQ Gain, Dyn Out Gain which are in digital domain and Master Volume which I believe is analog.

I experimented with one track of GND-SN/NS and one cycle 0dB 16/44.1 mono sine wave ROM machines to check if it is possible to introduce signal distortion with these digital gain controls. I connected MD to USB audio interface and used crappy oscilloscope application (http://code.google.com/p/audiotools/) to see actual waveform. I was able to see distorted signal only after adding Dyn Out Gain.

With all gain control set to max there is still no digital distortion which means that they are operating under 0 db and there is no way, for instance, to add some gain to make UW sample louder. In other words, all uploaded samples should be normalised if you want to operate with maximum SNR levels.

I can also see flaws in this experiment: it is not clear at what level GND-SN/NS signal is generated or what is happening with 16 bit 0dB sample during upload or maybe I should use white noise sample.

I also understand that it is a pure theoretical discussion and I should make music instead :slight_smile:

So, what is your way to use all these gain controls?

#2

Interesting test, I take it you would see clipping if you added filter res and eq gain at the sine freq, whilst leaving everything at full?

The sound levels by default are maxed I believe to get a clear loud sound from only a couple of machines. However if you have a full mix of sounds running from the md at these levels I think you will be clipping. You could try using your sample several times on different machines and see when it clips?

I use the Vol parameter to set mix level and then automate this level further downwards for ghost notes etc.

#3

Personally, I set each machine VOL to 100 and EQ gain to 32. Gives me room to boost an individual low level sound and make different kits sound the same level. Everything sounds very clean BUT I do notice a nice compressy dirt (not clipping) if you set everything to max. Similar to the main out of the TR-909 gets a sound the individual outputs don’t have.

BTW I never use the compressor (turn it to 127) and only use the main outputs.