I can hear something in the Digitone that reminds me a compressor working incognito. Even with master overdrive OFF.
Anyone else chased by the same ghost?
Sounds logical, Digitone inherited the nice mastering compressor of the Digitakt. Obviously no space for it on the user interface but such a useful tool that it was kept. Now waiting in a dark corner of a microchip to catch those rising too high too fast waves. It is like a black hole. Not seen but distorts the space and light around it.
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I’d guess, given the ability of FM Synths to go from nice to screaming horror at the turn of a knob, that there’s probably some sort of limiter on the output.
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sure it’s not just the note stealing in operation making things sound cut off/choppy?
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I am playing with a kick and a bass. A loud kick. I start pushing volume up on the bass until I can just hear the bass and nothing from the kick and no clipping at all. This is how a sidechain compressor work. Seems the much louder bass completely push down the kick.
If it sounds like a compressor, it ducks like a compressor then,
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It can be a masking effect, so could be only what you hear?
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Possible, at least part of what I hear as fade out can be masking by the bass.
However, I have a third pad sound slowly comes in and out occasionally and it brings back the kick a few decibels.
It is like the compressor’s peak detector tuned nicely on the mid range bass with fast attack slow release then the pad sound alters the peak detector and lift up the kick.
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Can you record it to see the waveform?
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Sounds good!
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I think Ess has mentioned this effect before. It has to do with really hitting the output mixer hard. It will have a compression-like effect that is surprisingly musical. Digitone is full of little fringe benefits.
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compressor or no compressor, that’s a nice meaty loop!
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Let’s ask @Ess himself. He’s got loads of DN tracks where the output is being deliberately smashed to pieces. It sounds really good this way!
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What you’re hearing could be the master distortion.
I bet that even when turned down all the way, you can still hit it when pushing tracks too hard. This would explain a ducking or masking effect.
This might also be true for the track distortion.
You could test for distortion with a sine wave, if you can get it loud enough.
I’m not hearing any ducking in your recording though, the kick sound equally loud throughout.
No, there’s not a hidden compressor or anything. The master distortion doesn’t mix in at all when at 0 either, so you wouldn’t hit it even if you gain A LOT. 
I feel like this phenomenon could be because of a lot of things. Some headphones clip easily (or at least clips at some point), a lot of other equipment does too.
It could also just be psychoacoustics, or even different phases lining up in a way that affects the loudness.
Since the Digitone (and most other FM synths) typically resets the phase of the oscillator on trig you can easily end up stacking waveforms in a way that doesn’t add much amplitude. There’s also a ton of headroom.
When you hit the internal mix clipping point you will notice it, let’s just put it at that. It’s nasty (but in a good way, as @craig points out) digital clipping and will be very obvious.
But again, no - no hidden compressor in there.
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hahaha very funny picture
hahaha very funny picture
Hello.
if on the subject, then attenuation can drown out the bass and this is the main reason