Never noticed a similar thing on my other machines (Syntakt, A4, MPC, …) and never experienced it on Ableton neither (I produce/release techno for 15 years and never experienced (or at least noticed) this)
I was starting a track on the Digitakt (first time I put my hands on it as I just received it) and started by putting a kick, a sub bass (based on the kick) and then some hats and noticed it… I hate when stuff happens without any explaination (and I was a bit affraid that this could also occur in a bigger sound system when my tracks got released (and hopefuly played )
So for the ultimate test you could use the same samples with the same pattern on your MPC or whatever. Bring it up to the same volume and listen how it sounds. Then you’ll really know if the Digitakt is doing something different to the sound.
Do you have your headphones directly connected to your Digitakt? In which position is your master volume knob, 12:00, 15:00? What brand/type headphones do you use?
So you only hear the volume drop with headphones? What about your speakers? You need to check it on speakers too because listening on headphones is not a natural listening experience. For example checking the levels of different tracks in your mix is way easier on speakers.
And as several people have noticed here there is no level drop in your example. You may percieve it like that but it’s only on your setup or your personal listening experience.
If you listen to it on speakers you feel the weight of the kick drum in the room and when the hihats come in the kick stays exactly the same.
Yes, I’m all about doing the small things with love.
@Lauli
Great idea doing a phase cancellation test. Didn’t think about that. That clears everything up.
@technolover303
In case you’re not aware what the implications are; if the phase cancellation test comes out silent - there is no difference. There is nothing happening, but of course that does not mean it’s not possible that it can’t sound like that to you and others. Masking is a powerful thing and usually we spent quite some time to tackle masking issues when mixing.
after reading it again, that seemed a bit weird, yes
Master level at 12:00 and only a few minutes with the HD25 was enough
As I have no studio yet (still under construction), I am using only the headphones for now. Most of the time, even if I would rather work with speakers for production purposes, I always end up doing the final mixdown with my headphones anyway.
As I have no studio yet (still under construction), I am using only the headphones for now. Most of the time, even if I would rather work with speakers for production purposes, I always end up doing the final mixdown with my headphones anyway.
I’ve worked with the same headphones for almost 10 years and never experienced that - that’s what make me wondering what was happening.
I trust you guys (and your great analyzis) and also believe it’s pretty surely some kind of audio hallucination. But I wouldn’t swear it’s because of the headphones or my “unique” listening experience as it seemed to happen to a few other guys in this thread too.
I’d recommend you do the phase cancellation test yourself. You can follow @Lauli instrunctions and if you’re interested read a bit about it. It’s a common test to check for differences in audio. It would reveal the smallest things (small differences often sounds like crackling noises), but silence definitely means there is no diffference and you can simply slap a spectrum analyser on the track and check if you see anything.
Masking is a different topic, it takes some practise to be able to spot it, but you actually were able to spot it, you just couldn’t identify it as masking.
The Digitakt has a slight high shelf eq boost on the master afaik, makes it sound a bit more “hifi” compared to playing the same pattern plain, this might bring out that region where the kicks transient and the hats clash more and might exaggerate masking in that region. Maybe that’s the reason why you started to notice it on the Digitakt…?
Would love to find some time to make the phase cancellation test - btw I didn’t know this technique and it looks it could be interesting in other purposes too !
I just made the test on Ableton with the same samples in a Simpler and guess what I think I noticed it (even if it was less audible than on the Digitakt)… So I tried it again on the Digitakt and now it looks like I hear it less there too. That makes me (even more) crazy
Imo that’s one more proof it was something not “tangible” …
Yeah, absolutely! If you wanted to check if or how something changes a sound - for example if a sampler or effect does something to the sound even with “neutral” settings, you could just take the original sound and a recording through the sampler or effect, place them on two different tracks so that they play at the same time and invert the phase on one of them. You´ll have to play them at the same level, that might require some tweaking, but when you get the level right, it would cancel everything that is same as in the original, leaving only the differences.
This works, because when the phase is flipped on one track, everyhing that is exactly the same goes in the opposite direction. Like in this picture, everything that goes up, goes down in the inverted version and if you think about how a speaker cone works, you can imagine that if the speaker cone wanted to move in one direction and in the opposite direction at the same time - it would not move at all resulting in silence at that moment.
I also found this depiction of masking. The quiter signal in the same frequency range gets masked (overpowered) by the louder signal. When you now take away that signal, your ears will have to re-adjust to what´s happening.
Haha, psychoacoustic phenomena can certainly feel pretty crazy^^
(and I was a bit affraid that this could also occur in a bigger sound system when my tracks got released (and hopefuly played 
)
I have 2 of them. Seems they lost bass. I could compare with a newer one.
