Yep that’s where I was thinking - I don’t think there’s anywhere ‘before’ that point to change levels so I assume that’s the equivelant of attenuating the gain - but try it and let us know!
I’d give it a try myself but my setup is fairly intricate and I’m wary of messing with it 
(it takes a certain level of self loathing to organise cables to the extent I do 
)
Will do so and get back here to let you know 
I cannot see another place where to attenuate before the VOL input parameter on the THRU track. Next gain stage would be the AMP page?
Yea the Amp page will be too late - youd just be turning down the volume on a distorted signal by that point! (I think…)
No need for a dedicated output module either, just put whatever you want through a mixer/VCA/attenuator and you can tame the signal that way. Either that or what I do anyway is feed my modular through a big behringer mixer and the output of that is friendly.
So the VOL parameter on the THRU track page settings would be considered an attenuator?
Soldering cables is no fun, anyway. I’ve been making my own cables for years and I’m still not great at it. Even though I’ve designed a couple simple modules for friends, built my own tube amps, lots of pedals (loose PCBs, full kits, point to point, perfboard), even built a Kijimi back in 2020 but I didn’t get the hang of making consistent 1/4" patch cables until the past year or so (and 1/8" is worse).
Attenuators really are as simple as taking a pot, soldering pin 1 to ground, pin 3 to the input connector and pin 2 to the output connector. That’s it. The harder part in this case would be making them sturdy and reliable.
The trouble with using a VCA is that you’re using a VCA, and there are better things to do with it!
Ya my understanding is that it’s basically the same as a mixer (which works that way).
You have the initial gain which attenuates/amplifies the signal - sets your baseline, and then you have a ‘volume’ control which decides how much of that signal gets mixed.
I’ve read through the OT manual on this stuff and it’s a bit vague due to the language used (I wouldnt have labelled it VOL on the Thru page if it works the way I think it does)
I’m pretty sure the THRU track volume parameter is digital, IIRC the only volume setting on the OT that actually happens in the analog domain is on recording setup page 2. If I’m misrememering hopefully someone will let me know, I don’t have time to search through the old gainstaging threads right now.
You need to attenuate stuff BEFORE it hits the ADC at the input, otherwise you’ll just be changing the level of an already-clipped signal. The controls in the recording parameters definitely do this, and the VOL parameters in, for exampe, the AMP page definitely don’t. I honestly can’t remember whether the mixer and SRC controls are digital or not but I’m 99% sure they both are.
Watch the input LEDs, if the volume control you’re adjusting doesn’t change the way they’re acting then it’s digital and isn’t going to help you with input clipping at all.
ah the good ol gain staging convo. Definitely use AMP to level your signals and don’t touch track level at all… leave it at its default setting. With eurorack, to keep noise down i definitely used the analog heat on the OT outputs to bring up the level to match other devices. Hope this helps, having a pre-amp or some kind of gain stage external to the OT (like a mixer as mentioned above) is the way to go instead of trying to squeeze the max DB out of your OT outputs
For me it’s the exact opposite. I use the record parameters to get my actual input levels into the general ballpark where they’re loud enough but I still have a decent amount of headroom at the converters (ideally I would leave them at default and get my levels right at the source, but I usually have to make some adjustments in the OT too), set my track levels and master up to 127, and almost never touch the levels anywhere else (the only thing I ever really use the one on the AMP page for is scenes, LFOs and plocks, and I try to avoid letting it go above 64). I use the track levels for most of my mixing, but I try to keep it subtractive - get the input levels set so that my loudest sounds are OK with the output levels all the way up, and then turn down track levels when I need to (and use them for fades). I’ve tried other approaches but that works the best for me.
This is actually going to bring the noise UP - as a general rule, you want to do your boosts as early in the signal chain as you can, and the father from the source you are the more you want to favor cutting over boosting. The farther the signal has travelled from the source, the more noise it has picked up (even if it’s a completely insignificant amount), and any boosts you do downstream are also bringing the nosie floor up.
That’s a nice thing about interfacing eurorack with line level - when you drop the signal down to line level you’re also turning down your noise floor.
In practice it probably won’t make a very noticeable difference unless your modular’s noise floor is pretty high, but in theory it’s always helping at least a little.
hmm not sure if i agree with this, if you drive your inputs too hard you’re imparting more distortion and amplifying whatever noise floor is present… cutting level afterwards just makes the distortion and noise quieter doesn’t actually help keep your signal clean.
edit:
for instance you want to attenuate your signal pretty heavily going into the OT from eurorack with a VCA or line output module, doesn’t make sense to run into the inputs hot and then lose a bunch of detail and dynamic range by smashing the inputs.
The inputs are unbalanced so no real need to get a balanced output module or anything you just need to bring the voltage down to line level. This process should be separated from recording the OT… this is another aspect of mixing/recording that has different implications based on the specs of your interface and the other gear being recorded
I hadn’t seen Izotope’s gainstaging article before, but it’s a good one. It explains everything clearly without glossing over too much, and it’s relevant here because it talks about analog gainstagin (everything before the the OT’s input converters) AND fixed point digital gainstaging (very relevant to gainstaging INSIDE the OT, not so relevant for any software released in the last 15-20 years unless you’re a Pro Tools user - they stuck with fixed point until something like v11, LONG after other DAWs had moved on… but I don’t want to get started on my Pro Tools opinions here).
The short version is, at every stage of the signal path where you can adjust gain, you want to keep your levels as high as possible without introducing unwanted distortion downstream. The farther down your signal path you boost your levels, the more accumulated noise you’re also boosting. Ideally, at every point in your signal path you’d have your signal as close to unwanted distortion as possible AND your noise floor at or below the nosie floor of the next piece of gear, to end up with the widest possible dynamic range. In practice, do whatever you need to do to get the sound you want, but if you default to proper gainstaging and then break the “rules” deliberately when you need to it will make things easier to predict and control.
By default the OT pads everything by 12db right after it gets converted to digital, so you don’t really have to worry about leaving much headroom at the converters. I usually keep then inputs in the yellow with peaks up in the orange on the OT (MKI).
keeping your levels as “high” as possible in this conversation is in regards to the OT and eurorack actually means REDUCING the peak to peak level of the eurorack signal going in.
Also in regards to gain staging the OT, the specs simply don’t match the max dynamic range and peak to peak level that is possible from say the analog boxes. Not sure why you would want to drive the OT so hard and clip its outputs, I think you’re misunderstanding and when they say MAX gain possible it still means that the maximum possible output from the OT still distorts faster than other elektron boxes and can benefit from external processing to “make louder”
Mk1 OT: +10dBu
mk2 OT: +17dBu
a4 mk1: +19dBu
rytm mk1: +15dBu
wow actually surprised how much improved the output stage on OT mk2, also the Mk2 has balanced inputs! so you can benefit from having a balanced output module from eurorack for some common mode rejection 
FWIW my experience with OT and eurorack is with the Mk1 unit, so i think alot of what I said still applies. Not sure how much of a difference it is on Mk2 but the logic still holds true IMO
But that’s impossible. The output on the OT is +4db line level if using a balanced connection (+0db if not), Eurorack is 10vpp - nothing you do to the volume within the OT will get it to Euro levels, you need to amplify the signal on the output. There’s no avoiding that.
That said, the AH is also line level so that won’t actually help in this scenario either
Yeah, with Eurorack you’re looking at voltages that could easily hit 10v, with +4dBu line level you’re probably never going to even break 1.5v, so if you cut your Eurorack levels by 80% it would still be a pretty hot signal for the OT. I wanted to clarify that cutting early and boosting late is going to give you MORE nosie not less, but it was definitely a tangent from the original topic.
recording a quiet sample and then boosting it later will introduce noise… the idea here is that its not about “cutting” or “boosting” but simply recording in the green, not clipping, leaving headroom and if you need to match the levels of your other devices using external gain like a pre-amp or analog heat, or your interface pre-amps or w/e magic you want to use to make the signal louder. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but i think we’re getting the idea of gain staging internally and getting the OT to match the levels of other devices confused either way love to discuss all of this as i’m sure lots of people get these ideas confused
AH has massive amounts of gain, i haven’t tried this personally but I believe with a quick google there’ll be several folks using it to bring line level devices to near eurorack levels. It can be simply used as a saturating VCA in this regard
It will make a quiet signal loud, but it won’t bring a line level signal to 10vpp, its outputs are line level.
It also sucks some of the dry signal away (do an A/B with bypass), so I wouldnt recommend it as a good way to amplify a signal - it’s not really its speciality.
