Overbridge sound quality

Anyone else having any issues with sound quality via overbridge? If I compare the 8 channels streamed through overbridge, to a stereo out recording direct into my UAD interface, it falls pretty flat. Currently using a digitakt btw

the 8 channels aren’t going thru the master compressor / effects like they are into your uad. also the gain is bumped down for headroom

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Sound examples and blind test comparison or it didnt happen :slight_smile:

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I had the compressor off, unless there’s a subtle one that’s always on under the hood…? Am aware effects aren’t added via OB. Next opportunity I have I’ll do some tests and upload. In the meantime, has anyone else noticed a substantial difference?

I own Apollo X and only tested 1 channel very briefly, didn’t notice anything. But I would need to do a proper comparison to say anything about it.

didn’t experience noticeable difference when using my DT with the beta but I would like to know how OB and line in sound quality compare to one another for the analog series. wonder if anyone’s uploaded AB test recordings anywhere.

No issues here , was comparing other day and didn’t notice any differences.

that’s good to know! were you processing the signals at the time or were they dry? when i send things through chains of effects i always get a better indication of how well the signal holds up to loss.

I think this is kinda like the effect one has on a og roland xox. The summed outputs sound different to going direct from the indiouts.

What about sound quality differences between stereo out of your UAD, and just the stereo mix in overbridge? As many comments have mentioned before, the summing that happens (even in the digital domain) in the mixer affects the sound quality of the output. I’m wondering if its related to the lower gain of multi-tracking and the summing in your daw, vs the summing inside digitakt (to stereo line out, or stereo mix in OB). In my experience the gain when mulitracking is WAY lower than when in the stereo mix. Your brain perceives louder as betten, even with super subtle (fractions of a dB) differences in output level.

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Of course it’s not the same … overbridge dosen’t use the UAD AD converters :slight_smile:
plus there’s a difference in levels for head room
plus you have no effects (including compressor etc.)

Once I addressed performance issues with OB, I haven’t noticed any problems with audio quality. Feels and sounds the same to me, but obviously that is not a scientific test.

For the analogs one might think a super high end interface would get a better recording as your using better converters… For a digital device like the DT one would think you’d get a better signal through OB because it stays digital the entire time and doesn’t go through A/D->D/A? :thinking:
Of course my statement here is all just conjecture…

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You are comparing apples to oranges (completely dry mono channels to a stereo sum with FX).

Compare the main outs channel coming in via Overbridge to the main outs sampled via your audio interface. There shouldn’t be much of a difference.

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When I finally record all my AR’s tracks in Ableton, I do it through my Apollo rather than AR’s overbridge. The difference isn’t really that much noticeable, but I would rather it sounded as vibrant as possible. When overbridge was first released, there was quite a significant difference in quality, with even a form of distortion being present on kick sounds when compared to those recorded through my Apollo. Since way back then things have changed and the comparison is now so slight that I only use the Apollo out of habit rather than necessity.

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Ive said this before…Im sure the DT has something magical strapped across the main outs… like a maximizer or exciter…(thats just a guess not a fact)

I cutt all my samples in FL20 and hear them in my DAW pre transfer.

If i listen to the same sample through the main outs of the DT it sounds 100% better. In cans and through my Yamaha N12 and powered speakers…

Then if i listen to that sample through its OB pluggin channel it sounds like it does in the DAW again…no compression in this scenario…so its not that…

If i load the same sample to my ARMKII, blofeld or Kaoss Pad 3 it sort of sounds like its character is changed dramatically…some not necessarily for the better.

Im sure the outs of the DT are doing something, the bottom end is beefier and the top has more sizzle…everything seems to gel and glue well inside that little black box…

OB is not bad quality, the sample looses nothing compared to the original… but maybe you are used to the glitter the DT adds, and when its not there it just sounds like any DAW…

In my DAW I have all OB channels bussed to a stereo pair that has a multiband compressor…then a maxizer…then eq…all in search of what the DT main outs does to those 8 tracks…but im not even close…

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I’m having a similar problem. The summed sound from the midi channel with the Analog Rytm vst loaded sounds different from adding audio tracks and routing them to take audio from the Rytm’s channels. My compressor was off as well. I don’t know what it is, is Rytm sort of summing them together more beautifully? I don’t know. It’s also interesting that I seem to clip when I add up the audio tracks together, but I’m not clipping at all and getting a much better balance on the channel with the VST!

Yes! That is true! However, I can’t find any way to get only the FX returns in one stereo channel, maybe if that was added on top of the mono channels and the mono channels were panned accordingly, it’d sound identical. It’s hard to match it exactly as the machine does…

I sampled allot with OB and didnt have a problem tbh It was a good experience and I think the DT should be a contender for best device released along with the software!! No complaints using ableton and a decent computer, the thing worked well.

I wanted to demonstrate with examples and I hope this clears some things up, here’s a link to two wav. files I’ve exported in both cases:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WJlQWOAwVzL0ZCopSbivA6NllzNa2HE0?usp=sharing

So here’s my problem: I’m using USB to multitrack record the Rytm MK ii. I’m creating audio tracks in Ableton, one for each individual output of the Rytm. I group the 8 individual outs and take an export of their combined sound in ‘Analog Rytm Individual Outs.wav’. In ‘Analog Rytm Post Mixer Out.wav’, I’m taking the post-mixer out from the Analog Rytm through USB and the result is very much different.

Most importantly the individual tracks are clipping when they’re put together. Note that I’ve also made sure I don’t have any compressor or any FX on Rytm that’s routing to the master. Also the balance seems to be off and the overall quality seems off as well, don’t know what it exactly is. I’ll later try a phase control and it’ll most likely show that they’re not identical signals.

Could there be a limiter/compressor that’s hidden on the Rytm’s main outs? Or perhaps the analog summing does something to the levels? I don’t know what it is, what are your thoughts? Am I the only one experiencing this? To be rigorous: I’m on a Mac High Sierra 10.14.5 (the very latest) and both the Overbridge and the Rytm are on the latest version as well. I’m using Scarlett 2i4 as my audio interface. My buffer sizes are set to be the same on the Overbridge Control Panel and the DAW I’m using, and I’m using 48 kHz sample rate. What could be happening here?

What’s the magic behind the master outs?