Preserving levels when bouncing to ear

OP-1
#1

Hello, first post here after two weeks of lurking and owning an OP-1.


I’m trying to sort my workflow out and coming from an Octatrack my current thinking is:

Create drum parts that progress every 4 bars over 4 tracks
(Kick1, Perc2, Perc3, Perc4)
Bounce tracks 2,3,4 for each 4 bar loop to ear
Play the sampled loop back to a different part of the tape on to track 2
Build synth and other parts up the same and bounce to ear until I have a complete song.

All good except my levels are really low on the sampled loop. I can boost volume +24 but it’s still low.
I could Drive the Master channel but tis would mean double compression once the tracks go back to tape.

Any advice on obtaining a good sample level or more efficient workflow?

Many thanks,
#2

this may be dumb, but where is your orange knob/slider on the tape screen set when you are using ear?


i think getting used to/comfortable w/ overdubbing is super valuable. upfront it saves a lot of time on backend shit.
#3

Ah! Hadn’t realised the orange level on tape would control recording levels to ear. I’ve turned it all the way up and it’s closer but stills bit lower. I’ll need to do a bit more testing.

Is this method to overdub to ear an efficient workflow or is there another way to do it?

Many thanks all, and hello to everyone. Hopefully as I get some hours in I’ll be ready to contribute to the battles… Really interested in those.

#4

Hello!
Someone posted once that setting the amount of the drive to 4 is a good solution for this problem. But maybe try turning the EQ (red knob on a clear EQ) a bit up if you are affraid of double compression.

#5

If you just want to bounce tracks quickly, you can do it in chunks by SHIFT + LIFT to get all four tracks, then open the SAMPLER engine and DROP into the patch. You can LIFT this and DROP it into a single track back on the tape.

This preserves the levels better than recording EAR input and it’s faster because there is no playback involved.

#6

@anomalous, I’ve never thought of dropping multiple tracks in the sampler! Great tip, thanks!

#7

Thanks for the advice so far.

Getting the same level for bounced audio on the Octratrack used to drive me nuts and took me a while to get a good workflow. Audio levels from tracks bounced to EAR seem to vary to me in an unpredicatable manner. Dropping all tracks on to the sampler engine and lifting back is working for me in a more consistent way 0 and much quicker - thanks for that anomalous.

Must say, I'm loving this new OP-1. So quick and fun to get parts down and I love how immediate it is and that you can dip in and out when you;ve got a spare 10 minutes. I loved my Elektron gear but I always had to dedicate a ton of time to make any progress on tracks.

#8
If you just want to bounce tracks quickly, you can do it in chunks by SHIFT + LIFT to get all four tracks, then open the SAMPLER engine and DROP into the patch. You can LIFT this and DROP it into a single track back on the tape.

This preserves the levels better than recording EAR input and it’s faster because there is no playback involved.


So I’ve been doing a lot of sound layering on tape and lifting and dropping into the sampler that I love but I never lifted from the sampler back to tape, so I tried your suggestion and I get a strange digital noise at the beginning if the dropped tracks…
Have you ever experienced this?

#9

All the time @adh82 . and that is the intended behavior because it’s an alternative method to save sampler presets. I meant to ask what @anomolous was talking about the other day, but I forgot. Either we’re doing something wrong or it was a typo or many this is conducive to only a particular OS.

#10

on the first page of the sampler instrument if you hold down the shift key and twiddle the orange knob you can change the level of the recorded sample

#11

@Blipsford_Baubie Thanks, now it make total sense!
Good to know everything is in order. Guess it’s just as quick to lift all tracks dump it in the smaller and play in back onto the tape :slight_smile:

#12

Pretty much @adh82, plus you have the added benefit of applying futher FX if needed. I’m glad for this thread, cause sometimes i run out of preset memory during the battles and i need to make room in disk mode before saving more stuff. I never thought to use the tape during those moments. Doh!