Moog Music Forum

I’ve been trying to direct sample my Grandmother using an Elektron Octatrack MKII, but I get a sound that’s too soft to use. I’m pretty new to all this so forgive me if I’m asking obvious question, but is this normal?

I tried doing the same thing (that is, plugging a TS, quarter inch cable directly from an instrument to the Octatrack) with the fender, Squier, jazz bass and got a similar result. Indeed, the sound was even softer. Now, my understanding is that this might be because these instruments both put out high impedance signals, but I was curious if there might be some other possible reason.

I’ll add that I’ve spent a lot of time on the Elektron forum and I’m pretty confident the problem isn’t with the Octatrack.

Does it just go without saying that one should send the Grandmother’s signal through some sort of audio interface /pre-amp before trying to sample it?

It can't hurt to try.

Do you have a way of increasing the DB level after you have sampled? Digital clips at 0 DB if I remember right. I used to sample from a CD player and it was loud enough. Never sampled directly from an instrument like a synth though. I would think line level would be loud enough. Is there a pad like on a condenser mike in that sampler that lowers the gain?

Do you have a boost pedal lying around? Or any other effects pedal with clean gain?