Obsidian Sampler File Playback is Quiet

Why do samples playback so quietly in obsidian? I have gain set to 0db on both the oscillator and sample menus. The amp menu has the volume at 100% and velocity is at 127. It still sounds so much quieter than when you audition the sample from the inbox. Auditioning the sample sounds the same as inside Audioshare and it sounds fine in Slate. At first I suspected this was a feature due to the polyphony but in mono it is the same. I thought maybe it was phasing from the automatic stereo to mono conversion but mono samples have the same problem. I would prefer not to have to boost the gain past 0db as it sounds worse to my ears than the original sample. Any suggestions?

Comments

  • edited January 2019

    don't forfet that obsidian does have 3 oscillators so at least theoreticcally one should have just 1/3 volume ;)

    it is lot lot more complicated, anyway volume output of obsidian (or slate) is not related in any way to preview volume in file browser .. you can actually adjust browser preview volume in app Settings > Audio - you can maje it even louder or quieter

  • Right but at default 7 sample audition playback sounds the same as in audioshare.
    Slate sounds the same too. Obsidian is noticeably quieter than what I recorded in Audioshare. It is a huge difference between slate and obsidian. Im curious if this is intended.

  • edited January 2019

    Obsidian is noticeably quieter than what I recorded in Audioshare. It is a huge difference between slate and obsidian. Im curious if this is intended.

    Not intended, more like huge problem to make them really equal - or to be exact if you make them equal, in whole lot of other scenarios Obsidian would be too loud compared to Slate :)

    There is too much variables in equation (obsidian AMP envelope, filters gain, stuff like that - you add an one place and on second place it starts to be too loud ;)) Not that straightforward like it looks ;) For example Obsidian needs counts with possiblity that you can play notes polyphonically (so sample loaded in osc1 plays for example 3x if you hit 3 keys, which means louder .. )

    Don't be afraid, you don't loose any quality - whole Nanostudio is processing audio in 32bit quality so even if you then add for example on mixer track put "gain" insert effect and you increase volume, it is same. No quality degradation. If you hear some, your brain is fooling you, believe me :) It is completely not important what's relative volume between file browser preview, obsidian and slate - you can always adjust volimes in mixer by fader or adding "gain" FX and because of all internall processing runs on 32bit precision, you never loose any quality and never get any clipping during mixing stage
    (except of final "OUT" hw channel at right side, more about clipping here : https://www.blipinteractive.co.uk/nanostudio2/user-manual/Mixer.html#master-strip )

    I would prefer not to have to boost the gain past 0db as it sounds worse to my ears than the original sample.

    1000% no chance that just adding gain would do any changes in that wave.. from reasons above.. ;-) It's just placebo effect ;)

    If you are really sure there is difference, please attach here your NS project - i will look at it, if there IS difference there must be other reason than just adjusting gain ..

  • edited January 2019

    To summarize what dendy said, Obsidian is quieter at the beginning, so you have room to mess around with it and not have to immediately turn it down in the mixer to stay off the red. It is intentional in that sense and has been discussed at length.

    I’ll add that some other apps put a hidden brickwall limiter on channels instead to make them immediately louder, but that would have a very noticeable effect on sound quality.

  • I’ll add that some other apps put a hidden brickwall limiter on channels instead to make them immediately louder, but that would have a very noticeable effect on sound quality.

    Yes ! I remember years ago when i used Fruity Loops i was always suspicious that something evil is hidden at least at master and probably on each track. It was maybe exactly this, i always though i'm just paranoid :lol:

  • Quieter is in fact better, as it means far more headroom. And if we're dealing with higher sample rates, better S/N ratios. And of course better dynamics. It's actually very cool that NS2 can be tweaked in this way, as it behaves more like a traditional mixing desk.

  • Thanks for the replies! Now I won’t worry. I was wondering about playback of stereo samples though. In the manual it says Obsidian plays stereo samples. Does this mean it will play the file and convert to mono or is it capable of sounding the samples as the original stereo file? It seems to convert to mono automatically. I notice a width knob in the sample oscillator but it is greyed out. What does that knob do?

  • edited January 2019

    it plays samples in stereo - just tap on text "parallel" in filter section and then on text "stereo" - this changes filter from default parallel mode - where each oscillator is routed into one of two mono filter modules - into stereo mode.

    you can then even increase stereo spread (or decrease) by "width" knob in sample oscillator's main settings

    ...and modulate that width by envelope or lfo ir sny other mod source !!

  • Very cool! Thanks again.

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