I've only had my OB-6 module for about a month and until recently I have mostly been using headphones to listen to the synth, which has always sounded fine. Now that I've wired the OB-6 into my patchbay (with unbalanced cables) I've discovered that the synth doesn't sound good at all via the main outputs.
Specifically, when playing multiple voices simultaneously during chords, the output sounds distorted. I've checked:
- the levels into my MOTU soundcard and they're nowhere close to clipping or anything (in fact, the output from the OB-6 is low compared to that from my Prophet 6).
- the cables by using them with the Prophet into the same soundcard inputs and they're not the problem
- that the distortion effect level is turned down to zero on the preset patches I've tested with and which exhibit this issue
What I've found is that turning the main volume on the OB-6 down considerably can reduce the distortion, so it's almost as if the main output stage is being overdriven by the cumulative level of multiple voices sounding simultaneously, which surely shouldn't be happening and certainly doesn't occur when listening via headphones. Weirdly, when using Unison with 6 voices the output never seems to sound distorted in the same way.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue and is there a calibration routine I can run or a trimmer I can adjust to eliminate this issue? Alternatively, does it sound like my OB-6 requires a service or is this just how it's supposed to sound at maximum volume, because if so that's very disappointing because I think the synth actually sounds terrible right now. I'll try to post a sound clip over the next couple of days when I get time so that you can hear how bad it sounds for yourselves.
Thanks.
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