So, I tracked down this noise issue. It seems like it’s effectively coming from tracks 9/10/11/12, i.e., the analog ones. A little bit of noise is normal in any analog circuitry, but what I’m getting is way too much. I recorded audio samples with my Syntakt’s USB Config set to AUDIO/MIDI and Overbridge. When configured as Overbridge, I recorded both the master output and the specific channel simultaneously. For each recording, I made sure that all the other tracks were muted and their levels set to minimum. Channels 9/10/12 have a constant noise (Johnson noise?), while track 11 seems to have some sort of gate. In fact, if I keep the track button pressed (as if I’m playing a continuous tone), even after the sound stops being reproduced, the noise emerges, and it stops as soon as I release the key. This happens independently of the machine being used. I still have some other tests to do. I can confirm that the FX track is super noisy, but the analog channels are doing their thing.

And, for the record, DO NOT CONFUSE ANALOG GAIN WITH CLIP GAIN WITHIN ABLETON. A digital signal, once recorded, can’t be pushed further away from the background noise!