Yeah, it seems to me that the volume compensation on the Rec Drive parameter partially explains why turning the Drive down exacerbates the noise issue.  I’m fairly confident, though, that the source of the noise is the algorithm itself rather than some external noise that’s being amplified by volume compensation.

One reason why I’ve come to this conclusion is that, when I play notes and then listen carefully to the repeats, I’m pretty sure that I hear some noise ducking going on with the hiss.  It’s not the sort of consistent background noise that I would expect if it were coming from an external source.  (Obviously, I have also double checked all the components of my rig to make sure that there is no external noise source that is contributing to this problem.)

At this point, my best guess is that the algorithm is automatically introducing tape hiss, even when the Tape Hiss control is set to zero.

I’d be curious if anyone has received any more info from Eventide about this.  I’ve sent a couple of emails to Eventide support over the past three weeks, trying to figure out where things stand with the troubleshooting process, but I haven’t received any response.  I’m happy to be patient if they need time to look into this issue, but I don’t actually know whether that’s the case.