Triggering SD3 with Roland TD-25 – volume too low….can’t get volume high enough to be usable

[Derek Schaaf]

Hi, I am triggering SD3 with my Roland TD-25 and...

Hi,

I am triggering SD3 with my Roland TD-25 and finding that the volume is way too low….can’t get output volume (either MacBook Pro of Focusrite 8i6) high enough to be usable. I have tried both USB out of the TD-25 into my MacBook Pro as well midi out of the TD-25 and into a focusrite 8i6 and then usb in MacBook. In both cases it is triggering the virtual instruments and I have volume maxed on the Mackbook pro and on the 8i6 but the output volume is super low. If however I click the virtual instrument with my mouse, it is SUPER loud. Any thoughts on how to increase the output???

Thanks,
Derek

Hi,

I am triggering SD3 with my Roland TD-25 and finding that the volume is way too low….can’t get output volume (either MacBook Pro of Focusrite 8i6) high enough to be usable. I have tried both USB out of the TD-25 into my MacBook Pro as well midi out of the TD-25 and into a focusrite 8i6 and then usb in MacBook. In both cases it is triggering the virtual instruments and I have volume maxed on the Mackbook pro and on the 8i6 but the output volume is super low. If however I click the virtual instrument with my mouse, it is SUPER loud. Any thoughts on how to increase the output???

Thanks,
Derek

Topic

[David Mackey]

@Derek Schaaf said:

Hi Reiner,

Thanks for your response. Yes I did download and install the Roland driver from their support site. For whatever reason my MacBook still does not see it as the input output audio device… Which is kind of strange.

Thanks,
Derek  

Wow bad news. I suggest trying another usb cable. Also confirm in your td25 setup that usb mode is turned on. This stuff “just works” so it may be a hardware issue of some sort. Good luck Derek!

[Derek Schaaf]

@David Mackey said:

Wow bad news. I suggest trying another usb cable. Also confirm in your td25 setup that usb mode is turned on. This stuff “just works” so it may be a hardware issue of some sort. Good luck Derek!  

Thanks, will do

[RcKDrUmm3R]

Has anyone, who has SD2 or other SDX EZX expansions tried switching drums around? Ive noticed, like the one Toontrack representative stated, the SD3 kits and cymbals are a lot lower in volume than ones from SD2 and the metal foundry expansion.

- Dan, Drummer of Deadtide

[Derek Schaaf]

@Lukas Grumet said:
hi again. at least for TD-30 (and most likely all Roland modules that have an USB port, i.E the TD-50) owners there seems to be an easy fix for the volume problem:
I’ve posted this in the latency thread as well because it also fixed my latency issue I had:

Try connecting your Sound Module to your Computer via the USB port. (directly, not via an external interface). Fire up SD3, Open the Audio Midi settings. Select the TD30 as your midi device (make sure you’ve enabled midi usb in your TD30 module settings), AND select the TD30 as your audio (ASIO) device.
there you go. I get crystal clear, super loud sound with this method. (your headphones need to go into your TD-30 module jack of course)
btw the td30 also comes with a nifty ASIO driver with some settings to play with. just hit the ASIO button under audio device in SD3.  

Hi, I have connected as described above TD-30 directly via USB into my laptop USB. I have SD3 open and TD-30 as midi device, ASIO selected and ASIO device TD-30. I also have usb over midi enabled in the TD-30. I am connected to TD-30 headphone jack and have the phone volum up

If I click (with my mouse) the SD3 on my laptop I get the sounds of SD3 through the headphones….but if I hit the actual snare to trigger the SD3 snare, I get the sound of the kit active in the TD-30. How do I monitor SD3 through the TD-30 and NOT hear the internal kits?

Thanks,
Derek

[Juicy]

Turn “Local” of in your TD30 it will help latency too.

[Derek Schaaf]

@matthew sloggett said:
Turn “Local” of in your TD30 it will help latency too.  

perfect, thanks!

[ttrackuser]

Hello, I just purchase SD3 and was fooling around with my Roland TD-4 drums and was having the same problem. I was looking through the menu on the TD-4 and found a pad sensitivity setting. The values on my drums were set around 7. The max setting is 32. I monitored using Cubase as my DAW and adjusted each head up to around 14 and this seemed to help quite a bit. Another thing in Cubase I found recently is to adjust the listen level in the control room and push the L button on the channels you want to monitor and it plays louder. Works great if your a one man band and quicker than setting up the CUE.

Hope this helps…thought I’d toss it out there.

[RcKDrUmm3R]

Definitely try changing to an expansion or SD2 library and see if you have the same issue. The SD3 libraries are a lot lower in volume as compared to SD2. My kit is mixed with pieces from SD2, Metal Foundry, and SD3 and I have to raise the volume of pieces from SD3 significantly.

- Dan, Drummer of Deadtide

[defkaluga]

I just recently bought SD3 and am having the same volume issues with a TD-17 KVX.  Are there any recent solutions to this issue?  It seems to have been going on for quite some time now. Thank you.

[Tim Astbo]

Hi,

I’m experiencing the same thing in EZDrummer 2 – if I click on the drumkit with the mouse, then it’s very loud, but when I play on my Roland TD-11 drumkit I get a very much lower volume. Unfortunately I do not have Superior Drummer, so I can’t try the homebrew solution 😉 And the good people at Toontrack seem to be unawaress of this problem… If any other solution surface, I’m all ears!

[Jorg]

just increase the master level to 4-6db, nothing else, SD3 is not made for edrummers, is a misconception we all have when starting with this topic, it’s for enginners, producers and guitarrists who write their own drum parts…

[Henrik]

defkaluga wrote:

I just recently bought SD3 and am having the same volume issues with a TD-17 KVX.  Are there any recent solutions to this issue?  It seems to have been going on for quite some time now. Thank you.

You can go into E-drum settings and setup each instrument the way you want it to. For example, play the samples at velocity 127 no matter how soft you hit your e-drums, or play at velocity 1 (really soft and low volume) no matter how hard you play, and everything in between.

Besides that, you can add compressors and limiters to maximise the level of the drums, which can make it super loud – and squashed – if that’s what you want 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[mats]

This plug in can help.

[Jorg]

Ok, I found the culprit: the audio over usb input gain setting on any roland module that supports it is set by default to -18dB, I guess to protect your ears from blowing up when playing along with audio from your computer, but it causes SD3 to be barely audible, on the TD-25 go to “Audio Setup”> AUDIO IN Gain(dB) and increase the value there to a positive value like 4dB, be careful to reduce the volume of other audio sources in your computer, like itunes, system sounds or spotify for instance, because they will be pretty loud as well, so reduce the volume before jamming to songs.

To the Tonntrack team, please add this advice to the SD3 manual to have less e-drummers pissed of at the low volume 🙂

4

Thanked by: z4t888, Henrik, russellb and 1 other.

[russellb]

Hey Jorg, after hours and hours of reading through posts on this issue I finally found your post, and at last have fixed my problem with my TD30 and SD3, I cannot thank you enough for posting your solution….

However as it was for how to fix the issue with a TD25 not a TD30 I still had some way to go. I looked through the TD30 manual on how to change the audio input gain setting on my TD30 but couldn’t find anything. Then I found how to do it on the Roland website, and to help any others like me who may be thinking of giving up, here is what you do on a TD30….

1. Press SETUP.

2. Press F5 to select the “B” tab.

3. Press F2(GAIN).

4. Use the cursor buttons and/or  value dial to highlight and adjust the USB Input and Output Gain settings as needed.

5. Press EXIT when you’re  finished. The new settings are saved automatically.

My Gain was set to -18!!!! I changed it to +4 and the volumes on both my Mac when I click a drum, and the TD30 when I hit a pad were now pretty much identical.

Thank you once again, you are a lifesaver.

[Author]

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