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

[bernie morissette]

I am struggling trying to get proper levels out of my Roland td-9 v-drums module, midi cabled into presonus 1818vsl interface, and into my PC running Studio One with EZ Drummer 2 and using EZ Drummer 2.

Monitoring is way too quiet, record and playback is fine. Same thing with stock Presonus VST’s, too quiet. Triggering the same VST’s from my midi keyboard (USB IN) is fine and proper levels.

Next think I need to look at is td-9 module sensitivity I suppose.

• The post has been modified 3 times, last modified 4 years, 11 months ago by bernie morissette.

[daniel1379]

Kim Skalle wrote:

I also find SD3 very quiet with my Roland TD12, however, when they are played with SDX’s & EZX’s it is loud/perfect.
So it’s just seems SD3 & it’s kits are very low for some odd reason. I have to crank everything up a lot.
Would be nice to get better volume from SD3.

Kim

Yes sir thanks for sharing this information

it was great help

[ccruizm]

Hello guys! I am having the same issue. I bought a TD27 kit and have tried to connect it with SD3. When clicking the drums on the screen, they sound clear and loud but when playing with my drums, their output is kinda muted and muffled. Playing around with the input gain will increase a bit the sound but the quality is still pretty bad compared with mouse-clicking the drums in SD3. Have anyone found a solution to this issue? Thanks in advance

[Paul Owen]

I found I had to increase the sensitivity settings on the brain of my TD25KV whilst monitoring the velocity that SD3 was registering until it showed a full velocity hit. I had to do this separately for each kit piece until I found the right sensitivity for my playing style.

[tonymelekh]

Hi guys, I thought it might be helpful for someone:

My SD3 was quiet until I brought back Input Gain in USB Audio from -15 to 0. I had it set to -15 so when I have audio coming from YouTube or elsewhere it’s not as loud as drums.

[AntonK]

Check your USB/Audio input gain in “System” – “USB/Audio”.

My TD27 was set to -18db, and i had similar issues – loud when triggered from SD3 and low volume when triggered from drums. Setting this parameter to 0db cured all the problems, now everything is loud and clear. I can’t imagine how many people have this problem because of Rolands factory settings…

Thanks to Jorg for pointing to this solution.

Jorg wrote:

For those with a roland module, there’s a hidden setting in all the newer Roland Modules like Td-25, TD-25, TD-30 and TD-50, it’s called the USB/Audio input gain and it’s by default set to -12dB which causes SD3 to be barely audible when triggered with the module, maybe search for a setting like that in your midi controller?

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 4 years, 7 months ago by AntonK.

[AntonK]

Check your USB/Audio input gain in “System” – “USB/Audio”.

My TD27 was set to -18db, and i had similar issues – loud when triggered from SD3 and low volume when triggered from drums. Setting this parameter to 0db cured all the problems, now everything is loud and clear. I can’t imagine how many people have this problem because of Rolands factory settings…

Thanks to Jorg for pointing to this solution.

Jorg wrote:
For those with a roland module, there’s a hidden setting in all the newer Roland Modules like Td-25, TD-25, TD-30 and TD-50, it’s called the USB/Audio input gain and it’s by default set to -12dB which causes SD3 to be barely audible when triggered with the module, maybe search for a setting like that in your midi controller?

• This post was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by AntonK.

[mpfisher69]

AntonK wrote:

Check your USB/Audio input gain in “System” – “USB/Audio”.

My TD27 was set to -18db, and i had similar issues – loud when triggered from SD3 and low volume when triggered from drums. Setting this parameter to 0db cured all the problems, now everything is loud and clear. I can’t imagine how many people have this problem because of Rolands factory settings…

Thanks to Jorg for pointing to this solution.

Jorg wrote:
For those with a roland module, there’s a hidden setting in all the newer Roland Modules like Td-25, TD-25, TD-30 and TD-50, it’s called the USB/Audio input gain and it’s by default set to -12dB which causes SD3 to be barely audible when triggered with the module, maybe search for a setting like that in your midi controller?

• This post was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by AntonK.

USB audio is not a problem here. Problem is with the velocity of MIDI notes sent from TD-27 to SD3. With my playing style, I’m unnable to reach full velocity of 127, unless I go absolutely bonkers and start to wack the living ghost out of drums!!! When I play as normal, my kick’s velocity rarely exceeds 85. The same goes for all other pads (snare, toms and cymbals). Fortunately, SD3 provides velocity mapping feature.

Open “E-Drum settings”. Remember to select your TD-27 as MIDI device in “Audio/MIDI setup”.

Open “Velocity” tab and play some phrase on your drums. Note the velocity values shown in the “Analyzer” section (bottom-left).
Select all MIDI notes (CTRL+A) and drag the 3 dots on the right hand side edge of velocity curve to the left. Match the value with the strongest hit you have noted in the analyzer. In my case it was 85.

Now, your MIDI settings should look similarly to the picture below. Play the same phrase on the drums and note how the velocity of your hits is being translated to higher values.

Remember to save your E-Drums preset!

You can also change your pad assignments here, but, this is for another post.

Please let me know if you need more help.

Cheers,

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 4 years, 7 months ago by mpfisher69.

[Freeformx]

Also (noobie here): Playing a 20-year old TD-8 V-Drums kit and was experiencing the same. After adjusting levels inside the drum brain, I also found cranking up the MIDI volume (lower right corner of SD’s interface) works like a charm for upping the volume!

Multi-instrumentalist, power pop/70's rock style songwriter/producer. Love Rush, The Cars and of course, Conway Twitty. 🙂 Roland TD-17 • iMac 27" • Scarlett 8i6 • Logic Pro X

[Ivo_10]

I also had the problem of low volume comparing playing SD3 grooves and hitting my pads  on my TD-30.

The trick for me was the tip of Lukas Grumet:
I already connecting my TD-30 Sound Module to my computer directly via the USB port. (directly, not via an external interface). Then open the Audio/Midi Setup in SD3. I already have select the TD30 as my midi device but if not do it. For me what helps was selecting the TD30 as my audio (ASIO) device. Put your headphone in the TD30 and you get crystal clear, super loud sound (the same level as when plying the grooves in SD3).

But for me this was not what I want because I want to play SD3 via my Fireface UCX audio interface for mixing purposes and also, when using SD3 in my DAW  the audio output is controlled in your DAW and I don’t want to send all my DAW audio to the TD-30. So in SD3 I switched back the audio ASIO  device from TD30  to Asio Fireface USB driver (the driver of my Fireface UCX interface) and then the magic happens: the sound level persist.  Even after reboot or using SD3 in my DAW (Ableton) everything is OK. So it seems that in SD3, if you define in MIDI In/E-drums settings to use a preset like TD-30, SD3 not only set the right midi mapping that comes from your TD-30 but also wants to set the right midi audio output level and it seems it gets this info from what you define in your  Audio Midi settings in SD3 and in the case this is not set to TD30 it can be very low. Somehow SD3 persist this midi audio level in the preset and keep this setting even if you switch back the audio device output setting to your audio interface asio driver.
So now I can use my TD30 together with playback some SD3 grooves and the levels of my hits on the TD30 are the same as the level of the hits that comes from the SD3 groove midi playbacks. I use SD3 in both OSX and Windows and this solution works in both environment.

So I think you can’t blame SD3 for this. It is related to the audio interface you are using. I hope this solution also will work for everyone that has the same issue.

[Test4echo101]

Holy Cow….

Talk about the most frustrating experince ever.

My older Son and I just built our Studio. Recently added Roland TD 17 KVX, SD3, Scarlett 18i8.

Running into this same issue… No issues with the Roland and other VST’s, but SD3…Low volume.

Works fine if playing into  SD3 by itself routing to the Roland Module turning off local control. (Bypassing DAW)

As soon as I route to the Scarlett and open SD3 within Studio One 5.2, volume way to low to be usable.

I have everthing else working people seem to have issues with. Multichannel audio, input lag… no problems…

This, I cannot figure out.

Its not a velocity issue. I can see in the Midi editior I am getting 127 on all my triggers. Its just doesn’t get as loud as hitting it with with mouse in the SD3 plugin.

Any further updates to this?

Can someone clarify what ther last poster is doing? Ivo_10? trying to follow his/herc logic but must be missing something.

 

 

[Ivo_10]

To be short what I did: Open SD3 standalone. In SD3 select your drum module as the audio output device so that you can hear the drums when you play the drums (on the kit or in SD3 UI) and your headphone is connected to the drum module. There should be no difference between hit the drumkit or hit a drum in the SD3 UI.
After this you can switch back the audio output device setting in SD3 ( to be save, before reverting the settings you can close and reopen SD3 with this setting so it can be saved, I can’t remember if I did this ) to your ASIO driver or whatever you had and the velocity settings persist in being OK (at least this happen with my setup). Good luck.

• This post was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Ivo_10.

[BlueMistral]

sorry wrong post

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 3 years, 7 months ago by BlueMistral.

[j5dgreat]

Solved Mine. I had the same issue but only for the Kick.

I am using:

Roland TD-25KV MIDI Out
Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 MIDI In / USB Out (Master Output Knob is around 5 o’clock)
Macbook Pro USB In
EZ Drummer 2

The other pads are working nicely, just right sound and increases when i hit the pad harder (but not too hard). The kick was the one which is far from all of the pad volume (While using my earphones, it sounded like the kick preset that i hear in the earphones and the physical pedal head hitting the KD-9 kick pad is the same).

What i did was a little bit of adjustment in the sensitivity in the drum module for the kick.
The default value was 8, i changed it to 10, and changed the Curve in the same sensitivity setting in the module from LINEAR to LOUD1.

And then in the EZ Drummer Kick Gain I increased it to 5db.

So it depends on your liking if you want to increase the pad sensitivity more in the module or compensate a little bit of gain in EZ Drummer 2.

I attached a screenshot of my settings just incase anyone of you would like to try it.

NOTE: Sometimes you hear a hissss or other subtle sounds when you hit a pad, but i found out this is just depending on the EZ Drummer Kit preset you are using.

I hope this helps.

 

 

[BlueMistral]

It is important to note that each SDX Library is different in regards to volume and velocities, the core library is particularly recorded with a light touch, try getting a kick velocity above 60 on the default preset and you will barely hear it, then try it in rock foundry default and you will be deaf instantly….

[Author]

Replies