Roland V-Drums "Tuning" Question

NC68

Senior Member
Hi,

I have a Roland V-Drum setup with a TD-10EXP module. I have played through headphones but recently have started playing through a PA system and now a Roland PM-30. The issue I am having is that the kit sounds a lot different through external amplification than the headphones. Specifically, the kit has too much echo or reverb effect. I have tuned down all ambient sound to 0 so the "room setting" and "room material" etc. has no effect. I am not sure how to get the kit to sound more solid. I also experimented with the type of "microphone" and the microphone position but it affects the sound of the drum as well.

Any suggestions on how to remove just the echo?
 
Have you tried setting the studio setting to "beach" ? That usually works for me.

The next thing is experimenting with the muffling settings on each drum.

One other concept is turn down the volume coming out of the Roland, but turn up the volume on your PA to make up for the lost volume.
 
I play a V-Drum kit at church and no matter what I have done to it or changes I've made, what I hear in my monitor and what comes through the house are 2 different things. I rely heavily on our sound tech, who is very good at what he does, to let me know what sounds good and what doesn't. He has made all the adjustments on his end as far as echo and reverb go, except for pitch and whatnot the kit is pretty much at the factory settings. I have had another drummer come in and play the kit while I have been seated to hear what it truly sounds like, and it sounds great. As soon as he was done, I went behind the kit, put my ears in, and played, and it sounded nothing like I heard when I was in the audience. Don't get me wrong, what I am hearing sounds pretty good, but what is coming through the house, sounds even better. It really took me a while to get use to playing an e-kit, and the one we have is pretty good, but there is NOTHING like the sounds of an acoustic kit.
 
I personally hate my module (an old TD10), the only reason i use it is to map my drums with samples. samples from a well known program (BFD, superior, ocean way, addictive, etc) are so much better than the sound you get from a module in my opinion.
 
VEx kits are nice, I have a few!

Without looking at a pic of the TD-10, doesn't it have two kinds of outputs on the back where you plug them into the PA system? Direct Out and Master Out... I forget which one is which, but one of the pairs of outputs doesn't carry the amibence signal and it just a flat signal with no effects. I know my TD-8 has both those outputs on back.

Worth a shot..
 
VEx kits are nice, I have a few!

Without looking at a pic of the TD-10, doesn't it have two kinds of outputs on the back where you plug them into the PA system? Direct Out and Master Out... I forget which one is which, but one of the pairs of outputs doesn't carry the ambiance signal and it just a flat signal with no effects. I know my TD-8 has both those outputs on back.

Worth a shot..

I tried using the direct out outputs last night during a practice and no sound came out. This morning I checked the owner's manual and it states that, "At the factory settings, no sound will be output from the DIRECT 1, DIRECT 2 or DIRECT 3 jacks". Looking through the entire owner's manual I did not see where you could possibly turn them on which led me to scratching my head why they even included those outputs.

Thanks for the tip though.
 
Ok - maybe its bad form to reply to my own post but just in case anyone else stops by I think I found the answer to my question.

If I hit the "control room" button, then "effect", then the SNDRTN option I decreased the send return overall volume level. Bear in mid that the effect for that was being used was Room Reverb 1 and I tried just turning the effect off altogether but it sounded too flat and dry. I also tried decreasing the amount of reverb but it was the wrong approach for the desired result. The reduction of the send return value gave me the control of the echo that I was looking for...
 
it isn't bad form at all man, it's the right thing to do. then if others have a similar problem they can just search for the thread! yeah i was going to say try turning the send down, but i haven't really muddled about much with my td10. glad to hear its sounding better. :)
 
When editing a kit together on any Roland drum brain, you need to listen to both the headphones and what comes out of a good set of speakers. You can't create kit's on headphones and to expect them to sound good out of a PA system. I have found this out the hard way, especially with Kick drum sounds.
 
Why do the kits sound so different out of headphones and the PA anyways? Shouldn't it be the same signal coming out of both?

There's a difference in speaker performance for sure between headphones that are 1 inch from your ear and a large PA speaker that is further from your ear. For one, there are a number of frequencies that don't ever make it to your ear due to them being wiped out by other sound waves and obstacles. Also, the amplifier in the PA can alter the sound, some even have their own EQs and others might add reverb. Headphones don't have nearly as complex circuits as PAs do since they don't have to amplify the sound at all.
 
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