evening out different sound volumes on synths

  • Thread starter Thread starter EVT
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EVT

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Hello, everyone
I was wondering what others players do about dealing with the volume changes within different keyboard sounds. I have been just adjusting by ear, but it's hard when I switch to a different sound and one is much louder than the other. Even adjusting the volume assign, it is really hard to match them up.

I was thinking of a small compressor that would be good to help keep the peaks down with different sounds.

I just saw Arturo Sandoval last night, and he is playing a lot more of keyboards along with timbales, and of course the trumpet. They had a yamaha motif, and two korg tritons. I noticed that when he switched sounds the sounds often came in too loud or too low and he had to adjust the sound when in the middle of playing.

thanks,
evt
 
Ewww, I don't think the compressor will do what you expected....

I think the real answer lies in a soundcheck and developing live skills.
 
it's really hard to do. I agree that getting more practice playing live will help for sure, but it seems that this comes up a lot, and I notice it with other people playing live, even people who are on a professional level. The soundcheck is fine for the one sound, but if you change from organ, to piano, to electric piano...etc., the sounds often vary, I was just wondering if there was anything to help keep the volumes somewhat even. I know that after a while, I remember the sounds that are louder and adjust them accordingly, but if there are many different sounds, it's a pain to have to keep adjusting volume.
Maybe there are certain keyboards that have more of a consistant volume between sounds.
evt
 
You've got to go in and program the volume on each sound individually. That's the only reliable way of getting them to match properly. The other way does involve performance skills, plus that you know the relative volumes of your patches *very* well. So when calling up a patch you would know when to back off the volume or boost the volume at the same time as switching the patch.
 
In sequences, I'm always careful to pre-mix every part via dynamics and channel volume settings.

A small pre-song midi sequence containing patch change and volume data only (sysex if necessary) could be used.

On Roland gear you can set up performances with the patch levels preset. This means that you can simply mix from a mixer for overall synth volume, obviating any patch balance issues.
 
Sonic nailed it on the head. Adjust each program. I usually adjust mine so that the average playing level for the program is about even with the average playing level of the others (Via looking at my mixers level meters. This gives you a little bit more headroom then setting all the peaks the same, and gives more consisitency across the spectrum. Some sounds are harder to balance than others particularly those that are bass heavy. As a worst case scenario set up a compressor with its threshold set to only compress the very upper peaks of a patch, and yes occasionally ride the fader.
 
Additionally, you could get a volume pedal like this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=key/search/detail/base_pid/151317/

You can set the minimum volume to what you want your louder patches to be with the pedal back in the low position, and simply add more volume with your foot for quieter patches. And also really good if you wish to use the same patch for background and lead work. When it comes to solo-time, simply stomp on her.
 
The only problem with setting a minimum value that high is that you can't do fade-to-nothing or taper dynamics as far as you might want to. I've found setting the minimum volume too high is really bad for playing certain sounds that need fade outs or a lot of dynamics, like strings for example. If you are playing mostly sounds like organs, pianos or electric pianos it might work though.
 
thanks for the suggestions... so there is no little magic box that will fix this problem for me... :o(
I have gone into each preset to set the volumes at home, but when I go to different places to play... the sounds still don't match up. I was doing it by ear, but I am goin g to try Atterion's suggestion about looking at mixer level meters to match up the levels, and I also that some sounds are harder to match up do to their bassiness. Also, I think it depends on what it's playing through. Depending on the amp being used and it's settings, or if it's running through a pa if they have the eq on the bass set high that could mess up your whole preparation of volumes. Also the acoustics in certain rooms makes a huge difference. My little studio compared to everywhere else is so very different. I think I'll have to book time in the rehearsal studio to just set the volumes of each sound, because I can't really play loud here in my home studio (in an apartment building), and the barbetta is what i'll be using for shows.
thanks again for the help guys,
evt
 
You also have to take into account how hard you need to play each patch. You might want to try sequencing something in your software and then use that to play back each patch and balance them out. That way you don't have to worry about playing but can sit back and really work volumes exclusively.

I've also found that there is often one or two patches that stick out as being hard to get to the right level. So I start with those, get them to where I want them, and then match everything else to them. It is often helpful to use a patch or two as references to match everything else to.
 
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