XP-80 Direct Out no sound?

[jlsy]

Hi,

 

My Roland XP-80's Direct Outputs are not sending any signals (Stereo, and both of them are silent both in studio today when connected to an analog mixer and at home to a keyboard amp) Comments? Is it a hardware problem or configuration problem? I did a 'back to factory preset' but it still doesn't work.

 

Thanks,

Joe

[jlsy]

Woops, just found out another problem...if it is.

 

I stuck my stereo Sony earphone (fully operational) into the L and R outputs (MIX) respectively and they both sounded that only the left channel is sending out signal. Shouldn't the L one send out left channel and the R one send out the right channel?

 

Very worried,

Joe

[Rod S]

Is there a 'local control' option that could be off, or equivalent?

 

That's the only thing I can think of at the moment

[jlsy]

Hi Rod,

 

Thanks for the efforts but the Local SW is on plus I think it's the Local SW is a MIDI thing, having nothing to do with Direct Out which is purely audio.

 

Joe

[Rod S]

I'm glad you found the problem. However, my solution applies.

 

If you turn local control off, you won't hear anything coming out of the synth, unless you connnect the midi out to the midi in. What that does is basically disconnect the 'controller' part to the 'sound' part. So, you wouldn't hear anything, since the keyboard wouldn't be triggering the sound engine. Midi and audio are closely related in synths.

[Tusker]

Originally posted by jlsy:

Woops, just found out another problem...if it is.

 

I stuck my stereo Sony earphone (fully operational) into the L and R outputs (MIX) respectively and they both sounded that only the left channel is sending out signal. Shouldn't the L one send out left channel and the R one send out the right channel?

 

Very worried,

I wouldn't worry. That's exactly what I would expect, since the headphone jack is stereo and each of the L&R jacks are mono. It's just making a connection with the tip and one of the rings on the headphone jack.

 

Jerry

[Byrdman]

Originally posted by Tusker:

Originally posted by jlsy:

Woops, just found out another problem...if it is.

 

I stuck my stereo Sony earphone (fully operational) into the L and R outputs (MIX) respectively and they both sounded that only the left channel is sending out signal. Shouldn't the L one send out left channel and the R one send out the right channel?

 

Very worried,

I wouldn't worry. That's exactly what I would expect, since the headphone jack is stereo and each of the L&R jacks are mono. It's just making a connection with the tip and one of the rings on the headphone jack.

 

Jerry

Oh - so that's what you did. I was thinking "gosh - he's got headphones with seperate jacks rather than one TRS jack?

 

Tusker is right - but he fails to say that this means that your problem is not your synth but whatever it is driving (mixer or amp)

 

As you have tried two different amps, its probably the cable. Odd that both sides of the cable should die at once (assuming you are running stereo). Did someone run over it with a truck? (or perhaps someone stood on it while carrying a truck :-) )

 

Try touching the end of the cable (disconnected from the keyboard) with your finger. You should notice a change in the quality and or level of the noise coming out of your speakers. If you don't then either the cable or the amp is dead (make sure you have an audible noise floor when you try this)

[jlsy]

Thanks guys.

 

Rod: I understand what you mean by double-checking the Local SW settings. They are on. The situation is, while the DIRECT OUTs are not sending any signal, the sound DOES come out of the MIX OUT and the EARPHONE jack fine, despite the status of the Local SW. The purpose of the DIRECT OUT is to provide pre-effect sounds from the synth engine, especially during recording sessions, so that all tracks (vocal, synth, rythym, etc.) can be processed through the same effect mix.

 

Hope it explains itself well and thanks for the help.

 

Joe

[marino]

Uh, Jlsy, just to clear out a bit of the confusion... did you *assign* some of the signals to the Direct outs? You need to assign some (or all) of the tones inside a patch, or some of the patches inside a performance, to the Direct outs in order to use them. You can't hear the same sound from the MIX outs and the DIR outs at the same time.

Just go to the Effects page - you also decide your output assignements from there. Move the cursor to the lower left and choose DIR. The Tone or Patch you're editing should now appear at the DIR outs.

Please forgive me if you knew all this already, I didn't mean to insult your intelligence. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the hardest to find...

 

Carlo

[jlsy]

Thanks Carlo!

 

Your expertise helped me immediately! At the same time you're so humble...

 

It is the problem with the Effects settings. Yet what suprises me is that there's no way to get sound out of both Direct and Mix! What happens to live recording sessions where, the Mix will direct all sounds to stage amps and the Direct outputs will send sounds to recording gears for future mixing because as I understand, you're always supposed to record 'dry', un-effected sounds for synth and then apply the same effectors/processors to every track (vocal, synth, rythym, etc.) so that the no one single instrument sound so different, in terms of the effects used.

 

I have a long way ahead to go with learning synths, though a 15-year keyboardist/pianist.

 

Carlo, are you from Italy? I visited your beautiful country this winter--fantastic places!

 

Gratie e ciao!

 

Guiseppe