Juno DS - low volume/choppy sound

[vasilevasile]

Hi guys,

I’m a Roland newbie and not an synth or piano expert by far but today I got myself the ds88 and unfortunately I’m forced to ask for your help.
I’ve connected the ds via 2x6.3mm line out to 2xrca together with a 100 w + powered speaker, but the volume I m getting out of this setup is quite low. Basically, for a decent sound in a small room, I need to turn up the sound all the way on the speaker and more than halfway on the keyboard.
When I do this, I can hear a faint beeping sound (like a battery running out) on both channels.
Also, the sound via headphones is also low. When I turn on the demo songs, I can hear them a little bit louder on the speakers but when using the headphones (decent quality ones), the sounds gets choppy at times- even distorting the bass.

I ve performed a factory reset multiple times, turned all the knobs to 0, but it s still the same. Cables are also brand new.

Seems that there could be a equalizer somewhere distorting the sound, but there shouldn’t be any effect/eq active after a factory reset on the standard grand piano sound….

I’ve hooked it up via usb to yousician- and when playing the ds on their sound engine, the volume seems fine.


Any ideas, please? Anything is appreciated

 

[happyrat1]

First test it with proper monitors or an amp before you blame the keyboard.

Those are all line level connections. There should be no problem.

Gary

 

[anotherscott]

Are you running the Juno DS off AC or off batteries?

 

[vasilevasile]

Are you running the Juno DS off AC or off batteries?

The keyboard is running on AC

 

[vasilevasile]

First test it with proper monitors or an amp before you blame the keyboard.

Those are all line level connections. There should be no problem.

Gary

The speakers are quite proper….also I get the same sound on headphones….which are proper…

The sound just seems…defective. I thought Roland were supposed to have quality products…

 

[vasilevasile]

The speakers are quite proper….also I get the same sound on headphones….which are proper…

The sound just seems…defective. I thought Roland were supposed to have quality products…

Just to be clear, when I connect the speakers and the headphones to other inputs, they work just fine. Seems my DS does not output properly somehow…

 

[vasilevasile]

Just to be clear, when I connect the speakers and the headphones to other inputs, they work just fine. Seems my DS does not output properly somehow…

When I play the demo songs and sounds via daw, the volume is ok.

 

[delaware dave]

why are you connecting 2 outputs to 1 speaker? Perhaps you are getting some sort of phasing as the left and right are being connected into 1 speaker that is struggling with trying to collapse a left/right send from the keyboard together into its amplification. Does the DS produce mono if only one jack is connected? If so, try one output from the Juno into 1 speaker. Also, if the speaker has RCA inputs then its preamp stage may not have been meant to support the output of the keyboard. Try running the keyboard into a small mixer first, then take the mixer outputs and run them into the speaker. One of these should work...

link

 

[vasilevasile]

Yes, the unit which has two speakers has rca inputs. If I connect only the mono jack sound will only come out of the left speaker.
Whenever I play the demo songs or play an mp3 as a backing track, that sound comes out louder and more clear.
If I run the sound via the headphones output and the mono jack, it is quite louder but comes out only through one speaker.

Haven’t tried a mixer yet, I was hoping I could run it without one. Hopefully I can hash the issues out before the return period expires

Thanks for the support !

 

[delaware dave]

Yes, the unit which has two speakers has rca inputs. If I connect only the mono jack sound will only come out of the left speaker.
Whenever I play the demo songs or play an mp3 as a backing track, that sound comes out louder and more clear.
If I run the sound via the headphones output and the mono jack, it is quite louder but comes out only through one speaker.

Haven’t tried a mixer yet, I was hoping I could run it without one. Hopefully I can hash the issues out before the return period expires

Thanks for the support !

The headphone out is 'hotter' than the main outputs (per the tech spec); the mixer would produce this similar 'impact'. You also indicated that you need to turn up more than halfway on the juno and all the way on the speaker. Try it the other way for better gain staging, i.e. turn up the Juno all the way and turn back the speaker volume if necessary, this will provide an input gain staging that is closer to the gain staging you would have if you used a mixer in the middle. I remember reading in my Ensoniq owners manual years ago to always turn the volume up on the Ensoniq to max. I would try the same thing on the Juno, max its volume, use the main output jacks (not the headphone out) and then do volume adjustments on the speaker side.

Also, you mentioned that the headphone jack only comes through one speaker. That tells me the cabling is improper; the headphone out jack is a stereo output and requires a TRS jack (tip/ring/sleeve). The tip carries the left side and the ring carries the right side. If you put a normal TS jack (Tip/Sleeve) into the headphone jack, you will only get the left output since there is no 'ring' to carry the right output. For the headphone jack you would need this type of cabling: TRS to RCA's

Report back your findings.....

 

[vasilevasile]

I ve raised the total gain on the main eq to max and that seemed to help a lot.
It had become obvious that the best way to run the juno is via a mixer, will get one soon.

In regards to the cable I believe it is a TS, but I wasn’t planning to use that output for anything else than headphones.

I really appreciate the time

 

[delaware dave]

In regards to the cable I believe it is a TS, but I wasn’t planning to use that output for anything else than headphones.

That explains hearing the sound only out of one speaker when using the headphone out. If using the headphone out provides the output sound level that you are looking for perhaps purchasing this cable (link) and attaching it to your headphone jack is your quick answer rather than going down the mixer route:

 

[vasilevasile]

Playing with the gain on the eq and main sound menu has gotten me where I want in terms of sound output of the keys.

The only thing I can’t seem to understand is that whenever I play an audio file or the demo songs via the headphones, the sound is extremely distorted, even at low volume. The same audio file, running at the same time plays smoothly on the speaker. At the same time the keys sound is fine and not distorted when listening via headphones or speakers.

If I plug in the headphones in the mono line out, the same audio file is player without any distorsion - this is a TRS jack, so the headphones are fine. Also, the fact that I can get clear sound out of the juno headphone output when I plug in the line in and run the speakers shows that the hardware works.

If I run sound through a DAW and output it via the juno, the audio comes also distorted via the juno s headphones.

I could overcome this by jacking in the headphones in a mixer but there has to be a logical explanation for this use case.

 

[vasilevasile]

Playing with the gain on the eq and main sound menu has gotten me where I want in terms of sound output of the keys.

The only thing I can’t seem to understand is that whenever I play an audio file or the demo songs via the headphones, the sound is extremely distorted, even at low volume. The same audio file, running at the same time plays smoothly on the speaker. At the same time the keys sound is fine and not distorted when listening via headphones or speakers.

If I plug in the headphones in the mono line out, the same audio file is player without any distorsion - this is a TRS jack, so the headphones are fine. Also, the fact that I can get clear sound out of the juno headphone output when I plug in the line in and run the speakers shows that the hardware works.

If I run sound through a DAW and output it via the juno, the audio comes also distorted via the juno s headphones.

I could overcome this by jacking in the headphones in a mixer but there has to be a logical explanation for this use case.

One Behringer mixer later and the problem persists.

So, whenever I play an usb audio file or run the daw through the DS for sound, the sound via the headphones is distorted beyond being reasonable and I cannot compensate via volume adjusting. I ve tried adjusting the audio volume, eq gains, everything I could to make an impact.

This happenes on the mixer and the DS as well.

How can the mixer have the same output unless the headphones ‘stream/channel’ on the DS is faulty?

 

[happyrat1]

You may have fried the headphone output trying to drive the mismatched impedance of the speakers.

 

[happyrat1]

Line Outs run at about 10 mVpp while headphones run much hotter as previously stated, about 1-2 Vpp.

Mismatching these impedances and can easily blow out an output or an input.

Warranty won't cover this sort of repair as it is considered abuse,

 

[vasilevasile]

This was the headphones behavior right out of the box, haven’t really used it too much as you describe.

Any other sound on the ds, any rhythm patter, demo play, arpeggio, etc, comes out of the headphones loud and clear..

Basically this issue applies only to the so called ‘audio’ of the DS, the ‘category’ which can have its volume lowered in the system/sound/audio level menu. I haven’t figured out what other setting does the juno have, that impacts this ‘audio’ and what do I need to change in order to make it run ok.
Also, the same config comes out fine on the speakers.

I thought the mixer would listen to the DS and output its own headphone signal, so any hardware issue the juno headphones could have would be canceled out.
The problem is now transfered…

 

[happyrat1]

You still haven't tried a different set of monitors yet have you?

 

[anotherscott]

You may have fried the headphone output trying to drive the mismatched impedance of the speakers.

Line Outs run at about 10 mVpp while headphones run much hotter as previously stated, about 1-2 Vpp.

Mismatching these impedances and can easily blow out an output or an input.

Output level is a different issue from impedance. But amps get damaged from driving too little impedance, not too much, and the line input of an amp would be high impedance. So plugging into that amp from a headphone jack would not damage the headphone output. But while connecting a headphone out to an external amp won't damage the headphone out, you'd want to keep the keyboard volume quite low so as not to risk overloading the input of the amp (or sending a signal that could blow its speaker).

But anyway, there is no reason one should need a mixer to get a usable level of sound out of the DS, and it certainly wouldn't affect the level of the DS' headphone out.

Just a thought... do you have an expression pedal plugged in, which may be lowering the volume? That would be another thing that could result in lower volume through the main outs and the phones... though it wouldn't explain any distortion, nor your faint beeping sound, so you have something else going on regardless.

 

[vasilevasile]

The output via speakers of all feature is fine, the only issue is really the output of audio via headphones, either via the juno or the mixer is the same-heavily distorted, monitors have nothing to do with this.

The issue was there to begin with and judging from this I thought the keyboard had much bigger problems.

Right now, I can’t use any daw or run a backing track while listening to headphones.