Hey,
I have my A4 connected to a Roland D-50 and I have noticed that there is a volume difference between the A4’s mini button keyboard and when using a MIDI controller. I don’t just mean that there is no velocity in the A4 compared to the controller. I mean that the Controller, at the hardest pressure does not match the A4 direct.
What am I doing wrong?
I am going through a MIDI patchbay as well. I will test connecting directly see if that makes a difference.
Thanks in advance.
Rich
see if you can monitor the connection out (i.e. spy on velocity, your controller may be set on a vel curve that’s too difficult to trigger)
if you don’t have a monitor program then record to dawn and investigate
failing that, assign a very clear modulation parameter to velocity on a sound … e.g. oscillator pitch
the a4 keys kick out a default velocity of 100, then use locks in a note or two in the sequencer to reduce the velocity until you match the velocity you can generate with ext-key - should give you an idea of the incoming velocity and point to what you may need to investigate elsewhere (like velocity curves or patch bay issues etc)
I would say that you observed a normal behaviour 
This seems to be a “fixed” velocity of the A4 (the default value should be about 100) vs a velocity sensing keyboard of the D-50 (I guess that this keyboard supports it). If you play smooth or hard you will generate low or high velocity and this can change the loudness and other sound-parameters, which are set to follow the velocity.
A MIDI patchbay, through- or merge-box should not change velocity values by default. There is some gear around, which provides midi-filtering too, but those midi-filters are supposed to be set explicitly.
Thank you everyone. There is no velocity curve setting that I can find on the D-50. It is an old synth. So maybe it is just how it is going to have to be.
Richtoon.
But it doesn’t have to be!
Check pg25 of A4 PDF manual, specifically the Velocity to Volume section.
Give some tweaks to the various options therein.
I have an Arturia Keystep MIDI’d in to my A4. Keystep sends velocity msgs to the A4, which it correctly interprets. Soft keystrokes produce softer sounds, while harder keypresses produce louder sounds. Softer/louder than what the keypads on the A4 produce. The velocity from the Keystep is recorded into the Live Recording on the A4. That was a pleasant surprise for me.
Thanks. Made a rookie mistake. I did not upgrade the OS. Now the manual make WAY more sense.
