My Nord Pianos sound quite different through audio interface

[ajsomer]

Hi guys,

Hope you all can help me out as this has been bugging me for a little bit.

I currently have a Nord Piano 5 and a Electro 6. When I plug my headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO 250 Ohms) directly into the headphone out port of both pianos, I get an unbelievable piano tone that I love. I am a musician that livestreams on Twitch, and I run my set up through an Apollo x 4 with a stereo track for the Piano 5 and mono tracks for both guitar and vocals with the same headphones plugged into the headphone port.

When I'm listening to the piano through the Apollo, it sounds lifeless and dull. I can't really describe what the difference is in any other terms than that. I've tried every combination of Unison preamps/no preamps but I'm not able to get it close to what I hear out of the box with my headphones. I understand that if I was using different output devices I would get a different sound, but I'm using the same headphones but getting such different results.

My initial thought is maybe I need to run the piano through a DI? But would that make such a huge difference in the tone?

[maurus]

Maybe it's the Apollo's headphone output which your phones don't like? Do other sources sound good with your phones through the Apollo, and is it just a problem with the Nords? Or are all sounds affected? Then there might be an impedance matching issue (with strong effects on sound). If so, perhaps a headphone amp would help, or else a different set of phones, better suited to the Apollo's output. But that's all just a guess on my part as I am not acquainted with the gear you are using.

[cgrafx]

Almost 100% sure you are mono mixing the inputs on the Apollo.

Unless there is specifically a Stereo channel on the Apollo interface, every input is a treated as a mono channel. To run a pair of inputs in stereo, you will have to manually adjust the pan on each channel in the headphone mix to Left and Right.

[analogika]

Almost 100% sure you are mono mixing the inputs on the Apollo.

Unless there is specifically a Stereo channel on the Apollo interface, every input is a treated as a mono channel. To run a pair of inputs in stereo, you will have to manually adjust the pan on each channel in the headphone mix to Left and Right.

This.

[maurus]

Of course. That's the first thing to be checked - I shouldn't have assumed it was dealt with already.

[analogika]

Of course. That's the first thing to be checked - I shouldn't have assumed it was dealt with already.

It is so "not obvious" if you don’t routinely deal with audio routing… and even then.

[ajsomer]

Almost 100% sure you are mono mixing the inputs on the Apollo.

Unless there is specifically a Stereo channel on the Apollo interface, every input is a treated as a mono channel. To run a pair of inputs in stereo, you will have to manually adjust the pan on each channel in the headphone mix to Left and Right.

They've actually got a built in link functionality that merges two mono channels into stereo and auto-pans everything for you. It's also quite useful as you don't have to double up on plugins for two different channels on the mixing console.

Fun fact, I tried a different interface I've got for my PC (Audient ID24) and for some reason, my $4,000 interface doesn't sound as good (with my nord) as the iD24. Now I'm thinking I'll just do some cheeky ADAT routing to my Apollo and see if that makes a difference.

I don't feel like it's a headphone driving issue, as my Audient sounds as good as my Apollo. Logically you'd think that the costlier Apollo could drive headphones as well as the Audient.

I was reading on the Apollo website that the combijacks on the back of the unit don't like unbalanced TS signals? This was the main reason why I was considering a DI in between the Nord and the Apollo.

EDIT: Maybe I should unlink the channels and try running it as 'mono' but panning it left and right. Since the Nord is outputting an unbalanced mono signal, that actually would make the most sense. Which would also explain why the Audient sounds better than the Apollo because it's taking two mono inputs and I'm panning it left and right on their digital mixer. LOL. Thanks for your help guys

[ajsomer]

So there is a discernible difference in sound going from 'Linked Stereo' in the Apollo console to having two mono channels panned left and right. No idea why that would be, but I'm happy there isn't a need for me to run an ADAT connection from another interface. Appreciate all of your help!

[analogika]

That is so weird.