Question

Hello,

I have a new studiolive 16 series three mixer (love it so far!).  I have an older Roland V-Drum kit and and contemplating upgrading to the new TD-50 (which among many features has multi-track digital out via USB).  On p30 of TD-50 manual it describes the process of connecting TD-50 to a computer DAW via USB- up to 10 outputs for multitrack recording.  My question is: can a TD-50 send direct digital USB into a studiolive 16 board for live performance? If possible, this would be amazing- I could go direct digital, and free up 8 XLRs on the back of my board.  I don't have access to a TD-50 and no one on the V-drum forums could tell me.

Answer 1

It is not possible to connect the Roland TD-50 via USB directly into the StudioLive without routing analog in the way you are doing now. Roland is referring to is the ability to connect their box via USB into your computer as it acts as a multi-channel input device to your DAW. Then once it's in the DAW you can mix inside your DAW with the StudioLive as your Output Device.

Starting with Studio One 3.5+ there's a really cool feature that allows you to have your input be a different device than your Output. In your Audio Configuration menu in Studio One, you'd select TD-50 for Input and StudioLive III for your output. Then you can monitor and record your drums directly to the output of the StudioLive. This solution only works well on a Mac. PC does not offer this type of flexibility due to the limitations of ASIO only allowed to have one device active at a time.