A great way to troubleshoot sound issues is to connect headphones directly to the sound output of the computer. This removes downstream audio devices and connectors from the equation, allowing you to hear how the software should sound. If there is a big difference between the sound in your headphones and the sound from your amp, then the issue you are experiencing is most likely related your audio gear, and not the software.

Too much reverb / some sounds audible, some are not / amp has to be turned up very loud to hear the software output

This is typically due to improper audio connectors.

If the wrong connectors and cables are used to route your computer’s audio signal from the headphone jack to an amplifier, the sound that results can often be highly objectionable. For example, if you connect a cable from the stereo 1/8th headphone jack of your computer to to a mono port on your amplifier, and the cable or adaptors used are not matched properly, the sound from your amp could be very reverb heavy, very low volume necessitating amp being turned all the way up, or some sounds in the software simply being inaudible.

This is because Stereo connectors (such as the headphone jack on most computers) consist of 3 connections: right channel, left channel, and ground. If mismatched connectors are used, very often it's the ground contact (sleeve) that breaks its connection first, leaving the two "hot" leads (left and right, tip and ring) still connected. With the ground open like this, you will still get a signal, but now it's the "difference" signal between the left and right channels; any signal that is in-phase in both channels cancels out. In practice, this means that the resulting sound is mostly the stereo reverb, and the centered mono signal (the original sound of the instrument patch without reverb) is phased out.

If you are experiencing this problem, you will want to use different cables and adaptors to route your audio signal. The ideal method involves faithfully routing the stereo signal from RMS Keyboards to a stereo amplifier, using a stereo cable connector (the amp connection side is often split into two channels, each that plug into designated ports on the amp). If you are using a mono amplifier, the best approach is to use an adaptor that splits the signal into 2 mono 1/4” connectors, allowing you to plug in only one of the two into your amp.

note: some 1/8” stereo to 1/4” mono cables, such as the Hosa CMP-105 are intended for mono sources (on the 1/4” end) to stereo 1/8” output. The reverse usage with our software will result in problems outlined above.