I am constantly trying to find ways to keep the relative Volumes of my Songs equal across the entire set list.

I know that Drum Voices are not editable in the same ways as other Voices. Except for changing Velocity of the events on a Drum part, there is I presume a limit chosen by the Yamaha programmers as to how loud any one Drum waveform will be, all other things being equal. 

So you’d think the snare drum in, say, the Hyper Standard Kit, if the Velocity and Volume are uniform from Song to Song that it would be a way by which I could begin constructing my Songs with a built in “barometer” of Volume from the get-go. 

But I’m finding that’s not the case and I’m quite surprised and confused.

I’ve got Songs where the channel volume setting for very same Hyper Standard snare is down in the 30’s and it’s still TOO loud for the rest of the instruments. (It’s usually the other way around, because the Drum Voice output levels are fixed.) And when I A/B that Song with another that is using the very same snare drum, same velocity, same volume level, similar style of Song, going through the same mixer and speakers—the contrast is quite apparent.

So my question is… HOW can that be?