Hi, I have a Kawai MP-5 and also a Yamaha DGX-205. I was going to sell the Yamaha, but I though that it'd be cool to get a second tier so I could have both of them together and what not. Anyway, the point I want to make is the only MIDI port on the back of the Yamaha is USB, while the Kawai has in out and thru, and USB. Is there anyway of linking the Yamaha up to the Kawai so I can use the Kawai as a MIDI controller? Thanks in advance!
Hi, I think your best bet is just hooking them both to a computer. You can try a USB type B to type B cable (here's a reference guide, I'm not sure what plugs are on your boards), but having never tried that I cannot vouch for success (or that it doesn't fry something - you might want to check the manuals first).
No - there's no easy way to do it, not without a midi in on the Yamaha. You'd need more hardware in between.
A computer with suitable software and two free USB ports. You'll need to route the midi signal (in the software) in from one keyoard and out to the other.
I don't know what your level of expertise is and that's important for explaining what you might try. Have you ever used one of the common DAWs - a digital audio workstation software - Cubase, Logic, ProTools? If you've one of these set up already you need to set "MIDI Thru" to on and map the MIDI input of the Kawai to the Yamaha. What's the computer's audio/midi hardware set-up? Have you a PCI card with midi in? If so try midi out from Kawai into the compter's midi in. Have the Yamaha attached by USB. See if the Yamaha is showing as a midi output mapping option in the software. See if there's a midi in signal getting into the software from the Kawai. Select a track and have the midi in set to the midi in from the PCI card and the out to the Yamaha. If you have yet to dip your toes in the world of Cubase (or Logic or Sonar or n-Tracks or any of the DAWs) - I'd forget it. If you can record midi info into a DAW and have it coming out for playback - give it a go. Good luck.
Yeah I've got Cubase, and I have a CI1 USB audio interface, however, somehow I don't think that will be of help to me. I'll try sticking them both into my laptop through Cubase and have a play around with it all and see what happens. However I can imagine there might be a lot of latency because of the lengthy process to get them to connect, but I'll have a go out of interest! I'll get back to you on whether it works or not; thanks!
Try MIDI Master or MIDI Translator Classic. If all you want to do is connect the two boards together, either one will do - and they're free. I like XG on Stage too, though it's a bit... unfinished.
You don't need the interface, just two type A to type B USB cables, like this: or one of the above, and one USB-MIDI interface, like this: Connect both boards to the computer making sure that the devices are recognized (you have to install drivers for the MIDI-USB device, for example), then open a new cubase project, create a MIDI track, set the "in" device to the name the Kawaii and the "out" to the Yamaha and you should be good to go. Latency shouldn't be anything noticeable, not even with an old computer.
