connecting two keyboards together

[mark vaughan]

Hi I am looking for advice on how to connect two keyboards together , well it will be a korg pa 300 and a Yamaha 105 digital piano neither has any midi ports but they both support midi , I haven't got the Yamaha yet but I would like to be able to link these two together and have my pa 300 as my slave ? I went in music shop a few miles from me to look at the Yamaha and he came up with the idea of having the two linked together with the korg above the Yamaha and using the korg as my slave , how the heck does this work and would it work ? can I connect them together through the usb slots or is it a no go ? if it is possible how would they function together ? the guy I spoke to has many years experience n playing and selling keyboards and pianos I didn't go into detail with him but he seemed to think it would work as long as both keyboards have split function

I really like the sound of a digital piano and the weighted keys and I am starting to learn classical pieces but I also like playing the korg to and to have the best of both worlds would be good , he said I could play the korg styles through the Yamaha which would be great if I could

any advice ??

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If both keyboards have only USB connections, I think the only way to connect them is by having something between them-- usually a DAW running on a computer or tablet, or some sort of "MIDI yoke" program. Keyboards that use USB to transmit MIDI usually(?) need a driver-- you can't just connect them together via a USB cable-- which is why you need some sort of go-between so the two keyboards can "talk" to each other.

I haven't used one keyboard as the slave of another this way yet, but I've used a DAW to echo a keyboard's MIDI messages back to itself, which can used to echo the MIDI to multiple keyboards if desired. With Acoustica Mixcraft-- the DAW I use the most-- it's simple to send the keyboard's MIDI messages, then have the DAW echo them back to the keyboard in a variety of ways. For example, you can create harmonies by sending multiple layers of the same voice back on the same MIDI channel, but with each layer being transposed by a different musical interval (e.g., +0 semitones, +4 semitones, and +7 semitones). Or you can create multiple layers of different voices on different channels, such as layering four voices together (e.g., CH01 --> CH01, CH02, CH03, and CH04). Or you can create multiple splits using the same technique-- echoing back on multiple channels-- but with each channel limited to a specific range of notes (e.g., CH01 --> CH01, CH02, CH03, and CH04, where CH01 plays notes 0 - 31, CH02 plays notes 32 - 63, CH03 plays notes 64 - 95, and CH04 plays notes 96 - 127). And any of the output channels can be sent to any connected MIDI keyboard.

One thing you might want to do when trying this is to turn the "Local" function of the master keyboard off, otherwise the sounds will play on the master keyboard as well as on the slave keyboard-- which can be useful if that's actually what you want to have happen. So using "Local on" will let you mix the sounds of the two keyboards together, while "Local off" will silence the master keyboard and play the sounds on only the slave keyboard-- unless you're echoing the MIDI back to the master as well, in which case it will also respond to the incoming MIDI messages.

As far as both keyboards needing a split function, that shouldn't be necessary. Most MIDI-capable keyboards today are "multi-timbral," meaning they can play different voices at the same time, where each voice is controlled using a different MIDI channel. Even if the keyboard doesn't have a split or dual function, with a DAW or other utility you can take the notes from a single channel and echo them back to the keyboard on multiple channels at once, hence you can create splits and layers with the DAW even if the keyboard doesn't even have buttons or functions for doing that by itself. The only real advantage to splitting or layering a keyboard before you send its MIDI to a DAW is that each split or layer will be sent to the DAW on a different MIDI channel, allowing you to manipulate each channel differently.