USB Midi and USB Audio

[OldTimerBill]

In watching reviews of various keyboards some (including the AKX10) say they have USB Midi AND USB Audio and they go on to say something like “so you don’t need a separate audio interface”. I think I know what this means as far as hooking the AKX10 to external speakers but are there any other benefits of having USB Audio? Thanks for any information.

 

[theshape]

The usb audio and usb midi is for hooking the akx10 to your computer for audio playback or audio/midi recording. Since it supports usb audio in and out, you can load up a VST on your computer and play it back on your internal keyboard speakers.

The akx10 goes one step up in that it features bluetooth audio and bluetooth midi. You connect akx10 to your computer wirelessly with no cables for audio playback or midi recording. The drawback with using bluetooth instead of a usb cable is latency. When you press a note on the keyboard there is a delay when you hear the note played back, to remedy this you need to install Asio drivers on your computer, there is a free one called Asio4all, that will minimize the latency.

 

[OldTimerBill]

@theshape Thanks very much for the quick reply. Let me be sure I understand. When you said, "The usb audio and usb midi is for hooking the akx10 to your computer for audio playback or audio/midi recording." I assume the "audio/midi recording" part means when you plug a usb cable from the AKX10 to a computer you can record audio, midi, or both in a DAW.

I'm not sure I understand the second part. "Since it supports usb audio in and out, you can load up a VST on your computer and play it back on your internal keyboard speakers." Are there 2 possibilities here? One would require a DAW and the other would require stand-alone vsts if you weren't using a DAW. In the first possibility, you would open your DAW, set up some tracks to receive the midi from the AKX10, assign some vsts to those tracks and when you played the AKX10 the sound could be routed through the vsts and back through your keyboard speakers. Is that right?

The second possibility would be the same except instead of using a DAW you would use a stand-alone vst. I will have to research how you would get the right midi channel to the right vst.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.

 

[theshape]

Yes, you plug in the usb cable from the keyboard to your computer to record audio or midi using your daw.

Both daw and stand alone vst will work to route your audio back to the keyboard speakers. I tried it with Keyscape and omnisphere stand alone vst and was able to route the audio back to the keyboard speakers, tried it with Reaper daw and was able to route the audio back to the keyboard speakers.

 

[OldTimerBill]

Thanks again. I will give this a try when I get my AKX10. I own Reaper and Studio One so one of those should work. I also just bought Komplete 13 so I should be able to find some instruments that sound good.

 

[theshape]

You'll figure it out in no time. I just got the keyboard recently too, this is my first arranger keyboard. I saw your other thread regarding the styles. I have not tried it but it is said you can convert the yamaha styles (sty) format using the medeli software and then load them on the keyboard. There is a video on youtube about that.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

In simple terms, USB audio is essentially a digital alternative to analog audio.

If you connect your keyboard to external speakers, headphones, or some audio device-- including a computer's audio connections-- using standard TRS audio cables, the analog signal can be prone to things like line noise. Digital signals tend to be cleaner and less prone to noise, although certainly not immune to it.

And if you're connecting to a computer or any other device that uses digital audio, the analog signal needs to be converted to digital, and the digital signal needs to be converted to analog, depending on whether it's going to or from the computer. Keyboards that don't have USB audio must either have their analog audio converted to digital using an external audio interface before going to the computer, or else have it converted to digital by the computer's internal sound card. Some computers have high quality sound cards, but others have cards which are not as good as what an external audio interface would typically have.

Additionally, USB signals can usually carry several audio channels at the same time, as opposed to just a single mono channel or a pair of left/right stereo channels. Indeed, a single USB connection can be used for input and output simultaneously, as opposed to needing separate analog input and analog output audio jacks.

So basically, USB audio offers a better quality signal, as well as a much less complicated connection as far as the number of jacks and cables needed. And the same USB connection that's carrying the digital audio input/output signals can simultaneously be carrying MIDI input/output signals.

 

[OldTimerBill]

@SeaGtGruff Thank you very much for this information. I am beginning to understand. It will probably help to hook things up and listen.

 

[OldTimerBill]

I got my AKX10 a few days ago and I am having a lot of fun with it. I am tempted to create a few YouTube videos just to give it some additional exposure but I need to learn more about it before I do. Is this forum the best place to get small questions answered?

In keeping with the original subject of this thread, I did hook the AKX10 to a couple of devices (iPad and computer) and was pleasantly surprised at how it performed.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

As far as asking questions about a specific brand and model of keyboard, you can always ask, but whether any users have the knowledge and experience specific to that keyboard to give an informed answer is unknown until you ask.