Hello All

I am about to buy a digital piano. The one I have my eye on, a Yamaha, has no dedicated MIDI connections, but it does have a ‘USB to Host’.

Further down the road I would like to add a hardware sequencer/ synth.

My queries are:
– Is ‘USB to Host’ a one-way connection only?
– If it is one-way only, what functionality if any might I be losing out on? (I am not sure what ‘midi-in’ on a keyboard does, if this is in any way related).

For various reasons I am keen to avoid using a computer based DAW.

Thanks for any help. This is a very confusing subject!

As I understand it is a MIDI out but I get the impression that as it is MIDI over USB you’ll need to run it into a DAW although maybe Yamaha will do something fpdifferent with their gear as it seems to be just the developing it.

Midi in on a keyboard allows you to sequence and play the onboard sounds from a DAW or sequencer. This is why master keyboards that have no sounds only have midi out. Well, mine does anyway.

Can’t help with the USB thing as none of my gear was made this century ☺️

If the future goal is to use the keyboard keys to play some external synths then midi out is fine. Midi in to your keyboard is only needed if you want to play it’s sounds from another device OR it has patch our sound change functionality; that way another device could tell your keyboard to switch to a certain sound.

I think you can get USB to DIN converters so you could use that midi connection to control external stuff

What is the keyboard you are looking at?

It’s a Yamaha P125 digital piano.

So, based on my understanding then, with Midi Out only I can use a sequencer to store something I play on the Yamaha and replay/ mess around with it. I can also use the Yamaha to control other devices, and record that on the sequencer if I want to.

The only thing I can’t do is to get the sequencer/ other devices to play something on the Yamaha that has been ‘played’ on a different device.

Correct?

There are similar pianos to the Yamaha that DO have Midi In and Out and I am trying to work out if it would make more sense to get one of these instead i.e what benefit if any is there to ‘playing’ the Yamaha from a synth or sequencer?

On the synths I have, USB over Midi is both in and Out.
With Midi Out you can use your digital piano to control another Midi device.
If you want to play the piano from a DAW or other device you will need Midi in

It’s plausible that a piano could be audio only out – I.e. the USB device doesn’t act over MIDI, it just outputs an audio signal. Happily that doesn’t seem to be the case here, it just looks like it’s MIDI over USB.

https://www.yamahamusiclondon.com/P-125-Portable-Digital-Piano/pidNP125BUK

I haven’t looked it up but Yamaha music documentation is really good IME. You’ll probably find the exact feature set in the manual if you look it up online.

A supplier has just confirmed the USB serves as Midi In also! Hallelujah.

Thank you for the help.

I can’t wait to make some awful music.

So, based on my understanding then, with Midi Out only I can use a sequencer to store something I play on the Yamaha and replay/ mess around with it. I can also use the Yamaha to control other devices, and record that on the sequencer if I want to.

Remember MIDI only sends data, not audio – so yes you absolutely can send MIDI to a sequencer but it’s only storing the notes and not any sound. The sequencer needs to send that MIDI to something else (a plugin if in a DAW, or external hardware) for it to actually make a sound. As you’ve now found that Yamaha has MIDI in over USB then this is all good but just wanted to clarify! (I think you probably already knew this, but just wanted to make sure!)

If I was you I’d want to check out exactly what ‘host’ means.

Typically these days you have a computer with various USB devices plugged straight into it. The computer acts as a hub. (Previously, you could just daisy-chain your MIDI devices)

You say you want to avoid having a DAW in the setup but you might need something playing that role just to route MIDI signals around – I don’t know if you can just plug one USB synth straight into another and expect them to talk to each other nicely.

(anyone else know??)

Or, something like this might do a similar job… – https://kentonuk.com/product/midi-usb-host-mkii/

Pretty sure that USB to host is to use with one of these: Yamaha UD-WL01 USB Wireless LAN Adaptor

https://www.yamahamusiclondon.com/product.php?product_id=YAM-UD-WL01&source=froogle&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo5Gy0rqR7QIVcYBQBh3sRAaUEAQYASABEgIRhvD_BwE

Which then allows you to send audio files via the IOS app to the piano. It encodes them as backing tracks.

We’ve got a Yamaha YDP-144 and use it with the above, but it also has a USB-B output to connect MIDI.

The Kenton box that Doris5000 mentions above will work if you want to add a midi (but non-usb midi) device further down the line. I’ve got a cheap full size usb-midi controller keyboard going into something similar to control my non-usb synths without a laptop/pc being involved 👍