USB MIDI

Hi,
I recieved a synth [Yamaha MM6] for Christmas, and I've finally found the cable to connect it to my computer. It's a USB cable, and with the driver Cubase picks it up. This is all great. But - it sounds crap. My sound card is a SoundMAX [something]. Not very good. I've been looking at other soundcards, e.g. M-Audio 192. It has imputs from the card, MIDI and standard jack cables. Would I still be able to use the new sound card with the synth plugged in through the USB, or would I need to plug the synth via MIDI cable directly into the sound card?

Whoa, wait a minute.

Are you trying to connect your synth to your computer to record MIDI or audio? If it's audio then how - and more importantly WHY - the heck are you doing it through USB?

If it's MIDI then I don't see what quality issues you can be having; MIDI is just code, after all - digital instructions. There's no actual sound in a MIDI sequence, it's just instructions for your soundcard's built-in sounds to process.

I'm somewhat confused, so some clarification would help.

Ok. I'm a novice - so try to understand.

I have a Yamaha MM6 Synthesizer. It comes with Cubase LE and says you can plug directly to your computer VIA USB cable. I've done that, it works. But the sound's that I'm hearing through my computer, are no where near as good as the sounds that come through the device itself.

So, to get better sounds through the computer, do I need to upgrade my sound card? And if so, will the difference still be heard with the synth plugged in through USB cable, or would it be better to plug it in VIA MIDI cable, directly into the soundcard.

Hmm.. So you want the sound to be heard through your keyboard? That's possible. Just assign the midi output of the channel to the midi out of your midi cable. When you press play, the sound will come out from your keyboard.

No, I want the sound coming through my computer, out my Altec Lansing speakers. I've got that, but it sounds really bad, nothing like what the synth is capable of.

This is very bizarre. I'm understanding that you want to hear the synth's onboard sounds transferred to your computer speakers - the audio signal. So why in the hells are you using a USB interface to accomplish this?

Your soundcard almost certainly has a Line-In port, no matter how crappy it is, so just buy an AUDIO cable to connect from the keyboard's audio ports to the Line-In on your computer. You'll likely need two patch cables going from your synth (for Right and Left audio channels) and then a device to turn those two into one single point that plugs into your soundcard. It's all about $30 and 2 minutes at your nearest RadioShack.

I have no idea why you'd want to transfer audio via USB, and indeed I didn't even know it could be done. It's an inherently lossy way of transferring this kind of data and causes problems even for simple MIDI signals because of latency and all those good things.

Anyhow, if all you wanted was the audio then for god's sake buy the proper cable and don't bother trying to make it work through USB.

Are you after Audio or MIDI Ed?

Describe to us exactly how you want to use your keyboard when composing.

MIDI, so I can change between Cubase and Sibelius. I have the MIDI going through USB. I just want to improve the sound my computer gives out of the speakers. To do this, can I just buy a new sound card, and keep the USB, or buy a new sound card and plug the synth directly into the sound card via MIDI cable?

*sigh*

Okay, so right now what you're doing is taking the MIDI signal from your synth - that is, using your synth as nothing more than a MIDI controller, (as we suggested you do initially, I might add) - and you're playing it back using General MIDI sounds found on every soundcard at more or less the same uniformly unimpressive quality. And you're expecting it to sound good.

So now you have two options. If you want to hear your synth's onboard sounds playing the MIDI daya, you need to re-route the MIDI signal to go back out to the synth. Then, you need audio cables to connect from your synth to your soundcard's Line-In port (assuming it has one). Then, in the same instance of Cubase, you'll need to create an audio track and have it record what's coming in from Line-In.

Alternately, you could have listened to us and saved money by buying a simple MIDI controller and some sound libraries, in which case you would only need to tell Cubase to play the MIDI data using said sound libraries - no extra cables, no hassle. And almost any sound library you can buy these days has much higher-quality sounds than a synth does, for the fairly obvious reason that a synth isn't really trying for realism, just versatility. Hence "synth."

Actually, come to think of it, you've only really got the first option unless you plan on doing some trading back (hope you kept that gift receipt...)

So....good luck with that.

I have much inexperience in the field of midi instruments but the solution to the problem may just be turning down the volume on your synthesizer. I had a friend who had a similar problem.