Question for Yamaha YC users around iOS audio interface and external controllers

[Sam Mullins]

For you YC 61/73/88 owners, suppose I wanted to do the following:

 

- YC73 with iPad connected on USB audio
- External controller (e.g. Arturia Keylab Mkii) MIDI out -> YC73 MIDI In

 

Will the YC73 pass the midi messages from the Arturia through to the iPad?

 

If so, can I do the following simultaneously:

- Play piano on one zone of the YC73
- Play an iPad sound A on another zone of YC73
- Play the YC73 organ from one key range of the Arturia
- Play an iPad sound B from another key range of the Arturia

 

Planning for old age downsizing of rig at some point 

[octa]

I've been thinking of doing something like this too. There may be some advanced setting that will do it in zones etc., but I don't think so. 

 

Actually "refined" this ideascale submission today, but am not very hopeful that it will make the cut: https://yamahasynth.ideascale.com/c/profile/25698/my-ideas/author/stage/all/ideas/unspecified

 

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Posted on Yamaha site:

 

Refining this further (because it would be a convenient feature on my YC88):

 

"USB audio to external" - would allow a separate keyboard (which uses Yamaha's MIDI DIN in) to play sounds from tablet/phone/computer (which uses YC** USB Audio interface). Synths/organs/etc. from tablet/phone/computer could then be played by the separate keyboard.

 

Personally, this would allow me to play B-3X/Omnisphere/Keyscape/Arturia V9 with an unweighted action, instead of YC88's weighted action.

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, Sam Mullins said:

For you YC 61/73/88 owners, suppose I wanted to do the following:

 

- YC73 with iPad connected on USB audio
- External controller (e.g. Arturia Keylab Mkii) MIDI out -> YC73 MIDI In

 

Will the YC73 pass the midi messages from the Arturia through to the iPad?

I'm almost certain the answer is no.

 

1 hour ago, Sam Mullins said:

 

If so, can I do the following simultaneously:

- Play piano on one zone of the YC73
- Play an iPad sound A on another zone of YC73
- Play the YC73 organ from one key range of the Arturia
- Play an iPad sound B from another key range of the Arturia

The first three should be easy. The fourth is the one you can't do using the wiring you described. But you should be able to do it all by changing your wiring. Connect both the YC73 and the external controller to the iPad, and use something like Camelot Pro or Keystage to route everything where you want it to go.

[octa]

10 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

Connect both the YC73 and the external controller to the iPad, and use something like Camelot Pro or Keystage to route everything where you want it to go.

this is the part I'd like to avoid, because it requires a hub + more setup/breakdown. .

[Stokely]

If it's like the Modx, it makes you choose usb or midi (perhaps just for transmit, in which case you might be ok).

My solution when I was considering a setup where Modx and Keyboard 2 could talk to each other AND have either one use the ipad was indeed to use a hub and software on the ipad to do it as Scott described.  In my case I tested with Midiflow and I think it would have worked...I only used one app and didn't need something like Keystage, as the app responded to whatever sent the ipad messages on the channel I set up.   

I kind of backed away from the complication since that test though.   On the plus side, an unpowered hub worked so it wasn't really much extra (the whole cable "squid" I could pretty much keep together and make relatively neat.)

[Sam Mullins]

51 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

I'm almost certain the answer is no.

 

The first three should be easy. The fourth is the one you can't do using the wiring you described. But you should be able to do it all by changing your wiring. Connect both the YC73 and the external controller to the iPad, and use something like Camelot Pro or Keystage to route everything where you want it to go.

 

31 minutes ago, Stokely said:

My solution when I was considering a setup where Modx and Keyboard 2 could talk to each other AND have either one use the ipad was indeed to use a hub and software on the ipad to do it as Scott described.  In my case I tested with Midiflow and I think it would have worked...I only used one app and didn't need something like Keystage, as the app responded to whatever sent the ipad messages on the channel I set up.   
 

Yeah this was the backup plan. 

 

Could also be done with iPad off of USB of Arturia and routing YC MIDI out to Arturia IN (it has an option to echo MIDI IN to USB)., although this doesn't utilize the YC audio interface. 

 

Thanks for the replies.  

[Sam Mullins]

48 minutes ago, Stokely said:

I kind of backed away from the complication since that test though.   On the plus side, an unpowered hub worked so it wasn't really much extra (the whole cable "squid" I could pretty much keep together and make relatively neat.)

 

I'll add that although I would like to make my rig lighter, I do like the fact that my whole MIDI interconnection is two cables between Stage and Kronos.  Keep extra cables in bag and nothing else that might cause failure.  I bring this up because I was testing out some possibilities yesterday with my iPad and existing keyboards with a (admittedly cheap) USB hub...and the inside of the USB A connector on the hub broke...had to toss it in the garbage.  So yeah...everytime you add something, there's that accumulation of reliability risk.

 

[Paul Woodward]

I have a YC61 with iPad connected which I control from a Roland A800. You can turn midi thru off by setting the midi out port to off and usb port midi to on. Audio is routed through the YC so you can do that part. As for controlling other parts, you need to set the YC to master keyboard mode which allows for four zones. You may have to dig into the manual at this point but I believe you can do some, if not all of what you want.