Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards How to connect Ivory II?

Really? A diagram? Connect the USB to Host from the keyboard to the Mac USB for MIDI signals. Connect the digital audio out of the Mac to a digital audio input of the Receiver.

Optional - Connect analog audio output from the keyboard to an analog input on the receiver if you want the native keyboard audio.

Use the AVR receiver for equalization, 4 speakers, 8 speakers, subs, a DVD player, concerts on TV, auto equalization/speaker calibration, or whatever.

Given that people are posing questions about how to do these things, I think it's fair to assume that a diagram would help. It seems you don't agree.

Anyway, I'm off to the supermarket for some dip ... for the chip on your shoulder.

Well I feel like I'm getting hammered here for also just trying to help.

I suggest a solution that cost NOTHING if you already have an A/V receiver hanging around, and the next thing I know it's suggested that I proposed using a $2K receiver.

I suggest using DIGITAL audio from a Mac, and someone argues to me that a $2K external interface is better than the ANALOG audio from a Mac.

Purchased Vintage D and installed. Here is a comparison:

Vintage D:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwsdp8zff35p5al/Kontakt%205%2020121108%201912.1.mp3

Straight MP10:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kzqmlraiyr5tnmg/Audio-022s.mp3

I'm very pleased with the Vintage D sound pretty much straight out of the box. I have lots of learning to do with it. But it is far better than the straight MP10. Of course this is all personal preference. I'm mainly interested in acoustic artifacts. Not noises (hammer, pedal) that most refer to but other things such as weird resonance and string sounds that even experience players just don't hear. Guess my ear is weird in that sense. You can hear some of this at the very end of the Vintage D recording when the pedal is lifted. The Vintage D sounds more warm and stable in those recordings. That song (part of a piano arrangement for 'Lunar Industries') is particularly good since it requires this kind of double play on certain notes that creates an echo sound. Creating that sound is much easier with Vintage D. I'll keep adjusting Vintage D until I get it closer and closer to the sound I'm looking for. But so far so good.

I also noticed that the MP10 recording has some background static that I didn't noticed before. I used the MP10's USB slot for that recording. For the Vintage D recording, I used Audio Hijack but I did have to drop the file into iTunes then to dropbox before it every uploaded and played properly.

I'm going USB to USB and don't see any problems. I have no plans to drop $2k and not really sure what Macy is talking about. But I'm not familiar with that kind of setup. I'm very much a beginner with the virtual instruments.

For Vintage D, would there be any difference between a Macbook Air (with SSD drive) 1.7Ghz i5 vs 2.0Ghz i7?

Well, yes ... if you have a digital audio output and an AV receiver, that makes sense.

As for the quality of the sound ... I didn't have any problem with the (cheap) sound card in my (cheap) laptop, except for the latency, so I wouldn't use an external if I didn't need one for some other reason. And I don't doubt that ANY sound card will suit most anyone, save for the professional studio technician.

As for whether a $2000 interface is or is not better than a Mac (or PC) analog output ... who knows? Maybe dewster knows. But no one has offered anything to support that, and I can offer nothing either.

In the end, it is (for me) a moot point. I use an external card mainly for the improved latency. If I owned a Mac, I guess I would not need the external card. Or, if I had a modern PC, I'd likewise not need one. And if I had a Mac, I'd probably use that digital audio output, because my AV receiver has a digital audio input. (But I don't, so I cannot.)

Anyway ... any one of these solutions is more than adequate.

Do you think I suggested a $2K interface? Can anyone read?

I guess MacMacMac isn't back from the supermarket?

I hope you get great Mac advice from the PC guys. You didn't know how to open the Try-sound application and they recommended you buy an external audio interface for your Mac. Lot's of luck.

I'm out of here.

I'm glad it's working out for you. It sounds good. By default some of the settings in the noises section are a hit high. Sympathetic resonance, hammer noises, etc. You might try turning them down...it's likely to fix the complaint you have (I've heard it a bunch of times from people playing Vintage D for the first time, actually). Noises like that are selling points because they do technically add to richness, but in practice a little goes a long way.

Macy is saying that Macs typically have a digital audio output and if you are using a receiver with it, you can plug it in and it may do better than onboard audio cards or even external interfaces will do. I'm not sure which models have this feature, but you might check it out if you have a good receiver. Otherwise you can just ignore it.

As for which computer to use, I'm not sure how much I can help except to say that these software pianos typically either work or they don't. If they work on a low end system, there's usually no upside to using a higher end system. I'm still using a Core 2 Duo with a crusty old hard drive and very little RAM and I'm not sure I'm going to change that any time soon.

Thanks. I like all strange noises acoustics produce. I've set the Vintage D to Grand and it sounds even better.

I appreciate Macy's help. I don't have a receiver but I think just the Macbook Pro will work fine. I can probably get away with a little older used Macbook Air if you are using a 2 Duo.

Here's a sample of a real acoustic making some of those strange noises:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nlgvmxxytia9fhd/resonance.mp3

It's two clips in one file. The noise I'm after is in the background and you have to really listen. But it is some sort of resonance. It builds up really good at :03 and bends into :04. Then in the second part, it gets very distinct and makes this whistling noise at :07 that cuts off quickly at :07 as well. I imagine the player lifted the pedal. This is all happening because they are holding down the sustaining pedal. Do you have any ideas about that sound?

In my experience, most people don't hear it. I believe it comes from the same source. I'd like to try and dial in the Vintage D into it.

Macy, you seem to have an awful lot of preconceptions about PC users. Just because I said "Mac internal sound card" doesn't mean I always refer to it like that, nor does it mean that every PC user does so. I'm quite aware that it's not a "card", so please forgive the false information. It's just that I grew up with sound cards in a time when mainboards didn't have any integrated sound yet and there were no external audio interfaces. So I guess it slips out every now and then.

I find your suggested setup using an A/V receiver a bit odd. Of course I can't be sure but I think most people won't have such a receiver anywhere near their computer. I have one in the living room, wired up to a home cinema system and the TV but my PC/laptop and DP aren't anywhere close to that. Not to mention (this is at least true for my setup), this is optimized for cinema and isn't that great for music.

I was going to write when I read this comment, which more or less sums up everything I was going to write in a long post!

@Macy, phrases like: "There is no reason to use an external sound card in this way with a Mac. That is PC thinking", there are several PCs more powerful out there than your Mac, with different configurations, and there are certainly Mac with less high specs... and LOTS of professionals that use external sound cards on MACs. So its not a brand thing, but a case-by-case scenario. Audio cards or onboard audio are also a motherboard case-by-case scenario.

Perhaps it would be much more 'neutral' to not label people as having preconceptions (like "that's PC thinking") and just stating the helpful info that you have provided between the down-looking-at-PC-users comments? Why is it that every Mac owner (including the Mac designers!) thinks he needs to label the PC guy (remember the 'hey, I'm a Mac... hey, I'm a PC' commercials?) and then talk down the PC equipment in order to feel great about the Mac equipment? Aren't we past that point? By the way, PC users can give great MAC advice as you would probably be able to offer great PC advice now that most applications, files and settings are cross platform (and Macs are using Intel chips, which, by the way, they spoke ill of until they decided to use them themselves!).

@Brettr, I'm happy you are finding the Vintage D to your liking. I myself are now much in love with it . It took some getting used to playing again with the onboard sound... it certainly feels a bit 'less' now.

Good luck,
Rafa.

By the way: most PC mainboards with onboard sound have digital outputs as well. I fail to see what is Mac-specific here.

Edit: ok, that is rich. After some googling I just found that Macs use the same damned Realtek chips that are found on PC mainboards.

Edit2: more on topic, I tried Native Instruments "The Giant" yesterday and have to agree with Mac, it's really nice. I'm still getting to grips with it but I like what I've heard so far. Especially like the long decay times that can be achieved, something that I always found a bit lacking in most sampled pianos.

So that may be another option for you. It's fairly cheap at 99 Euros and can be downloaded directly from Native Instruments.

My only relevant preconceptions about PC users is that they often use an external interface and often refer to Macs having an "internal sound card".

But I could care less if you call the Mac DAC/audio circuitry an "internal sound card" or not. I don't know any Mac users that call it that because it has never been a user replaceable card in a Mac, so I simply wanted to clarify for the original poster (a Mac user) what you (and many other PC users) refer to when you said Mac "internal sound card". And that was a DAC (digital to audio converter) and its associated ANALOG audio output circuitry.

That is important because I never mentioned or recommended using the internal Mac DAC or Mac ANALOG audio circuitry in my earlier comments in this thread. My recommendation was to use the DIGITAL output of the Mac. I made no comment whatsoever about the Mac DAC/analog audio circuitry, but you argued that my comments about not needing an external interface were wrong because an external interface would provide better sound quality than the Mac internal ANALOG audio output soundcard. i.e. I recommended eating a pear and you said I was wrong because an orange tastes better than a tangerine. Your argument that I was wrong had nothing to do with what I recommended. But unless the original poster understood what you meant by the Mac internal soundcard he wouldn't understand that your argument had nothing to do with what I recommended.



This is why I am so pissed by this thread. I was NOT the person that recommended using a receiver in the first place. I responded to the recommendation and diagrams provided by MacMacMac that showed an external interface (DAC) and a RECEIVER in HIS recommended setup. I responded to that diagram with the following:



It is quite common with PCs to use an external sound card as a DAC and then feed the analog output of the external sound card to a receiver, power amplifier, powered speakers, or to headphones. But all Macs have a digital audio S/PDIF output. So with a Mac there is no reason to send digital audio over USB to an external soundcard and then feed the analog audio from the soundcard to an A/V receiver. You can simply connect the digital audio output of the Mac directly to the A/V receiver. The soundcard in the loop between the Mac and the A/V receiver serves NO PURPOSE unless the external soundcard has a better DAC and audio circuits than the receiver, and as I said it is unlikely that a cheap $150+ external interface will have a better DAC and analog audio circuitry than even a "merely good" A/V receiver. So my comment was aimed at the unnecessary addition of an external interface between the Mac and the A/V Receiver in another person's recommended setup.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with using an A/V receiver in a personal setup if you have one (and lots of people I know have an extra receiver hanging around after they upgrade their audio or home theater equipment), or want to buy one and use non-powered speakers rather than purchasing powered speakers to run from the output of an external interface. A decent A/V receiver will likely have multiple audio advantages (EQ/calibration etc) over an external interface, and be less expensive and more versatile if you take into account the additional cost of powered speakers and a more limited selection of powered speakers.

Finally, you brought up using a $2000 "professional quality" external firewire interface in a professional setting. I NEVER recommended anyone use a $2000 interface (or a $2000 receiver), but I agreed there were legitimate reasons for using such a product in a professional situation. But whether or not a $2000 external firewire interface would produce any better sound than an equivalently priced expensive A/V receiver is debatable, but not something I would debate here.

It's completely irrelevant that there are PCs with lessor, the same, or more powerful hardware than any particular Mac. The OP's question was how to setup his Mac, not a PC. It is irrelevant that there are professionals that use external sound cards on Macs (as I said earlier there are reasons for using external firewire cards on Macs in a professional setting). The OP is not using the Mac in a professional situation. Everything you say above is true and irrelevant to the OP's question about how to set up his Mac.

MacMacMac responded to the OP's original question with the suggestion to place an external USB interface between his Mac and an A/V receiver. I wrote that the USB interface was unnecessary and provided no advantage when used in this way, i.e. when placed between the Mac and an A/V receiver. And yes, lots of PC users do exactly as suggested by MacMacMac, so it does come from PC thinking because it is not necessary with any Mac because they all have S/PDIF digital audio outputs. It provides no advantage when connected to an A/V receiver as in MacMacMac's diagram (unless the interface has a better DAC/headphone output than the A/V Receiver - which is highly unlikely for a $150 USB interface).

The fact that there are legitimate reasons for using an external interface with a Mac in a professional installation (as I agreed) is irrelevant to the OP's situation and to MacMacMac's recommended setup which included an A/V Receiver.




Apparently you aren't past this point. You took my comment, which simply reflects the fact that a lot of PC users put an external USB interface between a PC and A/V receiver (as suggested by MacMacMac - a PC user) as some sort of insult to PC users. It was simply meant to let the Mac user know that while this was common practice for PC users it is not necessary for a Mac user because his Mac has a direct S/PDIF digital audio output. There are countless examples of how things are done differently on a Mac (Mac thinking) versus a PC (PC thinking). How anyone should be offended as you obviously were, by pointing out a distinction relevant to the user's situation is beyond me.



You seem to have some really hostile feelings related to Macs or Apple. But you are directing them at the wrong person. I use Windows and Macs constantly in my professional life. I owned the first IBM PC model ever produced in 1981 and the first Mac model ever produced in 1984. Until I finally started running Windows on my Macs, I've always had both current PCs and current Macs on my desks continuously ever since they were introduced. I do IC hardware, firmware, and software design under Windows and software design under Mac OS X. They are very different platforms. As an engineer I couldn't function without Windows and OS X so I can't relate to only-one-or-the-other hostility between the two platforms. I happen to use Mac OS X for my virtual piano related activities so I can comment and try to be helpful on these matters as they relate to Macs. I don't use Windows for virtual pianos so I wouldn't dare try to give advice to a PC user on this application.

My advice is Mac specific. It was directed to a Mac user only. I have no idea if it would apply to some, none, or all current PCs. I don't try to keep track of PC hardware and I don't give advice to PC users about setting up their systems.

With all due respect, you said "that's PC thinking". How can you say such a thing after you admit you don't know much about PC technology? Besides, why is something "common practice for PC users" when one guy made a diagram? I know absoutely nobody nor have I ever heard of anyone who uses an A/V receiver as a DAC for their PC sound. Of course this may be just my own shortcoming.

People who use VST's are usually not far away from having a bit of a home studio. If you want to connect your DP and beside playing VST's maybe record the DP's own audio back into the computer, you want an audio interface that has such connectivity. An A/V receiver is just an alien piece in such a setup as it doesn't have any appropriate audio inputs for the signal to get back to the computer. It won't have midi ports either. It doesn't come with drivers and mixing/monitoring software either so it won't be fully integrated with the OS. It also has the wrong kind of connectors, usually cinch instead of the more commonly used jack or even XLR in studio equipment. Let's not even talk about portability for those with laptops: would you rather lug around an A/V receiver or a small, dedicated firewire or usb audio interface?

We're probably beating the dead horse by now, but I just found the sum of your arguments in these past posts a bit strange.

I don't see any respect. You twist just about everything that I say.



I never said I don't know much about PC technology. I design software for use on PC's. I've used PC's since 1981 when they were introduced. I said I don't use PC's for virtual pianos and don't track which PC's include which hardware, which is a completely different thing than not knowing much about PC technology.



Again you twist what I said. I never said using a A/V receiver was common practice for PC users. I said using an external audio interface was common practice for PC users.



I reject your claim that people using VST's are usually not far from a home studio unless you mean something very simple that would never qualify as a studio. You brought up using a $2000 audio interface. I would agree if you start purchasing equipment in that range you might be (or should be) approaching a home studio. But simply connecting a DP to a computer to record the DP's analog audio doesn't a home studio make.

Congratulations you made my point again. Using an audio interface to simply record analog audio for home use is another example of "PC thinking". Many macs don't need an audio interface to record analog audio (some do). They do it directly through their audio line-in inputs. My Mac Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini all have ADC's on their audio line inputs. But you apparently don't know that since you are thinking about PC's and not Macs. If you need real studio quality audio recording then of course you use an audio interface, otherwise on many Macs just use the audio line-in for home quality.



You are more than beating a dead horse. You continue to distort what I said to create an argument. You did it from the very beginning when you started this whole argument suggesting I was wrong about NOT using an external audio interface because a $2000 external audio interface has better quality DACs than the Macs built-in DAC. But it was very clear that I never suggested using the Mac's DAC in the first place. From your very first post you ignored that to create an argument that had NOTHING to do with what I said.

You also know I didn't recommend using an A/V receiver to create a "home studio" or any other kind of studio. So nothing you wrote about A/V receivers not working in a studio environment or for professional use applies to anything I said or recommended. You just create another argument that has NOTHING to do with what I said. Moreover, you ignored the fact that I agreed there were legitimate reasons for an external audio interface in such applications.

I recommended not using an external USB audio interface between a Mac and A/V Receiver (which was recommended by someone else). Everything else is just continued attempts to distort and twist what I said to have something to argue with. It's getting very tired.