Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards The new Macbook w/ USB-C and implications for digital pianos

I have a Casio Digital Piano and a Macbook Air. The weight of the Air was causing a plank of my piano to curve, so I started doing things a bit different to prevent further curving. And I was looking forward to today's announcement of a new Macbook.

So, it turns out that the new Macbook has only one port: A USB Type-C port. This means that I'll need a $19 adapter just to be able to plug it to my piano. If I want to also charge it at the same time, I'll need a different, more expensive adapter ($79).

In the past, when Apple has gotten rid of something, that something (Floppy disks, CD-ROMs, hard drives, firewire, Adobe Flash) goes the way of the dodo after some years. Now it's the turn of USB Type A connectors. And it's not far-fetched to imagine this. After all, USB ports are already blocked on many offices and people are used to sending and receiving stuff via the Internet.

I wonder if everything that used to rely on physical USB connections will soon start migrating to Bluetooth or similar protocols. Keyboards and mice are already going in this direction. What about digital pianos? Do you think we'll soon see "MIDI over Bluetooth" or a similar standard in Digital Pianos?

Maybe piano makers will move to USB Type C ports? What do you think?

Quite possibly.

I use one of these with my iPad:

https://vimeo.com/94363098

A recent firmware update has added support for the 'Apple Bluetooth LE MIDI' protocol built into iOS8/OS X Yosemite - it works very well! Low latency, and completely wireless.

Cheers,
James
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Hi James,

Does it only work with mobile devices? Or would it be possible to use the device to run Pianoteq on a MacBook Pro using a Kawai CA13 as the controller?

Cheers!

The mi.1's earlier firmwares were only compatible with iOS and required an additional app in order to 'connect' to whatever MIDI app you wished to use. However, with the v2 firmware, the mi.1 supports the Apple bluetooth MIDI protocol natively on both iOS8 and OS X Yosemite.

So to answer your question, yes, you could indeed use a mi.1 plugged into the CA13's MIDI ports to control Pianoteq running on a Macbook Pro wirelessly. However, I'd still perhaps recommend using a simple MIDI-->USB adaptor.

Cheers,
James
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Do you experience any latency with the mi.1?
Some people who bought this on Amazon complained about this (read the comments).

Just FYI: Some Rolands run wirelessly over wlan to iOS and Android devices. This allows you to design your piano and record on that device. You can also play along to music from the library on that device and hear it over the built in speakers of the keyboard or outputs. Kind of a gimmick in my opinion. Since the Rolands have no digital outputs it would be nice to use the wireless connection with a DAW, but that's not possible.

IMHO: the new Macbook is just one of those gimmicks as well (just like the watch). It's pretty but useless as herpes.
Do not get fooled, it is 'only' a MacBook, and not a MacBook Pro. I strongly hope Apple will get off its high horse soon and bring out products that are more functional than beautiful. I hope the new MBP will have more connectors than just this exotic one. I am only getting used to the Thunderbolt connections which I am starting to like for their speed and serial connection possibilities.

Maybe it's all a fashion thing which I just don't understand.

Do you think that ~400 grams will make a difference ?

There is an adapter from the Type C to all the usual stuff like USB 3.1, HDMI, power etc.

For some people, interfaces do not matter any more. They do not need them. What they need is to be able to carry a notebook that lasts a full working day. Removing all the other interfaces allowed them to make the thing smaller and but more batteries in.

For those (like me), who need USB often, there is still the MB Air.

Regarding pianos, I guess the current set up will be with us for a while. Bluetooth or any other wireless adds latency and that is bad when it comes to pianos. Then again, people hate cables and maybe for 90% of use cases (like Synthesia on a iPad) the added latency is a non-issue. I guess for a beginner like me it would be. So we'll probably see more WLAN and BT in DPs.

But people do not replace their laptops and tablets as often as phones, so it will all take a while.

Thanks, James! So there IS already something.

I wonder if someone is also working on a USB-B model, so my Casio AP450 can also become wireless. I could leave the dongle in the piano and forget about it.

Correct this Mac Book is about design and not about breaking any GeekBench scores. But if the design is attractive to you, meaning you want a light and slim laptop with really good battery life, less clutter with a single port for all, fanless/silent, backlit keys, etc. etc. This is a great upgrade to the MacBook Air. It's about being mobile.

It probably would do a decent job of running virtual piano software, but it's not a MacBook Pro so it's not the most modern option with regard for CPU intensive work. If anyone gigs out with their laptop and picks this new MacBook for running Main Stage and lots of AU's and such, please - come back and let us know how the M processor is doing with low latency/real time audio streaming.

Keep in mind the Korg Kronos is also running on a mobile processor (Atom). Their design has not been fanless - the noise bugs a lot of users, but the new OS gives users the option to turn off the fan - I'm guessing for recording sessions where the noise is an issue. You're obviously not going to hear the fan when playing with a rock band. ha ha

Well, there is obviously more latency than using a wired MIDI connection, however the latency with the new V2 firmware feels very acceptable for me.



I believe this is already in development from the same team.

Cheers,
James
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Being able to use Synthesia et al on the iPad with the CN-35 via WLAN or BT would be welcome, for sure. One thing less for the wife and children to understand. One less cable that can get disconnected, or dropped behind the piano etc.

I've worked with MIDI over LAN/WiFi a few times as it became available in OSX and iOS. The latency isn't acceptable to me at all for live playing. They have work to do to make this a viable alternative to a wired connection.

If you are hot for wireless MIDI, you're better off trying out a dedicated transmitter/receiver solution like the MIDIJetProUSB.

Off thread - but NICE, Elmer