My Syntakt happily streams USB audio in from my laptop. I’m wondering if there is a way to stream digital audio out of something like a Roland JX-08 and into the Syntakt without having to have a laptop involved?
I’m assuming I can’t just connect them up with a USB cable, but would need some kind of USB host in between? Are there any small, ideally battery powered products that would do that? I’ve tried searching for “battery powered USB audio hub” but it doesn’t quite give me the right things?
My (inexpert) guess is what you want is a bit niche and going to be hard to find.
You may want to add “class compliant audio” to your google search maybe ?
Thanks yeah, I am realising that there isn’t much out there. An iPad or phone with appropriate software should work, but I was hoping for something I could leave set up and plugged in, so there was zero setup time when switched on.
A new product idea for someone, maybe a company like Retrokits as a companion to their MIDI hubs?
You could involve some other kind of computer like a raspberry pi. But it will be a hassle. And latency will remain a thing to consider.
Why not just use the audio inputs on the Syntakt?
Why not just use the audio inputs on the Syntakt?
Yeah I can do that. Just thought it might be useful to have those extra inputs free for something else.
Do you think the analog input on the Syntakt gets digitised again before it goes out the analog outs? If so it would also avoid an extra round of D > A > D.
Just wondering really. I noticed the Syntakt USB input from my laptop soft synth sounded better than piping that same audio in through the analog ins. But that could be more to do with the D > A on the headphone jack on my MBP. I should try it with a decent audio interface.
The analog ins and the main outs are not subject to any latency from conversion either way. There are converters taking feeds away from that path, but as it stands it’s analog and thus stereo only (because no digital conversion is being utilised in the path).
Yeah, you’d need some sort of device that acts as a usb host and routes audio from your synth to the Syntakt. It would need to be configurable, though. Because to support multiple Elektron devices it would have to send audio from the correct output channels to the correct inputs on the device. Elektron instruments for example offer a bunch of I/O ports over USB. And even if this device existed, it wouldn’t work with the JX-08 because none of the Roland synths are USB class compliant. Sad trombone. But while I am not a fan of USB at all, some kind of USB mixer connecting multiple USB audio class compliant instruments with flexible routing could potentially be an interesting thing.
And even if this device existed, it wouldn’t work with the JX-08 because none of the Roland synths are USB class compliant. Sad trombone .
Oh I didn’t realise that.
some kind of USB mixer connecting multiple USB audio class compliant instruments with flexible routing could potentially be an interesting thing.
I think Roland sort of did that with their Aira MX-1 mixer (except for the class compliant bit I guess).
Will stick to the analog ins. Thanks guys!
Maybe a bit of a sidestep here but I think one of you mentioned routing audio over USB into the Syntakt. Is that possible? I can’t seem to find out how in Cubase - there are no inputs over USB except for midi.
I set the Syntakt for USB audio mode instead of Overbridge mode. Then it just appears as an audio interface on my Mac. So for example when I open a soft synth I can set the Syntakt as the audio output destination.
Ah check. Does that give you 12 individual outputs for the Syntakt as well? Because i almost always use the individual outputs over USB instead of the main audio outs.
No, as far as I remember I think you only get a single stereo output, to get the multiple outputs you’d need to use Overbridge. You should be able to use Overbridge in Cubase, right? That will give you your separate tracks. I’m not sure if it also lets you send audio back into the Syntakt over USB, worth a look because I expect it might.
Yes that’s the thing, I can use the separate outputs which work like a charm, but I can’t route other channels into a Syntakt input - it simply isn’t there, but I’d expect it to be there? Maybe it was a design choice to have the Overbridge audio ouput only to save bandwidth or something but it seems kind of weird.