The exciting news is Yamaha will most likely provide a high speed audio/data interface on its Arranger Keyboards. The only question is when. In fact Yamaha already has with the introduction of Firewire enabled expansion cards for the Motif, S80, and S90. These mLAN expansion cards are able to carry not only data (in the form of Sysex, etc.) but also Audio, Video and Midi signals. And Firewire has entered into its next generation of standard known as 1394b. PS: I have not been tracking Firewire technology for the past couple of years so I am happy that Firewire is advancing in its capability. I was more akin to researching USB 2.0 given that Intel and many major players in the Tech industry were heading in that direction.

The good news is that Firewire has bumped its transfer rate capability significantly from 400Mbps to 800Mbps! And this is just the beginning it seems. It is possible that fairly soon Firewired devices that will be available to the general public will be able to transfer data/audio/video/midi at the incredible rate of 3.2Gbps (gigabits per second). Another neat thing is that Firewire doesn't need to be run through a computer necessarily. It works fine with just stand alone devices. And the cable length runs can be much greater than USB 2.0- up to 236 feet! [72 meters!] And that is in the original 1394a Firewire standard which I was unaware of. Another cool thing is with the mLAN standard the device connections don't have to be the standard Firewire connector but it is possible for them to be an XLR or 1/4" or other type connector. Midi in/out cables and connectors should be a thing of the past for high end Keyboards and sooner than later I would imagine. The most interesting Firewire standard for Musicians is the recent 61883-6 standard which defines an exact way to handle Audio and Midi within Firewire's isochronous- (meaning: "same time") packet transfers, handling audio samples ranging up to 196 bits, floating-point audio and Midi messages. mLAN enabled devices are great for the Gigging musician in that mLAN devices will "remember" a setup even when there is a power failure or the bus is powered down. mLAN memorizes a person/groups setup preferences as to whose equipment is connected in which way, making setting up equipment much easier. Also the 1394.1 standard is now in the works which will determine how bridges connect separate buses. Having separate buses connected by a bridge has the great advantage of when hot-plugging a new device in for example Studio A there will be no need for a bus "reset" for the bus in Studio B.

Here is the Link to the full article: http://emusician.com/ar/emusic_playing_fire/index.htm

Best regards,
Mike

PS: So if Yamaha starts adding a high speed interface to their Arranger Keyboards I would almost bet the farm it will be in the Form of Firewire and not USB 2.0 since Yamaha is heavily involved in Firewire enabled devices and technology and not in USB 2.0 enabled devices and technology. Plus Firewire offers so many advantages over the current USB 2.0 standard especially in regard to the Music World and Musicians in general. Now it is just a waiting game to see which Keyboard Manufacturer makes it to market first with a Firewire enabled Arranger Keyboard! My guess is it will be Yamaha but the verdict is still out and open to wide speculation on that one.

[This message has been edited by Idatrod (edited 05-29-2003).]

Mike,
Firewire is already implemented in devices like digital camcorders and indeed it´s the only way to upload to another device (like a personal computer) massive amounts of data like a movie one hour long (we are talking Gigabytes here). Actually, when I bought my Sony mini-DV I had to upgrade my computer because the old one (a Celeron 466 MHz) was unable to handle the amount of data delivered through the firewire port.
Greetings,
Andrea

That's a very good point Andrea. When Firewire finally shows up on Arranger Keyboards I think you will see a massive exodus of Arranger Keyboardists going out and getting faster computers because they will find out that that slow poke computer there on right now just won't be sufficient to handle Firewire data transfer. And the nice thing is computer prices have fallen drastically within the last 3 years so that purchasing a new fast computer is a lot easier on the pocket book than it was a few years ago.

Best regards,
Mike