I am just wondering what’s the big cost saving in that, this is an 88Key keyboard for God’s-sake! I almost thought my AD port was bad till I plugged in the XLR to TS instead of TSR, finally getting proper input from my mic. and the out put is unbalanced as well? why? why would you do something like that Yamaha?

Pcode - 05 April 2013 03:05 PM

I am just wondering what’s the big cost saving in that, this is an 88Key keyboard for God’s-sake! I almost thought my AD port was bad till I plugged in the XLR to TS instead of TSR, finally getting proper input from my mic. and the out put is unbalanced as well? why? why would you do something like that Yamaha?

Balanced lines are only necessary when
you are doing long cable runs or are dealing
with excessive RF interference. If your
cable runs are short (10 ft. and under) then
balanced lines offer no practical advantage.

If you must run cables a long distance,
then you should be plugging your MO X
into a D.I. box.

Balanced lines present an additional problem..
they require the signal to go through an extra
set of circuits ( electronics) which can
lower the signal level (hence the advantage
of an active D.I. box).

Personally I prefer unbalanced outs on
electronic musical gear. In live situations
I’m running my keys into a submixer and
then from that to a Radial D.I. In my studio
there are no cable runs longer than 10 ft.

In any case, I doubt there will be a hardware
design change for the MO X, meaning you’re
going to have to deal with the unbalanced
outs, which in my opinion is not difficult to
handle.

FYI, the outputs on most keyboard workstations,
especially in this price range, are unbalanced.

Pcode - 05 April 2013 03:05 PM

I am just wondering what’s the big cost saving in that, this is an 88Key keyboard for God’s-sake!
...
why would you do something like that Yamaha?

It’s a budget model, an economy version of the XF. Number of keys doesn’t matter. I don’t think anyone puts balanced outs on their lower end models, except Kurzweil. If you need a balanced out, you can add a direct box.

edit: and to pick up on what Dave said, of the many XS/XF features they took out to get the price down, if I could add some back in, balanced outs wouldn’t be on my list. It is something of a niche need, and addressable other ways, so I think it’s a sensible deletion.

I guess, I sold my korg to buy this, korg was balanced, My monitor cables are all XLR to TRS My LINE IN Cables are Balanced, My Mic cables are balanced (XLR to TRS). They are all very high quality expensive cables, I need to buy all new cables now. I do have a question, if I use (TRS{MOX8 OUT} to XLR{Monitors IN})that should be OK right? even though ring has no signal, or will it cause phase shift?

Thanks

Pcode - 05 April 2013 04:50 PM

I guess, I sold my korg to buy this, korg was balanced, My monitor cables are all XLR to TRS My LINE IN Cables are Balanced, My Mic cables are balanced (XLR to TRS). They are all very high quality expensive cables, I need to buy all new cables now. I do have a question, if I use (TRS{MOX8 OUT} to XLR{Monitors IN})that should be OK right? even though ring has no signal, or will it cause phase shift?

Thanks

Why are you going directly out of your MO X8 into your powered monitors? You really should be using a mixer, then go from the mixer out to the monitors. If u want you can run balanced outs from the mixer.

I mean, I guess I understand the motive - money. Just sayin’, as long as I’ve been a keyboard player (40 years) I have never been without a mixer, either in the studio or live. And I do not know a single keyboard player personally who does not have a mixer in their setup, and that includes all the players I know who are doing major tours.

I am going into a digital mixer inside my very powerful PC of-course, and I have a Digital control surface for that, but in this particular scenario I need to go into my monitors directly. I guess I should get TS To XLR male cables.

Maybe you could use an adapter like this?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GPP290/

anotherscott - 05 April 2013 03:44 PM

Pcode - 05 April 2013 03:05 PM

I am just wondering what’s the big cost saving in that, this is an 88Key keyboard for God’s-sake!
...
why would you do something like that Yamaha?

It’s a budget model, an economy version of the XF…

My XF8 has unbalanced outputs.  I really don’t think the engineering decision to go balanced or unbalanced is one of economics.

I don’t see what the big deal is...except that you already have cords for something different!  I also run my keyboards through a mixer and direct box, but I have routed them directly into a Roland keyboard amp many times with no issues.

I think JayBird70 has given you a link to a good inexpensive solution.

not a bad idea, Thanks.

cmayhle - 05 April 2013 06:52 PM

My XF8 has unbalanced outputs.

Funny, I didn’t realize that the XF didn’t have balanced outs either! I guess I figured it did because other high end boards do. But I’ve never needed them even when I’ve had them.

Kronos - Balanced Outputs

Kurzweil PC3 - Balanced Outputs

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/455772/

I do not like recording keyboards in Analog domain, because of noise and generation loss. So I use USB Audio interface of MOX8 to record (pure sound).
I only monitor using analog. too bad you can not merge 2 audio interfaces in windows 7(64bit).

Not sure what you’re referring to about analog domain, using a mic?

You can get a digital signal from the S/Pdif out which should be the same as the one you get from USB.

I record my keyboards through my interface. I’m happy with the A/D conversion.

I’ve found sometimes you get a little beefier(slight) signal from the analog outs on some keyboards compared to the digital.

Probably the sound of the amps in the keyboard.

Tacman7 - 08 April 2013 05:56 AM

Not sure what you’re referring to about analog domain, using a mic?

You can get a digital signal from the S/Pdif out which should be the same as the one you get from USB.

I record my keyboards through my interface. I’m happy with the A/D conversion.

I’ve found sometimes you get a little beefier(slight) signal from the analog outs on some keyboards compared to the digital.

Probably the sound of the amps in the keyboard.

lol! happy Halloween to you too ...