Yamaha MX (MX88): Under Ubuntu 16.04 and Ardour 5.12, is it possible to pick up audio output from “USB to host”? Settings in such case?
I once managed to manage audio over USB with a Behringer Xenyx mixer, using JACK. When hooking up the MX with Ardour for MIDI I use ALSA. (Works right out of the box.) My ignorance, but I guess JACK and ALSA are mutually exclusive, so perhaps you can’t have both, audio and MIDI, at the same time?
In the user manual “Main Features” section:
Both MIDI and audio data can be transferred to and from a computer via USB.... This instrument can connect to iOS by using USB Audio/MIDI Class Compliant.
JACK and ALSA are mutually exclusive when you make the choice inside Ardour. But JACK itself relies on ALSA for operation.
As for the Yamaha MX88, it depends. I have a Yamaha 01V96i … its USB MIDI side is totally class compliant and just works, but the USB audio side is not even remotely class compliant and requires a custom device driver, which does not exist for Linux. No idea what the story on the MX88 is.
I found that the MX really uses a custom Yamaha USB chip. (Other audio equipment, like the Behringer mixer, tend to use general purpose third-party USB chips which makes them class compliant.)
Yamaha have been designing audio hardware for decades, I assure you that they are perfectly capable of designing a class compliant USB chip if they feel that is a market requirement.
In fact, if you go to the Yamaha web page and look at the specs listed for the MX88 it has this exact text:
USB [TO HOST] (Class Compliant support)I would assume that the same text is probably in your user manual as well. That is also indicated implicitly by the fact that they call out iOS connectivity, and iOS requires a class compliant interface, you cannot load custom USB drivers.
Discouraging about the audio, but thanks anyway. After some searching I found that the MX really uses a custom Yamaha USB chip. (Other audio equipment, like the Behringer mixer, tend to use general purpose third-party USB chips which makes them class compliant.)
Late addition (answering @ccaudle) : Yes Yamaha could certainly make a class compliant chip. However, they chose not to, for the audio part, despite the docs. MIDI no problem.