Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

"Yamaha's mLAN (music Local Area Network) system may well supercede MIDI in
the near future, carrying audio, MIDI and synchronisation signals down a
single cable. 100 audio channels, 256 MIDI channels and 16 other channels can
be handled, and the mLAN8P is Yamaha's first Yamaha mLAN interface. "


FireWire audio: The Promised mLAN
By David Leishman

Yamaha is tentatively scheduled to announce its rollout strategy for the
first generation of IEEE 1394-based digital audio recording and production
equipment in its mLAN series at the Audio Engineering Society convention,
September 22-25 in Los Angeles. mLAN is a communication standard that uses an
audio and music data transmission protocol in conjunction with IEEE 1394,
allowing audio and MIDI to be simultaneously transmitted and received over a
single cable. Product specifications are not final at this time, but Yoshi
Sawada, Yamaha's Manager of 1394 R&D, shared the planned details with
MacWEEK.

Yamaha refers to the IEEE-1394 interface by its generic name, rather than
"FireWire," which is Apple's brand name.

Three to go

The first group of products will consist of three units: the mLAN-8P
interface/breakout box and two interface modules, the mLAN-8E and CD8-mLAN.
They will operate 200Mbps, and are capable of 16- or 24-bit depths and
sampling rates of 44.1 or 48 KHz, per user specification. Sawada declined at
this time to speculate about supporting 1394's maximum throughput of 400Mbps.
Theoretically, up to 100 channels of audio data or 256 ports of MIDI data can
be transmitted and received at 200 Mbps, and up to 63 devices can be
daisy-chained and hot-swapped.

The mLAN-8P interconnects conventional audio/MIDI and mLAN, and has an
internal mixing capability with digital effect processing. It is capable of
eight simultaneous audio ins/outs, and can mix 12 channels. Connectors
include: three 1394 ports; stereo quarter-inch analog in and outs; and stereo
S/PDIF in and out, for coaxial and TOSLink optical connections (S/PDIF is a
digital audio transmission standard). It also includes a stereo headphone
jack; a one-in, two-out MIDI interface; two auxiliary sends (one stereo) for
external sound effects, and two master outputs (one stereo).

The mLAN-8E interface module supports Yamaha keyboards and tone generators,
including the Yamaha S-80, CS6X, CS6R, A4000 and A5000; Yamaha will announce
compatibility for future products as they are introduced. The unit also has
internal mixing capability for 16 inputs, but doesn't support digital effect
processing. Connectors include three 1394 ports that support eight channels of
audio in and out--subject to the restrictions of instruments mLAN-8E is
installed on--and MIDI in/out.

The CD8-mLAN is an interface for compatible Yamaha digital mixing consoles,
including the O2R and O3D. It has two 1394 ports with eight channels of audio
in and out, and MIDI in/out. To interface MIDI, the user needs to connect the
CD8-mLAN and the console externally via a serial interface.

All of the products will ship with mLAN Patch Bay connection management
software, a mixer control application, and mLAN Mac drivers for compatibility
with the ASIO and OMS standards.

Mac compatibility

Sawada said that Yamaha will announce a list of compatible Mac models at a
later date, and that Yamaha is working with Apple to address some issues on
PowerBook FireWire. He also noted that the Windows driver will not be
available at the time of the product introduction, and that the Windows
versions of the mixer control and mLAN Patch Bay applications will work
through serial interface instead of 1394 for the present.

Yamaha is performing research and development on ten units in a studio in
Tokyo. Production in Japan is slated to begin in October, with no production
scheduled in the U.S. Products will be released at the same time in both
countries.

The company demonstrated mLAN at the January Macworld Expo in San Francisco,
winning a "Best of Show" award. Yamaha did not have a booth at Macworld Expo
New York, but did attend the concurrent National Association of Musical
Manufacturers (NAMM) show in Nashville, where it focused on signing licensees
for the technology. Synthesizer manufacturer Korg was the first third party
to offer an mLAN-enabled product at NAMM, with an mLAN Interface Board option
for its newly-announced Triton Rack workstation/sampler.