Amy,

You wrote:

"Now, back to the Privia and our church: _________________________
I believe the USB transfers both midi and audio seperately, but on the one USB line... Some of the line's bandwith (a tiny amt) is used for midi, and the rest is used for audio. This is where the USB ports make for frustrating conversations. USB is also supposed to transfer midi and audio in *both* directions. This Privia user's manual states that the keyboard sends both, but receives only midi. Totally confounding as to why that would be the case. In the end, as USB ports change (we are moving into USB 3 "age" quickly here).. and as our budget would hopefully cover expenditures today that would last over at least a 10 year period...one would think that the older drivers will become extant for this keyboard and other USB2 only keyboards. Also, a major factor in our decision to go ahead with another Keyboard. Since MIDI is standard and doesn't use drivers, this is a must for our new keys. "


Note that in there you stated that the manual for this particular Privia stated that it's says that it sends 'both'. The manual does not state that. Only midi.

I think that what has you confused is that in your home setup, yes, USB is used to communicate both audio and MIDI data. Not so with this keyboard, and not so with nearly every other keyboard on the market. I can only think of a few keyboards that do this, there was one from Line6, but it was unweighted and a 37 key controller and M-Audio had an audio interface built into one of their series, if I recall correctly.

This is actually a moot point. You can't easily/cheaply send USB data 300' to/from the stage to FOH mixer location where the computer is located. You would be better to spend the money it would take to have a keyboard with audio I/O that communicates over USB, on either a laptop to put on stage and run ASIO4ALL like Mac suggested (with the same type of cabling/direct box setup I suggested), or a keyboard that has a broader sound set on-board.

Let's get right down to a solution that will work - what sounds are you needing, apart from what this PX-130 can provide, which are necessary for your worship experience at your church?

I've done some looking online for audio demos of the PX-130. Here's one to watch with some great playing and demos at least one of the acoustic piano, one electric piano and a piano/string layer. Based on this audio demo, IMO, the PX-130 has killer acoustic piano and certainly servicable electric piano and layered piano string sounds.

Here's another that shows that the PX-130 is actually a decent stage keyboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDK4DW__1Q

Note that the audio quality you hear in each of these had to have come from one of the headphone jacks.

Lots of other demos on YouTube for this particular keyboard.

What sounds are you looking for that it doesn't already provide?

Don't let the headphone out only cause you to think that it can't be used. Your church almost certainly has some direct boxes that you could split the output from one of the headphone jacks to a L/R 1/4" plugs to go into two different direct boxes to feed the analog snake. However, I have to say that 300' is a long run; that's a heckuva long distance - a whole football field.

-Scott

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