DIGITAL OUPUT

[tonsy]

what is it?..does any one use it?..

[BillyHank]

It is known as Coax and can contain sound information for a surround
system.

I have mine connected and it works fine with my Logitec Z5500.

Bill G

[AntonySharmman]

what is it?..does any one use it?..

In every sampler , digital audio devices or your Mac/PC , audio is in digital form PCM and always a
module that is called DAC converts digital signal to analog waveform in order to hear music or a sound.
Optical output provides direct output of digital signal , overriding device's DAC in order to use an external
DAC , like Apogee's that will provide us a superior quality conversion.
In case of PaSeries an external high quality DAC will provide better audio results , except with Pa3X which
already has an excellent sound quality !

Hope this will help

[Sharp]

It is known as Coax and can contain sound information for a surround
system.

I have mine connected and it works fine with my Logitec Z5500.

Bill G

Sorry but it's got nothing whatsoever to do with surround sound. It doesn’t even carry anything more than the main L+R outputs in digital form.

The Pa3X is a digital musical instrument and it produces all it's sound digitally, as in 1's and 0's. In order for our ears to hear this as normal sound, the signal needs to pass through a DAC (digital to audio converter) at some point.

Using the Digital Out allows you to decide where that Digital Signal pass through a DAC, vs using the traditional outputs which use the DAC inside the Pa3X to convert the digital signal back to analogue.

The advantage of being able to decide where the signal passes through a DAC helps greatly reduce noise levels as analogue signal instantly suffer from all manner of radio interference where digital does not.

Regards
Sharp.

[BillyHank]

Sorry fellas, but you are being too, too critical of my post.

I did not say anywhere in my post that the Pa3X produced surround sound, but it is a fact Digital output has been used in home entertainment centers for many years, can in deed contain all the info needed for surround sound and I have used it for that purpose.

Did not intend to mislead here and you are correct in pointing out the difference.

Bill G

[tonsy]

im still confuse of it's benefits.i got questions here for who did really use digital output..
1.can we use it for live gigs?
2.if so what the different with the L/R outputs?
3.what did korg's purpose gave digital output on pa3x?

[BillyHank]

Tonsy,

One of my PC's has digital input and output and I could connect my Pa3X directly to it for audio recording to any DAW or other program that recognizes it.

The cable is well protected with anti-magnetic shielding and has very high resistance to picking up Hum or other unwanted signals. I don't think it would be a good way to go for performing because cables long enough might be hard to come by.

And - as pointed out above, you still only get the exact same output found on the Right and Left Out's.

Bill G

[D575]

Just something to also consider and this was confirmed by korg uk when I brought this to there attention, when using the digital output on the pa3x the maxx audio is not included in the output signal and this is dispite the manual say the maxx audio is included in the digital output chain at the time I purchased my pa3x,

[BillyHank]

D575,

Now why in the world would Korg do that?

What purpose does the Digital out serve if it does not contain all the information output by the keyboard.

Sometimes it is really hard to figure out what these Korg designers were thinking, if in deed they ever did!

[Giner]

Um, hope you'll excuse my obvious lack in this area, but by including digital outs I can only assume that there must be far higher quality external DACs out there than what is included on board the Pa3X.

That said, I don't know that I'd recognise it if it bashed me in the ears. The Pa3X sounds pretty darn good to me as it is, without any assistance from an external DAC.

Have a good 'un.
Giner

[D575]

According to the chap at korg uk who had all the circuit diagrams out when I raised this issue ssid "the consideration to introduce "waves maxx audio" in to the design was a late decision and was probably to later into the design stage to be able to output the digital output chain" whether that was to just pacify my awkward inquiry who knows !?

[D575]

....and we can only assume the department who writes the manuals missed RND meeting that week !? But Dispite this niggle I still think the pa3x is a great keyboard that brings many hrs of pleasure

[Thoraldus]

....and we can only assume the department who writes the manuals missed RND meeting that week !? But Dispite this niggle I still think the pa3x is a great keyboard that brings many hrs of pleasure

IMHO - Digital output provides an "unadulterated" signal that can be processed with external higher quality DAC's and audio post-processing. EQ,etc can also be done in the digital domain before conversion to the analog domain. And as mentioned above, the ability to send a noise immune signal from the keyboard to the recording device should not to be overlooked.

[D575]

Yes dispite the mix up in the manual I have ( this may of changed now ? ) stating the maxx audio is present at the digital output stage as printed , to actually not having it present in the digital domain would make sense here because if I'm not mistaken any one wanting to use a very high end DA converter beter than the one's we here through the analog signal (pa speaker bar or line out ) which are good and very much fit for purpose, would probably find the maxx audio irrelevant when looking for higher levels of audio production because with high end DA converters in a studio setting would come much more comprehensive audio equipment that would surpass the maxx audio processor , as specially if you pass the audio recording to audio mastering enginer at some point, having the maxx audio processors not present means again a cleaner signal's path post the pa3x , the maxx audio processing as a mastering tool for most at home or in are home studios was good idear and welcome improvement on past korg keyboards and very fine at what it achieves for most , but of no real use to the person going into this level of sound production in this sort of setting and the applications you would find being expected with the use of the digital out put .