In a musical environment dozens of various types of cables such as audio cables, digital cables, Wordclock connections and MIDI cables are required, with different types of cable for each device and application.

For example for a synthesizer, you will need two phone cables in the case of a stereo output instrument (or in some cases even more if the instrument has more than two audio outputs) plus two MIDI cables. When making connections, attention must also be paid to the input/output direction of each jack, the left/right channel, and in some cases, an understanding of impedance is also required. Also, the MIDI and audio signal flow is determined by the way in which cables are connected, meaning that cables must be reconnected if you wish to reconfigure the system.

Using conventional cable-connections you'll need various types of cables

As systems become larger, such factors produce more complexity and expense. Incorrect connections and other problems can increase. The time required to troubleshoot mistakes and problems also increases, resulting in wasted time. More than one reader has doubtless had the frustrating experience of tracing through an intricate web of cables one by one, just to track down a single faulty contact in one cable.

...will have an end: mLAN

At this point Yamaha's mLAN come into play: It stands for music Local Area Network, a digital network designed for musical applications. It uses and extends the industry standard "IEEE (I triple E) 1394" high performance serial bus also known as FireWire

mLAN provides a dramatic simplification by allowing all such connections to be combined into a single standard Firewire cable, and also making possible the construction of far more powerful systems.

Theoretically, the Firewire (IEEE1394) bus that mLAN uses is capable of transmitting almost two hundred channels of CD-quality digital audio data plus MIDI-Events equivalent to more than 16384 MIDI channels and all synchronization (Wordclock) data over a single cable at one time - just try to think a system with this performance being connected with conventional cables. In addition, the flow of MIDI and audio signals between mLAN devices can be freely changed without actually reconnecting any cables, and such configurations can be recorded as well - total recall the easy way.

mLAN makes connections easier

If the system contains sixteen or fewer devices (so called "Nodes"), a system can be constructed simply by connecting devices consecutively. No special knowledge is required. Currently, a system can consist of a maximum of 63 devices, but in the future larger systems of up to 63 x 1023 devices can be constructed by observing certain simple rules.

mLAN is not an Yamaha-exclusive-island - dozens of manufacturers of professional audio-devices worldwide have joined the mLAN-Alliance to further develop mLAN and products using it.

It's clear: mLAN is the future in digital connections - simplifying the configuration of complete music production environments. Giving you more time for the most important thing: Your music.