Dallastaylor wrote:XLR vs RCA
I wouldn't worry about this for the time being, it will depend on the audio interface connectors.
Dallastaylor wrote:I am in the dark and haven't been able to find a clear explanation of what role the audio interface actually plays.
The audio interface is what turns the digital audio data into analogue audio 'sound'.
Digital audio data is what's in the computer, HW and the organ sample sets. It's just a whole lot of numbers organised in a particular way.
Analogue audio sound is the sort that goes into headphones, amplifiers, speakers and so on. It is a varying voltage.
The audio interface is a mixture of software and hardware which turns the first sort of audio into the second sort.
Part of the confusion is that computers tend (perhaps always) to have some sort of audio interface built into them. The Mac built-in interface is quite well regarded, the Windows built in interfaces are usually thought to be barely adequate. This is why for 'serious' sound production, some sort of external 'professional' interface is recommended.
Most 'professional' audio interfaces also include the right hardware and software to convert analogue audio sound into digital audio data. This isn't usually of any relevance or use in HW setups, but does no harm other than the (generally modest) extra cost of the interface which irritates some people who, not unreasonably, object to having to pay for something they don't want or need.
'ASIO' is a software driver which allows the computer to 'talk' to the interface. It is superior to the ordinary drivers because it more closely controls certain aspects of the conversion (timing being one such aspect) than the default drivers provided by the standard operating system. This stricter control imposes some limitations compared to the basic drivers, but this is generally regarded as a worthwhile trade-off for serious audio production. ASIO4ALL is an example of this class of driver, there are others, 'professional' external audio interfaces usually come with their own ASIO drivers (I think).
'MIDI' is the protocol which allows musical hardware (keyboards and so on) to control the music produced by the computer. It is important to realise that the MIDI information is not of itself sound (either digital or analogue). It is simply a stream of information sent to the computer telling it what sorts of sound it is to generate, when, how long, how loud, and so on. In this regard MIDI is an entirely separate and different information stream from audio. Perhaps confusingly, MIDI functionality is often combined (in the sense of simply being in the same box) with the audio hardware in external interfaces. This is a convenience, but not strictly necessary. So long as there exists some way of getting the MIDI information from the musical hardware into the computer all will be well.
Nick