Some things that have worked for me. In order from ‘simplest to set up’ to more fiddly with extra attended steps to get it going.
- Use analog inputs from the DGX headphone out to my proper ASIO audio device of choice while working. If I later want fully digital tracks from the DGX I just record them there in the DGX itself and transfer the resulting wave file to my DAW project.
Since I commonly plug my DGX into all sorts of DAW/Sequencer systems…sometimes not even my own…this is my most commonly used method. I.E. At church they don’t want me installing a bunch of confusing drivers and work arounds on their system, but they don’t mind if I drag in files from a thumb drive.
The rest of these options I’ve piddled with and on my system they do work, but I typically work and monitor from an analog connection until such time I might require an all digital take.
In short, I disable these ‘work arounds’ until I absolutely ‘need’ an all digital input from the DGX into Cubase aggregated with other things for some reason.
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Aggregating devices with ASIO4ALL. On my system this has always worked out OK for me. I can make it ‘stable’ and ‘glitch free’, but not at maximum performance potential as compared to my primary audio device/driver; so, I’ve always used it sparingly, and only for inputs, then swapped back to a primary audio device when done. I use it sparingly simply because I have audio devices with proper drivers that Cubase performs better across the board.
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Wusik Audio Connect. With this plugin I can direct WDM or MME devices into an ASIO app (The Yamaha USB driver provides all three driver types). Note this is a major ‘cheat’, as it breaks ASIO rules. Built in buffering and such is how it gets around the dual clocks and ASIO rules. It will not work if you try to bridge ASIO<>ASIO, but it will work with WDM/MME<>ASIO.
Depending on your system you might suffer some noticeable latency side effects, so I don’t recommend it other than maybe setting it up temporarily to dub some DGX output into audio tracks, then go back to monitoring/playing via analog input.
Screen Shot Examples
Set up an external instrument…
Add the new DGX instrument to the rack:
Host the Wusik Audio Connect Plugin as an insert.
- Host ReaStream in some VST hosting app that is set to use the DGX driver. Use ReaStream to stream over localhost TCP/IP protocols. Personally I use a stand alone instance of bidule (you can get a features unlimited stand alone version to try for free) to host the stream output half of ReaStream.
I have also used the free nanohost in lieu of bidule before.
The catch with this one is that it’s an older VST2 plugin. I haven’t used it for long sessions in ages (Cubase 9 or so), so I can’t confirm how well it might work ‘long term’ in the modern versions of Cubase (VST2 ‘no longer supported’).
As I try it now in Cubase 15, Windows 11, ReaStream is working well for me and seems stable, and with far less latency than the Wusik option. Again, it’s not something I’ve set up and used for hours on end in a real ‘working session’. You’d need to try it yourself to see if it’s stable enough for you to rely upon.
Screen Shots and Examples
I have Cubase set to use my primary audio interface (A pair of Delta 1010 cards locked to a common clock).
I start a Stand Alone Instance of Bidule, and set it up to use the Yamaha USB driver from the DGX. Bidule hosts an instance of the ReaStream plugin.
Then in Cubase, which I have set to use my regular ASIO interface (Delta 1010), I set up an external instrument with no audio inputs connected,
I add my new DGX instrument to the rack:
and host ReaStream in an insert there.
- ASIO Link Pro: Like with ReaStream, this method sticks to the ASIO rules much better than the Wusik approach, and is the most stable and latency free I’ve found if I really want/need to go all digital and aggregate multiple devices, but it’s also something of a pistol to set up. Initially this tool serves as an ASIO routing and gain-staging backend. It’s extremely powerful. It also allows introducing WDM apps into the ASIO mixing matrix. This backend also provides a native TCP/IP streaming protocol (over localhost or your entire network).
It’s possible to get more than one instance of ASIO Link Pro going on the same machine, where one connects to your audio interface, and the other connects to your DGX, then ‘stream’ between the two instances over TCP/IP, and thusly get a route in and out of Cubase from any audio device on your LAN or localhost machine.
I don’t have an example setup with this at the moment to show screen shots, but I’ve done it in the past. It’d take me some time to sit here, read the docs, and figure it out again.
ASIO Link Pro has been solid for me over several different versions of Windows. The only catch is that it takes a bit of time, careful reading of the entire manual (found in the folder where the app gets installed), and a good bit of trial and error to learn one’s way around it. It truly can route pretty much anything anywhere for each interface you’ve set up an instance for. A single interface in multi-client mode is easy enough to have a system ‘auto-boot’ into. Starting up extra instances to multiple devices can get more complicated, and not so easy to just have your system automatically boot into and ready to go.
