Hi all. I have been careful with my money for quiet awhile now and plan to get a Juno Di and a Microkorg this Christmas. Both are absolutely great value, after meticulous YouTube viewing.

I noticed the Microkorg did not have a USB connection and later learned a USB/Midi converter would not enable audio output via my PC speakers, and I would need to use those red & white audio in/out cables, which would require me to buy a sound card with suitable ports for such a procedure [unless I am mistaken and I can just jack them into one of the many other colored audio related ports that come with all desktops].

I was wondering is this the same case for the Juno Di, or would merely hooking the synth up to my PC via the USB cable also allow me to play the synth through my desktop speakers? This would be of great help to me as I do not wish to shell out for an amp just yet, as it would eat into the cost of me purchasing these synths in the first place.

Cheers in advance for any replies and I hope to be discussing further things with you all about this great machine once I finally get it :).

Welcome, that sounds exciting - a pocketful of cash!!! The possibilities.

There may be some difficulty - USB Audio is only available on SH-201, Fantom G, and V-Synth. As you can see, it's mainly available on higher end synths.

However, if you are new to synths and have a desire to create your own sounds, the SH-201 might be the perfect thing to consider. While it might even be interesting combination with the Juno-Di, I don't think the 201 will act as a direct audio interface - so that you could play both boards through your computer/DAW.

Another option, if you can get by without the MicroKorg, is to instead buy a decent audio interface/soundcard for your computer. That would give you more recording/playback/monitoring options down the road and really, since the Juno Di has a vocoder, what's the point in having both.

Being careful with money, just think what other more wonderful things you could get next spring.

Beside the 201 has an audio in, so not just an interface rather than EXT IN via USB audio.
So he can connect the Di into the 201 and audio goes directly into the PC via USB.
And I think the microkorg is much more simple than the 201's VA engine.
So the SH 201 + Di is a good choice (they can work together - VA+PCM)

Cheers for the advice. Believe it or not it was a three way toss up between the microkorg, SH-201 and Juno Di for me.

The ability to hook the Di into the SH-201 and get audio from both via USB has definitely just shut the Microkorg idea down for me.

So what sort of cables are we talking about to hook the Di itself into the SH-201?

In hindsight this seems like a much, much better setup. The Di is handy to me for it's built in acoustic, traditional sounds whilst I wont be at a loss for spacey type sounds with the SH-201.

They seem to compliment each other well and the two of them side by side just naturally look awesome. As good as the microkorg looks, people might step on it by accident.

With an SH-201 and Di, you'd need just two cables:

- Stereo jack to stereo RCA cable to connect the Di's line out to 201's line in
- USB cable to connect the 201 to your computer

Plus a Midi cable to send also Midi events via USB to the computer.
It will be well integrated.

You have another altrnative...
A SH-201 and a SonicCell !! More compact solution and with almost the same possibilities.
Without the keyboard... ;-)

<USB Audio is only available on SH-201, Fantom G, and V-Synth. As you can see, it's mainly available on higher end synths. >
Isn't it also available on GW-8, Sonic Cell, Juno-Stage and VP-770?

Isn't it also available on GW-8, Juno-Stage and VP-770?

Nope. Sonic Cell, yes.