The world has gone wireless, in case you have not noticed. We are now living in a world growing more wireless by the day – wireless speakers, wireless headphones, wireless mobile phone charging, etc. Many digital pianos have also gone wireless, supporting Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth MIDI.
In today’s wireless world, Bluetooth® technology plays a vital role. It allows us to exchange data and stream music between fixed and mobile devices over short distances without a cable or adapter. For instance, you can connect a digital piano with an app on your smart tablet or smartphone.
What is Bluetooth Audio? What is Bluetooth MIDI? And What is the use of Bluetooth features on a digital piano? Let’s delve into the details.
What is Bluetooth Audio?
Bluetooth Audio technology lets you wirelessly connect your stereo system or soundbar to your smartphone and its myriad streaming services.
However, in the current digital piano arena, when a digital piano features Bluetooth Audio, it most likely means that the instrument receives audio data wirelessly and outputs the sound through the piano’s speaker system. It is typically from an audio file stored on or streamed from the connected device. Additionally, the audio can also be from a video or even produced by a separate app.
In many cases, the Bluetooth Audio function of digital pianos does not allow the sound produced by the instruments to be transmitted to other devices, such as wireless speakers or headphones.
For example, the Roland FP-30X digital piano comes with Bluetooth Audio. It can wirelessly play music from your mobile device through the piano’s speakers. On the other hand, you cannot use wireless headphones to listen to what you play on the piano.
What is Bluetooth MIDI?
MIDI stands for Music Instrument Digital Interface. Briefly defined, it is a specific data transfer format. You may think of it as a specific language that the instruments, software, and hardware use to communicate. Bluetooth MIDI technology enables this musical data transfer wirelessly.
As consumers of Bluetooth MIDI, typically, people do not need to know the technical intricacies or channels of MIDI unless they want to do some complex MIDI data or sequence modifications.
In the digital piano world, Bluetooth MIDI allows instruments to send and receive MIDI data wirelessly. The player can perform a song on a digital piano and have the data transmitted to a mobile device or laptop. Moreover, recorded MIDI music can be transmitted from the connected device and played using the instrument’s sound generator.
Another very popular use of Bluetooth MIDI is to wirelessly connect to a wide variety of music-related or piano-learning apps. For instance, Kawai KDP120 has the Bluetooth MIDI feature that enables wireless connectivity to Kawai’s free PianoRemote app.
Summary
Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth MIDI provide convenience by eliminating the wire for music and audio data transmission. More and more digital pianos come with Bluetooth features, even in the lower or mid-range priced models such as Casio PX-S3000 and Kawai ES110.
While it is nice to have both Bluetooth Audio and Bluetooth MIDI on your instruments, in most situations, Bluetooth MIDI suffices. However, if you need to use your piano speaker system to stream music from your mobile device regularly, you may want to consider a model with Bluetooth Audio.
Enjoy your music!!!
Yes, I have a stereo receiver with Bluetooth and was hoping I could stream the audio from my fp-90x to the receiver and use my home speakers for audio output. Guess not. Maybe I’ll try headphone output or 1/4” to RCA cords.
Hi John,
Thanks for your comments. The Bluetooth Audio of digital pianos is streaming into the piano and using the piano speakers.
You have a nice digital piano Roland FP-90X. Enjoy!!!
Anne