mLAN

mLAN has been an industry buzz word for several years, but what exactly is it? Rob McMinn explains how this exciting new technology works and what it can do for your music making.

Firstly, let’s get that acronym out of the way. Anybody familiar with computers and networks will know that a LAN is a local area network – and the ‘m’ stands for ‘music’. But when you see the mLAN logo, it’s probably best to think ‘FireWire Music Networking’, because mLAN is basically a way of connecting different pieces of music technology hardware together using a single IEEE1394 FireWire cable. It’s important to note that mLAN is not merely a point-to-point networking protocol (one device connected to another), but a multi-node network capable of delivering multiple channels of high-resolution audio to multiple devices. And it’s just as important to bear in mind that instead of a jumble of different kinds of cable connecting these devices, you simply plug things together with a series of FireWire cables. For sure, you’ll still need some microphone and instrument cables, but things will be a lot simpler (and less messy) than ever before.

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 19
Filed under Ten Minute Masters

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