Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between connecting a keyboard/controller via USB cable and traditional Midi cables are? I know the later you need a midi interface. I read that the USB transfer rate is faster and you can switch channels to rout different midi data. Am I missing something?

Midi cables are not "slow" it's the clocking that regulates flows in it that is (remember it's 20 years old this thing)

USB cable are "fast" in comparision, but not a lot if you look at alternatives (like Firewire or fast SCSI), USB is just a bus protocol (with unique devices, rules for sending, receiving, aknowledging, data correction… a developer could tell you much more, but you don't need it) like midi is a communication protocol (a time base, notes on/off, controllers, data…)

So even if USB is not the state of the art nor the fastest way to move data, it's way faster than Midi at that.

Now…

When you connect a USB keyboard to a computer you're not using midi. The keyboard is just a computer peripheral sharing the USB bus like the mouse. No Midi, no channel, just peripherals and a computer. A driver controling it.

Even if you use a USB midi interface, midi is not used between the interface and the computer. The computer send paquets to a peripheral which is sorting out Midi after having made his stuff to the data coming from the computer (mostly assembling the packets as a continuous midi data stream) and reverse just the same.

then does it answer you question?

I think I understand now. I guess the one good thing about USB is to eliminate all the midi interface clutter. Thanks again for the reply and help.