I'm looking at buying a Dell XPS 12 tablet/hybrid thing, as I can get a Dell refurbished one for less than half the new price, with a full warranty. The thing is, it only has two USB Type C ports and I need a minimum of three USB connections for MIDI to my hardware - Mixer/audio I/O, Roli Rise 25 and Pulse 2 - and having a couple more available wouldn't hurt, either, for my KeyStep and Rocket.
An obvious solution seems to be a hub but my concern is a big increase in latency. I've done a test on my laptop, which has one Type C port, and running the KeyStep through an adapter works fine but the adapter only has one USB Type A and HDMI, so it's possibly just passing the USB data straight through.
Has anyone had any experience with a multi-port USB hub and USB 3/3.1? How's the latency? It doesn't have to be perfect because at the moment the Rocket gets it's MIDI via the Pulse 2 and a good, old fashioned MIDI cable and the pass-through there is fine.
Anyone Using a USB Type C Hub With Multiple MIDI?
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- GRRRRRRR!
- Topic Starter
- 15939 posts since 14 Jun, 2001 from Somewhere else, on principle
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.
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- KVRian
- 851 posts since 26 Jan, 2014 from United States of America
I dont know which port I connected it to- it is dark behind my computer, but I have 8 posts USB hub and it works great with no latency.
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 35162 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from the wilds of wanny
I'm using a powered USB 3 hub for PUSH, ReMote 25SL and a Microbrute. I have my audio interface on a USB combi port. No noticeable latency with midi or audio.
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- KVRAF
- 15262 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
Midi does not generate enough data per millisecond for this to become a concern.
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- KVRAF
- 7134 posts since 8 Feb, 2003 from London, UK
Careful. The rate the data is produced and carried is nothing to do with the latency. Look at audio. Latency there is caused by buffer size, not the sample rate. Same in the MIDI world. If a hub is doing store and forward on USB data, then it can introduce latency and jitter that would otherwise not be present.BertKoor wrote:Midi does not generate enough data per millisecond for this to become a concern.
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- GRRRRRRR!
- Topic Starter
- 15939 posts since 14 Jun, 2001 from Somewhere else, on principle
Sure, but the buffer is there because of the data rate. i.e. If you up your audio from 44.1/16 to 96/32, you will need a lot more latency. And, from my understanding of how stuff works, USB is a serial device and it will need to buffer individual streams in order to send them concurrently.
Anyway, I bought both the tablet and a cheap four port hub and the hub works great. Sadly, the XPS 12 is a POS and if Dell can't sort it out, I'll be returning it.
Anyway, I bought both the tablet and a cheap four port hub and the hub works great. Sadly, the XPS 12 is a POS and if Dell can't sort it out, I'll be returning it.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.
