Stupid question of setting a hardware setup

[db3]

a powered USB hub and everything will work.

Soooo you say that it'd be sufficient for around 5 synths that the person would hook up a powered usb3 hub, and connect the synths to that?

Yup, I have 5 synths and Maschine connected to my Overhub. The Overhub is expensive but a good choice due to having Multi TT technology. Only issue was I had to hunt around for the right PSU for it (not in box).

My Focusrite audio interface connects to a different USB socket on my mac.

[Distorted Horizon]

What are the benefits with Overhub when compared against a normal active usb hub?

[db3]

I purchased Overhub because at the time I was getting a lot of glitches with my Virus TI, and I read that the Multi TT tech in Overhub optimises the distribution of USB data.

[BONES]

What are the benefits with Overhub when compared against a normal active usb hub?

The benefit is that it's made by Elektron, so you have some avenue for getting help if it doesn't work as expected. It uses Multi-TT technology which means, in very non-technical terms (as I understand it) every input gets full USB 2.0 bandwidth, multiplexed into USB 3, instead of the bandwidth being shared between all ports and just up-converted to USB 3. I looked for other Multi-TT solutions but it's not something that USB hubs tend to mention in their specs, so in the end I decided to go with the one hub I knew would do the job, even though there may have been cheaper solutions.

BTW, I had no trouble at all finding a PSU for mine, it's just a bog-standard wall-wart I got from an electronics shop for around $10.

[Distorted Horizon]

53€ Overhub at Thomann.. Not bad. Some mediocre powered hubs cost more in my country

[BONES]

That's a good price, I paid the equivalent of around 75 euros for mine.

[db3]

Good price from Bax in europe
https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/computer-acc ... sb-3-0-hub

[JCJR]

Thread necromancy about a simpler usb hub question. Strange but true I've never ever needed a usb hub. Never owned any kind of USB hub. Always had more USB ports on the computers than was necessary.

Though it doesn't go out of the house often, I put together a spot gig rig so I don't have to mess up the home studio cannibalizing equipment to take to a gig then have to bring it home and wire it back in to the small crowded room. Home studio uses multiport din midi interface and digital mixer for multiport audio interface with a desktop computer and multiple video monitors.

====

So the spot gig rig is in another room of the house. Studiologic SL88 Studio, V3 Sound 3GB Piano module, Roland FA06. Small stereo PA, Behringer X1222USB mixer, Crown amp, two 15" small subwoofers, two 15" small coax mains. The four 15" speakers and two horns gets decently loud and clean for small gig stage sound.

So I'd like to record the gig rig instruments on songs without having to tote them in and set up in the small studio room. Got a lenovo i7 SSD Win10 laptop ought to do good enough. Copy the song project in progress from the desktop to laptop, add tracks in the other room with the gig rig, then copy the new tracks back into the studio computer.

The 2X2 USB audio in the little Behringer mixer seems to work OK. Was a little frustrating to get it configured but seems working fine. The SL88 keyboard has 2 din midi outs, a din midi in, and a USB midi port. You can set patches to transmit zones and layers to any combination of the 2 din midi outs and the USB midi. For gig setup, one MIDI port goes to the FA06 and the other MIDI port goes to the V3 Piano. A SL88 patch can be configured so that MIDI from the computer over USB can be merged back to one of the din MIDI outputs,

So the SL88 is basically simple class compliant setup and easy to config so I can record USB MIDI to the computer, then computer MIDI playback goes back to the SL88 USB port and goes out to the V3 Piano. No MIDI interface or MIDI patcher and I don't have to rewire anything between live usage vs computer usage.

The FA06 can do "fancy" MIDI+Audio with a fancy driver, but it also defaults to simple slass-compliant MIDI in absence of a driver.

Problem is, the silly Lenovo laptop only has 2 USB ports. With one USB port dedicated to the Mixer for audio interface, I need to merge the SL88 class-compliant USB MIDI and the FA06 class-compliant USB MIDI on the lenovo's lonely remaining usb port. Because neither the SL88 nor FA06 need to draw USB power, and because the bandwidth of USB MIDI ought to be rather sparse, I was thinking maybe just to merge two silly USB MIDI streams that a cheap computer-powered USB hub ought to work good enough? Doesn't need to supply power to client devices or manage audio thruput densities.

Is there a common cheap hub that is "good enough" to merge a couple of sparse USB MIDI streams?

[BONES]

I used one of these prior to getting my Overhub and it worked a treat - https://www.amazon.com/Anker-4-Port-Por ... way&sr=8-6
It's all metal with rubber stuck to the underside to keep it in position. Worth every penny I paid for it. I had my Yamaha AG06 I/O device, Roli Seaboard, MicroMonsta and Pulse 2 attached to mine and it performed flawlessly.

[JCJR]

Thanks very much BONES!