USB-MIDI question

[patrickvf1976]

I was wondering if it was possible to use a usb hub as a midi bay for usb-midi adapters/cables? If it's possible then I could get rid if my midi thru boxes which take up real estate in the power strip.

[jksuperstar]

It's possible if you do all the MIDI routing inside the computer. But you will get latency with any I/O to the PC (3-4ms), while a MIDI-Thru has maybe a nanosecond or two latency at worst. That's about 2,000 times worse.

You'd be better just getting a MIDI patchbay/interface like the MOTU MIDI Express XT that can be a computer interface and do routing from one port to another at the same time.

[patrickvf1976]

But that depends on the memory/cpu type and speed of the pc, right? Or does the latency issue come from the hub itself? I can't really afford anything right now, so I was hoping that a cheap usb port would do good enough, but I guess it won't unless I use some low latency software/OS. Well thanks for your insight, I'll probably just get another power strip.

Another question (I don't remember if I posted this question before) - I have an opcode 6x midi thru box and another 2x thru box, the opcode has two midi/mac com inputs, one per 3x trhu - can I - theoretically - use the outs from the 2x thru box to hook it up to the opcode one and have 6 outputs available for gear or are there some limitations that I need to consider?

I would additionally like some gear to inter-communicate with oher gear (e.g. Korg EG1 with MoPhatt, ESQ1 with Fatman, etc) or should I just use one software sequencer for everything? Can you suggest a possible solution?

[laura woodswalker]