USB ports, hubs, controllers (midi timing) = confusion!?

Post by **irrelevance** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:04 am

Since getting my new Intel quad core processor and motherboard I have noticed that there is a lot of IRQ sharing primarily USB ports and controllers sharing with one Scope pro and 2 Pullsar 2's.

This hasn't caused any problems with audio so far, and I have been really pushing Cubase SX 3.1 with lots of VST's, 'vsti's and high audio track counts.
In fact audio on this PC is tighter than I've ever known but I have found that there is now some midi latency. (no emulated ports and using system time stamp)

There are 2 high speed USB2 controllers and also standard USB controllers but how do these relate to the actual ports and root hub?

I want my midi interface (Emagic mt4) and external HD to be connected to the USB2 but how do work out which ports the controllers handle?
I've also got an external 7 port hub should I need it which could be used for all non critical devices.

I've also got an 8 port midex interface that I could use and would possibly be tighter with cubase but have refrained from because it cannot handle large sysex dumps from my yamaha fs1r and the mt4 can.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Post by **garyb** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:32 am

the controllers don't associate with specific ports necessarily.

you'll need at least one usb2 and maybe a couple of usb controllers to handle most all of your needs. disable the ports that share with scope cards(each controller has a name, like 2DY7 or similar). you may find you lose a port or two, but there are many more ports than you need...

it's good that you haven't had any problems, you may never, it depends on exacly which controller gets assigned when you plug into a usb port......

Post by **irrelevance** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:10 am

Thanks for the info Gary. Messed around with the USB without any significant results so I decided to ditch win service pack 2 as thats the only other thing that I've changed moving to the new system. This didn't fix either so I then reloaded an image of a clean install + drivers, scope and music software. Now all is fine

.
I'm thinking that there may have been issues with directx 9 as thats the only thing that should have changed with SP2 but who knows.
I have read that SX 3.1 needs directx 9 but I'm happily running version 8
Anyway everything is nice and tight so I'm leaving it well alone!