USB ports and hubs

N

nkay

New member
Here's my situation: I am using an MBox with a laptop computer. The laptop has only two usb ports, and one firewire port. I have an external USB hard drive that I use to record to, and everything works fine, no latency, hiccups etc..

My laptop does not have a PS/2 port for a mouse, so when I do music, I have to unplug the mouse to make way for the Mbox and hard drive, and its a pain using the mouse pad for delicate musical surgery in Protools.

I also want to buy a USB Midi Keyboard to play my softsynth software. See where this is going? I'm way out of USB ports.

My question is, if I get a powered USB hub, will this be able to handle an Mbox, external hard drive, mouse, and midi keyboard at the same time? Should I get a firewire hard drive to get that out of the chain?

Just wondering about other people's experiences using a USB hub for attaching all the recording equipment.
 
A passive one might not be a problem either. Your mouse will not drain that much power, and the keyboard shouldn't either. The keyboard and MBox I'm not sure of, but the passive ones are lik 8 bucks a pop, so try one.
 
I spent about $30 and got one that has 4 USB ports, and 3 firewire ports and can be used both passive and active. I just got tired of climbing under the console and behind the computer just to plug something in. The one I bought even has a magnetic base so I just stuck it underneath my console (huge solid steel frame).
 
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