This controller works really well with Gp , it only has a usb out tho…, could anyone tell me if a traditional midi cable going into an interface is faster than usb cable thru computer
It is not
Hey, I’ve got the same controller (49-key).
I’m still fairly inexperienced with MIDI myself, but my understanding is that standard MIDI baudrate is 31.25 kbps. Even USB 1.0, in low speed, is capable of 1.5 Mbps (12 Mbps in high speed). Now, that’s not quite apples-to-apples, since USB is an asynchronous protocol, whereas MIDI is deterministic. This means that USB messages aren’t required to reach their destination in any particular period of time. MIDI messages MUST and DO reach their destination at a specified time interval. Ultimately, though, NO, a traditional MIDI implementation is not likely to be faster than a USB implementation.
If you are asking about speed because you are seeing latency between pressing a key on your controller and the sound coming out of the speaker, you might have some kind of resource bottleneck on your computer. Either your computer’s specs aren’t high enough to run all of the plugins that you have active, or some other program is maybe eating up your processor time and/or RAM in the background.
Also, sometimes antivirus/antimalware programs can be resource crushing or have algorithms that scrub items in RAM (i.e. Gig Performer, or VSTs) too aggressively.
Another possibility is your USB signal chain. If you have your controller plugged in through a USB hub (instead of directly into a port on the computer), you might be running into other USB traffic or trying to run through a slow host chip.
Whew!, now that’s an explanation, !, usb it is, when I bought it, I never knew it didnt have traditional midi sockets which isn’t ideal in chaining situations , oh well, …,
Chaining multiple MIDI devices isn’t nearly as flexible as connecting a separate USB or USB to MIDI cable for each MIDI device. One advantage to having both USB and MIDI connections is if the USB socket gets loose or damaged, you have an another option.
If you are dead set on having a MIDI DIN connection, there are a few products out there to convert USB MIDI to a DIN connection.
This is one example. I’ve never personally used it, so I can’t testify to its effectiveness. It also looks like a MIDI out only. I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but there’s probably other options, as well.
If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, I know there’s ways of making Arduino boards perform a similar function. I’m guessing that’s probably more of a time investment than you want to make on it, though.
Amusae midi / usb converters are at Amazon , but it only has the computer USB port connection, to midi in/ out…, not the device side connection
I never chain. I have only USB controllers these days and I just use a couple of 7-port USB hubs and plug everything directly. Way more reliable than my old approach with MIDI cables and a MOTU Timepiece.
So, many say audio interfaces and controllers should be connected directly to ports , if it works for you , il try it…, I have the little plastic 1 to 4 ports hub , which one works best for you , ? with as little cabling as possible , of course…, and I’m guessing it’s best for audio interface to have its own ?
The more direct to the PC motherboard the better. Hubs can be notorious for inducing latency.
If you are using a laptop, not much you can do. Try to go with a larger hub (i.e. 7 port instead of 4-port) rather than daisy-chaining hubs through the other hubs. Also use a USB-C (i.e. USB 3.1) or Thunderbolt connected hub, as they will usually have a higher bandwidth available.
If you are using a desktop, and you are out of ports, add a pci-e USB host card. It’s almost as good as native motherboard ports.
With modern Multi TT hubs, I doubt the latency is going to be noticeable.
Usb 3.0 a necessity ?
I agree, that if the hub being used is USB 2.0 multi-TT or USB 3.0, you shouldn’t have a bandwidth problem.
But, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are completely immune to perceived latency or intermittent bad behavior. I would think you can still potentially have traffic collisions, especially if something connected to the hub is spamming the host chip with requests, though I wouldn’t expect the Launchkey to be the source in such cases.
I guess I never really directly asked, but are you seeing any latency issues when using the Launchkey, or you were more concerned about being able to add it to a traditional MIDI DIN chain?
Then fix it!
I don’t know how to debate the notion that there could be latency due to a problem that needs to be fixed in the first place. Kinda like saying that a car won’t drive straight if it’s got a flat tire. You gotta fix the tire!
No latency, just triggering the launch key from Nordstage , layering sounds,
Sorry. I was just brainstorming against the assumption that Wired was seeing a latency issue, since the OP mentioned a concern about interface speed of USB vs. traditional MIDI.
I agree. In this case, either get a better hub if you have a crappy one, or figure out if you have a bad actor on the hub and address that.
Gotcha. Then I would say go with USB and, as long as it isn’t causing you problems, don’t look back.
Trying to be a minimalist , too many wires promote things to go wrong, a simple midi cable between synths lessens the crap