Mbox and and active hub work?
Geoffrey
> Does anyone have experience with using Mbox with an active USB hub? The
> specs say that it hast to be directly connected to the computer (in my
> case a Mac G4 powerbook) and that a passive hub cannot be used. As I'll
> be also using a MIDI interface taking up the second USB port it leaves me
> little room for expansion.
They're right - *any* USB audio I/O device should not be used on a hub,
passive or active. Any other traffic coming through the hub will cause
patchiness and lag with the audio signal coming from your USB audio
interface. The only difference between an active and a passive hub is
that an active hub relies on its own power supply to distribute USB
power, instead of the passive method of re-distributing the host
device's USB power.
(A friend of mine uses a second-generation PBG4 as a portable recording
studio for in-the-field voice work for his in-corporate radio show, with
a Digidesign USB-based MBox, going into Pro Tools -- he has tried using
hubs and was plagued with audio dropouts no matter which hub type was
used. He still uses it, and provided it is directly hooked to the PB, it
works perfectly.)
USB (even v2.0 interfaces) should only be used for basic peripherals
such as mice, keyboards, printers and scaners.
If you are concerned about a reliable audio stream into and out of your
PowerBook, you should look at a FireWire based interface and *not* a USB
based one. I know several musicians who have bought either a MotU or
M-Audio FireWire audio interface for their Macs or PCs, and they could
not be happier.
Geoffrey
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