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BEST POWERED USB HUB FOR IOS MIDI AND AUDIO ???
Why is this so confusing and time consuming for me to understand.
All I want is a USB hub that can connect:
1. my cheapo Behringer u-phoria audio interface (2 instrument jacks in, 1 stereo rca out)
2. A drumpad, like the Kat pad, purely for drumming with a midi kit
3. take 1-2 more USB ports for other synths/volcas/etc
And have my ipad pro be able to recognize these all and not say 'ipad can't power device' or whatever even if the hub is already powered.
My buddy has a couple diff hubs that work on his laptop but were a huge headache on iOS and only turned out to work for one device at a time after so much fiddling. These were also advertised as iOS/midi compatible if I'm not mistaken.
Every time I find a YouTube vid that looks like a piece of cake the link doesn't even take me to the device in the video or the comments are all confused people with an even more basic questions than me
Do I need to find something with proprietary software? I just stupid? I can usually find my targeted and very niche workarounds on my own, but it just seems like there are so many POS USB hubs out there .... What is the golden standard??
I would like to do minimal programming if possible... but if I must hook devices to a computer for firmware updates or midi channel programming that's fine. I know there are utility apps that can handle a little bit of that too...
also hey, why not Post pics of your setup and how you routed it if you're awesome like that!
I'm running an ipad pro 2017 edition and currently just using the audio interface hooked up with the usb-3 powered adapter.
Even that has trouble sucking the right amount of power so a powered hub would be ideal.
Thanks for reading
Comments
I'm sure I'm just overthinking this, like I do with everything, and haven't searched correctly or let my adhd get the best of me.......But on the other hand, iOS music is still in a weird 'wild west' sort of status and there isn't a great centralized venerable standard where you can find info. Like seriously, the audiobus forums is pretty much THE manual and college textbook for this stuff ...STILL 🥴
Thanks for entertaining my rant. I hope that my suffering (?) can lead to an easy-to-find resource for people with problems like me lol.
You need a powered usb hub to have enough juice for all connected devices. Preferably a usb 3 hub.
I use a tp link 7 port usb hub. It has two ports with enough power output to charge your iPad when connected to a laptop. That comes in handy when using studiomux.
I am not connecting to a laptop. The reviews I've seen on this one bring me back to the same point, people are saying it's not a truly powered hub?
It also works connected to your iPad. And it powers all other usb devices allright.
If you are in the states Anker is also selling hubs like this.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014ZQ07NE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Worked great plugged into my iPad Pro 2018. Had Focusrite Solo, MPK261, and a couple of small Korg controllers plugged into it. Now it is the MIDI hub for my iConn4c, works like a charm.
Boom that's what I wanted to hear. Anker has pulled through in the past for me plenty of times, I'm all about it
I'm using an Atolla 7-port powered USB-3 hub. 20-Watt supply powers everything, including iPad. This works with iPad 6 (Lightning connector) and the powered Apple USB-3 Camera Adapter. The hub powers 2 keyboards, a MIDI controller (knobs) and a DAC. It also supplies charging power to the iPad (dedicated 2.4 amp charging port) as well as another iPad occasionally. All with just one power brick, neat and clean. And the price is very reasonable.
There's no software involved in these USB hubs at all. They simply connect the various USB devices, and make them visible to the iPad drivers, which recognize them by name. Your apps can see them and connect to them.
The confusion you may have seen relates to the newer iPads, which have USB-C connectors, not Lightning. For various reasons, that's much more complicated.
@Sawiton How are you plugging that into the usb-c port on the 2018 pro? I have the Nucleum usb-c hub which works great, but leaves me wanting for more USB ports.
I’ve had nothing but great luck with the Pluggable brand of USB hubs, works fine with iPad.
Not just what you’re asking for, but I have an ESI M4UeX which is a 3-port USB3 powered hub… and also an 8-port MIDI interface.
I have a couple of the Pluggable powered hubs and they've worked very well for me too. On my new iPad Pro, it's really easy to setup and use. But, the new iPad can power my Behringer interfaces directly.
On my old iPad, the key to getting it to work was to use one of the higher current power delivery ports on the Pluggable to hook a USB-to-lightning cable into the power in on the CCK. With that in place the iPad never complained about any devices hooked to the USB hub.
The 2018 iPad Pro has a Lightning port. And headphone jack 😁
@ambrosiajam - reading your original post, I just want to make sure something is clear. On iOS, you can never have more than one audio device at a time. You can have multiple midi devices but only one audio interface.
You mentioned in #3 that you would like 1-2 more USB ports for other synths/volcas/etc. Just letting you know that's not a possibility all at the same time. Whichever audio device is plugged in last will take over.
So, if you want to have more than just the two audio inputs on the U-Phoria, you'll need an interface with more inputs.
As for drivers and special software, as long as your devices are "class compliant" (most are), you'll never need drivers or special software to get an interface working on iOS.
I have a couple different powered hubs that I've used with my iPad Pro 2017:
10 port Sabrent, ~ $50
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1427148-REG/sabrent_hb_bu10_usb_3_0_10_port_hub.html
4 port Transcend, $24
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/908703-REG/transcend_ts_hub3k_usb_3_0_4_port.html
Weird maybe…early 2018 did…? I have 2018 iPad Pro and mine has usb-c, and Wikipedia says (of 2018) “ These are also the first iPad Pro models to come with USB-C connector replacing Apple's Lightning connector.” 😜 anyway sounds like you have a good hub! Still need to figure out a good one for my usb-c iPad… but I believe there are some threads about that here that I should go dig up
Will be interested in your (successful!) results
@stown My bad, it is a second gen pro.
The key to your success is power.
Simply put: lightning devices are known to be stingy with power distribution.
Connect a power bank to the hub and see what happens.
Thanks all for the thoughts - very helpful!
The cheap, Walmart USB hubs work well!
@Alfred this is the same hub I use although only connected to the iPad (not a computer). It'd be nice if the hub powered the iPad via it's main connection however I'm in two minds on this as I guess having it charged to 100% most of the time will degrade battery health. Anyway I don't have to worry as it doesn't offer charging from the USB Micro B port
@Cambler Charging my iPad is done the camera connect dongle when my iPad is the main device. When using studiomux with my laptop I would connect two iPads and an iPhone to my daw, Reaper, and evrything would stay topped off. Now because of all the quirks with studiomux l tend to use my multichannel audio device and bluetooth midi more often. In this configuration some ground lifting is needed to remedy the common ground hum.
Had my more then fair share of swollen batteries. Funny how my older iPads never have had those problems with their batteries. I think heat also contributes to battery problems.
@Alfred Great setup, thanks for detailing. This has got me thinking - I actually have a left over Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter which I could plug into my iPad Pro and then plug the hub into the USB-A port and run one of the powered ports into the USB-C charging port on the adapter (when needed).
Swollen battery sounds horrible! I was just talking about health/efficiency through overcharging. I do wonder about the latter though. My daughter has lets her iPhone run down to 2% or worse and charges it up to 100% and the battery health is at 95%. It was a second hand phone when she got it so I'm sure it wasn't much more than that back then.
@Cambler It sounds like that might create a ground loop. Nothing dangerous but it might cause the humming audio problem. I would rather use a separate charger for the iPad pro dongle.
Ahh I see. Really appreciate the feedback on that! Thanks @Alfred
Sorry to bump an old thread. I’m planning on connecting a Yamaha piagerro keyboard and a korg nano kontrol2 to my iPad at the same time. Ive read multiple usb devices require a powered usb hub but could anyone advise me on whether I could do this with just a normal usb hub or splitter seeing as the keyboard has its own power supply - not sure if it’s usb powered. I was thinking I’d just be plugging in the keyboard to power, then running the nano kontrol and keyboard into the splitter hub and then the hub into the cck/iPad. Does this sound like the right setup?
I don’t know if I’m understanding powered hub correctly but I assumed it’s a hub you plug in to the mains where the USB ports then pass on charge. Whereas in my setup the non powered hub/splitter would just be passing data from the already plugged in kb, while charging the nano kontrol from the iPad via cck. I’d also be charging the iPad with the charger port on cck.
Does this sound uhhhh ok
@wingwizard I have a simple USB splitter I use sometimes out of my second gen iPad Pro with a NanoKONTROL2 and a nanoKEY2 on the other ends. Just with a basic CCK (not the one with the female lightening port, just the female USB) the pad has enough power to run both of the Korg controllers. I have not tried it with the Kontrol2 and one of my MPK’s that I have external power for, but I feel confident it would work fine. Ymmv, Apple is nice but things sometimes don’t work as expected.
Something I discovered recently is that with the right power setup it’s possible to daisy-chain hubs together without any issues (I'm sure most of the AB power users knew this already, but it was a new realisation for me).
My main Hub/Stand is a Maotoam. It has great specs, especially the fact that you get three USB C ports, 1 for PD passthrough charging, the second for the iPad/Laptop, and a third data port/charging port.
This enables you to link a second hub with its own PD passthrough charging, my second hub is the one below.
This may seem like overkill but you can never have enough USB ports and the standard 3 USB3 ports you get with the better hubs are used with even the most basic set of add-ons (SSD storage, MIDI kit, audio interface etc, etc).
To finish the setup I have a 100W power supply which downgrades to a pair of 35W outputs when you use both USB C out ports (one for the Maotoam, the second for the Selore).
It goes without saying, I recommend both the Maotoam and Selore products (The Maotoam was a Kickstarter purchase, so I'm not sure about current availability but the Selore hubs are sold internationally by Amazon amongst others).
The Maotam looks nice but I think it hasn't got enough USB-C or even better Thunderbolt ports. The number of devices with USB-C port or cable is growing and I don't want to invest in a technology that is phasing out now. I prefer that I can connect my gear with USB-C so I can connect it directly to my and my iPad or the hub with the same cable.
Sames as topic starter, i am confused concerned required interface for:
Connecting Silent Piano with MIDI to Presonus and that one to IPAD works great, however drains battery.
When connected to Acer USB hub with PD and 3 x USB3.0 and HDMI out & audio out. It will not charge (hub externally powered by PD USB-C) and no connection of piano to ipad via Audio interface.
Functional requirements:
Technical requirements:
Several examples can be found on forums with older Ipad lightning port connected to Apple's AV connector. However I thought this additional expensive Apple connector becomes obsolete with the USB-C interface, and therefore requiring only to have a powered USB Hub with enough USB and HDMI out. I read positive feedback on Anker USB products (as example the Anker 8 in 1 4k Hub[ https://www.anker.com/products/variant/powerexpand-8in1-usbc-pd-10gbps-data-hub/A83830A1
I didn't read that somebody used this one succesfully on Ipad Air 2020.