USB DAW & a Ethernet Computer

[RichrdC]

Good evening,
Have a Lenovo laptop with not enough USB connections,but with an Ethernet connection. 16 gig ram & PT12.5.. I'm looking at DAWs and more than one works off USB 2.0 . I see there are converters, USB to ethernet. Are they any good to use ? Thanks, RichrdC

[john1192]

Originally Posted by RichrdC

Good evening,
Have a Lenovo laptop with not enough USB connections,but with an Ethernet connection. 16 gig ram & PT12.5.. I'm looking at DAWs and more than one works off USB 2.0 . I see there are converters, USB to ethernet. Are they any good to use ? Thanks, RichrdC

what is it that you want to use the Ethernet Connection for ?? your posting is not clear ..

[Southsidemusic]

PT need to be installed on the OS internal drive and the secondary recording drive need to be USB3 atleast. USB2 will be painfully slow and keep throwing error messages if you use an external USB2 drive. Need to be USB3

And again PT NEED to be installed on the internal OS drive.

As john said it is unclear what you are asking and saying with the "other DAW's work off USB2" ..

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by RichrdC

Good evening,
Have a Lenovo laptop with not enough USB connections,but with an Ethernet connection. 16 gig ram & PT12.5.. I'm looking at DAWs and more than one works off USB 2.0 . I see there are converters, USB to ethernet. Are they any good to use ? Thanks, RichrdC

Why not try a powered USB hub? That way you have no need to try the converter you're asking about.

[RichrdC]

I'm upgrading my Computer & DAW. I understand the need to record on a dedicated secondary drive, and the new Lenovo computer does have one USB3. Thanks Southsidemusic for posting the need for the secondary recording drive to be on the USB3..That's how I'm gonna go..

My old DAW, the Project Mix I/O won't work with the new Lenovo Laptop. No fire wire on the Lenovo. That's o.k. It's time for a new DAW. Know anyone who might like a Project Mix I/O? Just kiddin'. That's not for the DUC!!

So, in looking at DAWS, I find myself gravitating towards the Artist Mix. I'm hoping I can find a used one in the $500-$700 neighborhood. With the Artist Mix, it's Ethernet, and the Lenovo has Ethernet so there's no issue there.

That said, I've also been looking at the Presonus Faderport 8. The Faderport 8 is a USB 2.0 connection, so that's the reason for my initial question about the converter.

The Lenovo laptop has a total of two USB2s, one USB3, Ethernet and HDMI. The idea of the Faderport 8 going from USB, to the converter to the Ethernet was appealing because I'd have the USB3 for the recording drive, and then the 2 USB2s for the other components. If the Ethernet converter isn't a good idea, the Faderport 8 would take one of the 2 USB2 ports, leaving just 1 USB left.

Thank you, musicman691 for bringing up the powered USB hub. I have one and when thinking about all this, I'll need to use it no matter what. If I use the USB3 for the recording drive, with the Faderport 8 on one of the two remaining USB2s, everything else, the iLOK, a mouse, an audio interface and a backup external drive would all have to go on the hub. I hope that'd be o.k.

I just had a thought, can you daisy chain the dedicated recording hard drive, and the backup?

Anyway, speaking of audio interfaces, since the Project Mix I/O had the audio interface built in, having a stand alone interface is new to me. I'm thinking about the Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD. Having 4 connections for mics & instruments sounds nice to me.

I hope I've made my situations clear. If I go with the Artist Mix, which I'm leaning towards doing, then I'll have the extra USB to work with..

Thanks for the insights everyone. It's great to have you all out there to bring clarity and ideas to those of us who get challenged from time to time.
RichrdC

[uptheoctave]

You can't convert and ethernet port into a USB port with an adapter (at least I've never seen one).
You can get a USB to ethernet adapter but not the other way around.

What you need though is a USB hub, if you want more USB ports.
They are very common.
I would suggest getting a powered USB hub.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by RichrdC

I'm upgrading my Computer & DAW. I understand the need to record on a dedicated secondary drive, and the new Lenovo computer does have one USB3. Thanks Southsidemusic for posting the need for the secondary recording drive to be on the USB3..That's how I'm gonna go..

My old DAW, the Project Mix I/O won't work with the new Lenovo Laptop. No fire wire on the Lenovo. That's o.k. It's time for a new DAW. Know anyone who might like a Project Mix I/O? Just kiddin'. That's not for the DUC!!

So, in looking at DAWS, I find myself gravitating towards the Artist Mix. I'm hoping I can find a used one in the $500-$700 neighborhood. With the Artist Mix, it's Ethernet, and the Lenovo has Ethernet so there's no issue there.

That said, I've also been looking at the Presonus Faderport 8. The Faderport 8 is a USB 2.0 connection, so that's the reason for my initial question about the converter.

The Lenovo laptop has a total of two USB2s, one USB3, Ethernet and HDMI. The idea of the Faderport 8 going from USB, to the converter to the Ethernet was appealing because I'd have the USB3 for the recording drive, and then the 2 USB2s for the other components. If the Ethernet converter isn't a good idea, the Faderport 8 would take one of the 2 USB2 ports, leaving just 1 USB left.

Thank you, musicman691 for bringing up the powered USB hub. I have one and when thinking about all this, I'll need to use it no matter what. If I use the USB3 for the recording drive, with the Faderport 8 on one of the two remaining USB2s, everything else, the iLOK, a mouse, an audio interface and a backup external drive would all have to go on the hub. I hope that'd be o.k.

I just had a thought, can you daisy chain the dedicated recording hard drive, and the backup?

Anyway, speaking of audio interfaces, since the Project Mix I/O had the audio interface built in, having a stand alone interface is new to me. I'm thinking about the Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD. Having 4 connections for mics & instruments sounds nice to me.

I hope I've made my situations clear. If I go with the Artist Mix, which I'm leaning towards doing, then I'll have the extra USB to work with..

Thanks for the insights everyone. It's great to have you all out there to bring clarity and ideas to those of us who get challenged from time to time.
RichrdC

Rid your mind of this whole ethernet converter business. The ONLY thing to go on that connection (except your internet) is the Artist Mix. Resign yourself to using the USB powered hub for all your USB2 stuff.

Provided you have the connections to do it you could daisy chain the two drives - it all depends on what's on each drive for connections. Understand that if you want to use the drive at the end of the chain you need to have everything between the computer and the end of the chain powered up. You really don't want to use a USB2 drive for anything serious.

Stay away from anything from Behringer as they have a nasty reputation when it comes to quality - Behringer & quality are mutually exclusive terms.

[RichrdC]

Thanks Jack for the insights. My recording drive has been on a USB2 forever. I don't think connecting it to the new computer's USB3 will matter much, will it? The drive is a Seagate and it's more than a few years old now. I'd assume it's all about the drive's specifications as to whether you'd get better performance hooked up to the USB3, and sitting here in my office, I don't have that info handy.. I may have to upgrade figuring newer external drives will work better.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by RichrdC

Thanks Jack for the insights. My recording drive has been on a USB2 forever. I don't think connecting it to the new computer's USB3 will matter much, will it? The drive is a Seagate and it's more than a few years old now. I'd assume it's all about the drive's specifications as to whether you'd get better performance hooked up to the USB3, and sitting here in my office, I don't have that info handy.. I may have to upgrade figuring newer external drives will work better.

USB2 drives may work but it's not optimal or recommended. If it's indeed a USB2 drive connecting it to your computer's USB3 ports won't help as it can't take advantage of the USB3 port's speed.

Depending on the drive's specs you could pull it out of the case it's in and put it into a USB3 case and you may gain a little speed but remember it's still the same old drive. Hard drives are inexpensive these days. Check out OWC for an example of what's possible for drives these days. You may even want to think about going with an ssd in an external case if you're bucks ahead.