This is basically a duplicate post. Sorry for the one I posted/deleted as I wasn’t finished typing and posted accidentally. It wouldn’t let me edit…
I’m trying to use 2 MIDI surfaces (one Arturia Keylab 61 and one Akai MPD218) that are about 15 feet from my Mac in my studio. I’ve been using a long USB B male to USB A male to connect the Arturia just fine in Cubase via the USB A input on my computer. I’m adding the 2nd, Akai, surface and want to split that long cable. So, USB B outputs from 2 MIDI devices to the existing cable. I didn’t realize finding a USB B splitter (or similar solution) would be so difficult… Have any of you done something different/similar before?
I started to wonder if maybe it wasn’t possible… but a USB hub would typically work (as far as I know) so that multiple devices could share a single input on the computer, which makes me believe I’m not crazy. Have any of you split (the typical USB B female) outputs for MIDI devices successfully?
I basically need a single USB A output on my computer running a long cable with a USB B connection on the other end to accommodate two USB B outputs from two USB/MIDI devices on the other end.
If any of you have links to cables, adapters, or splitters on Amazon it would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been searching for hours and coming up short… but it’s possible, right?
Yes. I have a USB Hub with half a dozen MIDI controllers hooked up to it just fine - nothing special needed. In general Cubase sees all of the MIDI devices that the OS shows as available.
And yeah, I’ve used a hub before too, so thought it was a non-issue sharing the USB cable. I think the biggest obstacle is the USB B connections. I figured enough of us here have MIDI keyboards and such… surely I’m not the first person to want to minimize the amount of inputs they consume on the computer??? Between the internet and Amazon though, I feel as if I might as well just use search term “USB type A” because everything seems to favor that and toss out my jargon about type B. I’m at a loss
I hope I’m explaining this in a simple enough way… I want to pull the (long/single) USB-B to USB-A cable out of the Arturia and expand it to plug USB-B male into 2 (Arturia and Akai) devices… without having to replace it
A 2x USB-B male-out to single USB-B female-in scenario would be ideal
To be clear, this isn’t a situation where it’s not working. I’m looking for the hardware (cable/adapter) to make it work.
You won’t find one because USB cable “splitters” don’t exist. Two or more USB devices can’t ever share the same cable without a USB controller (hub) between them to manage the attached devices.
It’s an issue. The only solution is a powered USB hub. You could put the hub near your MIDI controllers and use shorter USB cables, then run a longer USB from the hub to your computer.
You need a hub indeed, but there are easy solutions for you.
Unplug you 1st keyboard and plug the usb-B male into these 2 adapters:
Then plug a cheap usb hub with a usb-C male plug in it, and use 2 standard usb A-to-B cables that you probably have already.
For example, this hub would do:
You can sure find a solution a bit cheaper, I did not make a thorough search. Probably can find even a full usb-A (instead of C) solution with the same basic idea as above.
A thing to note is multiple USB devices running under the same bus will run at the speed of the slowest device. That’s not that much of an issue for MIDI devices in general, but it could represent a problem if you plan to use devices that require more bandwidth on the same bus.
The obstacle I’m trying to overcome is that long USB cable that goes to my mac is USB-B on the end over by the MIDI controllers. So I either need a hub that takes USB-B, a hub with a 15ft cable, or a new cable + a hub that doesn’t have a short built-in cable used to connect to the Mac/PC… or (I suppose) a USB extension cable could potentially work
Search for powered "usb 2.0" hub (exactly like that. with the quotation marks)
That will have a USB-B connector for your cable, and multiple ports for your devices.
The USB-B end of the cable is only for plugging into the back of your MIDI device. The other end should be USB-A–and you plug that into the hub. Then there is one connection from the hub to a USB-C port on your computer.
No. It sounds like you just need some 15-foot USB-B to USB-A cable to run from your devices to the hub. There are powered hubs with a USB-B port (instead of a built-in cable), so you can connect it to your machine with a USB-B to USB-C cable. You should avoid any hub with a built-in USB-C.
I don’t think you can reuse your existing long USB cable for this.
What I have done for years is use a long usb extension cable with a small, non-powered hub on the end close to my MIDI devices and then run short USB cables from my devices to the hub.
I currently have three MIDI devices plugged into the hub and it works without issues.
