EDIT

Before my long winded response pghboemike hit it on the head - better help will come to you if you LIST what you have and how you plan to use it

EDIT over
=========================

This is ALL just my opinion and how I do things

You asked multiple complex question(s) I will mainly address the external MIDI gear situation. If you only have a few, three or less, and you chain "in's to out's" like you mention you are probably OK. Although, there are some considerations.

More than two or three chained MIDI units and the MIDI delay might start to be too noticeable - even just two could be an issue for you.

Delay can be a few MS (milliseconds) in each box: MIDI-in hits the internal MIDI processor which then decides what's internal use and internal routing, then what needs re-routed to the out port (that all takes finite time); ditto in next box so you can see the delay's adding up.

With three (3) "In's-to-out's" the delay is PROBABLY around 15 (or MORE) MS for last MIDI box depending on the various actual HW units (15 MS is allowing an average of around 5 ms for EACH I/O pair)

See this thread and look about 6 down to one by "JCRC"

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=422038

[I tend to agree with his numbers]


If these external MIDI units are just audio FX units, like you mention (reverb's, compressors, etc.) probably no big deal (but it depends).

If these are SOUND generating units (i.e., external synths) then the audio delays MAY, or may not, become a real audible/timing issue - it depends on your situation for each song.

If you have an audio timing critical situation then you may need to do some sequencer adjustments and 1) lag your internal audio and/or other internal MIDI plug-ins, 2) lead your external gear by a little ( a few MS), or a lot, depending on which unit is first in chain and which is last and which generates sounds first and which generates sounds last, etc, 3) record each external units sound on separate audio tracks then adjust time later (after recording) by sliding that units audio backwards (or other PC audio forwards), etc.

[PS using MIDI-in and MIDI-thru is a little faster but 100% of the "in" will then go to the MIDI-thru, which can create other issues especially, if all you wanted was ONE MIDI channel or one set of info to make it to the next box].


I have a lot of external MIDI gear but I use multiple MIDI patch bays (they each route up to 8 MIDI I/O pairs - independently; they are analogous to AUDIO patch bays). Yes, I still have MIDI delays but it's a known constant throughout my studio since all MIDI synths/gear has I/O to the MIDI patch bay independent from all other MIDI synths/gear.

There are other concerns when using a MIDI-chain (i.e., MIDI in to out to in to out to in...):

Like making sure that what's needed by the box(s) next in the chain get that info WITHOUT affecting the unit that gets the info to be forwarded. Example you send a trumpet notes-on, on channel 2 meant for your killer trumpet patch in the second synth unit, how do you keep the first unit from sounding a sawtooth lead, (which also on channel 2 but on this first unit)? Takes some planning work on your end.

Then there are control channel considerations (these are the MIDI channels external MIDI gear listens for instructions on, NOT musical note on's and off's: like "change patch" of second part of your "multi" or "performance" or "program" or… ( nomenclature depends on synth manufacturer) to sound "mute trumpet," or change mode from mono to poly, or control over-all unit reverb level, etc.). And you can't really have all units on same control channel (that would be a separate planning nightmare).


Change topic

Your USB question is no less "trivial" since using a USB HUB depends on the external gear - some gear doesn't like to talk to PC via a HUB (causes issues, or it flat doesn’t work, or has too long a time lag,..) for some gear it works just fine and you have no issues.

You'll need to try it and see unless you can name the specific units then others here may know or have experience with that unit when using a HUB (at least in their PC configuration/situation).


Finally, your question number 3 is (can be) a little "personal use" subjective but mainly driven by what HW you have installed and available and what SW you really use and how you use it.

I keep all (99% anyway) of my music apps and plug-ins on one drive. BUT I have six internal 2TB HDDs.

Three HDDs are OS boot drives: Win XP, Win 7 64 Pro and now 10 Pro (all designated Drive C if booted or Drive's Z and Y if they are not the boot drive). Additionally the Win 7 and Win 10 physical drives have to be "hidden" from the Win XP drive or the XP will destroy the Win 7/Win 10 restore points at boot.

Then there is my dedicated music application HDD, Drive D (I also use that drive for some Steam game storage- I'm a big time gamer also).

And finally two general purpose/work HDD's, Drives E and H (letters F and G are reserved for my DVD R/W and Blu-Ray R/W drives) the last two HDDs are on my slower/lower bandwidth MoBo SATA ports.

Not to mention multiple 2-, 3-, and 4-TB external USB HDDs for storage, backup images, etc. Drives J through whatever.

I record audio to a fast but non-BOOT'ed OS drive (i.e, if running Win 7 [usually] or Win 10 [which I'm just now starting to configure/play with] - then I route recording/streaming audio to my WIN XP drive. If running Win XP for audio, which is now almost never, I stream audio to my H drive.

I have no issues having all music apps on same drive. I doubt most folks would because once the app (Sonar, RB, BIAB, Mixcraft, Reaper...) is loaded into memory, and is running and your are generating a song and recording, they don’t (generally) need to go back out to HDD for "stuff."

The need to go back to the HDD and interrupt what it's doing is generally caused by instructions from YOU to tell it to do something new.


Ditto most plug-ins go (e.g., Kontakt, SampleTank, compressors, reverbs) the HDD load and lag time is in the loading of the VST/VSTi or the samples/patch's used by the plug-in into working MEMORY - once that's done there is again (usually) no need for that plug-in to require HDD access (I stress, usually).

The real concern is where you record, or route, AUDIO while running these DAWs, apps., and plug-ins. You may want to (should) route recording audio to another (but non-BOOT) drive if possible and the fastest non-BOOT drive you have, again IF POSSIBLE.

I know that, like some (most?) folks, you might only have one internal drive (immaterial if HDD or SDD) so then you need to control what's allowed to run when doing time critical audio work.

Even if you have and a lot of fast and large SDD's, if you let AV, anti-malware, Windows file indexing, and other TSR (terminate stay resident) software running while trying to run DAW's and performing audio recording you are just asking for clicks, glitches, hiccups, and errors.

Good Luck
Larry

Last edited by Larry Kehl; 03/20/16 09:58 AM.
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