Mobile bus power tips Soundcards & Footswicthes
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Greetings fellow guitar and forum enthusiasts, shout out to pipe! long time bro : ]
So like a lot of folks out there I enjoy the freedom that mobile devices bring to my life. Unfortunately all of my toys don't always want to cooperate well together without a little coaxing and patience.
Bus powered devices are far more usable than some people think - Soundcards - if you have a pretty standard sound card that is USB powered you might want to try this before you go forking out money for stuff you really don't need - this goes for bus powered midi "Foot Switches" too (if you are bored by this point might as well move on)
So being old and a total self taught everything in life I always dissect and learn what I "Need" as I can from what I have on hand as opposed to grabbing what I think I need - you may not get this and if not well I am sorry that's really too bad ... Low voltage bus devices have become a recent fascination in my old age including all kinds of old outdated stuff from LED lights to Speakers or weird Docking units for the old iPad which I still use with a Griffin studio connect and a battery setup
1st Rule of order
Get yourself a PASSIVE 4 port cheap as cheap can be NON POWERED USB Hub
you can inject power into that hub and all devices connected to it in more ways than you might have considered (Battery, Computer, USB charger etc)
2nd Rule of order
Get a Real Apple Lightning Camera Connector adapter
(you may have these already)
Power Path = Battery - > USB HUB -> Camera Connector lightning port
Native Instruments Komplete 6 audio card -> HUB
Mastermind LT midi footswitch USB-> HUB
The battery needs to be decent but there is more tricks like chaining etc (watch the volts!) and this will power the whole chain NO PROBLEM
NOTE: in this example the speaker is powered by a tiny rechargeable battery not shown, I keep the speaker power separate as I have experienced noise issues when using one battery for both the input device and the output device simultaneously
I come out of the soundcard with a cable to whatever source I choose it is so simple I can't see why it is not common everywhere
Be patient, keep trying, explore and in the end even if you fail you will learn a lot
(this is just one of the many crazy setups I have done including a system with the iPad on a send from an Amp returned to a stereo tube amp instead of the sending amp, this allows the amp I was using as the sender to remain unchanged and added a stereo FX section to my sound that I could mix in)
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@tafkad
Have you read this thread? :)https://forum.positivegrid.com/topic/410/guide-how-to-use-bias-fx-mobile-live/6
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@salvatore-di-piazza - So beautiful I love your setup of course and the approach and delivery of the info as well - Thank you for the cool Video, Cheers!
The simplicity of an entire setup we can power with a Single battery pack that has so much flexibility has been one of the many joys of waiting so many many years for this, in a world where joy is a valuable commodity not to mention freedom.
The lightning camera connector with added "power in" ability is so simple and powerful. In the past I have used split Y USB cables to add power to the hub at any port as well and I even cut off the male end of the port and soldered a female on it long ago in bus experiments, I get bored sometimes. It gave me different routing options.
Sometimes things would not power or Start in one config yet simply routing the power differently could Trigger a Boot of the device in question - be it a charge cycle or soundcard or pedal or maybe a keyboard? I have been able to Jump Start a device with it's own power supply input while it was plugged into my powered bus system - remove said power supply from that device and it will stay powered Or sometimes just restart like now it works like you wanted (this is of course assumes with devices that are made to accept power via the usb in/out).
Before I switched to the Native Instruments Card I was using RME gear and such for "Bigger" sound solutions at home - made the switch because the NI6 has good "guts" and is easily powered. I have abused this soundcard now for the 8 years or so, taken apart repaired simple issues. I use a DPS II preamp into the NI6 via coax S/PDIF (the preamp has a nice vintage tube in it and some character) for 6 total inputs into my Mac and figured it would be the ticket for iPad's when the time came since it has proven to me it is tough and useful - though I never could get a suitable result from the NI6 into my 3rd gen iPad I've had a while, worked bu was wonky.
I am digging every solution someone comes up with that moves us closer to the goal of expending energy creatively, keeps me moving. Plus I live in an RV and need small solutions with better energy investment ratios!
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@tafkad i like your setup. I’m actually chasing a buzzing in my signal chain and it is even there when I’m using bus power. I’m wondering if it is the sound from the amp sim or if I have a bad interface. The one I have is a behringer umc204hd and I have the usb 3.0 camera connector from Apple. I use an Anker brand 4 port powered usb hub that I insert power from a battery and then connect to the usb connector. Then I plug my sound card to the hub and the Apple connector to the phone