talk me out of a terrible idea

[starmansam]

Ok, so I got a focusrite interface recently and I'm working on setting up a usable computer recording home studio. My jam room is in the basement but my computer is on the second floor and I would love to not have to move it. How stupid would it be to run 100 feet or so of usb cable through the house so I can leave things where they are and not clutter up my jam space with a computer?


I figure I can use team viewer to remotely control my desktop from a few rooms away. So that bit shouldn't be an issue.

Alternatively, how much ram/ processing speed do you need to record well. I have an old computer or a netbook I could throw down there, but they have so much less power

pros /cons of the long cable approach? Thanks for any advice

[rfurtkamp]

USB won't run 100 feet. Hubs/extensions wreak havok with interfaces.

How much you need to record well depends on how much you're using.

A relatively cheap box will handle 16+ tracks - I never hit a track count on my circa '08 3.4ghz AMD gaming box, and on my I7, well....I'm doing 24 tracks at a time IN (total more sometimes 4x more than that) without issue.

Softsynths and plugins etc use the most CPU typically.

[starmansam]

Rad. thanks for all the advice. I kind of suspected that a powered usb extension would be less than ideal, so thanks for confirming that.

[Pentametre]

Yeah, if you're just recording processor speed and ram shouldn't be an issue. Even if you use a lot of software instruments and effects you can always freeze/render tracks to save resources.

[tuj]

65' with an ac-powered booster: http://www.usbgear.com/USB2_extension_C ... cable.html

You can also run USB over cat5 cable.

[John]

You're better off running an audio snake from room to room. There won't be any latency issues with an analog signal. Some people use CAT5 for audio though there is some debate over the quality of the wire for audio, most of it baseless conjecture.

[starmansam]

You're better off running an audio snake from room to room. There won't be any latency issues with an analog signal. Some people use CAT5 for audio though there is some debate over the quality of the wire for audio, most of it baseless conjecture.

I thought about that, but a snake is crazy expensive compared to how cheap a solution the usb was going to be. thanks though.