Hardware Devices: Not sticky unless connected to same port

Other than creating a duplicate devices and then assigning them to a shared device, is there a way to make the hardware devices sticky if I connect them on different USB ports?

Right now I’m dealing with a couple different configuration instances:
Band Rehearsal/Gigs: Connected to USB 3.0 Hub: Audio Interface, MIDI interface, Novation, Yamaha MOXF8 —> laptop

Home: Connected to multiple USB 2.0 Hubs: Audio Interface, Novation, Yamaha MOXF8 , Programming devices, MIDI interface, mouse, keyboard, etc —> Laptop.

If I connect any device to a different port (e.g., a different port on the hub, a different hubake this , or the hub is connected to a different port on the laptop), the devices seem to disappear. I can add them under an alias (e.g., Upper Keyboard, Lower Keyboard), but the audio interface seems to have a different behavior in that it doesn’t always come back up without being re-added.

Is there a better way to make this work?

Hi @PatAzzMusic

This is mostly down to the driver’s you’re using. If the driver gives the device a different name when you plugin it into a different port, then that’s outside Cantabile’s control.

For audio devices there’s not much you can do about this - you’ll just need to re-select the correct device in Options -> Audio Engine.

For MIDI devices you have a bit more flexibility - simply connect the MIDI port to as many names as the device ever takes on. ie: when it changes name, rather than right clicking on the port and choosing the new device, actually double click on it and put a check mark next to the new device name and leave the old device name selected too.

Now Cantabile will connect to which ever device is available at the time.

Brad

Thanks Brad. What you described is what’s been happening, and what I’ve been trying to do to mitigate the issue… That makes sense according to my understanding of the way Windows enumerates devices as well - I was just hoping…

One thing I try to do is label the cables and the USB hub(s) to try to keep the connections consistent.

Pat

I almost shot myself over this kind of thing in the past. I’d have to manually re-assign all my ports more or less every time I booted up. Not only were they not sticky, they seemed to get randomly re-assigned each time Windows started. (This was using Sonar, not Cantabile, but the problem was in Windows). My solution was ultimately to buy a MIDI merger and run everything into one interface. Windows only sees one USB port. All assignment are via MIDI channels. Life is good. :smiley: But of course that solution doesn’t work for everyone’s hardware situation unfortunately.

I ended up labelling my leads and ports to always ensure that my USB devices went in the same port to stop Windows enumeration problems.

That didn’t even work for me. The same lead in the same port would still come up reassigned in the software.

Now, that is really Strange…

Maybe it was some combination of Windows and Sonar screwing with each other. I never had the issue with Cantabile because by then I was so paranoid I switched over the the MIDI merger.

Yep, I’ve seen some devices where simply unpluggin and replugging will give a different device name. Total pain and I presume blame lies with whoever wrote the drivers.

Closing the loop on this one…

I bought a 7 port USB 3.0 hub, and have tagged the hub, the cables, and anything else I could find, and the rig appears to be much more stable now. I put the hub (and other stuff) on a velcro’d sliding shelf, using heavy duty velco.

Note: When picking a USB hub, I’ve found that many of the hubs seem to have different depths for the USB sockets. The one I currently have is a bit disappointing because the USB cables don’t seem to go in all the way. To compensate for that I’m velcro’ing the cables to the shelf as well, and also zip tying the cables to the rack rails (on the way out of the rack). That should keep things from getting too loose, though I’m sure I’ll still check the connections every time I open the rack up for a rehearsal/gig.

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