“I’ve put together a machine room in the closet of my home project studio. I would like to put my G4 in it, but would like to keep my USB MTP/AV near the mixing station and the rest of the gear. Do you know how long of a USB cable run is permitted?”
As our home project studios become more sophisticated, dealing with noise generated by all this great gear is something to be reckoned with. We checked with Mark of the Unicorn and the maximum cable length MOTU recommends between a USB computer and USB MIDI interface is 5 meters, or about 16.5 feet. Longer runs can be achieved through the use of powered USB hubs, but this is a limited solution. For extremely long runs, Gefen makes a few solutions that extend the use of USB by way of CAT 5 (Ethernet) cable that work extremely well. In fact, Gefen makes all kinds of really clever extension solutions for computers. We’ve been using them in systems for years. Call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for help in putting your CPU in a remote location.