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Review on πŸ”Œ StarTech.com USBPLATE4 - 4 Port USB A Female Slot Plate Adapter - USB panel - 4 pin USB Type A (F) by Robert Gilbert

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Steals the DAW clock cycle

Let me tell you, for most consumers this USB adapter will work just fine. For musicians using this in a DAW (if you don't know what it is, don't care) this combined with a USB 3.0 based PC is going to cause some serious frustration. I installed this when I came across a USB 2.0 device that was NOT USB 3.0 compatible. It's very, very rare, but it happens. At the time, it worked brilliantly for that purpose. Fast forward a few months though and I'm using either USB 3.0 hardware or USB 3.0 compatible hardware in my DAW and little did I know problems were about to start. I upgraded my audio interface and guitar processor a few weeks apart, and after spending a few weeks learning the software for each device, I was ready to start recording with my new toys. Well, after recording and playing back a 30 second guitar demo, there was crackling and popping when playing the recorded track in the recording software. I'll write the full story of how it took almost 5 days to fix bugs, but when all was said and done I found that this simple and inexpensive device was wreaking havoc with my $10,000 recording gear. by stealing CPU clock cycles that would otherwise go to my other devices. When this happens in a DAW, it's one of the worst things you can experience. Your otherwise pristine record becomes a jumble of little "pops and clicks" that can usually be traced back to a problem or two with your system, but if it's not a thing or two, it could be literally any driver, firmware, hardware , software, or cable included with your PC, audio interface, MIDI device, microphone, processor, power supply, and more. And to find the problem, you have to go through them all. So that's something to consider if you're in the same situation as me. I hope you never find yourself again, but if you are a musician who writes, records and produces stay away from this point. Lesson learned.

Pros
  • Separate cables support one row of 8/10 pins or 2 rows of 4/5 pins
Cons
  • New competitors are here