Hanging a USB hub off of the Oplab?

Is it possible / OK / cool to hang a USB hub off of one or both of the host ports of the Oplab for connecting things like, say, Waldorf’s Streichfett, Mono2, Blofeld, etc? Since a lot of these devices don’t offer MIDI-Thru for chaining. Many of these devices also (at least in the case of the Streichfett which I already have) get power off of USB. I assume it’s probably preferred to use a powered hub?


I’ve never used a USB hub that wasn’t attached to a computer. I imagine in this case would be the same as a small MIDI hub (which I’d also consider but being able to do power and communication across USB makes it more appealing for some of these devices I have my eye on).

Are you asking whether you can do this to power multiple devices? Or are you asking whether the MIDI for multiple devices will be merged/passed-through while using a USB hub?


I guess I will take a stab at both either way. I think you would be better off using dedicated USB power supplies for the Streichfett, etc. Just won’t run the risk of overloading the power on the hub. Similarly, you could get one USB power plug with multiple USB power ports out. Then you can supply power to multiple devices with just one outlet. But be careful that the power requirements (amperage) for all of the devices added together is not more than what the power supply can handle. Or you might damage something.

As far as USB hub support on Oplab, I believe others have stated this does not work. It would have to be supported by the Oplab firmware to route multiple USB-MIDI device signals to each other. Something like the iConnect4MIDI+ is much better suited for this.

Hope this helps.

Hm. Thanks, I’ll take a deeper look at the iConnect4 thing. My MIDI setup is starting to get complicated and all this MIDI is pretty new to me coming from a history of patch cords (pedals, then eurorack) and I’ve been thinking I need a merge and/or hub.


So yes, I am looking at both powering and sending MIDI over USB to devices since so few of the smaller ‘microsynths’ have a MIDI Thru for doing any kind of daisy chaining, and if I can eliminate cables by doing power and MIDI by USB to multiple devices instead of MIDI and separate power, it’d be nice, at least for a performance-oriented setup.