MOTUnation.com

Hi Guys, been al ittle while since I inputted on this board, but I read it all the time. Everyone does a great job with suggestions and tips.

I need help with a situation. I am relocating my home studio to a small but nice building outside of my home. I have one of the dual gig G4's which is a little noisy.

I want to locate the computer away from the area that I am recording in. I want to put it in a small room by itself. I don't want to build an enclosure for it as I want it to have appropriate airflow as not to over heat.

what do I need to do as far as cables, etc. to be able to have my two displays and my keyboard in a different area from my HD? Is their a distance limitation? I should not have to be more than 10 to fifteen feet away.

Ado they make USB and firewire cables that long? How about extension cables for my monitors?

Or maybe someone has an alternate suggestion?
I have know idea how to do this and their is noone to ask about this here.

I thought for sure someone on this board has done this before.


thanks in advance guys.
Keep up the good work James,
God bless,
Don

You can take a look at Geffen Extendit:
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/cav-extenders.jsp

My .o2.

Firewire cables are limited to 15 because that's what they'll do without a repeater, or whatever you call it. So in your scenario, you're covered. A powered USB hub will cover your keyboard, and monitors will run on extention cables just fine. I have my computer rig outside my control room with a hole at the baseboard staggered through the wall, insulated, etc. No problems with anything other than that I can't start up my G4 from my Macally keyboard through the powered hub. Never sought to figure that one out, since I rarely turn the thing off.

Two CRT monitors, MOTU 2408 on "audiowire," essentially a firewire protocol on a firewire cable (the cables are interchangeable), with a firewire burner here in the control room for convenience. A MOTU MIDI express, keyboard and mouse on the USB bus. All to a hub, then through the wall. From the same hub, another USB line runs through the other wall into my performance room so I can spin a monitor around and run the transport from there if I'm tracking my own playing of an acoustic instrument.

If you run anything through your wall, separate the power cables from the audio/usb/firewire, or cross them perpendicularly to avoid interference. Best to power them in the room they live in with the data feeds running into the other room.

Helpful?

And if doesn't work, throw it out the window. Best thing for machines, I find.

Oh yeah, and seriously,

Unless they've changed their schtick, avoid Keyspan stuff for USB. I have a hub, lost the DC adapter, couldn't even get the ••••ing voltage from the hub (wasn't printed/stamped/molded onto/into the housing at all), couldn't get a phone or email response, so basically they •••• on me for the money I spent. GRanted, a hub is cheap, but still...