This is probably the only advantage of high bandwidth ports: you can connect hubs without worrying about bandwidth.

As far as direct use of the port is concerned for audio production/recording, round trip latency performance improvements are close to non esistent. Bandwidth for audio production is barely used at its fullest already, and 3.0 was already overkill.

Not going to happen, game changing technologies are so when they involve the vast majority of users.
Usb 2 already is more than enough for most, and 3.0 was already a huge leap that practically not many really take actual advantage of.
The audio production scene is not really using that much bandwidth and there are other fields where 4.0 will actually be useful. Just not here.

 

Actually it's only going to help them. USB C ports will make UAD hardware more compatible/accessible for windows-based machines, and there will be no need to keep developing classic USB port based interfaces like the apollo twin USB.
The Satellite can also be used on USB C ports as well. So yeah, UA will actually benefit a lot from this.

 

dang, I feel so old.
I remember when USB just began to get mainstream. It was a true revolution I guess.

 

So it's called "USB"? Let me know when they achieve more pins than my DB-25

 

Not for audio interfaces though!
Audio/Video/etc for realtime processing/usage is loaded into RAM. No need for HDD/SSD

 

So USB 4 will be based on USB-C?
USB C =! Thunderbolt 3
USB 4 = Thunderbolt?

 

man.. all of my essential AW'z are just on a 256gb usb key.. but , i don't know what to do with all dat pr0nz thats where usb45 may help

 

lol i still have usb 2 since year 2007

 

Where can I download USB 4.0 ?

 

I'm currently using a beta in testing a motherboard with preliminary software driving USB 4 and have now the ability to write to disk 256 tracks in real time with no glitching, a stated latency of 6 milliseconds, and get this, with a buffer of only 32 samples.

Why don't you believe me?

 

Whatever the case, Thunderbolt (as the spiritual succesor to Firewire/IEEE1394), is better than any USB version since you can daisy chain peripherals from external hdds & super speed raid nas boxes to monitors and graphics cards, top notch audio interfaces etc, all on a single TB3 port. Atm, USB requires a one to one connection from host to device and i don't see this changing even if they match TB3 max bandwidth @ 40gbps. The advantage of USB is that it's cheaper to implement, hence the myriad of devices available.

I have to quote not really. As far as bandwidth is concerned, i will agree that for most users it is overkill. But as far as latency is concerned, USB 3 has one tenth the latency USB2 does. Thus, it is ideal for cheap but also fast audio interfaces. I do have an older post explaining it somewhere lol. But if i recall correctly, USB2 should be around 3ms before any audio device driver and USB3 is 0.3ms.

Cheers

 

if it was true everyone would have adopted usb3 right away, but as I said there are no significant round trip latency benefits, only bandwidth increment. Drivers also have a huge part in it, better drivers have more significant benefits in terms of latency than usb2->usb3 does. Any link to your post?

 

I am trying to find my old post but i am terrible at this. Anyway, here's some from known bibliography :
"USB 2.0 transmits SOF/uSOF at fixed 1 ms/125 μs intervals. A device driver may change the interval with small finite adjustments depending on the implementation of host and system software. USB 3.0 adds mechanism for devices to send a Bus Interval Adjustment Message that is used by the host to adjust its 125 μs bus interval up to +/-13.333 μs.
In addition, the host may send an Isochronous Timestamp Packet (ITP) within a relaxed timing window from a bus interval boundary."
So as i said earlier, in general a USB3 connection can indeed have about one tenth the latency a USB2 connection does.

And now that we got the bare numbers out of the way, there is an article/suggestion backing what you said by Focusrite here: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/208095469-USB-2-0-vs-USB-3-0
Still, i find this article untrue and somehow unbelievable to me that the techs @ Focusrite either : aren't very techy (lol) or deliberately skip on important info. Lemme make it more clear and copy pasting from a simple but scientific informative post:
"USB 2.0 employs a communication architecture where the data transaction must be initiated by the host. The host will frequently poll the device and ask for data, and the device may only transmit data once it has been requested by the host. The high polling frequency not only increases power consumption, it increases transmission latency because the data can only be transmitted when the device is polled by the host. USB 3.0 improves upon this communication model and reduces transmission latency by minimizing polling and also allowing devices to transmit data as soon as it is ready."

The wiring in USB2 (4 wires @half duplex mode) allows data flow towards only one direction at any given time. USB3 (9 wires) uses a dual simplex mode or full duplex which allows two uni-directional data streams at any given time. On a personal note here, USB 3 although being physically USB, it resembles Firewire much more than any previous USB protocol since in real world applications it practically skips the typical one way device handshake negotiation done by usb2 devices, making usb3 devices much more snappier and responsive. Simply put, USB2 can only send or receive data at any given time, whereas USB3 can send and receive data at the same time. The advantage is obvious, especially in our case when a USB device plays back and records audio at the same time ...
So beyond bandwidth differences and in short : USB 3 vs USB 2 has better error management, higher power supply, longer cable lengths and lower latency and jitter times.
But hey, at the end of the day we 're all at the mercy of those who program the device drivers, as most of the times the driver is more important than the device. A bad driver can render a zillion dollar interface useless lol.
Anyway, i hope this clarifies the whole usb latency charade manufacturers and half baked press are trying to feed end users.
PS: USB 3.1 is even snappier and faster than good old USB3 I wonder if we will see any such audio interface, but i guess with TB2 already being more than adequate to almost equal pci-e latency for audio interfaces all we have to wait is for TB3 interfaces or even TB4 lol.
Cheers

 

Last edited: Sep 26, 2019

Errr... Just to make it clear. USB-C is NOT Thunderbolt3. Thunderbolt3 can provide USB-C via the exact same connector. But having USB-C on your motherboard does not mean you have Thunderbolt 3 too. Without a proper TB header and TB controller, you just have USB 3.1 (either gen1 or gen2) on an identical port. Also, the most used USB type C is actually USB 3.1(gen2) @ 10gbps but TB3 is 40gbps and can support many devices daisy chained together. Example: On the same type C port, TB3 can power two 4k displays simultaneously whereas plain USB-C only one.
So USB4 at the current configuration only matches TB3 in maximum bandwidth. So don't expect a dramatic change but do expect fast (and cheaper than TB3) external ssd drives, audio interfaces etc etc.
Cheers