MIDI or Audio Interface.

frisbieinstein

New member
I was originally going to get a controller and have a computer do the sound, but I had terrible trouble with computer viruses attacking the USB port. I don't want to give up on it completely and throw away $500 in software. I think I can't get rid of the viruses (I reformatted the disc and the very first time I installed something from over the Internet the virus was back) so I'll have to buy a MIDI interface to bypass USB. Any recommendations on where/what to buy in Singapore?

I might go for an audio interface, because my sound card is total crap and it would be nice to have a preamp. I was looking at the Mackie Onyx. I definitely will not spend more than $300 US. $150 would be more like it.
 
1. What do you mean the virus is attacking your USB port? Could you elaborate exactly what error message or problem you are facing with your USB port? Could it be a hardware problem?

2. Midi interfaces uses USB ports. The midi connection is between your devices and the midi interface, but between the interface and the PC, it's still USB.
 
When I first got the system the USB connection would crash every half hour or so and I'd have to restart it. The MIDI connection would just stop and nothing would get through. It wasn't periodic, it could happen after a minute or after an hour. I used anti-virus software to get rid of the virus and it worked perfectly for about a week. Then I got a worse virus and it became unusable. It has been on the shelf ever since.

Here in Bali there are lots of viruses that are carried via data sticks. The data stick goes in the USB port, the virus gets in there, and then tries to get out the USB port to infect anything there. This crashes the MIDI interface, which has no error correction or possibility of recovery if there is an extra byte or a byte is lost.

I tried reformatting the disc and reinstalling everything, and using DVDs to transfer software instead of the data stick. I don't have an internet connection. That worked until the first time I got some software off the internet via a DVD and got a virus again, which made the USB port unusable.

It seems impossible to get rid of these USB viruses so my only alternative is to bypass USB. MIDI predates USB. If I can't get a MIDI board I'll get an audio interface that with a MIDI port that doesn't use USB, probably Firewire.

Either that or forget about the whole wretched mess.
 
That's unusual that the virus is still there after reformatting your HD. You may have to wipe your entirely drive clean using disk cleaners software. Then reinstall windows again. Then make sure you get a good antivirus - paid ones instead of the free AVG. My Kaspersky picks up lots of viruses from other people's USB sticks which AVG and other free antivirus software don't pick up.

If you really want to bypass USB, then you have to go the firewire audio/midi interface route. All standalone midi interfaces are USB, unfortunately.
 
Yep, I'm afraid it has to be Firewire. Let's hope that it works. So.... What shop should I go to to buy a Firewire audio interface? I want the cheapest thing I can get.
 
Honestly,

This sounds like a hardware problem. Either hard disk, motherboard or usb port. If you're on WinXP with no service pack, you might not even have usb 2 drivers installed...hmm.. How about a little info about your system?

I've never ever heard of a virus attacking a usb port or buss for that matter.. it's just not THE component to attack... Or maybe I'm wrong? Or maybe you were a tad too rough plugging out stuff from the usb port? Maybe it's time to change your hard disk since reformatting didn't help?
btw reformatting doesn't remove stuff. Just "masking" it.

I'd suggest you sort out your computer by having a tech look at it for you before purchasing a FW audio/MIDI interface. What if that too, doesn't work? PCIE then?

Best,
R.
 
Last edited:
I have worked with computers for 20 years and don't see that the hard drive could possibly have anything to do with it, other than harboring the virus. The hard drive is not in the data path of MIDI.

Reformatting the drive renders everything inaccessible. A virus cannot survive this.

The real smoking though is that I got everything to work perfectly for a week when I got rid of the first virus. So that 99.7% rules out hardware, or non-viral software for that matter.

If you take a data stick to an internet cafe in Bali and plug it into the USB port I can just about guarantee that you will pick up a virus. I met a man who got all of his text files converted to Chinese by such a virus. The virus of course tries to get out of the USB port. MIDI has no error tolerance, so if the virus screwwthen MIDI dies.

Even in the very slim case that my problem is NOT having a virus, then to have the same problem over Firewire would be extremely bad luck. BUT if I have learned anything this music/computer stuff, it is that you can't trust anything to work. Even the software I paid $500 dollars for and has been on the market for years did not work out of the box. I had to get an update over the internet. So there is no particular reason to think that anything else I buy will work either. But I think I have at least a 50/50 chance, while if I do nothing my whole $800 is wasted. So it is worth a shot.
 
Hence why you should have a good antivirus - if you really feel virus is the culprit. And for your DAW related stuff, you should (and preferably) be using a clean boot partition. Dual boot is the solution. My DAW boot partition will not access internet (unless for update) and does nothing except music-related stuffs. My other work partition will have a good antivirus. I work mainly in China - the land of viruses (similar to yourself - almost everybody's memory stick in digital cameras etc has got a virus in them). And I've not got a single virus infecting any of my systems yet.
 
Whoah!. hold on for a minute... Let's keep things separate. USB sticks not working on your computer and any other USB peripheral could be completely different things. Have you had any malfunctions with USB devices other than USB storage devices?

First the "virus": Windows will not ever (to my knowledge) run anything off a USB stick without your permission unless you have autorun enabled on your computer. Start by disabling that and that should stop any future infestations of nasties from USB sticks and similar approaches from nasty DVDs.

This page describes one method of disabling autorun: http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/autorun.htm

Second, USB and MIDI: USB-MIDI and audio over USB use completely different driver software from USB storage units. Even if you have a problem reading USB sticks USB-MIDI will most likely continue to work just fine.

All the above assumes that you don't have hardware problems. If you're running a laptop off batteries or have a power supply issue of some sort it's not uncommon for some USB devices to use more power than a computer is willing to give out.
 
Whoah!. hold on for a minute...


Thanks for the autorun thing.

The USB sticks and so forth work just fine. The only problem is with running MIDI through the USB port. I believe that this problem is due to viruses trying to get out the USB port.

There are other possibilities. At first I thought it was the USB MIDI driver. But then why did the problem clear up for a while and then get worse? It MIGHT be a coincidence, but that doesn't seem likely.

No batteries, no laptop.

I can have that autorun problem with DVDs I make myself from scratch with Nero or whatever?
 
Anyway, virus or no I need an audio interface, so where in Singapore would you recommend I go to buy an inexpensive audio interface? Firewire or PCIE.
 
Did you say PCIe? So your USB problems are with your desktop, I presume?

I recommend Echo Mia (PCI). Low cost, low latency, it just works. You can get the contact of the distributor Swizer from the Echo website (www.echoaudio.com).

If you are using a desktop, I suggest PCI/PCIe.
 
I believe that this problem is due to viruses trying to get out the USB port.
There is no such thing as an infected USB port. The devices connected through the port (your computer hard drive, usb sticks etc) might get infested with some sort of malignant program however.

I can have that autorun problem with DVDs I make myself from scratch with Nero or whatever?
Probably not. Not too sure about particular programs. If there are files (possibly hidden or described as "system" files) called autorun on the disk then you have a program that tries to run as soon as you use the media. This is often used for legitimate installation programs on DVDs so it's not just malicious software that uses this. Turning off the autorun feature on your Windows PC will protect you either way.

Naturally, if you manually run programs off media you copied those might be infected with some virus and autorun is not related to that.

As for the choice of an audio interface, it's important to know what you need in more detail. What sort of music will you be playing? There are a lot of choices and decisions when it comes to audio interfaces. There are a lot of high quality audio interfaces that are relatively inexpensive as well. It's also worth noting that many audio interfaces will not let you use a microphone or a pair of headphones without extra external equipment.
 
Back
Top