When do you plug in your equipment via USB? (Poll)
So lets take a poll! Do you start your computer with your USB equipment already plugged in or do you plug it in when your computer is fully started up? (Not sure it makes a difference but I’m just curious to see which one will be more popular).
Always do it before startup. In windows 7 its the easiest way to avoid power management issues. Im not too sure about Mac tho.
What difference does it make.
Good point. I always plug everything (USB) in after my macbook start up, but sometimes when I launch traktor right after start up it Doesn’t even register my audio 10, so maybe I should start plugging everything in before! Startup..
Whilst most (most) products will ‘hotplug’ (which is the term for plugging in your USB devices after the application has been started) some products don’t. In fact many soundcards especially FireWire cards will not hot plug.
Lots of NI products have had issues with hot plugging and people are advised (whether they like it or not) to connect before starting Traktor.
It’s simply good practice to connect your devices before starting your applications.
What a strange topic for a poll.
That was my exact line of thought.
On topic, the S4 needs to be plugged in before Traktor starts, otherwise you have to re select it in preferences. but the F1 can be hotplugged
After the PC’s booted, BEFORE I launch Traktor.
Yeah that’s what I meant, not sure I was doing the same as what Karlos explained. I NEVER plug in the USB for my apps after actually launching that app!
So what are we learning from this, is it better to USB up and then start up your laptop/PC or plug in after its booted up?
It’s actually better to plug in once you’re booted, as some BIOSes have Legacy USB emulation which will assign a different hardware ID / virtual port to that device. That wouldn’t be a problem IF it stayed connected, but if - for whatever reason - you disconnect the device and plug it back in, even though the physical port hasn’t changed, the ID has. You’d then need to re-select that new port in your software.
Everything seems hotpluggable on my Air; I can even plug in half an aggregate audio device while the other half is already playing music within Traktor.
Precisely.
This, but with my MBP.
Precisely.
If it works there’s no reason not to connect something while Traktor is running. Especially if you have lots of devices, as with a large connection it can take quite a while to open and close the program.
Your MBP is still a personal computer 
Unless of course it is an impersonal computer, like a public library MBP
Everything before powering up, I need to plug in my FW soundcard that way so I just plug everything together.
I decided to do a poll because chances are there will be more feedback via voting than actual reply’s. Like how you can have hundreds of views and zero reply’s.
Polls are just a crafty way to force replies out of people 
They’re NEVER happy with the pre-determined options, so they HAVE to comment to clarify
Which is why I wrote that earlier. Presonus FW cards could not hotplug a few years ago. They also had to be adapter powered before starting the app. Only then could you remove the power adapter and run them via bus power (on Mac).
When gigging, I let my (pc) lappy boot up first, but when my setup is at home I leave things plugged in. Doesn’t seem to make a difference.