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Post subject: Passport as an Audio Interface
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:25 am
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Can I use the USB connection to connect directly to the computer and use the Passport 500 as an audio interface? Thanks for any input. :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Passport as an Audio Interface
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:33 am
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I'm not a Fender engineer, but I'm 95% sure that you cannot use the USB port on the Passport 500 as a digital interface for the computer. That port is designed to be used for a disk drive that can be read from or written to by the Passport.

Here's the problem: The USB interface is a master/slave interface. That's why a USB cable is shaped differently on the two ends. (FireWire and Thunderbolt cables are the same at both ends because they use peer-to-peer protocols instead of a master/slave protocol.) The port on your computer is the master port. The port on the Passport is also a master port. You won't find a general-purpose USB cable with that shaped plug on both ends.

Your USB printer has a boxier "D" shaped plug at the printer end because the printer is a slave. Your USB camera has a tiny "mini USB" connector, which is the other common shape for a USB "slave" device.

A USB FLASH drive is a slave device. It's a slave to the Passport while plugged into the Passport, and then it's a slave to your computer when it's plugged into the computer. So, if you could plug a cable between the Passport and the computer, they'd both try to be Masters and neither would do the slave thing right. Everybody's talking and nobody's listening.

There are special cables with electronic boxes built into them that will play slave in the middle between two computers to connect them via USB, but both computers need to be running special software that communicates with the electronics in the cable. The Passport won't do that.

The Passport is built to be a mixer/amp for live music. The USB port used as a recording/playback storage device is a nice little bonus tagged on to the side. It's a nice little feature, but it really can't be stretched to do more than it was designed to do.


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Post subject: Re: Passport as an Audio Interface
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:43 am
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Thanks, ContraCaller. That makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the thorough response.

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