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Question regarding MIDI Prepare Buffer Size


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 I am experimenting with controlling an external device (Neural DSP Quad Cortex) via Midi CC and PC messages sent by Cakewalk. It's working pretty well so far. I stumbled across the setting  MIDI Prepare Buffer Size, which is currently set to 200ms. As I am thinking about using this setup in a live situation, I am wondering, if this setting has an impact on the timing the midi messages are send to my device.

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The MIDI Prepare Buffer Size is the "look ahead" time for playback of the recorded midi events in your project... Your entire project will be delayed by the setting when you hit the play button... All "live" midi inputs will be processed at the midi latency of your system and are not further delayed by the buffer setting... If set rather high you will really notice the the delay when you start playback... In my experience it has no effect on audio latency...

If you are changing "scenes" in Cakewalk when you are playing back live with pre-recorded midi events a slightly larger setting for the buffer can be beneficial as it gives your system more time to process and not effect playback... If it is set really low and you change scenes it can interrupt playback and even crash Cakewalk... I have mine set to 400ms which I really do not even notice that delay at all recording or playing back... I can change to any scene or multi dock in a "fully loaded" project with this setting with no problems what so ever... At lower settings I would sometimes have miner audio playback glitches when changing scenes...

400ms worked out best for my system... You may want to experiment with the setting a bit to see what works out best for your system...

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The MIDI Prepare Using buffer has no bearing on MIDI sent to hardware ouputs. Its purpose is to pre-render audio from soft synths. For bes behavior when starting/stopping playback, changing loop points or editing MIDI during playback, it's best to keep it low. The primary symptom of an insufficient buffer is dropped notes. If you're not hearing that, you probalby don't need to change it from the default of 50ms.

Edited by David Baay
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