Keyboard MIDI controller sound delay

[Peter Lockwood]

Hi

I'll just throw this out there. I haven't searched to see if this has already been talked about.

I'm new to Cakewalk and learning it. 

I've tried using one of my electric pianos as a MIDI controller, playing music into Cakewalk. It works but there is a sound delay and so it is quite hopeless to try and play something in time to the Cakewalk metronome. The only possible kind of way around it that I know of is to mute my PC and just listen to the piano itself. But that means a lot of sorting the timing out afterwards. I'd really like to play music into Cakewalk along to the metronome with no sound delay. That would be brilliant. Does anyone know what can fix this sound delay? Just now I use a standard printer cable to connect my electric piano to my PC. 

Thanks

Edited December 17, 2021 by Peter Lockwood

[reginaldStjohn]

Sorry I can't be of more help but someone else might be along that can suggest something. In the meantime if you could edit your post with what driver mode and audio interface/card you are using it might help. The latency from you playing a key and hearing it could be from your audio interface buffer setting or driver mode.

Also, are you trying to play an instrument (VSTi) in Cakewalk or hear the sound of your piano through Cakewalk?

[scook]

This comes does the audio driver buffer size and plug-ins in the project.

Usually this means setting buffer size to 128 or less although some can tolerate a higher setting.

My guess is you are using the PC sound chip so, on Win10 it means using WASAPI Exclusive driver mode in Cakewalk.

Bypassing all the plug-ins using the FX button in the Mix module will eliminate any plug-in delay compensation. While reading about the FX button check out the PDC button.

[user 905133]

removed

Edited December 17, 2021 by User 905133
I decided the OP was most likely talking about a usb cable.

[Promidi]

A couple of questions:

What audio interface are you using?
What driver mode are you using?
What is the name of the VSTi you are you using?

ASIO is preferred.  This is checked with Preferences | Audio | Playback and Recording.

My PC is configured as per my signature and I can play VSTis in real-time with out any undesirable delay between key-press and note output.

[fret_man]

I don't have any  direct experience with your particular problem, but when I use a MIDI controller in Finale I notice the delay is due to the sound output part of the process, not the MIDI input portion. So I'd focus on that. Have the sounds preloaded into RAM or put the sounds on an SSD drive. Things like that...