MIDI notes being cut short

[Andrew Mowry]

I'm using Cakewalk for the first time, along with a MIDI controller. It is working great, with one exception: If I play one note, then a different one, and then go back to the first, all in quick succession, the final note is clipped very short. In normal passages, fast notes sound just fine, but in the above sequence, where I'm returning to the initial note after a quick gracenote on another note, the sound stops almost immediately. Is there some setting that I'm missing that is causing this to happen? 

Here's a MIDI dump (from another app, by the way, is there a MIDI event monitor in CakeWalk??):

11:24:45.399 [Note On] ch=0 note=71 velocity=64

11:24:47.013 [Note On] ch=0 note=69 velocity=64

11:24:47.013 [Note Off] ch=0 note=71 velocity=64

11:24:47.098 [Note On] ch=0 note=71 velocity=64

11:24:47.098 [Note Off] ch=0 note=69 velocity=64

As you can see, there is no final NoteOff event for note 71, yet the note doesn't continue playing in Cakewalk.

Thanks!

Edited May 29, 2019 by Andrew Mowry

[msmcleod]

Try increasing your MIDI prepare buffer from 250 to 750:

[Andrew Mowry]

Thank you, I did try increasing that to quite high values, with no change. Also, fast sequences of notes sound fine except for the specific sequence above, so it’s as if Cakewalk isn’t allowing a note to be played if a NoteOff event for that same note was previously received within a certain timespan(?).

[scook]

The closest thing to data view provided in the OP is the Event List View

[Andrew Mowry]

Okay, thanks!

[Andrew Mowry]

I determined that if I record a track and play it back, all the notes sound fine, so it's just something to do with playback in real time...

[msmcleod]

22 minutes ago, Andrew Mowry said:

I determined that if I record a track and play it back, all the notes sound fine, so it's just something to do with playback in real time...

Hmm, that sounds like a latency issue. Maybe your ASIO buffer is set too high... is there a noticeable delay between you playing the note and it sounding?

[Andrew Mowry]

No, I'm not noticing any latency at all, and I've tried playing with buffers. Is there some difference in how Cakewalk handles playback in real time from a MIDI controller vs. from a recording? 

[scook]

Have you tried different synths?

[msmcleod]

25 minutes ago, Andrew Mowry said:

No, I'm not noticing any latency at all, and I've tried playing with buffers. Is there some difference in how Cakewalk handles playback in real time from a MIDI controller vs. from a recording? 

I guess there's a possibility that in playback Cakewalk could be sending Note On vel. 0 instead of Note Off, or vice versa, and the real time synth is doing the opposite.

This is just a guess though - I've no idea whether this would be the case or not.

In any case, they should behave the same.

I would try scooks suggestion of trying another synth and seeing if the problem persists.

Oh, one other thing has come to mind...

I remember my old K1 used to send out aftertouch messages, which I would accidently trigger now and then... this had a similar effect to what you're describing.

Cakewalk can be configured not to record them (which I believe is actually the default), so on playback you won't be getting these.

Does your keyboard have aftertouch?

[Andrew Mowry]

That was the problem, thanks! The default TTS-1 synth is all I had tried so far, but I just tried a few other synths, and they seem to be fine, with the exception of notes getting stuck on more frequently than I would like. It seems like there may be something odd with how the TTS-1 synth is handling NoteOff events.

[Robert Bone]

If your sounds are from an external synth, make sure you turn Local Off, on the external synth, because otherwise each played note will trigger a sound in reaction to a key being pressed, and Cakewalk will ALSO send the midi data for the triggered note event, back to the synth, causing that same note to be triggered again.  By turning Local Off on the external synth, that severs the connection between the keys being pressed and the internal sounds - leaving only the midi data sent back by Cakewalk properly triggering only 1 note event.

Bob Bone

[scook]

TTS-1 is a pretty old synth. The 64bit version has a few issues, the code was machine generated by Roland.

For me, it is most useful for playing existing MIDI files. As long as there is  no MIDI device selected in preferences, opening a MIDI files causes Cakewalk to automatically add and setup TTS-1 to play the file.

[scook]

15 minutes ago, Andrew Mowry said:

notes getting stuck on more frequently than I would like

See if Zero Controllers When Play Stops is enabled. If not, enable it. This might help with stuck notes. This is per-project setting so make sure the project template has the option enabled and any new projects will have the setting.

[Andrew Mowry]

Thanks, that is already checked, but I'll play round with other settings and see if I can reduce the stuck notes. I need to spend some time searching the forum for that too.

[scook]

This forum is new. The old forum contains a lot of valuable info.

[Luca Davenport-Thomas]

I have this issue as well. I have narrowed it down a bit. It happens when the same key is pressed quickly after itself.  With High BPM's it is very hard to do and you have to play very quick to get it to happen. At low BPM's eg 10, it is easy to do and the second note will even play for longer before cutting out.  Any ideas?