Jump to content

MIDI latency


tim E

Recommended Posts

I had a midi latency problem, it set in after I had been using the computer for about 1 hour and it only affected the midi keyboard, not the audio. Really annoying, couldn't pin it down, thought it might have something to do with updating the audio interface drivers. I stumbled across a M-Audio Keystation 61 mk3 keyboard and really liked it, so I deinstalled my Nektar Impact GX61, plugged in the new Keystation and latency is back to excellent. Weird!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Promidi said:

Mind sharing the solution?

Sure thing...

As suggested, Audio > Playback and Recording > Driver Mode: ASIO

ALSO

Audio > ASIO Panel > Buffer Size: 128

MIDI > Playback and Recording > Playback - Prepare Using: 700 ms buffers

After I switched to ASIO mode, I was getting the digital distortion in both playback and record.

It went away when I switched Buffer size to 128 in the ASIO panel. 

Oh... I also uninstalled NORTON antivirus software and replaced with Security Essentials. And turned off Windows Updates.  I don't know if doing that affected anything but, I know that Norton eats up a lot of CPU. 

Now I have zero latency in both audio and MIDI.

Hope this helps others who are dealing with the latency issues.

Have also had issues when adding MIDI channels, (and getting the MIDI instruments set up to play and record) but that's another thread. And, I have solved most of those issues already.

~Tim

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, tim E said:

.....I also uninstalled NORTON antivirus software and replaced with Security Essentials. And turned off Windows Updates.  I don't know if doing that affected anything but, I know that Norton eats up a lot of CPU. 

~Tim

Yes, Norton has been known to be a bit of a hog. 

There is a debate whether turning off Windows updates is actually a good idea or not with fiery battles raging between those that say you should and shouldn't.  In fact, I believe entire planets have been destroyed over this issue.  Granted, the destruction is limited to merely our own galaxy.

Personally, I think Windows updates should not be disabled as they usually contain important bug fixes and security updates that end users are not aware of or have not not come across. 

What I do, however, is tell Windows not to touch drivers as Microsoft could potentially replace perfectly good drivers with their generic ones.  When ever someone has installed Windows updates and they are having issues since, this is usually the reason.

There are several ways to allows Windows updates get tell Windows not to touch drivers.

See.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/30/2019 at 6:21 PM, tim E said:

I've noticed that when in ASIO mode, I can't adjust the latency, and I'm now getting some "scratchiness" distortion during playback.

Seems that --- One thing... leads to another...

You can adjust the ASIO buffer size... but opening the ASIO Panel or the audio interface's control panel applet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jim Roseberry said:

You can adjust the ASIO buffer size... but opening the ASIO Panel or the audio interface's control panel applet.

Yep... I  did indeed adjust the buffer size via the ASIO panel. That was part of the fix as explained above. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Promidi said:

Yes, Norton has been known to be a bit of a hog. 

There is a debate whether turning off Windows updates is actually a good idea or not with fiery battles raging between those that say you should and shouldn't.  In fact, I believe entire planets have been destroyed over this issue.  Granted, the destruction is limited to merely our own galaxy.

Personally, I think Windows updates should not be disabled as they usually contain important bug fixes and security updates that end users are not aware of or have not not come across. 

What I do, however, is tell Windows not to touch drivers as Microsoft could potentially replace perfectly good drivers with their generic ones.  When ever someone has installed Windows updates and they are having issues since, this is usually the reason.

There are several ways to allows Windows updates get tell Windows not to touch drivers.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10

Okay... I'll do it your way for now, and have blocked win update from messing with the drivers.  I'm still running 7 and will be making the change over to 10 (yuck) soon so thanks for that link. I did find the needed info for doing the block in 7, so thanks for the pointer.

Also... I would LOVE to not have to be making that changeover.  Not at all thrilled with 10.

Peace ~Tim

Edited by tim E
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Sorry I'm so late to the party, but I just started using Cakewalk for music production. I have been using it for sample processing on my VirTual Theater Pipe Organ, however, for many years.

I had latency probs trying to drive the virtual instruments in Cakewalk as others prolly had.  I saw the suggestion about trying ASIO drivers, and remembered this helped when I was linking my midified theater pipe organ console to my VirTual Organ setup.

For music production, I am using an Edrol UA-25 external for both audio and MIDI.  I am on a Win 10 laptop and so had to modify the Edrol drivers per a tutorial to work on anything past Win 7.  I had a LOT of MIDI latency, thought I couldn't play in time any more!  I loaded "ASIO for All" from a site I googled (be careful not to download the other junk they have ads for on the site!) and selected ASIO as the MIDI drivers in preferences.  I could not get the ASIO audio drivers to work, so I went back to what had been being used for audio previously which was "UA-25 in" and "UA-25 out." W[th ASIO drivers for MIDI and the UA-25 default drivers for audio, everything is working great, I can make decent music with the system, and in time, too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

I just struggled a bit with Midi latency after an update. The reason was obvious but took a while and I found myself searching from google and found this thread. Though I comment so that someone might find a simple solution if it occurs. Just by changing Microsoft Wavetable as default midi to Cakewalk TTS or similar midi playback device sorted things out. I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time I've solved the same problem so if nothing else, maybe my futureself will find this post.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

I know this is an old thread, but I just wondered if anyone who had/has had this problem was using a USB connector for the keyboard or if it was all MIDI? My little NanoKey is having this issue and I have it patched USB. None of the latency settings has been able to get me the response I need.  I wonder if instead of patching to the computer USB, if I bought a MIDI adapter and patched into my MOTU interface it f that would help? I used to have no problems w/ latency using my NanoKey keyboard via a much older version of Sonar. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Big J and the H Bombs said:

I know this is an old thread, but I just wondered if anyone who had/has had this problem was using a USB connector for the keyboard or if it was all MIDI? My little NanoKey is having this issue and I have it patched USB. None of the latency settings has been able to get me the response I need.  I wonder if instead of patching to the computer USB, if I bought a MIDI adapter and patched into my MOTU interface it f that would help? I used to have no problems w/ latency using my NanoKey keyboard via a much older version of Sonar. 

You might be better off standing a new thread.....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...