Are MIDI and audio tracks supposed to stay in sync when I adjust playback loop points (with the transport running)?

[Starship Krupa]

'cause if they are, something is broken. And if they are not, that is a draaaaag.

I do a certain amount of transcribing live drum parts to MIDI, and for this I have the original audio file in a track, with a MIDI drum track that I'm dropping notes into to match what's being played on the audio track.

This happens section by section, so I will get a couple of measures programmed, then move my playback loop points over by a couple of measures, program the beats for the next section, and so on.

However, when I reposition a loop point while the transport is running, the MIDI and audio go out of sync, and they don't get back in sync until I stop and restart the transport. Even if I sit back and let it cycle through the loop a time or two, the MIDI and audio playback stay out of sync with each other. In order to get them back in sync, I must stop and restart the transport. This is a pain in the neck and slows my roll.

If this behavior isn't an anomaly confined to my computers, I request that if possible, Sonar can either not go out of sync in the first place, or at least "right itself" on the next cycle after a new loop point is set.

[User 905133]

I dealt with this a few years ago when I added audio to midi projects. I found Tempo seemed to control midi / soft synths but audio used its own tempo.  Someone pointed out I needed to use audio clips that did sync to Tempo.  Not sure if that's the problem you are describing. Is the original audio file a Groove Clip?  If so, it sounds like you have a different issue than I faced.

Edited December 13 by User 905133

[David Baay]

 

6 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

when I reposition a loop point while the transport is running, the MIDI and audio go out of sync, and they don't get back in sync until I stop and restart the transport.

Try enabling 'Set Now Time with Full Restart' in Track View Options. This shouldn't always be necessary to keep things in sync when changing loop points, but it can be in certain situations with certain plugins, etc.

The downside is it will tend to make transport seeking audibly 'glitchy'.

You might also check whether the behavior is affected by the size of your 'Prepare Using..." buffer for MIDI.