Posted
hey I have a problem with midi latency in synfire 1.5x. I dont know if this was a problem before the audioengine becorse I did not use the program. If I record on a track when listening to the metronome and hit the key on every beat then when I stop the recording the midi is late by almost a 1/16 of a note? I have been changing the metronome from the internal GM synth to a vsti (native instruments Maschine) but its still the same. If I try to make a recording in Ableton Live, then the midi notes are perfectly on the beat. What do you think could be the problem?
Wed, 2011-11-09 - 23:45 Permalink
The GM synth on windows has almost 200 ms latency. On the Mac it is a bit better. It is the worst synth you could use as a metronome. Try loading a simple drumkit VST into the engine and make it your global metronome instrument. The engine has a much smaller latency.
Wed, 2011-11-09 - 23:47 Permalink
Also be sure you have all instruments of one project in the same host.
Thu, 2011-11-10 - 19:57 Permalink
How is your midi keyboard connected? Did you know you can select a DAW drone for input into Synfire? That will use the DAWs timestamping, which is better than Windows midi system.
Fri, 2011-11-11 - 17:19 Permalink
hey
I use a Novation Remote SL and I have tested it via usb but I have also tested it via the midi out into my firewire Motu 828mk2 audio interface. I have also tested it with my Ipad inside alesis io dock that is connected via usb and its still the same. After testing some more, I have found out that it is not midi latency but the opposite. The notes are before the beat, so the first note is not played and it is not recorded. Even if I play the first note a little bit after the beat then it will not be recorded becourse it is before the first beat. That means that all notes of the recording is moved to the left in the timeline???
When I was testing this then I did also see that the my previous post: (https://users.cognitone.com/content/mouse-pointer-0)
also have something to do with this. If you are zooming then the instrument sheet but only the instrument sheet will get affected so it does not show corectly to the beat of the music. You should try is out, becourse something is wrong.
I did not know about the daw drone but will try to test in the weekend.
Fri, 2012-02-03 - 20:52 Permalink
Have you checked if your click sound introduces a delay you are not aware of? Or something else that makes the click arrive at your speakers late?
Tue, 2013-07-02 - 19:56 Permalink
Hi,
I hade the exact same issue. It didn't look like a latency issue.
When playing vsti's there is no latency.
But you could see the issue visually: when recording, the vertical recording line is ahead of the beats. There seems to be a de-synchronisation between the recording and the sound of the metronome. The bar moves ahead of the beat that you here (see attachement).
In my setup I have setup the metronome to play NI Battery. Changing to another vsti gives me the same issue.
But... it seemed that changing the sound in the metronome was not enough: you need to save the devices, if not Synfire goes back to the previous setting (the Microsoft internal GM synth with the terrible latency). I thought the battery sound was playing, but in fact it wasn't... which explains the latency...
Thu, 2013-07-04 - 18:23 Permalink
I also have the same issue, when working with Virtual Midi cables.
Thu, 2013-07-04 - 22:42 Permalink
I have found that different MIDI hardware has a different 'response' time.. Different virtual instruments can also respond at different speeds.. Trying to use hardware and software instruments at the same time, is noticable.
Logic and all other DAWs (I imagine).. will let you slide a track forward or backward by pretty much any amount. It might be an iportant feature to add to SFP. A lot of times I will slide strings and woodwinds forward a bit so they sound more in time.. Another workaround (though I don't know how to do it in SFP) is shorten the attack time of a particular instrument.
What you are experiencing is something more profound than what I described. I found recording keyboard in SFP a bit sluggish, but nothing like as bad as you are describing.
If you try your procedure with a DAW, and there is no issue, it would imply something with SFP. Also input/output boxes can come into play here. Most units will monitor your input directly, before it goes into software. So you are listening 'live' to the keyboard part you are playing. Some DAWs have a similar feature. Not sure what SFP does. but like I said, I found recording a keyboard live into SFP was at first probmatic, it would even miss notes I played.. But that was two years ago, lately I don't have an issue with SFP's recording.. Although I would like to see visual confirmation that SFP is actually recording what I'm playing.
It is always going to take some time for software to process and output what you are playing.. LogicPro does some compensation for this (besides sliding track forward/backward) by also letting you adjust the MIDI clock forward/backward.
With SFP. an individual buffer to slide the track forward/backward each track would be most helpful.. Or a similar buffer for each of SFP 4 ports.