Posted
I'm unable to diagnose this problem, or find someone with a similar issue through searching.
I want to use Synfire to generate MIDI, and use (mostly) the native Ableton instruments. I'm building a sound design library using sampler and drum racks to have lots of sounds easily accessible, rather than using VSTis and whatnot. Call it a creative experiment.
Using both MIDI drones (a drone set to local) and midiloop (a virtual midi cable) while using the transport sync on a track, I get crazy cracking audio which is unaffected by fiddling with my Fireface 400 settings. Playback of in the box ableton sets is fine, and all other programs on my system produce clean audio including Synfire.
Has anyone run into this? Is this a well documented problem I don't know the names for and keep gossing over in the documentation and forums? I can't help but think this is a simple fix I am missing.
Thanks,
Dixon
Thu, 2013-06-06 - 09:31 Permalink
If you use MIDI Drones, you don't need loopback cables anymore. The MIDI Drone receives Synfire output via network. That's what it is for in the first place.
Using both maybe causes issues?
Wed, 2013-06-19 - 02:30 Permalink
I haven't used Live, but does it have an 'audio buffer'. Logic (and all DAWS do I presume).. use a buffer and if it is too small it will result in crackles and noise. Did you try a different firewire cable and port?
Good luck..
Wed, 2013-06-19 - 05:29 Permalink
Try to start a new blank project in Live, then go to setup and audio.
There's a slider where you can simulate load, click the test button and drag the slider around and see at what % you start to get crackles, not a solution, but it will give you an idea if you need to tweak your buffer size like Mark mentions, and also give you an idea if the problem is with Live.
Personally I'd just go virtual midi from Synfire to Live, much simpler, much less headaches as you're only going to have to diagnose one audio engine.
Wed, 2013-10-02 - 21:20 Permalink
After much playing around, reformatting, reinstalling of many things, and other changes, I seem to have solved the problem. However, I seem to have completely obliterated my memory of how I was working on a workflow in Synfire.
KenDK, when you say virtual midi, do you mean using MIDI drones or an external midi cable utility? I think I don't actually understand the place of the audio engine, is the thing.
Honestly, I have less reason to need to go to ableton during arranging if I can lock a video file to the synfire arrangement for making music videos/film soundtracks. But I don't see the external sync tab in the same place as in the manual. Did it relocate?
EDIT:Thanks all for the help, I'm not sure exactly what it was that caused the issue, but I appreciate your time anyway.
Wed, 2013-10-02 - 22:22 Permalink
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Oops ... sorry for the resend of the post. I meant to say "inconvenience," not "convenience."
KenDK, when you say virtual midi, do you mean using MIDI drones or an external midi cable utility? I think I don't actually understand the place of the audio engine, is the thing.
Pardon me for jumping in.
KenDK almost certainly means neither. Virtual midi are software midi programs that send midi between two or more different midi enabled applications. Which one to use depends upon your OS platform and version. Here's a link to a popular and free one for Windows.
http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/virtualmidi.html
The audio engine in Synfire permits Synfire to host virtual instruments. When you use virtual midi to send the Synfire midi output to a DAW hosting a your virtual insturments (and your system audio devices), you don't need Synfire's audio engine at all. I usually simply uninstall it. The only convenience is a little nag screen that states Synfire cannot find the engine when Synfire is first opened.
Hope this makes it clear.