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Subject:Music Studio Midi probs
Posted by: DrLumen
Date:5/16/2006 8:17:29 PM

I got Acid MS 6.0A a while back and just found the midi piano roll and such, It seems like it would be easy to mix loops with midi. However, the midis won't play correctly.

I tried several different midis and they play fine in the chopper and preview but when they are put on the timeline they "fall apart", The first few seconds plays ok then it start to sound like a swing quantize and then degrades to the point that the "group" sounds drunk and then to comatose with stuck notes. Initially I was sending it to an external midi device Midiman BiPort 2x4 but then tried the Audigy on-board synth and the all do the same thing. I tried with the real-time on/off but no affect. At times, when the notes get stuck, the reset button is greyed.

Any suggestions as to what could be wrong?

Message last edited on5/16/2006 8:18:12 PM byDrLumen.
Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: Tobias7000
Date:5/16/2006 10:02:32 PM

Not certain, but there are many posts of recent times that have concerns over midi bugs in AP6. Sony knows about many I am certain. I'd expect much to improve in the next release. I have never experienced your particular problem. But I have experienced many other midi issues.

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: pwppch
Date:5/17/2006 2:42:05 PM

This sounds like a audio buffer size issue. If the audio hardware buffer size is too large, external MIDI timing can suffer.

A couple of things to try:

From the Audio Preferences page:

1. Lower the Playback buffering setting to 0.5 or 0.4

If you audio card has ASIO drivers, switch to these by selecting the device in the "Audio device type" combo box. Click Apply for the change to be accepted.

Then use the Advanced settings to configure the buffer settings for the ASIO drivers.



Note: I see that you have an Audigy card. The Audigy does not natively support 44.1 kHz audio. The ASIO drivers for these cards require that you work at the hardware sample rate of 48 kHz. You wil have to change your projects to 48 kHz and then set this as the default for all new projects in order to use the Audigy ASIO drivers.

Peter

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: DrLumen
Date:5/17/2006 7:32:36 PM

Thanks for the response.

I tried the settings you suggested and it worked good for about the first 30 seconds (about 20 seconds longer) but then started falling apart.

I tried different settings for the hardware, buffer sizes, ports and disabling unused ports but still having the same problem.

I did find out why the reset button was greyed and that was due to trying the non-real time setting. So now it's not greyed but only works part of the time. Other times it's like the midi commands are stacked up and not able to get out fast enough as it will reset the current stuck notes. But, other notes start playing immediately afterward. This is with the transport stopped.

Still hacking on it though...

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:5/18/2006 5:15:19 AM

> Still hacking on it though...

Why don’t you stop wasting your time and just use ASIO drivers for your card. That is what they are there for! Reset all of the settings you’ve changed and switch to the ASIO drivers and your MIDI buffer problems will be gone.

~jr

Message last edited on5/18/2006 5:15:49 AM byJohnnyRoy.
Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: DrLumen
Date:5/18/2006 6:15:47 PM

This happens with the ASIO drivers too. There is also an ASIO latency setting that I have tried as default and tried adjusting but it has no definitive effect. I tried the default settings and it appears to have cleared the "stack" but still the same issue after a few seconds.

Note that I'm not trying to use the midi with any loops at this point- just trying to get a midi to play correctly from the timeline.

Here is an example. The reference is from another app and the test is from Acid. These were recorded from the output and them converted to mp3. Maybe this will demonstrate the issue...

Reference midi play as mp3

Acid MS midi play as mp3

All midis have the same problem. The time before they fall apart always varies.

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: pwppch
Date:5/18/2006 9:06:22 PM

What is the ASIO buffer size you are using?

Peter

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: DrLumen
Date:5/19/2006 12:37:49 AM

It defaulted to 50ms (2,400 samples) latency using 48.000kHz clock source.

IMS, I tried settings between 10 to 100. After reading your post I went back to make sure I tried all in between those to confirm and to make sure I didn't miss a "sweet spot". I tried 7 and it seems to be working. Of course, if some is good a little more has to be better ;-) so I think 5 may be the hot set-up.

Thanks for the help Peter. I appreciate the help! I'm looking forward to working with Acid now. <thumbs up>

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: pwppch
Date:5/19/2006 10:42:56 AM

50 ms is definitely going to cause problems if the default 10ms is causing problems.

With the Audigy I found that 3-5 ms is a good place to workg with its ASIO drivers.

Peter

Subject:RE: Music Studio Midi probs
Reply by: DrLumen
Date:5/19/2006 12:18:26 PM

I don't know how directly this relates but I'm just passing on the info...

I found after it started working, it will now load midis that I thought may have been corrupted. For example, I would click on one in the explorer and acid would immediately crash. I thought they may have been corrupt and caused acid to crash. With the change in the latency, they load and play fine now.

FYI...

Thanks again.

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