MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping -ACID Product Family

Subject: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping Posted by: Musition Date:8/18/2014 1:52:41 AM So, I've had an Alesis SR-16 for eons now (since the mid-nineties). I never used the MIDI features back then. Only recently I've been using it. I recorded and saved all my old patterns as MIDI files and have been stitching together my old songs. However, when I play them back, sometimes one of the pads won't sound. Even more confusing, it seems to be random. I'll play my song back one time, and a kick will be missing, another time, a snare, another (rare) time, it'll play back flawlessly. Before when I was just jamming along to my old beats I didn't mind, but now that I want to lay down some tracks it driving me crazy. I've made sure none of my MIDI events are cut short or anything. (Plus, the random factor would exclude that as a problem anyway.) My setup is this: Acid connected to a PreSonus FireStudio Mobile, using the MIDI/SPDIF dongle to connect to my SR-16. I thought it might be a clock issue, but I really don't know. I've only recently started getting into MIDI. I've got the hang of channels and control codes now, but I still don't know much about clocks or MTC or stuff like that. So, my Alesis is set to Clock-In: On, Clock-Out: Off. My FireStudio Mobile only has two options: its internal clock or a SPDIF clock. So, just for the heck of it, I set Acid to send clock messages. The weird result of that was that the song played with notes doubled and with timing drift on one of them. Anyone know what's going on?
Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping Reply by: Musition Date:8/21/2014 12:44:25 AM So I found a pretty good article that might explain what is happening: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep98/articles/midiproblems.html Are there any options in Acid that allow the user to set MIDI priorities?
Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping Reply by: Musition Date:9/8/2014 5:01:42 AM So apparently what I needed was a better interface. I had been using the PreSonus FireStudio Mobile for a while now, and it was great, but, I upgraded to the RME Fireface UCX. The UCX has given me zero note drops so far and I've been through several songs several times.
Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping Reply by: Geoff_Wood Date:9/8/2014 5:29:51 PM May have been a driver interaction with your particular setup. I have the same Presonus, and no problems. Glad you're cookin' with gas now. geoff

Subject: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping

Posted by: Musition

Date:8/18/2014 1:52:41 AM

So, I've had an Alesis SR-16 for eons now (since the mid-nineties). I never used the MIDI features back then. Only recently I've been using it. I recorded and saved all my old patterns as MIDI files and have been stitching together my old songs. However, when I play them back, sometimes one of the pads won't sound. Even more confusing, it seems to be random. I'll play my song back one time, and a kick will be missing, another time, a snare, another (rare) time, it'll play back flawlessly. Before when I was just jamming along to my old beats I didn't mind, but now that I want to lay down some tracks it driving me crazy.
I've made sure none of my MIDI events are cut short or anything. (Plus, the random factor would exclude that as a problem anyway.)

My setup is this: Acid connected to a PreSonus FireStudio Mobile, using the MIDI/SPDIF dongle to connect to my SR-16.

I thought it might be a clock issue, but I really don't know. I've only recently started getting into MIDI. I've got the hang of channels and control codes now, but I still don't know much about clocks or MTC or stuff like that. So, my Alesis is set to Clock-In: On, Clock-Out: Off. My FireStudio Mobile only has two options: its internal clock or a SPDIF clock. So, just for the heck of it, I set Acid to send clock messages. The weird result of that was that the song played with notes doubled and with timing drift on one of them.

Anyone know what's going on?

Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping

Reply by: Musition

Date:8/21/2014 12:44:25 AM

So I found a pretty good article that might explain what is happening:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep98/articles/midiproblems.html

Are there any options in Acid that allow the user to set MIDI priorities?

Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping

Reply by: Musition

Date:9/8/2014 5:01:42 AM

So apparently what I needed was a better interface. I had been using the PreSonus FireStudio Mobile for a while now, and it was great, but, I upgraded to the RME Fireface UCX. The UCX has given me zero note drops so far and I've been through several songs several times.

Subject:RE: MIDI, Drum Machines, and Note Dropping

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:9/8/2014 5:29:51 PM

May have been a driver interaction with your particular setup. I have the same Presonus, and no problems.

Glad you're cookin' with gas now.

geoff