Midi Timing Woes :( VST / Midex 8 / Roland 909

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 4:25 pm

Hey Pulsar people!

I have a bad midi problem - Basically it goes like this:

I have a Pulsar One Card - Cubase VST 5.1 - A Steinberg Midex 8 Midi Interface and a Roland 909 running off Midex 8 port 2 as an external instrument.

I create a Percussion loop within Cubase for the 909 to play - I start playing the loop and it sounds ok for a few beats then it either shifts "slightly" in front or "slightly" behind and then catches up again - it is most noticable on the hi hats.

It's really frustrating as you can never really depict when the timing happens - but you can hear it there - drifting in and out.

Since the 909 is basically the heart of my studio I'm in terrible trouble - pulling Hair out

My Operating System is Win2k - I am running a heap of other apps and the HDD is getting old (Many...many FDisks)

Is it plausible that a fresh Hard Drive and Sripped down new Win Xp OS could solve this problem?

Should I perhaps try and connect the Midex 8 directly to the Pulsar Midi Out ( Currently it's connected thru USB - Could it be a USB problem? )

I'm so stoked to finally have all the hardware ready to write some killer tracks and this timing issue is the only thing holding me back

Thanks Pulsarians!
Hope to be able to contribute some advise once this is all up and running hehe..

Many Many thanks if anyone can help I would be overjoyed ...

Woot!

E-Mass

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 6:59 pm

Will go home tonight and try the TR-707 and see if problem still exists - I really hope the 909 is ok ...!

I doubt it's the Midex 8 seems solid enough....hmmn

Could it be a processor / HDD issue...

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 7:13 pm

Make sure you do not have any "loopback" drivers running in windows (midi yoke for example). this could cause it to happen.

try it with a hihat on a pulsar wave player or sampler. at least this way you will know if it is caused inside or outside your computer

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 7:36 pm

Since the 909 is so old wouldn't you expect the timing to be bad? Why not sample all the sounds?

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 8:02 pm

Those old things had fine timing, its not like midi is exactly fast or anything

im sure the problem must lie in windows or background programs running.

have a look at the performance tab on task manager while it speeding up and slowing down and watch the cpu meter. does it go up and down as well? maybe a background program is running that you do not need (like any office or adobe things that load on start up, antivirus etc)

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 9:09 pm

The 909 rocks for timing normally - Tight as tight can be.

Before I give up hope I'll connect the 909 direct to Pulsar Midi Out and run some VST patterns and check the timing - if it works - I guess It's the Steinberg Midex 8 causing the issue - This would be a positive outcome for me as I will take it back and go for a MOTU....

Thanks for the advise though ....I'll get back to y'all tomorrow after running some tests..

Thanks again!

E-Mass

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 2:15 am

To be honest I (and many others) have found the Pulsar's midi to not be great. Certainly try it, but the Midex is designed to run with VST5.1 using what they call LTB which basically keeps the midi timing tighter if you use it via USB (and with 5.1 software). Without USB you get 'regular' midi timing without the LTB advantage which will probably be worse (but maybe not in your case).

TonyR

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:26 am

Dont forget to try the internal timing (VST > Pulsar device) if its still bad then its windows. setup

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 4:05 pm

WooT!
Heya Pulsarians!
Seems that at least for now I'm back online!

I connected the 909 to the Pulsar Midi Output and ran it for 10 mins or so and it was indeed very tight (well as tight as normal midi can be hehe) - "Hallejujah!"

So I glared at the Midex-8 and gritted my teeth and said "Goddamn!" hehe - Still, I was very happy to be hearing the good Ol' 909 thumping away at a somewhat regular tempo =P

Off to Steinberg.net and downloaded the new driver for the Midex 8 and some other patch which seemed like it could be the go! Had a good 20 mins of very tight timing when doing tests last night before I went out to watch Spiderman ( Cool movie btw! )

God it's lovely when things work isn't it! Makes it all worth while hehe - now I just hope it will stay obedient.

It seemed like a Windows 2000 / Midex Driver issue to me although I couldnt really be sure - I'm very much considering buying a new HDD and reverting back to Win 98 and do 2000 / XP on the old HDD - just untill XP / 2k is confidently cranking.

It was a bitch of a problem as it was so intermitent (Kinda like a unskilled DJ going in and out of time hehe) - A real Head pounder

Clippity Clop

Ok I have taken up enough of your valuable time!

Hope to help others out in the future!

Thanks again!

E-Mass

"You step out of your studio and realise your whole family has moved and you have no idea when it happened!"

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 4:10 pm

Oh just a tip in case people need to clean out their registry's there's a great little free program at http://www.jv16.org/ called Regclean which cleaned out all those Nasty Startup programs - Couldve been something to do with that - Now I just have the Midex Icon and the Pulsar Icon on start-up instead of Nortons, Real Player , Get Right , VNC , lol my goodness it was a mess!

Cheers to the Pulsar Crew!

E-Mass · Post by **E-Mass** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 4:12 pm

Oh and Cheers Nuetron and others for that advise I tried a Pulsar Drum Click and a Waldorf Attack Click to check first and you 're right it was all ok...

Whatch out for those old Midex-8 Drivers hehe!

They can do your head in

Hopefully now I can fully utilise the goodness that is Linear Base Timing !

Have a good day / night / weekend / party / boogy on down everyone!