PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I could use a bit of help from you midi pros please!

With SFP3.1, Vegas 4, Sonar 3, midi tracks synced via midi clock from Vegas to Sonar thru Scope synths and STS produce a very noticeable departure from anything that resembles accurate timing. If I generate a click track in Fruity, import it as a wav, it's *almost* dead on, but not quite...it's visibly off the grid in Vegas. The recorded midi from Sonar into Vegas is much worse and audibly late. (My Yellow Tools Real Drums in the STS sound very good however!) Synths and drums are equally late for anyone thinking the drums alone might be off.

Are the SFP software midi and sequencer source/dest just lame or what? If so, why put midi connectors on that CW octopus? Going out to an external sound module is even worse coming back in. I can workaround by manually shifting the recorded midi tracks for myself but it's certainly "client unfriendly". I need to have accurate to grid timing so I can edit recorded audio and on the fly midi tracks in progress on client projects.

In the "old" days of TripleDat/ADATs/Amiga w/Bars N Pipes sequencer/JLCooper DataSYNC, my midi was usually perfectly aligned and sync'ed on nearly every playback...1 out of 60 restarts being slightly off. Ever since I removed the Tripleboard and "upgraded
everything" midi sync accuracy went bye bye. I had hoped that my Sync Plate
would take a clock source from Vegas and send that out to my DataSync and then to an external sequencer but nothing gets to the Sync Plate from an internal source even with the MTC/Clock converter in SFP. I'm beginning to believe midi in SFP is anything but professional. I usually only record live players but a *midi client* is scheduled in and I need to figure this out as soon as possible.

I spent many hours yesterday adjusting everything I could think of including lowering PCI Latency in Bios to see if anything helped - NOPE.

You'd think that with a PowerPulsar/PulsarII, XP Pro (optimized), 1.8 P4, I might have enough horsepower to sync accurately *at least* within the
computer...sigh.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Steve

In fact it seems to be the opposite - may I remind on the old Atari ST (though I'm not exactly a fan of that machine)

But call yourself lucky if you only have to complain about one or the other starting point - in many situations there's a slight shift in midi timing annoying those after ultra-precise beats.

There has been a long thread regarding this (not too long ago) by BasicPitch, with a very close examination of possible sources.
A search may reveal some interesting facts

Part of the bottom line (according to my fading mem) is that it needs a sequencer and a midi interface with sophisticated timing working (and holding everything) together.

SFP alone with the OS is on a lost position, since (imho) the OS doesn't handle midi with appropriate priority - it's an office system, not a media production thing

cheers, Tom

I compared my midi timing with SFP (using KickMe!) to a usb midi interface connected to my Virus (and a kick patch with a nice click) here:
http://www.kief.net/studio/tests/MidiTi ... gic-pc.htm

My measured latency for SFP was 50-70 samples with a deviation of +/-6 samples. That's not too bad I think. Perhaps some configuration on your end might help things?

Checked all I could find on sync in the forum long before I posted.

If I understand correctly, the Sequencer Source/Dest modules are not to be trusted for accurate midi sync/playback/recording...true?

So I need an external midi interface...inexpensive or Midex 8 with LTB/USB? Or is the Steinberg specific to their software?

Since I have an A16U and Sync Plate, is there a specific interface w/master clock that plays nicely with these? Do I need an external clock to have everything sync properly?