Midi Overload

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:25 pm

Has anyone experienced the sequencer (SX) hanging due to too much midi going on?

Mine playsback ok, but after a certain point, it sticks, jumps, and resumes playback.

I'm using two separate midi ports on separate cards. One input is for driving midi synths in SFP, the other is for my Mackie Control.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: interloper on 2004-11-22 15:26 ]</font>

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:00 pm

Perhaps youd try to filterout some midi data?

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:32 pm

Hmm I read that as "Midi Overlord." Should be getting some sleep soon 0_o

In SFP you can try loading a MIDI monitor to see what is happening, see if any messages get looped/feedbacked/stuck. Sometimes MIDI clock or other messages get passed around, with new ones being added continually. If that happens, you can filter it out with a MIDI Filter module (if inside SFP,) or see if you can turn off the culprit on the sequencer side (i.e. turn off MIDI clock for that interface, etc.)

For the Mackie Control, if the MIDI goes thru SFP, you can follow the same approach, otherwise it might be doable on SX's side. I don't know SX enough to know if there's any MIDI monitoring/filtering stuff. Might be controllable on the Mackie's side too, like no MIDI thru or ignore clock or don't cycle it back or whatnot.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: symbiote on 2004-11-23 15:33 ]</font>

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 8:57 pm

Ran some tests just now. I also had two audio files playing back, but muted. So I unmuted them.

The loops spans two bars and during playback when it sticks and skips, the audio apparently starts playing back (like the buffer is resetting or resynching). If the loop plays for a few rotations, the audio just quits, then the process repeats.

I have the standard buffers set in SX, as they've always worked on this machine (it's no slouch).

I've got a VST drumsampler playing, and when I mute it and then unmute it, I get a quick midi avalanche (like notes that been stacked up), then it resumes normal play.

I'll try one of those midi filters, but the fact that the audio drops out and then comes back make me think it's the buffers, driver or disk.

Thanks for the feedback all.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:11 am

Hi interloper

I have seen this problem with SX1 quite a lot...it's like all the MIDI notes get queued up for a bit, then all dumped out at once!

This sometimes happened even on relatively MIDI-light sections of music, without audio playing.

I couldn't get it to happen "consistently", usually it'd happen once a session then go away. Haven't seen it since upgrading to SX2, though.

I mentioned this phenomena before here: http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 4&forum=31

Does that sound like your problem?

Royston

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:10 am

Yeah, it's definitely similar. What's strange is that at least the midi stabilizes after 10+ rotations of the loop. Going to see what happens to audio after the midi problem goes away, there seems to be a weird link between the two.

Not quite sure yet if I should drop money on an external midi interface, but some of CW's midi implementation is getting a bit irritating.

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:39 am

I'm not sure how much of it is CW's MIDI implementation, and how much is the operating system's fault

Software MIDI is always kind of dodgy, CW are only working with the available interfaces provided by the OS.

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:46 am

Yeah, I'm not quite sure where the problem lies yet. I haven't done a fresh install for over a year now, so that might be in order.