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Hi

I have had this strange problem for a while.

Cubase SX 2, Pulsar 2

I check the 'send midi clock' as Creamware in/out in sync setup for use with arpeggios and delays etc on my hardware synth.

When I bounce the results to audio there seems to be a midi timing issue (missing notes etc) which resolves itself after a bar or so, this also happens even when I am not doing anything dependent on using midi clock such as delays/arps etc.

e.g. it happens with just a simple hardware synth bass note bounced to audio, seems to skip on the first few seconds of the bounce.

It seems having the 'send midi clock' box checked will cause these timing problems, without the box checked everything is fine and soft synths etc work fine. Except for the fact I can't sync delays etc!

I don't know what the root cause of this is, I'm wondering if I have the sync set up correctly. Anyone have any ideas? It seems with the send clock box checked the midi timing is unstable or takes time to get into gear? Weird...I am using a fostex VC8 ADAT convertor too so don't know if this has any influence?

I have tried to solve this by not using emulated ports, but when I choose the standard Creamware Midi in/out I get no midi output, no sound at all, again, is there something I have missed?

All sorted! Stopped using emulated ports. Needed to restart to use normal ones. I read that emulated ports were ok to use, but they seemed to mess up my timing something rotton.

Argggh

I'm having a nightmare with midi being off time, double notes at the start of a recorded track. Generally feels like midi data is slow and confused.

I don't use a midi interface, and have 2 hardware synths and a drum machine in a simple midi chain.

Can anyone help me out with sorting out a solid midi timing.

I've tried so much I'm confused about everthing now, whether to use emulated ports or not etc.

2 synths, a drum machine, and MIDI clock on the same single MIDI interface/connection might clog things up a fair bit. One thing you can try (if you work in SFP mode) is loading a MIDI Monitor module and see if you have other types of MIDI going on the connection besides clock and notes, also check if your synths send out MIDI data for thos arpeggios. You can then load a MIDI Filter module and try to shave out whatever doesn't get used (active sensing, sysex etc.) Also try turning off MIDI clock, see if your notes are still off-time, if it works well, then your MIDI connection is definitely getting overloaded, which would explain the timing problems and dropped notes.

You might also have some MIDI loop going on, i.e. synths/devices sending back the notes/data they receive back to the sequence, which might send it again etc, also this doesn't seem to be your problem, as this saturates the MIDI connection quite fast, and usually ends up crashing things.

MIDI isn't a very fast protocol, 32k baud-ish, 4 bytes per message, which resolves to around 1000 message per second. If you synths have more than one part/sound controlled thru MIDI, with some CC automation, plus MIDI clock, it'll get overloaded pretty quickly. Fix for this would involved dedication a single MIDI interface to each synth, or at least split your MIDI data among a few connections to make things less crowded.

It might also just be Cubase being dodgy, there's been some reports that SX3 might not have optimal MIDI handling etc, so if my suggestions fail and everything looks normal, it might just be SX3 =P. You can check this out easily by trying out another sequencer see if it behaves the same.

Also, since you mention that things stabilize after a while, a quick and dirty hack would be to move the beginning of the track a bit later on in time, and if necessary put some dummy data at the beginning, so that the track itself only starts playing when the MIDI has stabilized.

Cheers, not sure what it is but seems that if after loading Cubase default I go into device setup and press 'reset all' it is fine. Up until recently I have had no pros managing the three devices in a chain. Maybe you are right about on module sending confusing data though, will experiment

Ok, one more thing.......

I asssume I want to just use the 'Creamware in and out' midi and not the emulated ports.

I cannot however disable the emulated ports under the 'Direct Music' tab, they will not unset from active. Is this what could be causing the problem? How would I disable the emulated port if so?

The presence of emulated ports is the cause of many misfunctions, the double notes is an evidence on how do they double information and clog the way.

Did you use the "ignoreportfilter"?

In the Cubase SX3 directory there is a folder called "midi port enabler". Inside you will find an "ignoreportfilter" together with a pdf document (read it) and an emulated port enabler.

Copy only the ignoreportfilter outside of that folder, straight in the CubaseSX3 directory.

After restart you will be able do enable only your Creamware ports in the default midi ports settings. I have ALL the emulated ports disabled in the Direct Music section.

Well, that's definitely whats wrong then, my problem is though that after moving 'ignoreportfilter' there is no way I can disable the emulated ports, when I click on Yes it won't change to No.

Ignoreportfilter is there to insure that Cubase lists both the emulated and non-emulated ports.

To disable the emulated ports you got to select on the project the non-emulated ones. You have to do it by hand fir every project you have used the emulated ports. The standard are on the windows midi driver in sx's device panel.. You will see that simply by changing the midi outputs-inputs on the project window will make the state <active> to change and the <show> to what will be available to choose from midi ports on the project window. I don't know if i write it in an understantable way...

fra77x, you are completely right, thanks!

I had some midi channels still set up as emulated so I couldn't disable them in Direct Music window, doh!

OK, one more thing

Overall midi timing is ok now but still getting a double midi note recorded at the start of the bar, anyone have an idea what this could be, I am now ONLY using Creamware midi in/Out, everything else is disabled.