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Im must confess, i never imagined life would be this difficult trying to record music on my home system.

Here is my issue. RIght now i am using my pulsar with sx3 in xtc mode. Everything works great except for the fact that the timing is off.

A) SO first let me explain. In my "Direct Setup" page in "VST AUDIOBAY" it tells me that Asio Scope is my master asio driver. My input latency is 24.694 and my output is 47.914.

B) Next in the "Direct setup" page, comes an "ASIO SCOPE" listing. Here it tells me my input latency is 24.694 and my output latency is 24.694. If I click on the control panel it tells me that my ulli setting is currently 4 ms, using my asio 2 driver at 24bits.

First can anyone please tell me why the latency listings on A and B are different.

Okay, so now that im sufficiently confused, my cubase SX has a noticeable lag. If I record an outboard synth into cubase, lets say just simple quarter notes, even if i input these manually on a grid. They are still out of sync with the metronome.

If I monitor via the card, its in time, but its a waste, because i cant just throw effect on that channel and be able to hear it.

If I monitor via cubase, its a waste because it is noticeably off beat(late).

I know that cubase is suppose to have latency compensation and all this wonderful stuff, and that my pulsar is suppose to have awesome asio2 drivers... so please... anyone. Is there a way to fix this?

I currently have the latest version of SX.

Sorry for the long post, but i just wasted an entire day trying to fix this and I got nowhere.

What the hell am i doing wrong?


RL

hoi raztalove,

That's a latency issue... Don't know how to fix that, but I do know that latency compensation only works for music originating in Cubase, not for live inputs, on any card.

at0m.

You could try and delay the miditracks that are to late/early. With negitive or positive values.

cheers,

Casper

Really, is that my only option. Isnt there some way to resolve the amount of latency passing through the card? Anyone?

RL

are you in xtc mode?
have you done this?: http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pi ... _topview=1

the latency reporting in the sx control panel is not something to pay attention to. latency settings are handled directly by the card, not the software. this is different than with a soundblaster.......

Yes I am in XTC MODE. I have also done what you suggested and it did effect my latency, which was a lot worse before. Since I started using emulated ports, things have been better. However, after I spoke to Steinberg support, they said that audio comming into the card doesnt really have anything to do with cubase.

I have a soundmodule going directly into my pulsar. It is late(off beat)unless I check direct monitor. It shouldnt be as late as it is just going through cubase. Has
anyone had this problem before?

RL

raztalove,

Cubase cannot know what you do with the midi after it leaves Cubase. You can send it to an external module and could be mixing it on an analog table, realtime. You could be mixing it on the card, realtime. You could be sending it up and down on the ASIO bus, adding latency. Cubase has no clue, which is perfectly logical and this would be the same on any other soundcard.
So for this one, you have to manually offset the track so it alligns properly.

at0m.

Okay. Hmm... let me try to simplify this. I have one external soundmodule piece hooked up to my computer. I have the outputs of that module going directly into the pulsar.

Now, when I am in Cubase SX, in XTC mode, the sound moudle plays with a high latency compared to everything else. Not just input latency. If I manually input quarter notes, and play it back. The module sounds late. It is out of sync with the metronome. Is this because I am monitoring through cubase and not directly through the card?

Is that normal to you guys? I do not have direct monitor switched on, because i prefer to do all routing in cubase. Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it me doing something wrong?

RL

Sorry guys, i just can believe there would be that much latency going on in cubase.

How about this... anyone using sx3 and xtc mode at the same time, what is your latency reading under "vst audiobay" in the "Device Setup page"?

What is your input latency and output latency.

Next, what is your latency reading on the "asio scope" page? Thanks

If you're monitoring external gear in cubase, your latency for that signal is going to be:

latency of converters (minimal but it exists) + your ULLI (soundcard latency for the ASIO drivers) + any plugins you have inserted on the mixer channel you're monitoring through. Its relatively easy to measure the delay for converters+ULLI and use that to answer your post just above this reply.

However the easiest way to work is to mix the external gear with your Cubase output in Scope. There are many variations on this but the most popular seem to be either

A> Mix every channel possible in Scope (the Scope purist's approach--cumbersome and unecessary imo)

B> Mix things to stems/groups in Cubase (drums/basses/leads/vocal/backing vocals/etc) and output those out the ASIO channels into Scope and mix your external gear alongside

C> Mix a stereo sum out of your ASIO outputs and run Scope and external gear alongside that for getting the 'idea' down. Once you're happy enough record the Scope and external gear parts to audio in Cubase and do final mixing in cubase.

Just read that you're using XTC mode (hadn't read the whole thread). This makes things so much more complicated (although it sidesteps the need to learn scope for new users). Can't help further as I gave up on XTC ages ago....

Well fellas, i always thought xtc mode saved me time and it wound up costing me more trouble than anything else. I have went back to sfp and after tinkering around for a couple hours, i completely rerouted my studio, and im thrilled.

To you XTC guys out there, i was stubborn too, but what a huge difference. Not only that, but i dont have to go through trial and error to make all of the other free sfp synths work... not to mention all the other weird workarounds.

To those of you that dont know, xtc mode is a dead platform to creamware. They told me so on the phone. They dont even load it into their computers. They no longer continue to develop it or even support it really. Do yourselves a favor and jump off the sinkin boat, unless you are happy with your system now and dont plan on upgrading too much, OS wise and music software wise because XTC mode will NEVER evolve along with it.

I loved the concept, and stuck by it for a long time, but i had to give up on it. I say this as a warning more to people just getting into xtc mode. I had so many issues using xtc mode that literally dissapeared when i switched back to sfp.

Anyway, to each their own. If this helped anyone than it was worth writing it.

RL