Virtual Instruments playing AHEAD of the beat

[ansanity]

At some point - either toward the end of PT 8 or the first version of PT 9, my virtual instruments started playing the MIDI notes on the instrument tracks AHEAD of when I am playing them. I am pretty good at playing in time, but when I finish tracking, the notes are on the instrument track ahead of the beat. So I have to go in, move them back, then quantize them. I could understand it possibly if there was some latency in the system somewhere and they were tracking late, but it seems very weird, and obviously inconvenient, for them to be tracking ahead of the beat.

Has anyone else encountered this and if so, know of a fix?

thanks

pro tools 9.0.1
003 LE
mac osx 10.6.4

[astareawaystudios]

hey there,

yes, this would make sense if your playback/buffer settings were on a higher sample rate - even something as low as 128 samples could delay your recorded audio, if your computer doesn't have enough power to process the audio in time.

try lowering your playback/buffer settings to as low as possible. if you are like me, and use plugins for mostly everything, your computer will probably fail and suggest you to "up" the amount of playback/buffer settings(which puts you back at your problem). in this case, pretty much your only option is to throw on "low latency monitoring" and keep your playback/buffer settings higher, so it has the power to manage the session.... but the catch with that is, you can't run live plugins on the audio track with "low latency monitoring" enabled - but i am pretty sure if you are using midi/instrument tracks, you'll should be fine.. or you could just sacrifice RTAS plugins.

Another thing you could do, to increase your system performance to handle more at a lower sample rate, is to buy the biggest, baddest external hardrive and run all your sessions of off the external. (thats what you should be doing anyway)

hope that helps!

[ansanity]

there's something else going on besides buffer/playback here. If i have a blank session with just a click for instance, if I play with the click the resulting midi notes end up ahead of the beat. But if I bus the virtual instrument to an audio track, the resulting audio is on the beat, in time just how I play it. I've tried playing around with the buffer level, playback settings etc and the midi notes on the instrument always come out ahead of the beat. when I'm playing it, it sounds right - but on playback, because the notes record ahead of the beat, it's off, and I have to slide the notes back into time.

any other suggestions?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

There have been some fixes for this in PT9... in PT8.x use a Global MIDI Offset which matches your buffer size.

Rail

[ansanity]

I'm in PT 9.01 now and it's still going on. Are there settings I need to change to make those fixes take effect?

[ansanity]

PS - all my MIDI offsets are set at 0 and low latency on/off does not make a difference.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Originally Posted by ansanity

PS - all my MIDI offsets are set at 0 and low latency on/off does not make a difference.

Well reread my post... it says to set the Global MIDI Offset equal to the buffer size in your Playback Settings.

Rail

[ansanity]

sorry I wasn't clear. Matching the MIDI offset makes a difference when I'm using an external MIDI device, but what's happening here is with virtual instruments only, and the notes are tracking ahead of the beat - although in time when I'm actually playing the part.

When I match the MIDI offset to the playback buffer, it doesn't have an effect on where the pro tools is actually placing the notes. My buffer is 512 and when i set the MIDI offset to 512, there is no change as far as where pro tools is placing those MIDI notes on the track.

It seems odd particularly b/c like I said, if I bus what I'm playing to an audio track, it records in time - and is in time to my ear in real time. But the resulting notes are placed ahead of the beat.... so on playback they are different than what was actually played. What's even more strange to me that the notes are placed AHEAD of the beat. I could understand it more if they were BEHIND the beat.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Read this thread: http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=284757

Rail

[ansanity]

Thanks Rail,
This issue isn't related to that though. When I record MIDI through an external device, I encounter all those issues stated in that thread - some related to latency, some playback buffer size, etc. I always have to go in and fine tune it a bit and I have just learned to live with that in Pro Tools. Further, if I need to move any notes, it is always because it is BEHIND where it should be. BUT with my MIDI external instruments, the MIDI notes at least are recorded where I play them (minus some very minimal latency sometimes). This problem I am encountering is ONLY with the virtual instruments. And instead of the notes being placed basically where they are played like with an external MIDI device, they are placed on the instrument track as much as 1/32 ahead of where they are audibly played. I know this not just because it sounds right to my ear, but when I am bussing the part I am playing to an audio track, the resulting audio track is in time.