first MIDI notes won't play

[levelaudio]

Hello,

I am using Pro Tools LE 7.3.1 with a DIGI002 RACK on a Mac G5 PPC dual 2GHz running OSX.4.11. I have a Roland Fantom-S keyboard hooked up via MIDI. Any time I have a MIDI track starting at the beginning of a song and hit play, a couple of the first notes do not play, are delayed, or off time and MIDI playback catches up quickly after the first beat or two. I tried changing the global MIDI offset (both negative and positive offset) and it didn't seem to help.

In the session I am working with right now, I have 3 tracks of MIDI notes (all piano) in a MIDI file I downloaded and imported (Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata) all playing out channel 1 to the Fantom-S. At first, the first note and chord were playing a bit late, and then the tempo caught up on the 2nd or 3rd beat, almost as if the first notes were moved forward on the timeline a bit. Then I tried inserting some silence before the MIDI notes, and got the same problem. I then tried moving the 3 MIDI regions forward, and now the first note and first chord are not being played at all.

I have noticed a similar "missing" of notes or "skipping" where playback seems to start a bit late and catch up after the first beat or two in other MIDI tracks I have recorded before too.

If I move the actual notes in the MIDI regions forward a beat, there is no problem with the playback. But I shouldn't have to do this to get it to play the first notes correctly. It's almost as if the keyboard is missing the first notes because the MIDI region starts at the same time the notes do and it doesn't catch them, but if they start later after the MIDI region start, the keyboard has time to see them.

Someone please help me with this. I'm starting to lose my mind trying to figure out what is going wrong here.

Thank you,
Mike

[timothyd4y]

Try using the pencil tool and "drawing" a few notes into the first measure of a Track assigned to the Fantom. Solo this track and play it back and see what happens. Sounds like there may be some errant MIDI data clogging the pipe in the first bar or two. Maybe bad CC or Program Change info.

Also, in PT try Setup>MIDI>MIDI Input filter and select Only + Notes. Record onto a new track and see what you get back from the Fantom.

[Stig Eliassen]

It's also a good idea to keep the first couple of bars empty for "sync up time". Also, I cut up the MIDI regions into sections all the time, and this doesn't make any difference to the playback, even if the region and the notes start at the exact same spot.

[levelaudio]

Unfortunately, neither of your suggestions seem to have helped or solved the problem. Also, I realized that it doesn't matter where in the region I start playback. If the playback cursor is at the beginning of a note, it starts playing that note late (or not at all) and then syncs back up on the next note. Even if I start a new session and create just one MIDI track and one aux track to monitor the keyboard audio through and draw a few notes on the grid, I still have the same problem. Regardless of where I start playback, if the cursor is at the beginning of any MIDI note, it either gets missed or played late. So I basically have to start playback before any note boundaries if I want to hear everything play properly.

Are there any preference settings in Pro Tools that might be causing this problem? Is it possible to have Pro Tools not start playback until it is in sync with the keyboard?

Thanks,
Mike

[timothyd4y]

It's probably not PTs MIDI functionality. There are no sync to keyboard settings that may cause this. MIDI is a very efficient, very simple bit of info passed btwn devices, should be the easies thing in the world. Do you have access to another sound module to test? Have you monitored the Fantom via it's headphone jacks (to verify it's not some PT Aux in wierdness)? Does it work properly if you start the session at bar number -2 and have your first MIDI notes at Bar 1?

[levelaudio]

I solved the problem! I found out that there were program change events being recorded when I was recording MIDI, and somehow even when I just drew in notes, I still had program changes in there. Maybe it was because when I started the new session and created a midi track, at first i tested it by recording a few notes using "wait for note", then deleted them, then tried drawing notes in.

Anyway, if anyone else has this problem, make sure you go to the "Event > MIDI Events List" menu and check to see if there are program changes or anything other than just note data in the list. If so, that may be the problem. Once I deleted everything except note data and sustains, it worked fine.

Thank you guys for your help! You got me moving in the right direction.

Mike

[accession]

Even the defacto-standard program change (ie. the one triggered from the primary program change window for each MIDI track) can screw up the stability in the first bar of the song.

Some of my synths will recall patches seamlessly. Others will stutter, with the synth patch's effects kicking in a fraction later.

An empty bar at the start is always a good idea with externally synced MIDI devices.