MIDI notes randomly don't play, although visible in the clip

[XJENSEN]

Is anyone else experiencing this in Protools 12.7 HD?

Protools randomly (but repeatably) drops MIDI notes from playing back through both internal VIs (tested with Expand!2) and external MIDI instruments. The attached screenshot shows the audio recorded from the MIDI track: You will see missing audio on some spots (always in the beginning of a measure, but not every measure).

Sorry, but this way, Protools becomes completely unusable and unreliable as a composing / arranging tool.

I have reported this case to Avid almost a month ago, but they don't seem to be taking these MIDI bugs all too seriously, it seems.

[albee1952]

Have not seen that here(yet) but we may have completely different systems. My rig is described below. How about some details on yours?

[Tim Ripley]

If you sightly shorten the duration of the notes, do the missing notes come back? Is it possible that you have some overlap? (a note-off command that occurs slightly after the note-on?)

[Bushpig]

Hi All,

I am still on PTHD 10.3.10 and I get this all the time. It only seems to happen when a part is playing as separate Clips and where the first note of the next Clip, plays the same note as the last note of the Clip before (like you would normally experience when you've got an overlapped note cutting off the beginning of the next as correctly illucidated by Tim R above).

I run separate midi tracks for the same instrument all the time (Intro, Verse, Chorus etc) for arrangement ergonomics reasons, and it happens a lot when the next Clip coming up on a different track, refuses to play the first note unless I do what Tim R has suggested and slightly shorten the last note before the change. This can often play havoc with Mirrored midi editing workflows though. And it drives me potty.

Mind you, the one thing I have wondered about, is it seems to happen most to me with a particular Bass patch I use in Structure (full version), so I've often speculated to myself that it may actually be VI specific ie: Structure as a sample player, has to have a certain amount of time to re-trigger correctly, when it "sees" info coming from a different track on the same midi channel. Weird thing is it's not always repeatable. In other words I'll notice it, then I can sometimes play over the same part to figure out what's gone screwy, but it won't do it every time. Needless to say though, that once it's happening at all, I can be sure it will randomly happen forever until I adjust to compensate. This is a very un-scientific observation though, so I've got it logged in the back of my head to try and observe it and unpick it more when I can.

If anyone discovers a fully repeatable scenario to produce this bug, I'd be very intersted to help troubleshoot.

Regards.

Steve Bush

[XJENSEN]

Originally Posted by Tim Ripley

If you sightly shorten the duration of the notes, do the missing notes come back? Is it possible that you have some overlap? (a note-off command that occurs slightly after the note-on?)

Tim, exactly! I have tried this and shortening the notes makes adjacent notes play properly.. However, all these notes have been trimmed to the grid, so there should be no overlap. Overlap is also not apparent from the MIDI event list, which I checked. Something must be very wrong for Protools to decide that these notes actually overlap. Your info may be a good hint towards finding the root cause!

Originally Posted by Bushpig

Hi All,

I am still on PTHD 10.3.10 and I get this all the time. It only seems to happen when a part is playing as separate Clips and where the first note of the next Clip, plays the same note as the last note of the Clip before (like you would normally experience when you've got an overlapped note cutting off the beginning of the next as correctly illucidated by Tim R above).
...

If anyone discovers a fully repeatable scenario to produce this bug, I'd be very intersted to help troubleshoot.

Steve, thanks for your input! I can confirm that it's definitely not instrument or VI-specific as it happens with many instruments here, including external MIDI keyboards and synths.

[Tim Ripley]

The midi timing in pro tools is affected by many things. Number of tracks, buffer setting, which and how many VI's you are running, and on and on. Even if the notes do not actually overlap, if something delays the midi timing by a tick or two, it will skip notes that are being re-triggered.