MIDI track Latency

[BiggDogg]

I have ProTools 2020 with all current updates. The issue outlined below has plagued me since ProTools 12. I have had Sweetwater Sound technicians try to solve it and have had the issue escalated to an Avid product engineer, who also, even with a strong effort, failed to diagnose the cause or fix the issue. I am beyond frustrated.

When I purchased ProTools 2020 I also consulted with a Sweetwater
Sound tech to guarantee that I had the correct specs (chip, RAM, etc.) to ensure that all would be compatible. I purchased the computer with the specs provided to me by the tech.

My system: RAM16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz
Graphics: INTEL (R) UHD Graphics 620

My interface is a Focusrite 6i6. I use a USB hub and an HDMI cable to connect to my large monitor. All of the forgoing were disconnected by the Avid engineer during the attempt to diagnose the issue. Disconnecting them had little to effect. My keyboard is a Yamaha P90 connected directly through the Focusrite interface. My iLOK is plugged into a USB port on the laptop. The major 3rd party plugins I use are Midi Grand, EZBass and Superior Drummer. I seldom utilize more than 4 tracks when recording; piano, bass, drums (Instrument inserts) and one Audio track.

The issue: This can happen when only one brand new MIDI track exists in the session or if more than one track exists.

When in MIDI view, inserting a note using the Pencil Tool or shortening/lengthening a note or doing just about anything using the editing tools to edit the MIDI track is met with a delay from 2 seconds to more than 30 seconds from the time you click the tool on the note to the time the action attempted is actually performed. At times, the action is not implemented at all and, other times, the screen turns white and the circular symbol that indicates the computer is processing just spins and spins with no result. These actions can occur at random and, sometimes, not at all (at least for a while). Another thing that takes place will be when I have to "punch in" something on the MIDI track, or even, just want to record a few bars at the end of the previous recording. When set up for recording and I play the keyboard nothing appears on the track for up to 10-20 seconds. Then, the data starts showing up in the track but lags way behind where I am actually playing (not in real time).

The Avid engineer stated that it might be because I had too many notes on the track and processor couldn't handle it, even though he also said the current processor was up to specs. His suggestion, after 4 hours of attempting to fix the problem? Buy a new computer with a more powerful central processor. What?? If that's true then I would like to to be reimbursed for all the money I spent on Protools 2020 and my new computer (with the corrrect processor and RAM).


Additional information: Just yesterday I opened a new session, made sure the HDMI cable was unplugged, removed the USB hub and plugged the iLOK directly into the computer as well as the AUSB from the interface. I added one MIDI track to the new session. ONE! Inserted MIDI Grand into the track and recorded a short piece of music. Result: incredible delay when I tried to do any of the above mentioned tasks. Finally, I got the white screen and had to shut down. This was a brand new session!!!

Has anyone experienced these MIDI track issues? Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I might do besides spend $4000 on a new computer and processor?

[albee1952]

#1-What is the playback buffer set to? It should be 64 or 128 while recording.
#2-Do you have a Master Track, and if so, what plugins are on it?
#3-Set(under the VIEW menu) so MIX window shows>Delay Compensation. What numbers show up?

[albee1952]

"Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz" 2 things come to mind on this detail: #1-1.8GHz is a very slow CPU for a recording machine(most of us cringe at anything under 3GHz) and #2-I see 2 different numbers(1.80GHz and 1.99GHz) which leads me to think you have not disabled Turbo mode, which is(I thought) a recommended system tweak.

No need to spend $4K on a computer when a Mac Mini 6-core with 16GB of RAM is not much north of $1K

[BiggDogg]

Would you please give me some directions as to how to disable the "
Turbo" mode. I'm a musician, not a techie. At this point I will try anything.

[albee1952]

That gets set in BIOS and laptops can be fussy on how that is accessed. Maybe search youtube for help on editing the BIOS(or UFEI) for your machine. Sorry I can't be more help on that, but I do suspect the computer is a bit slow for Pro Tools. You still NEED to check the other details I asked about

[ChuckS]

What is the make and model of the laptop? Can you download and run Latency Monitor to see if any drivers are choking the system?
https://resplendence.com/latencymon

[BiggDogg]

Dell Inspiron 3780 Laptop

[BiggDogg]

#1-What is the playback buffer set to? It should be 64 or 128 while recording.
128
#2-Do you have a Master Track, and if so, what plugins are on it?
No
#3-Set(under the VIEW menu) so MIX window shows>Delay Compensation. What numbers show up?
All are at 0

[ChuckS]

Do you have your audio interface connected to the USB 2.0 port (the one that isn't blue)? Have you tried disabling devices, i.e. bluetooth, camera, wireless adapter? Did you remove all the bloat software that ships with the laptop, i.e. third party malware detection? Do you have OneDrive running? Some things to look at, though the tech support guys probably went through all this.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by BiggDogg

#1-What is the playback buffer set to? It should be 64 or 128 while recording.
128
#2-Do you have a Master Track, and if so, what plugins are on it?
No
#3-Set(under the VIEW menu) so MIX window shows>Delay Compensation. What numbers show up?
All are at 0

Okay, that all looks good. Do you have the Focusrite software installed and configured for routing and monitoring? If so, check thru its settings for any buffer setting(which might be on top of the Pro Tools buffer of 128). Sorry I can't be more precise but I am running Avid hardware, so some things will be different on my setup. ChuckS asks some good questions(and I hate OneDrive as it wants to think for itself)