MIDI note Latency . . . live keyboard playing is a "little behind"

[The Zone]

Hello All and Good Morning . . .

I'm a little perplexed by something and it's fairly easy to explain, in fact, I already did in the "title line" so I'll just list my cast of characters . . .

I'm playing on an E-Mu "X-Board 25" . . . it's one of those mini MIDI keyboards. It's plugged into the Digi 003 via a standard and seemingly working MIDI cable . . . . my computer is a "Mac Pro" and below are the computer's "specs"

Mac OS X version 10.5.5
Processor 2x2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 6 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Startup disk - Macintosh HD

I'm also running the Digi C/24 console but that may have no bearing on all of this. Is there a way to remove that strange "delay" between the time that I strike a key and hearing it in Pro Tools? I bet somebody knows . . . you guys seem to know everything else!!

Thanks!! -Jhon

P.S. I have noticed a DIFFERENT MODEL of "mini keyboard" in some of the little Digidesign "how-to" videos and wondered if perhaps I should have tried THAT ONE instead of the one we have here?? What is that thing anyway?

[dogon]

Reduce your buffer size in setup>playback engine
And select "Low Latency Monitoring" from the options window.
This should sort you.
Dogon

[The Zone]

I'll try that but I'm pretty sure I almost always leave "low latency monitoring" on . . . the buffer size might be it, but I'm running that Mac Pro now, so it's weird that it would have trouble handling whatever LE throws at it . . . so far it's been pretty "bulletproof" error-wise.

[The Zone]

Dogon . . . it's perfect . . . I'm not sure I totally understand what that "buffer size" thing does exactly, but you did fix my problem so I appreciate it. I'll look it up and see if I can get my head straight on that.

[Ry-Fi]

Buffer - an area of memory that Pro Tools fills up with digital audio samples before it starts playing back sound. Once the buffer is full, it starts getting emptied by being sent out the audio interface for D/A conversion. Once this starts, it must be CONTINUOUSLY read at your date rate (ex: 44100 samples/s (sample rate) x 2 channels x 2 or 3 bytes/sample (16-/24-bit bit depth) per second). If that rate is faster than your computer's processing can fill it, the buffer will eventually be empty and there will be glitches and dropouts in the audio. If your computer can keep it from being emptied, it's all good.

There must be a buffer of some size, as there's no way to guarantee that your CPU can continuously stream the mixed output data fast enough.

Higher buffer setting (ex: 256, 512, 1024) - gives your computer more time (CPU cycles, process switches, I/O activity) to process the audio tracks, plug-ins, virtual instruments, etc., so that it can always generate output before the buffer runs out, and you won't get glitches. BUT, in the case of playing a VI, the higher buffer means it takes longer from the time you hit the key until the note's actually sounded. This can be BAD, and make it impossible to play. For most people, 256 samples (at 44.1 kHz) is the threshold, 128 or less is ideal, and 512 or higher is unusable.

Likewise, lower buffer setting (32, 64, 128) = less time between hitting the key and the note sounding, but your computer has less processing time to make that happen, and if it's not fast enough, it will run out of buffer before it's done processing what it needs, and you'll get glitches.

Summary - Use the LOWEST buffer size you can without getting glitches!


*Low Latency Monitoring - does not work with VI's. It's only used in recording, where the audio going into the 003 is immediately routed out the output without going through the DAW.

[Ziko]

Also, as a general guide:

While recording audio and midi, set your buffer to the lowest your system can handle (try and avoid running up too many effects while still tracking) and then once you're ready to mixdown, whack the buffer size up high (1024 is good) because latency doesn't matter any more and you'll be able to create denser mixes with more plugins etc before you run out of power.

[ese sleepy]

maybe it might be a little out dated the forum or what i have but , i would like to add my two cents and what worked for me .
The midi delay it happened to me. And the fix for me was resetting the interface . now i have the digi 003 and in resetting the unit it worked and fixed the keyboard note delay i had. First to reset it with digi003 off you push [aux in 7/8] button and mute at the same time then power on the digi003 and then midi outs and ins starts to flash . with the digi003 midi lights flashing you kick start pro tools from dock,and it will up date it for a while about 15.
After it worked
, and fixed the delay also see for midi cable connection are on tight .good look for all hope it works