MIDI gets recorded early

[itsjustmeee123]

Originally Posted by Dopamine

I had that exact bug a couple years ago. It was maddening!

Same here. I tried everything I could think of to troubleshoot it with no luck.

[nd]

Originally Posted by Dopamine

I had that exact bug a couple years ago. It was maddening!

So you solved it somehow? Or gave up and found an alternative way of recording MIDI performances?

[itsjustmeee123]

Originally Posted by nd

So you solved it somehow? Or gave up and found an alternative way of recording MIDI performances?

I personally could never solve the issue. I tried swapping out virtual instruments, restarting my computer, all the normal things one would think of doing. I ended up having to nudge my midi tracks so that they would be back in sync with the rest of the track. When I updated my studio and computer, it all went away. I did have a Motu midi interface at the time and now I just am using USB keyboards. That might have had something to do with it but I don’t know.

[XJENSEN]

"Did you trash preferences?"

[midnightrambler]

Originally Posted by albee1952

If midi was this bad for everyone, the DUC would be on fire over it. The fact that its not should be cause for trying to figure out why a handful of folks are having this issue. My full-time musical collaborator works more midi than most(short of soundtrack composers) and he has never mentioned this issue(I am his first call for PT problems). I'm sorry I don't have the answer, but I suspect there is one somewhere

I think a lot of people hard quantise and therefore are never really aware of the problem. (Not suggesting your collaborator does this...- just an interesting aside)

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

I think a lot of people hard quantise and therefore are never really aware of the problem. (Not suggesting your collaborator does this...- just an interesting aside)

In my case, that's a big "YES" My partner is one of those that can actually play well

[Markrosoft]

I've been experiencing this issue *knowingly* for about a year but have been *unknowingly* been experiencing for about 8+ years. Please, everyone on this thread complain to Avid. I did and actually convinced them to give me a free year's subscription!

One question though: do people using HDX still experience this issue??? I'm on HD | Native.

This is such a basic function and it being off (without telling us) has wasted countless hours of our time. Countless great performances have come out wrong because of their programming bugs. AH!

The only way to really SEE it, is to do a test of printing audio of your midi performance while you play it and then compare the midi notes to the audio. The midi notes are ALWAYS ahead although the amount changes (seems to be based on HW Buffer and plugins you're running). My performances always felt off and I just assumed, "damn, I feel like I'm behind the beat but I guess I'm just not as good as I thought!" I shouldn't have doubted myself because whenever I would record in Ableton it would feel exactly how I played it and it felt AMAZING. Again, I didn't realize what was happening until I ran a test, which I imagine most people don't do.

Yes, many people who are JUST composers use other DAWs. I get that. But I do sound design, editing, AND scoring and it doesn't make sense for me to do one project in different DAWS. I'm sure many of you are in the same boat and that's why you still record midi in Pro Tools.

AVID must fix this or issue a huge warning that's something like, "If you choose to record midi in Pro Tools, be aware that the notes will not render where you actually played them."

Please, everyone complain and demand a free subscription until the issue is fixed.

[oscarpatxot]

August 2022 and this is still a problem. I'm on Pro Tools Native by the way, lastest version, and on windows 10. this has been a problem for me for many many years, in two different PC (studio, and home) same thing, midi notes are ahead after a performance, and I did what many of you did and recorded the audio at the same time, and the audio was perfect and the midi ahead. This may well be the issue that finally makes me quit on pro tools, and that sucks, as Pro Tools is my workforce for everything I do, recording, producing, mixing and mastering, but men, having to nudge the midi and eyeballing it is not the way, some things should not be quantized.

in both of my systems I installed a free copy of studio one artist that came with a small audio interface I have, just to test this out, never in my life have I used that DAW, but wanted to see if it was my system or something. To my surprise, midi recording worked flawlessly, I could not believe my eyes..... I spend last night figuring out Studio One, and yes, it is indeed fast, and I could see myself working on something like this, but its not pro tools, I don't want to throw all my protools speed and knowledge away, I want Avid to fix these things and catch up with the other DAWs.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by albee1952

If midi was this bad for everyone, the DUC would be on fire over it. The fact that its not should be cause for trying to figure out why a handful of folks are having this issue. My full-time musical collaborator works more midi than most(short of soundtrack composers) and he has never mentioned this issue(I am his first call for PT problems). I'm sorry I don't have the answer, but I suspect there is one somewhere

I've had this on and off for years. It's very inconsistent, and that makes it more difficult to troubleshoot. It works perfectly sometimes, and is sometimes almost impossible/extremely difficult to work with. Various solutions have worked for me, but they are not guaranteed to work each time. Each case seems to be different, depending on tempo, buffer settings and VI. This is from the experiences I've had with this issue, but I must confess I haven't put in the neccesary time to try and pin it down more scientifically. That's probably because it doesn't happen always; when it does happen, I'm usually in the middle of a job and there's no time to stop and troubleshoot.

[Simon2065]

Hi

I am getting midi recorded early about 70 samples 1.5ms to 150 samples 3.5ms early depending on session and VI. This is messing up the feel of rhythmic performances and makes recording midi pretty well useless in Pro Tools.

Options
1. Move to a DAW that works.
2. Treat Pro Tools as merely an audio recorder of Virtual Instrument performances with no midi editing function.
3. Go through a ridiculously convoluted method of working out how much midi is recorded early and then adjust midi clip and then do this same process for every VI in the session.

Here are my notes from testing in case they are of any benefit:

2. Only rely on Audio recorded "Live" from Virtual Instrument. Record both Midi and Live Audio. Midi is only a reference in case you want to either (a.) re-record or (b.) nudge midi to correct location, make changes in Midi editor using the method in option 3.

First create a Aux Bus: VI Recording
Create the VI Instrument track and assign the output to both Master Bus and VI Recording busses. (Start/Win key + Click in Output bus list)
Create a new audio track. Input - VI Recording, Output - Master Bus. Put in Mute.
Enable recording on both VI and Audio tracks.
After recording make the VI track Inactive and Unmute Live Audio track.

3. Nudge Midi track back to correct location using a "Live" audio track as a reference. The VI and Audio tracks are setup the same as Option 1.
i.e.
First create a Aux Bus: VI Recording
Create the VI Instrument track and assign the output to both Master Bus and VI Recording. (Start/Win key + Click in Output bus list)
Create a new audio track. Input - VI Recording, Output - Master Bus. Put in Mute.
Enable recording on both VI and Audio tracks.

After recording to find the amount that the midi is recorded early, compare the VI track with the Audio track like this:
Commit the VI track "Up to this Insert" of the VI. Choose options Source Tracks - Do Nothing and Offline
Select both the Live Audio and Committed Audio clips and hit E to maximise view.
Change to Slip Mode and put timeline just at the start of the audio.
Change Main Time display to Samples.
Zoom in and compare the waves and find the same spot in the waves of both the Live Audio and the Committed Audio.
Note the Samples displayed at both location and subtracted the Committed Sample no. from the LIve Audio Sample no. This will be the number of samples that the Midi track is ahead of time.

To Nudge Midi
Change the Nudge Value to Sample and enter the number of samples found above
Select the Midi clip and hit + (plus symbol) this will nudge the Midi clip by that amount.
If you want check then recommit the VI track "Up to this Insert" of the VI and then compare it with the Live Audio. They should be the same/similar.
Remove Commit Track and mute Live Audio.

Note in sample instruments the wave forms are the same but syths with modulation etc may generate different wave forms due to cycles so they are harder to find the amount early and compare after the nudge.
Note different VI seem to be recorded ahead by different values in the same session so you need to do this for each VI.
Note when you nudge midi forward due to PPQ (960) resolution some notes will move slightly differently so if you play back with Live Audio there will be some phasing at times.
I am normally seeing midi recorded about 70 samples 1.5ms to 150 samples 3.5ms early depending on session and VI.