MIDI latency on Tascam US-122?

[Joachim Van Brandt]

Hi there,

I've been lurking, and I'm a newbie to recording so firmly placing my
flame-retardant cap on my head...

I recently got the Tascam US-122, and for now am using the bundled
Cubasis software. I do mainly choral/a cappella music, so I was hoping
record my arrangements/compositions. I compose in Sibelius, export to
midi to use as a background when tracking (instead of a click-track). I
haven't had problems with dubbing with audio latency (the direct monitor
switch takes care of that), but if I try playing synthesized midi out
while recording, I get some bad latency (perhaps 1/4 second).

Is there any way to avoid this so I can use my midi while tracking
(other than recording the midi to .wav which is kind of a pain in the ass)?

-Joachim

[Mike Rivers]

In article .net> writes:

> haven't had problems with dubbing with audio latency (the direct monitor
> switch takes care of that), but if I try playing synthesized midi out
> while recording, I get some bad latency (perhaps 1/4 second).

What are you using for a sound source? If it's the bundled Giga
program, you're at the mercy of your computer's speed. While 1/4
second is an outrageously long delay for live playing, it's not out of
the question when the audio you hear when you press a key is streaming
off the disk drive.

Have you tried connecting the US-122's MIDI OUT to a hardware synth?
That should give you very close to real time performance.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article .net> writes:

> haven't had problems with dubbing with audio latency (the direct monitor
> switch takes care of that), but if I try playing synthesized midi out
> while recording, I get some bad latency (perhaps 1/4 second).

What are you using for a sound source? If it's the bundled Giga
program, you're at the mercy of your computer's speed. While 1/4
second is an outrageously long delay for live playing, it's not out of
the question when the audio you hear when you press a key is streaming
off the disk drive.

Have you tried connecting the US-122's MIDI OUT to a hardware synth?
That should give you very close to real time performance.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Joachim Van Brandt]

Mike Rivers wrote:
> In article .net> writes:
>
>
>>haven't had problems with dubbing with audio latency (the direct monitor
>>switch takes care of that), but if I try playing synthesized midi out
>>while recording, I get some bad latency (perhaps 1/4 second).
>
>
> What are you using for a sound source? If it's the bundled Giga
> program, you're at the mercy of your computer's speed. While 1/4
> second is an outrageously long delay for live playing, it's not out of
> the question when the audio you hear when you press a key is streaming
> off the disk drive.
>
> Have you tried connecting the US-122's MIDI OUT to a hardware synth?
> That should give you very close to real time performance.

Sorry, I forgot to include all the nitty-gritty details.

First, the computer: PIII 850MHz with 256 MB of RAM running WinMe.

I also have a Soundblaster Live Platinum in there, but I haven't figured
out a way to get those sounds to play through the US-122 (still works if
I plug my cans into the Blaster, though). So, I'm using the Microsoft
wavetable that loads when the US-122 is plugged in. I haven't even
installed gigastudio yet (i've never played with soft synths, but
probably will, now). I imagine the latency would be even worse with
that. By the way, these are not complex MIDI sequences. Four channels,
each channel only one note at a time. Even the automatically generated
MIDI click track is behind the PC speaker click track (both created by
Cubasis).

-Joachim Van Brandt

[Joachim Van Brandt]

Mike Rivers wrote:
> In article .net> writes:
>
>
>>haven't had problems with dubbing with audio latency (the direct monitor
>>switch takes care of that), but if I try playing synthesized midi out
>>while recording, I get some bad latency (perhaps 1/4 second).
>
>
> What are you using for a sound source? If it's the bundled Giga
> program, you're at the mercy of your computer's speed. While 1/4
> second is an outrageously long delay for live playing, it's not out of
> the question when the audio you hear when you press a key is streaming
> off the disk drive.
>
> Have you tried connecting the US-122's MIDI OUT to a hardware synth?
> That should give you very close to real time performance.

Sorry, I forgot to include all the nitty-gritty details.

First, the computer: PIII 850MHz with 256 MB of RAM running WinMe.

I also have a Soundblaster Live Platinum in there, but I haven't figured
out a way to get those sounds to play through the US-122 (still works if
I plug my cans into the Blaster, though). So, I'm using the Microsoft
wavetable that loads when the US-122 is plugged in. I haven't even
installed gigastudio yet (i've never played with soft synths, but
probably will, now). I imagine the latency would be even worse with
that. By the way, these are not complex MIDI sequences. Four channels,
each channel only one note at a time. Even the automatically generated
MIDI click track is behind the PC speaker click track (both created by
Cubasis).

-Joachim Van Brandt