You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
MIDI Keyboard and Latency
- Thread starter zimbo
- Start date
rob aylestone
Moderator
It's not the keyboard - most latency problems with midi inputs are down to whatever you are using to produce the sound - so if the MIDI input on your computer is driving a VSTi instrument, then you have the latency of the sound card, plus any additional latency the VSTi introduces. My MIDI in is a dedicated 8 way unit, and is pretty well latency free - but playing a piano sample based VSTi through Cubase does have a short delay - using the same plugin in freestanding mode is a tiny bit less, and nicer to play. My interface plugged into an older laptop with the same software and VSTi is much more unpleasant to play - because the computer is less speedy!
It's not the keyboard - most latency problems with midi inputs are down to whatever you are using to produce the sound - so if the MIDI input on your computer is driving a VSTi instrument, then you have the latency of the sound card, plus any additional latency the VSTi introduces. My MIDI in is a dedicated 8 way unit, and is pretty well latency free - but playing a piano sample based VSTi through Cubase does have a short delay - using the same plugin in freestanding mode is a tiny bit less, and nicer to play. My interface plugged into an older laptop with the same software and VSTi is much more unpleasant to play - because the computer is less speedy!
Yeah - I understand the latency issue. However, my question was related to USB (Keyboard) and Audio Interface.
I previously used a MIDI Keyboard that plugged into my M-Audio 2496 sound card via MIDI cable - pushing VSTis - no latency.
However, the Keyboard I'm thinking of purchasing is USB operated & the PC I'm currently using has a poor sound card.
I'm trying to find an Audio Interface (not an internal sound card) that will enable me to play a USB MIDI Keyboard in Cubase...with minimal latency...and I don't know how to hook things up?
USB is not a problem; it's far far faster than original midi serial ports.
Latency is 100% the interaction between OS, soundcard and drivers.
Get a real asio soundcard and you'll be fine.
Not entirely true I'm afraid!
The speed of USB, even version 1.1, is indeed faster than MIDI's 31.25kbps, but it's not just an issue of interface speed but the way the interface functions and its underlying interrupt (or other) mechanism, data packetisation and protocol.
With USB the slave (keyboard) is 'polled' by the master (computer) on a regular basis, unlike MIDI's immediate asynchronous transfer mechanism, often resulting in a phenomenon known as jitter, depending whether the data just missed a poll or not. Not to mention a small latency in the transfer of data and conversion of USB packeted data to MIDI bytes. It often adds another millisecond or two compared to a dedicated MIDI interface connected via an interrupt driven internal interface card.
Of course, as you correctly say, the main factor is the generation of the note by the underlying software and its streaming through the DAC to the analogue audio interface.
Some in depth analysis and detailed tests were done some years ago and published in the UK magazine Sound on Sound.
A pair of articles by Martin Walker titled "The Truth About Latency" from September and October 2002 will tell you all you need to know about the subject.
Nothing has essentially changed very much in the interface functionality since these were published.
Well worth a read IMO.
Regards,
John.
rob aylestone
Moderator
I'm more confused now - you don't want to use the audio card - fine. If you want cubase to play the onboard sounds on the usb connected device that's equally fine - you just need to make sure that cubase recognises the keyboard. I have a Roland synth, connected via USB, and Cubase has trouble with the driver - meaning that I still send data to it via MIDI.
However - there's another problem. Cubase will be producing some sounds internally too, I guess as it has the built in synths and samplers, so to use your external sounds, they have to go back into the computer to be recorded - so you can eq and add effects and produce the final mix down. This might be tricky as cubase can only handle one sound device at a time. If it recognises your keyboard (what are you going to buy?) as a sound device you will need to change the audio driver to the keyboard, and either use perhaps it's own built in sequencer to replay the notes, or via midi. Either way the workflow is a bit naff.
Tell us which keyboard it is and we will check how the USB is used and hopefully advise. Cubase really needs all the audio to be inside it, rather than externally produced and then fed is as analogue. Is a real hiccough in the workflow.
However - there's another problem. Cubase will be producing some sounds internally too, I guess as it has the built in synths and samplers, so to use your external sounds, they have to go back into the computer to be recorded - so you can eq and add effects and produce the final mix down. This might be tricky as cubase can only handle one sound device at a time. If it recognises your keyboard (what are you going to buy?) as a sound device you will need to change the audio driver to the keyboard, and either use perhaps it's own built in sequencer to replay the notes, or via midi. Either way the workflow is a bit naff.
Tell us which keyboard it is and we will check how the USB is used and hopefully advise. Cubase really needs all the audio to be inside it, rather than externally produced and then fed is as analogue. Is a real hiccough in the workflow.