MIDI problem, notes are buffered before playing?

M

Marco G.

New member
Hi everyone!

This is my first post here, I've just registered so please sorry if someone already asked this kind of question!
If that's the case, please send me the link to the existing answer.

When I play something on my keyboard (Kawai digital piano), MIDI behaves as if notes are buffered before they are played. To better explain that, I've made this illustration where you can see what happens. If I play some sequence of notes (for instance, like the one presented), some number of the notes (I think 30) will be buffered in that blue rectangle area. So, if we look at that picture, when I play one note, it will "push" notes that are already buffered, and I will hear some other note that I've already played before.
That process continues, and new notes will just keep pushing old ones.

MIDI-problem.jpg

This happens in any software I use for playing VST instruments.
Also I've tried Sibelius, same thing happens.
I'm using Kawai CL35, sound card is TASCAM US600, operating system Win 8.1.
Btw, I've already used this same configuration a few months ago and everything worked fine.

Please help!
 
I really don't follow what you mean? Buffered doesn't seem quite the right term - you mean that you play a note, and nothing happens at the computer end until a time has passed, and then the note plays, or if you play a phrase, it waits then chucks the phrase out later?

There is a proper buffer error that pops up occasionally, when the notes are read in, and then get blurted out in a kind of machine gun. My computer will very, very occasionally do this when I've tried to run far too many soft synths and samples, but it's very rare.

The fact you have tried another bit of software points to a driver issue of some kind. MIDI is usually quite trouble free when set up. First thing I'd do is check there isn't a better driver on the Tascam site, and install it. I might even remove the existing driver and reinstall it again. The only other thing that could be happening is the Kawai MIDI interface is faulty, and the 'buffering' error is inside the keyboard? Do you have any other MIDI devices you can use to drive it?

The only other thing I can think of depends on how you have the system connected. You obviously have the keyboard MIDI out connected to the Tascam MIDI in, but do you also have the Tascam MIDI out going back to the keyboard? What could be happening is that the MIDI data arrives at the computer, then gets sent straight back out to the keyboard, so it gets two note ons, delayed very slightly in time, which could even be sent back out again by the keyboard of it has some kind of MIDI out/thru link on one socket? Experiment to see if the keyboard has a local off setting that can be tried, and probably there will be a thru setting on the software too - I can't think of anything else at the moment.
 
Thank you Rob for your answer.

Well, english is not my native language so maybe that's the reason I haven't explained my problem very good, I'll try to give some additional information.
Instead of "buffer", I could call that blue rectangle from my first post "MIDI notes storage area" which is quite good name in this particular situation.

So, let's say I wan't to play this sequence od notes: "C, D, E, F, G, A, G, F, E, D, C".
Also, let's suppose that "storage area" I mentioned can store three MIDI notes.
That means that in this case, when I play first three notes ("C, D, E") nothing will happen in any software that I use. But, afterwards, if I continue to play whole sequence, when I play "F, G, A", software will reproduce those three notes that are already stored in that "storage area", or in this case "C, D, E".
So, as I said before, each new note will "push" one note from that "storage area". Therefore, it's not quite correct to speak about some kind of latency because time is not issue. Only triggering of MIDI notes will have any effect.

Yes, I've already tried reinstalling driver, but nothing happened.
MIDI out from keyboard is connected to MIDI in on the sound card. That's the only cable I use.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other MIDI keyboard to see if it's the keyboard problem. I guess I'll have to borrow one.
Thank you again.
 
What happens if you play just one note and then wait? Does that note play after some delay? If so, it sounds like a typical problem with latency. Search for "midi latency" to get ideas on how you might be able to reduce the delay.
 
Hi SeaGtGruff,

thank you for your answer, but as I said before, this problem is not in any way time related which also means that latency is not issue here.
Also, it's not question of jitter, delay, note stacking etc.
 
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