External synths out of sync

[clntgn]

I have a ton of old keyboards that I'd like to use, but whenever I use any sort of external sound, there's this problem I have.

Here's an example setup:
Kawai WK50, connected to computer using Hosa USB-MIDI
Aux out from Kawai wk50 connected to input 1 of my Focusrite firewire Saffire Pro 24

Now, I have the audio from input 1 going through an Aux track in my DAW so I can hear it while it's playing. This works fine. I live record, and all of my midi notes are appearing in time with the grid, so they aren't showing up later than they're supposed to. But when I play the music back, the audio is delayed from the midi notes, I'd say somewhere under a second. So nothing is in sync at all. This has not happened when using softsynths, only when I want to record any of my external synths. What's the problem here? Most of my external keyboards and my one rack synth were made in the 90s or earlier. I have a microkorg that I've yet to try, but something tells me I'd get the same result.

Anything I can do to get these tracks playing properly?

 

[Brian Li]

This is a guess - MIDI is strictly in the digital realm, while the Focusrite is doing ADC conversion. This might cause the time offset. What happens if you send the MIDI from your DAW to the Kawai, and then record that output?

 

[witzendoz]

I would guess that the midi is fine but the delay is in the recording processing time, latency. It is the same as getting latency when listening to something already record and overdubbing except that in this case it's the midi playing and the recording of the keyboard is the over dubbing I have experienced this before. Have you tried adjusting the latency settings in the computer?

Cheers
Alan.

 

[Garf Richards]

In your daw try changing the number of samples your interface records at, then re-record your synth parts.