Midi progressively lags behind DA

[wturner]

I've recorded digital audio. Now I'm recording some midi to be played back while the DA plays. However, when I play it back, the MIDI begins on time but then starts to lag behind the audio. The effect worsens the longer it plays getting farther and farther behind. If I stop and then restart playback where it left off, the MIDI begins on time but then starts to lag behind the audio the longer it plays as before.

Why does the MIDI not playback in sync with the DA and what can I do about it? Thanks, guys.

 

[MikeDog]

Two things:

First, please give your system specs, especially OS & sound card. I have noticed some lag if I use one MIDI setting with my SB Live Value & XP, but no lag if I use another setting. I chalk it up to an old card with sub-optimal drivers, but it may also be a side effect of using n-track 2.2.x with XP..

Second, have you tried converting the MIDI to an audio track to see if it still lags? You'll have to convert it to audio anyway when you mix down.

 

[wturner]

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is the card. I'm using Win98SE. 300+ megs of RAM. PIII 500mhz processor.

I'm not going to be converting the MIDI to DA this time, and I'd like to conserve processing power by using MIDI (The MIDI is only for pitch reference for the singer. It will be deleted later in the final mixdown.)

Do you think the buffer size should matter in this regard? What other ideas do you have.

 

[MikeDog]

Wait a second -- I misread your original post. Your problem isn't that the audio & MIDI are out of sync, but that the tempo of the MIDI "lags." Have you tried changing the tempo of the MIDI, maybe? Was the original audio recorded to a click track or MIDI of its own?

Puzzling, very puzzling...

 

[wturner]

What I've done is record audio. Now I'm adding a MIDI track, a single note piano line, that I've recorded in time with the audio track, but when I play it back it starts out on time but gradually grows more and more out of sync (late) as compared to the audio even though I recorded the MIDI in time with the audio. If I stop the playback and then restart where I left off, it starts in sync but then again grows later and later as compared with the audio.

 

[TexRoadkill]

What sequencer are you using? It sounds like you dont have your sequencer and audio recorder synced up. Are you using SMPTE or MTC to sync them?

 

[wturner]

This is the part where I start to sound like a dummy.

I don't know how to sync them up. Whether or not they're in sync, I have no idea. Whether or not I'm using SMPTE or MIDI clock I don't know. Can you help?

 

[Heserosfer]

Try this....

go into your MIDI settings (under File -> Settings -> Preferences -> MIDI Settings) and change the "Timer to Use" to Wave. This should keep them in sync. Hope this helps...

- Brian

p.s. check out www.n-track.com forums for quick help on things like this...

 

[wturner]

That sounds like it will work. I'll try it tonight. Thank you! What a beautiful moment this is. Wait, there's something in my eye... there. That's better.

Thanks, again.

Will