Ackkk, serious midi issue still =/ Any one wanna give this a

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:47 pm

I'm glad to hear you're on your way to resolving your issues with timing. Its unfortunate that you've had problems, but with a modern motherboard you're noticing that our irq-based system inherited from the original 86 pc's is showing its age quite severely. A few onboard peripherals and your 3 dsp cards and you're quite full. I'm glad you haven't had issues with your other 2 cards but let me assure you, I know plenty of people with UAD/Powercore cards who do NOT have Creamware cards and there is a small percentage of users who have to go through just as many hoops.

ACPI is unfortunately a bit of a hack, and yes even with a modern XP system (2k stacks everything on irq 9 or 11 and is MUCH MUCH worse with ACPI) you're finding out that remapping the software irq's still leaves the hardware addressing lines shared. So if a card is in a slot that shares physical addressing (in silicon--both connected to what was once called the 'southbridge') then you're still quite likely to have problems. And with the amount of onboard crap these days that comes as 'standard' so that motherboards can compete against other highly integrated products from other manufacturers....well I'm sure most of us here have felt your pain, at least in part.

So what you've learned is to solve the PCI slot sharing FIRST, then move onto OS-related issues (tweaking & solid install), then finally worry about software related issues with SFP & your sequencer. I myself went through the same learning experience with Nuendo 1.3 and a dual p3 when I first bought my Pulsar1.

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 1:24 am

Here is a new sound byte taken from this evening, I think I finally have things under control, after the fresh OS I thought things were a bit iffy, but after completing the driver updates and especially DirectX9b things seem alot more stable, anyways here is a new audio clip of the timing file..

This test was done in the exact same sounds and manner as the previous test which was awefull, this is WAY better..

Sample: http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 3&forum=17

Cheers!

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:10 am

Hi Basic
Have you tried measuring the error in your sample editor?
I am going to spend some time trying to improve the Creamware midi timing in system today.
I would be useful for others to measure their midi timing or post a Stereo mp3 with a sequencer metronome on one channel and say a EDS drum on another. This would then tell us how good our systems are.
Thanks
Kenf

valis · Post by **valis** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 3:37 pm

Not that I want to push Adern's products or anything...but I might recommend choosing a suitable patch in KickMe! and having everyone stick to that. There's a few patches where the initial transient is really emphasized that would do perfectly to measure timing (in my opinion).

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:36 am

Hi
It also important to keep the velocity value the same for each note.
Kenf

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:58 am

Hi Ken,

Sure I would be happy to do that, just an FYI, the patch in kick me I did my test set up with is the very 1st patch, kick me does not default to patch #1 I am guessing.

The reason I chose this patch was because it has a great snap on it, almost metronomish like in its self, this made it very easy to heas phase troubles.

Tonight Ill record a stereo track with metronome on left and kick me on right and see. To my ears my set up sounds tight now, but as you know from my original samples I posted it was very bad lol..

Cheers!

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:50 am

Hi
I have just tested my midiman 8x8 with my D4 drum box and my vintage keys and the midi timing is all over the place much worse than the Creamware stuff was!! So my systems midi is crap.
I have lost all confidence in my system. I have been checking all the SX midi stuff but everything appears to be set correctly. I am about to smash it up.
Regards
Kenf

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:53 pm

Ok, this grew rather extreme lol:

http://www.kief.net/studio/tests/MidiTi ... gic-pc.htm

Suffice it to say that my experiences differ from those of the Steinberg users here.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: valis on 2004-03-11 10:22 ]</font>

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:43 am

Wow Valis,

Nice test, that was a good read, it appears USB can be an issue, I have since disabled my USB2.0 in the BIOS, though the Midex8 is USB only =(

Things seem rather tight at the moment, and after disabling half my mobo options I finally have my devices off of the IRQ my video cards its on.

Great test and thanks for your effort!

Cheers!

valis · Post by **valis** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 2:52 pm

No problem,

I just wanted to share some info that people having problems may or may not know, and show that the SFP drivers are probably not the issue

I'm glad to hear your timing is improving too. I have a friend with a Steinberg dongle so I might give a shot at doing the tests on my system using his license just for giggles some day when I'm REALLY bored.

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:46 am

Hi
Thanks for that Valis very interesting.
I have resolved my problem. I noticed that my video card shares its IRQ with the first 2 USB ports, so I put my 2 USB devices into ports 3 and 4 and set my BIOS to ingnore unused ports, ports 3 and 4 are on their own IRQ. I set my sync back to using my mixer as the master and finally I replaced my midisport with a midex8.
Now I have under 20 samples of drift/jitter. My external synths 'seem' locked to my Creamware synths.
Basic, I noticed that you have the Midex8, I was under the impression that you do not need the ignoremidifilter file as Midex uses LTB... I will have another look at Steinys site.
Thanks for everyones help...
Regards
Kenf

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kenf on 2004-03-12 07:49 ]</font>

Basic Pitch · Post by **Basic Pitch** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:34 am

ken,

What ever you do, DO NOT use the ignore port filter with the midex8, this was a large area of problem for me, what happens is by using that file it duplicates a set of midex drivers, unfortunately this causes a large area of problems since I belive the host sequencer to be echoing midi channels when they are present, also it seemed when both sets of ports were showing one set would work great and the other set would be terrible.

I have since re-installed my OS from scratch and did not use the ignore port filter file and things are great! I had to disable half my mobo to get all my devices on there own IRQs and some still share but atleast none of my devices share the video card or USB hosts, this is really important..

Thanks for every ones help, it took alot of trial and error and hours of re-installations and such, but it was worth it in the end, I still get some crackles here and there I am trying to track down in large scale projects, but things are like 90% right now!

My midi timing is great and I am tempted to try and send MMC from my midex to the CW/Iputs to see if I can get get my devices to auto sync versus having to input bpm

Cheers!

Kenf · Post by **Kenf** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 1:35 pm

Basic
Looks like we are both happy, although I have noticed that now my Creamware midi jitters the most.... But is more than usable...
Thanks again for you help.
Regards
Kenf

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 11:28 am

Did you ever get this sorted out?
I'd be interested to know what system you're running coz these are exactly the sort of problems i was getting.
I use Cubase SX2, and timing was hideous when I first got my new system.....
OK my MIDI set-up is reasonably complex in that I'm using Midi Ox/Yoke, but the set-up was unusable till I reinstalled WinXP in Standard PC mode (as oppased to ACPI).
(Mine's a PIV 2.8/1024 Ram with XP home.)