Midi Controller: Radium 49 Latency Issue....

[Taktical]

I'm rockin FL7 with a Radium 49 and I'm having a latency issue that I dont know how to fix. It's like half a second off or so. And when I try to play the first note of a measure it always doesn't register that note and the rest seem ta be half a second off. How would I fix this??????

[Lord Mecca]

What soundcard are you using? It might be a soundcard issue because not all soundcards can read MIDI signals as fast as others. I'm using an Audiophile 2496 and it works beautifully... I remember when I got my MIDI controller before I copped my soundcard my **** was off too.

[Nabs]

also what kinda drivers are you usin? i really like the ASIO drivers, you should look into it if you haven't already. also adjusting the buffer length could help.

[Taktical]

I'm rockin a M Box 2 and my PC is pretty fast so........??? How would u go about adjusting the latency?

[sonick]

Do you have the Digidesign (if proprietary) or ASIO drivers selected for Input and Output in Fruity Loop Audio setup ? If not, select them; restart FL and try again. If so, you need to call Digidesign and ask them to explain the latency and the solution.

[sonick]

Also, you need to verify your sample rate and bit-depth setup in FL match your hardware. The mbox is probably 96/24 or 192/24. Maybe 88/24. Again, verify and if no go, call Digidesign. The buffer is for final fine-tuning; the majority of your latency should be taken care of with the proper driver. I would HOPE digidesign is smart enough to use ASIO, but they're VERY heavy into proprietary crap so you'll have to verify all of that.

[sonick]

Once you have everything else working, I suggest cooking up all your source material to match the project's sample/bit rate so you have as little real-time conversion going on as possible. The first thing i do when I plan to bring .wav into cubase (in my case) is resample everything to 48khz/24bit. I have a batch file saved for soundforge that I just load all the samples into and it takes care of it automatically.

Bufferwise, the smaller the better (that your PC can handle.) If you can do 256 samples, do that. work your way up from there. Transit time across the buffer increases latency.

First, get the proper drivers working; that will start you off in the ballpark of 20ms. or less. Also, there is a remote possibility of a resource conflict or driver issue with your firewire or usb connect, wherever the mbox enters your pc. That's much less likely these days with XP than it used to be in the 98/95/dos days though.

[Taktical]

Wait a sec, should I be running my midi controller through the m box with a midi wire or should I just connect it to my pc using the usb cable.

But regardless imma mess with it some more when I get home

[sonick]

Definetely start with both the radium and the mbox connected via usb. Each on a dedicated port on the PC if you can (instead of both into a USB hub, into a single PC port.) MIDI is a serialized electrical interface that is starting to show it's age and limitation in today's setups.

Also, it will be easier to separate the two devices in various configs if you have them both connected via USB, instead of trying to piggyback the radium's midi on top of the mbox2's usb. That way, the drivers can be dedicated to their respective jobs instead of the mbox drivers having to pick out and route midi signals in addition to audio. Dedicated is always better. Download and install the newest M-Audio drivers for the Radium while you're at it.

In theory, either setup should work equally fine; but for logic and flow, connecting the radium via usb would help keep the components separate in config and setup; and avoid unneeded use of an aging interface (physical midi)

Then, in FL as long as you have the proper Digidesign or ASIO (whatever it uses) audio drivers, and the Radium selected for Midi Input, you should be 20ms. or less right there from trigger to sound. You rig is probably capable of 2-8ms. with proper tuning.

Definetely avoid MIDI when you have USB available to you. Same goes for firewire... always use firewire over USB when possible.

I suspect that when you connect both your midi controller and mbox via USB and get the proper drivers installed and the proper drivers selected in FL studio, everything will start to work fine.

Dont' forget to disable or remove any sound cards that aren't the mbox.

[Taktical]

Wll at least I had them connected right. I got the new M audio drivers last week of their site so hopefully i can figure ish out. I'll let u know wats good when i'm done or completely stuck.

[sonick]

ite.... good luck...