The first few MIDI files I importet played fine. I’m finding now though that they keep stopping and jumping. Do I need a laptop with more horsepower?
Did you mention any specifications of any of the gear you´re using anywhere in this thread, or why do you think anyone should know? Probably as already mentioned you simply need a decent interface…
Well we all have to start somewhere eh?
I’m using a laptop at the moment running an AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core TK-55 1.80 GHz with 2Mb of Ram. I’m not trying to record anything just play MIDI files at the moment
Surely. There are just different ways on how to start somewhere…
Start on the box of the Cubase version you´re using (Did I just overlook it, or didn´t you mention it). What does it say as minimum system requirements? (I´m Running Cubase SX3 and Essential 5 on a single core 1.4 GHz Pentium M Laptop btw.but with a decent audio card.)
And how do the MIDI files play back? My guess is via Audio (No, I didn´t read the whole thread, sorry)!? So that´s the point why a decent audio card with decent driver makes sense. Rather than crappy onboard cards with crappy drivers.(I´m sure your version say something about Audio interface on the System requirements also…) Or you can try ASIO4all driver before (try the forum search or Google)…
The box says 2 Ghz so I guess trying to run it an a 1.8 GHz machine doesn’t help but it’s not like I’m trying to record or anything. My desktop is 3.2 GHz so I will try that later. I wanted to try the laptop though because I stay away a lot.
Yes I know the onboard audio won’t be great but I hoped it would at least get me started until I developed a better understanding and worked out what I really need
Your laptop should be fine (Taken the 2 MB is a typo and you meant 2 GB RAM).
Yeah, soz. 2GB. Don’t know why it doesn’t play smoothly then. All I’m literally doing is importing a MIDI file and playing it
Because your using too RAM and /or CPU hungry VSTi (Do you use VSTi at all…?) or (more likely) because you´re using the onboard soundcard with the crappy Full duplex direct X ASIO driver (or whatever it is called). Try ASIO4all, and see, if that improves things. If it does, get a decent soundcard.
I Had everything on Halion 1 (That’s how it imports). If I change everything to USM, it plays better but sounst sh1t
If you intend to use this as you said pretty soon down the road as playback for a live situation, I suppose you mean you are going to use the audio tracks you exported from midi files thru a vst inst. such as Halion Sonic and made them into a wav. file, and you want to also have some midi track in cubase still triggering sounds in a vst inst at the same time in a live performance, then I suppose you are also going to be singing thru a mic and possibly playing an acoustic guitar or something with these live. If you are I would recommend you look into one of the many live mixers that also have asio drivers and work as a pro audio interface to playback you tracks at the same time. There are many made by Mackie, Peavy, Behringer and others. I use a Mackie Onyx 1640 (they have many smaller and less expensive models) which has sixteen channels that can be recorded into Cubase at once or used as live channels for mics and other instruments while the audio from the wav files you created, combined with the audio you are generating from the midi tracks in Cubase will also play back thru this mixer all at one time. But of course you do not need a mixer as large as the one I use if you are only going to be using one mic and a few other channels for live instruments, I just have the one I use because I record whole bands both live and in my studio so I need the sixteen inputs. If you do not need a mixer with this many inputs choose one that fits your needs. In my opinion you will also get a higher quality sound and much lower latency using any pro audio card with ASIO drivers no matter which you choose over using the internal sound card and 1/8 outputs that come with your laptop. Hope this helps you some. As others have said this is all in the getting started manual and you would truly benefit with at least reading it thourohly to get a basic understanding of not only this but how Cubase basically works, rather than asking a question, waiting for an answer to the question then asking next question and the another. It would get you where you want to go much faster. But having said that I will try to respond to your questions to help get you going, if there is anything I feel might help you. I have been using Cubase for 11 years and love the program and find using it to be smooth and simple once you have spent quite a bit of time reading the manual and just using trial and error to get used to it, but I also remember what it was like first starting out and sympathize with where you are and what you are going thru. Be greatful that now most all hardware works together without many problems, you don’t have to worry about the southbridge causing AMD processors to be unusable but not knowing that until you bought one and pulled your hair out figuring out it was hopeless at that time, and all the crashes with windows 98 especially 98ME, and many other computer related problems like we did when I and many first started. Best of luck and keep trying you will get there.
Sorry last post was so long but trying to explain much to you. One last thing I did not post. I do not understand exactly what you are using to play back your midi tracks, but I will highly recommend the full version of Halion Sonic. I own Sample Tank 2XL, Sonic Synth, Phiharmonik Orchestra, Sample Moog, Dimension Pro, VI One, Akoustik Piano and Kontakt 4. Since purchasing HS I have quit using all of them except for Kontakt 4, HS, and Akoustik Piano, and if I did not already own Kontakt4 and Akoustik Piano feel I could get by with just Halion Sonic (Unless I was doing solo piano work and then I would definitely want Akoustik Piano or one of the other top piano softsynths out there. Halion Sonic comes the closest to giving you the great samples, presets, variety of sounds, and easy access to basic editing functions that rival the best pro audio keyboards out on the market in my opinion.
Sorry, spreading this myth is seriously unhelpful, only certain interfaces have problems with certain Firewire chips and/or drivers that includes some older TI chips, I have been using Ricoh and Via chipset for years without problems in fact the VIA performs better than a TI based cards in all my tests.
The warning about using only TI came from RME about three years back and was only in conjunction with a specific high end RME interface and a very high channel count, using that info in context with a guy that has very simple requirements makes no sense, he is hardly in the market for a Fireface 800 and an SSL mixer to go with it.
USB chips have problems as well, and under Vista and W7 64bit versions are not recommended at all unless they have a well written ASIO driver that will take control of the USB bus.
Extensive testing by Yamaha for their firewire products (inc. Steinberg branded products) because the chips are by now blamed for all firewire related problems revealed that only NEC chips cause any real problems and in general those are only found in pre-2005 products (IBM Japan only notbooks etc).