I’ve been a long long time steinberg user and die hard fan. Cubase SX3 days - through Nuendo 4 to Cubase 5 - Cubase 6.5 - to Cubase 7.5 - then on to 8 Pro as a demo recently. I’m fluent in many DAW’s as we all should be these days (Avid Poser Tools - Studio One - Ableton Live - Reaper - you name it, etc.) - and I tell you Cubase just owns the lot. Always come back to it. Nothing compares to its Midi prowess, shortcuts, or logical navigation control, modern sexiness (8 sure looks good), and quick editing on the arranger page. Nothing. I never felt the need to chime in and have long long shadowed in this forum just to learn so much from so many of you users over the years as an anonymous guest, but this topic touches something very real and should remain elevated to ALL USERS and Steinberg Developer staff. I’m happy to see others posting on this in 2015 - and posting RECENT CURRENT.
Midi Notes in Cubase Pro8 are in fact recorded early irrespective of actual time - no matter what you do. No matter what setting or preference, or checkbox, no matter what latency on your card, no matter what Latency Compensate Button is pushed on the track itself, no matter what Midi interface or protocol be it Midi over Lan - Midi over Firewire - Midi over PCI slot direct to the motherboard or Midi over USB from a dedicated software driver. I have done extensive elongated tests on this matter as a freak with obsessive compulsive tendencies and have seen this as a major issue in ALL newer cubase versions.
I’ve extensively tested multiple scenarios and physical loop back tests that remove the human compensation error out of the equation COMPLETELY (the tendency to play a note ahead of time due to VSTi sound card delay latency). Notes appear on the grid in some of these tests before the note should have even left the original sending interface. And this is not a human playing the original source note. These are hard quantized drawn in notes in the midi editor from the master. A total impossibility occurs every time in Cubase 8. Cubase is pulling the notes forward during recording - regardless of timestamps or the sources being external or internal clocked.
tomorrow I plan on taking screen shots of the tests I’ve done which include:
-Syncing Cubase 8 Pro master to Cubase 8 Pro slave between two seperate PC machines’ on a render farm slaved to motion picture MTC (midi timecode) over giga 1000mbs ethernet RTPMidi
-physical hardware loopback tests from midi interface (In to Out) Different Host PC - Different Clock
-physical hardware loopback tests from same midi interface (In to Out) Same Host PC - Same Clock
-physical hardware loopback tests from seperate midi interfaces (In to Out - between two different Midi intefaces) on Same Host PC - Same Clock
Cubase Timestamp checkbox On/Off
Cubase Activate Midi Latency Compensation button on/off Midi Track itself
Cubase Compensation button in toolbar On/Off
Comparisons between Cubase Pro 8 and old dinosaur Legacy Nuendo 4.3 32bit (which btw NUENDO 4 does NOT pull notes forward whatsoever - it places them slightly behind the grid exactly where they would be in real world application despite NOT featuring what Cubase Pro 8 supposedly fixes with a Latency Compensation button on the track.
Comparisons between Studio One V3 and Cubase Pro 8 using all of the above EXACT same methodologies and exacting battery tests. (of which Studio One Displays Midi Notes not before the grid, but after just like Nuendo 4.)
In addition its more than just Cubase Pro 8’s tendency to pull forward EVERY SINGLE NOTE it also induces test repeatable jitter and inaccurate placements of random notes singular. Meaning, the occasional note will be pulled forward much more than a adjacent notes or a measure before it - This tends to lead to thinking you played sloppy - but its not actuality indicative of your true performance. THAT’S HUGE!!! These errors directly influence workflow by endless fixing and nudging, and perceived accuracy of a recorded track that may otherwise be flawless. Steinberg you are the kings of Midi - how has this defective code made it into your current offerings.
These tests and the remarks from others on this forum - in multiple threads for years and years all the way into 2015 identify an issue that Steinberg needs to account for. Midi is early - in circumstances where its ABSOLUTELY impossible for the notes to have reached the recording machine before the source even sent it. Timestamps in Cubase Pro 8 are jittery in addition to being pulled forward. Something in the coding has changed from the legacy platform for midi-accuracy and precision- My nuendo tests blew me away. It is indisputable and I hope Steinberg takes action. You guys out there - the user community, please keep this thread going, elevate it, and if anything, push to have this placed in a dedicated OFFICIAL ISSUE’s to be fixed submission. Its real. Absolute.
Over the years I have used the logical editor with a quick macro to nudge my notes behind the grid after recording, then iterative quanize if needed. Its a guess nudge of a few ticks BACK IN TIME with the logical editor - and an estimate at best. As Cubase Midi timing is showing to be totally VARIABLE at times. The work around gets me by, and I always thought it was me, but tests show a greater breakage at work here - and its not me the musician who is jumping ahead of the grid - or the cause of that sloppy note - More often than not - its actually Cubase Pro 8 doing it.
I will post pictures and screenshots tomorrow. Thanks to the guys who are posting on this particular matter - you’re doing a good good thing. - We all want this amazing software package to be what it totally can be. The king of the hill. -
Ryan
BTW - I’m running Windows 7 64bit 8gb - SSD’s and Phenom 6 core Overclocked 3.2ghz and Nivida 660 Extreme Ti 2gb Graphics. Identical On 3 seperate VE Pro5 Render Farm DAW’s linked via Gigabit Ethernet Switch - Audio Interface Zed R16 Firewire and an Maudio 192 PCI Card Interface and Midi and Audio - Korg Pad Kontrol external Midi via usb - RTPmidi Lan.