I know this has been asked before, but no thread (at least no one that I found) focused on the issue and came to a clear solution.
PROBLEM: Notes being played on my master keyboard in accordance with the metronome are recorded slightly too early, i.e. they appear slightly but noticably to the left in key editor.
PROBLEM DETAILS:
- The notes are recorded up to 1/32 too early, in average 1/64 (at 120 bpm).
- This “negative latency” seems to vary. Some are very near to the beat, others 1/32 early.
- I can’t tell if the variation on “negative latency” comes from my playing or is part of the problem. However I feel playback differs from the way I recorded it. But that’s just a feeling.
SETUP:
- Intel i7 notebook, 8 GB RAM, Seagate harddisk (internal), SSD (external, USB 3.0)
- RME Babyface (USB), Masterkeyboard Alesis Q25, M-Audio Keystation 88es
- Cubase 6.5.1, Vienna Instruments / Ensemble
- Windows 7 64-bit
TROUBLESHOOTING HISTORY:
- switching masterkeyboards didn’t help
- connecting masterkeyboards via Babyface MIDI-in didn’t help
- problem occurs on both Cubase and Cubase 64-bit
- disconnecting USB mouse and keyboard didn’t help
- empowering Babyface with 2nd USB-plug didn’t help
- de/activating “Use MIDI Timestamp” (DirectX and Windows MIDI) in every possible combination didn’t help
- de/activating “constrain delay compensation” option didn’t help
- using recording offset didn’t help, in fact I haven’t noticed any difference no matter what I entered here (-100.000 to +100.000)
- trying DirectX emulated MIDI port (instead of native Windows MIDI) didn’t help
- reducing buffers on the Babyface to second lowest option did reduce the amount of “negative latency”, but it’s still there
- could be that switching from acoustic to MIDI output metronome helped a tiny bit, but I’m not completely sure on that, again it’s just a feeling.
THE TILT:
- I installed the RME Babyface on my old system (Dual Core tower, Windows XP, Cubase SX 3.1) in order to see if it’s the Babyface that causes the problem and: Suddenly I noticed the “negative latency” there, too. But:
- Then I connected the old system with my old RME Fireface 800 and: Same problem!!
That leads me to three possible conclusions:
- The “negative latency” has always been there, and I just noticed it on my new system because there it was slightly bigger than on my old one. I can’t be sure about that, and I believe that’s not the case. I’m doing lots of percussion and drums “manually” and I’m very exact, I would have noticed if the notes were out of beat after recording.
- The Babyface drivers are the problem, and by installing them on my old system I disrupted its (working) driver architecture, so that the issue also came up with the Fireface.
- There’s something wrong with the new USB eLicenser. It’s the only thing (apart from the Babyface) I used with the new and the old setup.
This is a very tough and annoying issue. Has anyone any idea?
Thanks in advance!