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Very bad MIDI OUT timing

instinctiveinstinctive
edited October 2012 in Support
Hello,

not sure if I'm asking too much from a mobile device:

I only have Beatmaker 2 and SunrizerXS open (all other apps killed), and using Beatmaker to control Sunrizer via MIDI.

It basically works, but the timing is so bad that it's close to unusable for anything but maybe evolving pads. If I play 16th notes at 120 bpm, the timing of the individual MIDI events (note on and note off) is often off by more than a 16th or even 8th note. It's not consistent lag, which would be excusable, but totally random jitter - the sequence played is often not even recognizable.

Is this because my device is too slow (iPhone 4), or is MIDI between apps generally not feasible, or whatever?

Thanks

Comments

  • dubhausdiscodubhausdisco
    edited 6:31PM
    Are you on ios6?
    Does messing with the midi latency in BM2 make any difference?
    When you say all apps are closed out, you need to make sure that even if its not open,( safari apparently uses memory for open pages) close out all windows in safari
    Can anyone confirm this on iPad? (During some general benchmarks I found that the ipad3 is roughly 3x more powerful than the iPhone 4 across the board....)
  • instinctiveinstinctive
    edited 6:31PM
    Hi dubhausdisco,

    I've killed all open apps via the task manager - there should not be anything in terms of memory or CPU usage. Of course I could also try a reboot afterwards, but I doubt it'd help.

    i am on iOS 5.1 still because I need working Maps <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->

    Changing the MIDI latency control in BM doesn't seem to help...
  • VogliadicaneVogliadicane
    edited 6:31PM
    just for getting as much data about user experience in this case, here is mine.

    Don't have those timing issues at all, not even with around 2-3 synths in parallel with virtual MIDI (Sunrizer, Alchemy..., not shure about Animoog it eats much of CPU power) and lots of MIDI tracks (no experience with audio tracks and a setup described).

    iPad 2, iOS 5.1.1, BM 2.3.1, MIDI latency 50 ms, memory limit turned up to 64 MB (shouldn't be critical, I think)
  • instinctiveinstinctive
    edited 6:31PM
    Thanks Vogliadicane,

    I've even gone as far as killing all apps and then rebooting my iPhone, which is the ultimate "resource cleaner", but the issue persists. Sounds from SunrizerXS are often more than 1/16th or even 1/8th note off, with random jitter. The events in the part editor in Beatmaker are perfectly on spot.

    As I said.. if this were a *constant*, predictable lag, that wouldn't be such an issue, I could just pull the events backward. However, with random lag, it's really useless.

    Your iPad 2 has more processing power than the iPhone 4 I think? Might be that...

    Anyway, in March, my contract will be extended and I'll be sure to get an iPhone 5, that should fix any possible speed issues <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->
  • gdoggdog
    edited 6:31PM
    Hi,

    You might have already tried this, but did you ever consider some apps don't like having midi switched on twice? Eg, if I have midi in on for Nlog AND midi out on for BM2, then NLog gets all confused.

    All the best
  • instinctiveinstinctive
    edited 6:31PM
    Hi,

    in SunrizerXS, I have only enabled "BKG Audio" and set its MIDI Channel to 1.

    In Beatmaker 2, on the "GLOBAL MIDI SETUP" page, I have everything turned OFF except "MIDI OUT" and "Sunrizer MIDI IN", because if I turn either of those off, nothing is heard of Sunrizer.

    I have now tried pretty much every possible thing - searched for duplicate notes, rebooted numerous times, restarted both Sunrizer and Beatmaker in every possible order, and still, the MIDI jitter is horrible.

    I don't think my iPhone is "b0rk3d"? <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->
  • synthanthsynthanth
    edited 6:31PM
    Try setting MIDI latency to zero. I had a similar problem and discovered that for every MIDI note 'on' or 'off' event Beatmaker 2 sends a second duplicate event unless latency is set to zero. Even then duplicate note off events are still generated but they don't seem to cause problems. On the other hand, duplicate note on events are very bad since that means twice as many notes are being triggered which can quickly tax resources.
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