EZ Drummer - How long of a MIDI cable is tooooo long?

Thanks for reading.
I use EZ Drummer with a MOTU MIDI Express XT and an Alesis DM5 Pro electronic drum kit.  I've noticed that on fast repetitive hits to the snare drum that EZ Drummer is not seeing all of the repetitive hits.  When I monitor the Alesis' internal kits using headphones all of the hits are captured (heard) correctly. 
 
Here is my concern.  To be completely honest I have two 8ft low quality (HOSA) cables coupled together from the Alesis kit to my MOTU MIDI interface.  So I am wondering if there is a rule of thumb for the max length of a MIDI cable.  And, secondly if a low quality cable as I've referenced above could also be an issue. 
 
Could this be the source of EZ Drummer not seeing all of the repetative hits?
 
Regards,
Rich

FWIW, I wouldn't go much further than about 15' with a contiguous MIDI cable.
Could very well be causing issues...

15' is pushing it, even though the USB spec says you can do it (5 meters is the official limit). I've experienced intermittent weirdness using a 15' cable with an audio interface,

 
I've had issues with longer USB cables and some USB peripherals.
ie:  The RME Babyface (bus-powered) doesn't cope well with long USB cables.
Driver won't load...
Swapped to a 6' cable... and it works fine.
On the flip side, the Motif XS works fine with 15' USB cables.

Been there, Rich. I had to rearrange my entire room just so I could shorten my firewire cable. I spent three days moving stuff around, trying to maintain some acoustical feng shui and ergonomic convenience - all because of a stinkin' cable.

In the end, it all worked out. With the new layout I was able to get my speakers in a better position so there was a net gain in the end. If nothing else, you can use this opportunity to tidy your cables and vacuum up all the dust bunnies that have been gathering behind your equipment rack.

I use an 8-metre (25-feet) MIDI connector for one of my keyboards and have never experienced any issues with it.

Rich: Though you've been given awesome advice by some pro's I admire, I'm not so sure it's a midi issue you are experiencing. I'm thinking you may need to mess with the options in your Alesis brain. The bad thing about EZD is it doesn't give you a minimum velocity setting where Superior does. This allows you to specify the lowes velocity that will be triggered.

As an experienced V Drums guy, I sincerely feel the issue is with your brain. There's no doubt the cable could be the culprit as the others have mentioned...but I've experienced this same thing you are talking about with my Roland brain. What I hear using the brain is perfect while I play...what I hear when it plays back as long as I'm sending to the Roland brain is perfect....it's when I send to EZD, Superior, BFD, Steven Slate etc...where things get a bit crazy. It sounds like you are having the same problem. Here's how to test for it.

Instead of triggering off EZD, send to your Alesis sound module. See if the sounds are indeed playing back after they are recorded. If everything is working as it should using the Alesis brain, your problem is not the cable. I have the same MOTU midi unit as you. I've had to do quite a few tweaks with it as well as tweaks in my Roland brain to solve this issue. Here are a few things to try in order.

1. Make sure what you record plays back through the Alesis brain in real time. As I said, if there are no missing notes on those fast sections, it's not your midi cable.

2. If the midi you recorded plays back through the Alesis brain perfectly and seems to miss notes when you play it through EZD, try these steps.

a. Increase midi buffer size in Sonar options from the 500 default to 1000 or higher. Most of us need to raise this anyway.

b. Adjust your sensitivity in your Alesis brain. This will make the midi being played back through the Alesis sound a bit stale and stagnant, but it will not sound like this through EZD. You may have to adjust your threshold way higher than you think. The good thing here is, EZD's humanize feature will autofix that...and even if the kit velocities are at 127...it still does a nice job compensating due to the amount of samples per hit it uses. But you should be able to find a happy medium. My Roland defaults to 3 on my sensitivity threshold. If I leave it there...I miss hits or get hits that are too soft through my drum modules. I increased it to 5 and on Slate, I set it for 6. This setting sounds a bit too extreme if I listen back through the Roland brain or feed the midi I've recorded to the Roland brain. But for the other modules, those setting work perfectly.

3. You should be able to play through EZD in real time. That will tell you right there whether your notes are coming through or not. If they all come through when you play live yet don't show up on the midi you record...I'm totally lost on what to tell you there. But the only thing I use my Roland for is for the pad to midi interface. I can trigger all my drum modules in real time without an issue at 32 or 64 buffers. You'll tell in an instant if something isn't right.

4. Your motu may need to be configured for your particular set-up. I had a few issues with the configurations they offer, so I had to create my own. This stopped all my issues that were getting lost there. Hope some of this stuff helps you out.

Mike: I can't speak for Rich, but I get no latency at all on this end. I run a massive drum template for my V Drums in Sonar with plugs and stuff as well as a few instances of Drumagog on my drum tracks. I never nudge tracks, I can play it in real time and there are no issues or problems at all. There are issues with hats once in a while. But it only seems to be with BFD 2. They teach you how to fix that though, so if you read the manual, you can fix it in about 2 minutes. All the others seem to work flawlessly though. At the moment, I have a huge V Drums custom kit that I've been building for years. My drum template presently has 20 drums/kit pieces. I have dual trigger pads all over the place and have had 0 problems with this set-up. As a matter of fact, my band an I rehearse here and we all use headphones so everyone is audible and you're not killing yourself with loud volume. So the V Drums have been a blessing for this. V Drums brain out to my MOTU, into Sonar...done. :)

-Danny

@ slartabartfasat:  To clarify, From PC to MIDI interface via USB cable is 3meters.  From MIDI interface to Electronic drum kit via 5 pin DIN cable is approx. 16 feet.
 
@ Mike:  I have absolutely no latency issues from the drum kit. I've hacked around playing drums live to an audio project within Sonar with no issues.  HTH
 
@ Danny:  As always you respond with some very helpful information. 
 
I quickly read through your post as I'm here at work.  I will have to read more closely when I get home.  However, if I attempt a drum roll the Alesis brain does great but Sonar & EZD do not see all of the notes.  Looking through PRV there are definately notes missing.  I've tweaked threshold and velocity settings on the Alesis brain to get the kit to respond to the way I play (I'm no drummer.  Oooo wait, I'm never in tempo, I never play the down beats right and I play loud all the time by beating the crud out of the kit . . . . . .  I am a drummer )  I never thought I'd have to tweak the MOTU so I will definately have to visit the settings you mentioned.
 
Thanks!
Rich

That's a very nice setup you've got there. I can see why you're reluctant to rearrange everything.

What you might try - it won't cost too much - is a USB repeater or amplified cable. This can increase your maximum length up to 150'. What I don't know is if there is a latency penalty for doing so. Most people do this for distributing printers around an office, not for anything timing-critical like playing MIDI drums.