MC5 stuttering on MIDI playback

.... we need more info.

What sound card are you using and what OS on the computer and what version of Music Creator are you running?


MC in all it's versions will only record to a max of 2 tracks (inputs ) at a time. I know this is the case for audio and I would assume the same thing applies to midi, 


I'm guessing the playback issues are a result of the soundcard. Are you using an external interface or the factory sound card? 

Yeah, you want to use the external interface with ASIO drivers... run the wave profiler and set your buffers up a bit. The buffers need to be large enough to hold and process the data without having to drop it. 

When it drops data to keep up you get the stuttering and other things. 

It might take a bit of experimenting to find the right size.... too big and you get other problems.  My DAW is not on this machine so I can not look to see where my buffers are set...at least not right now.


The computer and OS and MC5 are OK.... I run that same setup basically. It's very likely in the audio and midi settings. Check those buffers and latency settings and remember where they are now, then make some adjustments... a little at a time.... buffers up.... first, then mess with latency only if you need to. 

Visible stuttering.... when I get that, I normally reboot.  Something doesn't load right in my DAW when that happens. 

OK... on the audible issues.... the sound card is the heart of your studio....everything goes in and out through it. The factory cards are not able to handle the MASSIVE amount of data that even a small project runs through the card. Add in a synth or two, the soundcard must convert that data to audio as it is happening..... add the FX ..same thing...and a factory card that is at best designed to play one mp3 at a time, is now forced to handle wave files and synth processing in real time. It tries to do it but basically it can not. So it does what it can and ends up simply dropping the rest so it can continue to "keep up". You hear the drops as pops, clicks, stutters, crackles....and even a complete drop of sound. 

On the other hand the audio interfaces are designed to handle it all and have the correct drivers to accomplish all that and more. That is why the correct sound card is so critical. 

On the visible stuttering..... is this a dedicated computer or is it a "does everything else too" kind of computer?  If it does it all, internet and other apps, you could very well have so many TSR 
s running that they are using the CPU cycles first. Such things as virus scanners and other programs that run all the time in the background will suck the processing power. I know that on my other lappy, when it is booting up and shortly thereafter, it runs a scan, and I might as well wait until it's done before trying to run any apps. 

Try shutting off the internet... pull the Cat5 wire or shut off the Wi-Fi, shut down the AV software, shut off any and all programs that are running and or load automatically at startup.   Turn off the power saving features if it's a lappy. See if that makes a difference in how it runs MC.



Edit: just saw that you are using ASIO drivers..... are you doing this on a factory sound card?   If so, that might be part of the problem. With factory cards, MME generally works best or use ASIO4ALL. On a dedicated external interface, ASIO is generally the best driver to use. 

Beagle

paulpud


Please forgive my naivety here (I'm very much a MIDI beginner) but I don't understand why the sound card would cause this stutter.
When I playback, the MIDI data is being sent back to the drum module and it is the module that is converting this back to sound, but in MC5 the line that runs across the tracks on playback is visibly stuttering when it passes over the hi hat pedal data, and the stutter can be heard through headphones plugged into the module.
The only time (I believe) the audio interface is actually carrying out a function is when I send this audio data back to MC5. Incidentally, I do use an ASIO driver for this.

press the PAUSE BREAK button on the keyboard.

this is a new one to me....... what does that do? 

I did not know..... 



I'll be checking that out next time in the DAW. 

If you are using a synth to play the drums, you should be able to freeze the synth track or bounce it to audio and then it should play perfectly. If you bounce it just archive the original track to shut off the synth. 

As you play it back in real time with active synths, a lot of data must be processed and returned to the soundcard in a timely manner. The factor card can not handle it so you hear the stuttering and pops, and clicks, and other garbage in the audio stream.

When you freeze or bounce, the computer takes all the time it needs to render the midi into audio. So the garbage is not a problem.  Then, when you playback, you are not having to process the synths, you are just streaming the audio and the factory card can generally handle that easier.