Timing sounds a little "off"

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Rossl
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2013/03/14 21:57:14 (permalink)

Timing sounds a little "off"

I am using Sonar Producer 7.  I have an Intel Duo Core 2 2.13 Ghz processor.  2G Ram using XP.  Sound Card is an M-Audio Delta 44.
 
My songs are usually 4-5 audio tracks with a midi track for keyboards and also using Session Drummer.
 
What should check to make sure everything is running fine and configured correctly?   Things are not really far off "timing wise" when I play back, it's actually VERY slight.
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    digi2ns
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 07:56:13 (permalink)
    What sounds off?

    MIDI from Audio tracks or .....


    Maybe increase your playback buffers in Preferences-What are they currently set to?


    MIKE

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    Rossl
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 12:55:54 (permalink)
    digi2ns


    What sounds off?

    MIDI from Audio tracks or .....


    Maybe increase your playback buffers in Preferences-What are they currently set to?

    Hi Mike,
     
    It could just be the drums (midi/Session Drummer), everything sounds off sync
     
    Playback I/O and Record I/O are both set to 128
     
    Is there a way I could attach an MP3 here?
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    Rossl
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 15:38:02 (permalink)
    Setting on sound card (M-Audio Delta 44) for DMA Buffer is latency 512 samples.
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    digi2ns
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 16:49:27 (permalink)
    Sorry,  Been away a bit.

    Id try bumping up your Playback I/O buffers try 512 and maybe 1024 and see what you come up with.

    Also are there any memory intensive plugins?  You can disable to see if it is effecting it


    MIKE

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    Kev999
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 18:28:08 (permalink)

    Sometimes you can see whether a piece of audio is ahead or behind the beat by zooming in on the audio clip at certain key points.

    To check midi the same way you need to bounce to audio first.


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    Cactus Music
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/15 20:21:20 (permalink)
    There is a quick test  to test both MIDI timing and Audio.

    It involves running a cable from your output back to your input and re-recording a track. Use a audio or midi kick drum so as to ge a nice transient spike. 

    DO as said above and zoom in and see if they line up. Your audio drivers and Sonar are supposed to work together and automatically adjust. Sonar actually delays playback by the amount of latency of the system so that you hear it and play along in time but your recording is actually ahead by the amount of delay. 
    I ran this test on my Sound Blaster Audigy and it was out by a random amount,, this is why their drivers are well known garbage. 

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    Kev999
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/16 03:55:55 (permalink)

    I've just been experimenting with a midi clip and softsynth where the timing sounded a bit off.  I tried bouncing to audio and zooming in and discovered that it was late by as much as 65ms!  Then I removed all the effects and bounced again.  Now it  was exactly on the beat.  Adding backing the effects one by one, I found that they were each introducing a delay and that the worst culprits were UAD plugs, Pultec Pro in particular.

    Up to that point I had been working in the 64-bit Sonar.  I then switched the the 32-bit version and continued the experiment in the same project.  No delay now.  I think I'll stick with 32 from now on.

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    Cactus Music
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    Re:Timing sounds a little "off" 2013/03/16 11:13:05 (permalink)
    I wouldn't switch back , you loose more than you'd gain. That is a well documented fact about certain "look ahead" plug ins introducing latency. I always "bypass all bins" while tracking both audio and MIDI. If I don't there is a giant MIDI delay. 
    The other benefit is I like to hear what everything sounds like RAW without the efxs cluttering things up. 
    The only exception to this is some guitar parts that the efx is part of the sound. I often have printed that track already but with a dry back up track.

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