And now, the final piece of the puzzle. In our last episode, I told you that the problem seemed to be in the CoolSoft configuration. A blind friend told me that I should change the "Additional Buffers" in the Advanced Options to 8. This change allowed the ASIO buffer setting of 96 to yield a round trip of 6, something. So, Al's well that ends well.

Thanks again,
Kevin

PS. I know TTS1. I've used Cakewalk products on 6 Billboard charting CDs going back to 1996.v

Bob,
 
Just so we're clear, I am not a new user.  I've used Cakewalk products since the mid 90s.  I don't do my own mixing.  More importantly, this laptop is intended solely as a sketchpad for use on long plane flights when I'm on tour.  See www.kevinkern.com for more information.  The deal is that I am new to X3.  but I'm only new to it in the sense that it is physically laid out far differently than 8.5 had been.  Also, I haven't used a Windows 7 machine before, having had an XP box for the last 10 years.  Finally, I was using the 30 day trial version of X3 to see how I would get on from the blindness perspective.  the trial version has no soft synths included.  Therefore, I had to find a free GM synth with which to experiment.  So I guess I looked like more of a beginner than I actually am.  
 
Again, can't thank you enough for all your help.  I'm glad I finally got things straightened out.
 
Best,
Kevin

Sorry to be back again.  After thinking I got everything soted out, I dumped my trial version and upgraded to X3 Producer.  The reality is that everything works fine with the exception of the CoolSoft Virtual MIDI Synth, which still gives me latency of 12.3 msc round trip.  Can't seem to break that.  All the other instruments that come with X3 work like total champs.  So, I guess I'd like a recommendation for a sondfont that I can load in SFZ.  Or, I'd like another recommendation for a GM synth that I can use.  I guess I can function without a GM synth.  It's just that I'd like one so I can load patches using the bank and patch method I've been accustomed to for the last fifteen years or so. 
 
Again, sorry for coming back.

Haven't seen TTS1 in X3. I remember it in 8.5 and earlier.

Okay.  YOu won't believe this.  This sucker was right under my blind nose.  It turns out that the text to speech gizmo I use, reads TTS as, wait for it, Text to Speech.  So, I had no idea that this was an error in the "text to speech" engine and its pronunciation dictionary.  Wow!  TTS works fine. As I recall, one used to be able to choose a patch in TTS1 using the channel, bank and patch drop downs in each MIDI track strip.  I know that you can go to the inspector for this.  But I wish I could figure out how to get to the channel, bank and patch boxes in the individual tracks in TTS1 the way I could with CoolSoft.  How do i expand the MIDi strip so I can reliably see that layout?
 
thanks,
Kevin

Thanks. Now, finally, things are actually making sense. I still can't get CoolSoft to work. But I don't think I need it.

Even this thread is older, maybe I have a hint.
 
I also use sometimes Cool Soft. I struggled about this latency Problem also. But after a bit of thinking it might be clear, that Cool Soft is a virtual midi device, like the gm midi device. This means, the Audio is routed to the Audio device directly. So the latency depends on your Standard Audio Driver.
 
However, plugins like tts-1 or other VST Soft Synths use the Audio device of the DAW (Sonar e.g.). The midi ist routed to the VST and the Output of the vst is routed back to sonar. I experienced also bad latency, when i tried to make a mix from TTS & Coolsoft. The Coolsoft has noticable more latency then the "internal" synths.
 
The round trips in Sonar cannot measure this, as the Audio Output from Coolsoft never comes back to sonar.
 
Does this makes sense for anyone ?  
 

This might be the problem:
 
CoolSoft is actually the company name and the synth they have adds 250 ms to the playback latency.
 
Here is from their FAQ
 
See the advanced option "Additional output buffer" into VirtualMIDISynth confgurator.
This buffer is meant to be useful on mid-low performance systems, to avoid stutering and glitches while playing.
If you set it to 1000ms (1 second) it means that each note is player 1 second after the MIDI message is sent.
Default value is 250ms, which is an acceptable value for everyday use. VanBasco player also have a setting to delay karaoke text over music; setting it to the same value will make text and sound synchronized back again.
If you use VirtualMIDISynth for live performance (i.e. connecting an USB piano keyboard), set this buffer down to 0ms.