Timing is off when recording via MIDI in Sonar

Search the forum or google it as this has been well discussed here.
I can't remember if there was a work around or what but I do remember reading about it.
 

HI bladetragic.  I have never had this issue myself but have seen quite a few threads on it. Searching 'midi timing' seems to yield quite a few related discussions. Make sure you have the search filter set to all threads rather than time limited.

First make sure you haven't entered a non-zero 'Timing Offset' under Synchronization in Preferences > Audio Sync and Caching (not to be confused with the Manual Offset for record latency compensation). If you haven't, that setting can actually be used to address the issue if necessary, but it's not ideal because the offset that corrects the timing on recording will work against you on playback if you ever use hardware synths. If you only use soft synths, it might be a viable workaround.
 
But I would first try changing MIDI interfaces. If you use the Fantom's USB, and the RME has MIDI DIN ports, try that, or vice versa. You might also try connecting a USB interface into a different port on the PC.
 
I have never figured out why some hardware/interface configurations do this, and I don't recall anyone ever completely resolving it without changing hardware.
 
Maybe some day I'll be able to get my hands on a system that does this, and figure it out once and for all, but I think every suggestion I've ever made has proven fruitless, and none of the 'victims' has ever come back with a definitive conclusion that some particular piece of hardware or config setting was responsible.
 

I will try all suggestions today and report back. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

That field is actually the 'Timing Offset(msec)' setting I was talking about. It's indented under the 'Full Chase Lock' option, but really has nothing to do with it, and can be used whether Full Chase Lock is enabled or not.
 
What timing Offset does is shift the relationship between the MIDI and audio grids. A positive offset delays audio (including the metronome and soft synth audio) so that you'll actually be playing late relative to the M:B:T grid when recording to the audio metronome.
 
This will compensate for the 'early MIDI' problem, but the offset is also active on playback so MIDI that's right on the grid after recording will be sent early to hardware synths causing a sync error on playback. Soft synths aren't affected by the M:B:T grid shift because they're buffered up in advance and behave like audio tracks even when not yet frozen.
 
Normally, this setting is meant to address small MIDI transmission and response delays on the order of 3-6ms to sync playback of hardware synths with in-the-box-audio. Or to do the opposite - with a negative offset - when hardware synths are direct-monitored and not subject to input-monitoring latency. Setting and offset of 30-60ms to fix a MIDI record timing problem is going to cause noticeable playback sync issues with hardware synths. If you don't use them, it might not be a problem but there can be some other weird side-effects when the Timing Offset is that big, and I would avoid it if at all possible.

Manually correcting the alignment of every clip you record is not a solution; it's a workaround - and a pretty unpalatable one if you ask me. I'm sure that's essentially what the OP has been doing and is wanting to get way from.

I recently investigated the MIDI timing issues when I bought a new and expensive MIDI interface; I had to realize that the MIDI performance in terms of latency and jitter is very dependent on the actual device handling the MIDI I/O but not on PC specs (I did get identical performance for different USB ports and 2 DAWs).
 
So I recommend first of all measuring the actual MIDI timing of your Fantom X (which is quick and easy; like I did here) and also give the Babyface MIDI ports a try. While many people claim that MIDI timing is not so great if MIDI I/O is just part of another device (and not a dedicated MIDI only device) I have found that among my MIDI devices the older Roland devices (audio interfaces) were the better, the newer (synth module used via USB) was not as good, and the expensive dedicated MIDI interface was the worst ... so eventually I got an ESI M4U XT for MIDI I/O which gave me best/most stable performance ... but as I said, give your options a check by measuring first to see if you could do better by just using another device or port ...

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