Hello,
There is about a midi playback timing situation within the first quarter note of a simple midi sequence. Somehow playback time lags for a fraction of a beat, I can't figure out what is causing this. It occurs regardless of my external devices, regardless of sending start/stop midi signal, regardless of midi latency setting (i dont really know whether midi latency applies here or not but I tried min and max settings, to no effect). It happens with new projects as well.
A couple years old windows PC is freshly rebooted, nothing else running, plenty of disk space.

I looked at a wave form of the sounds it created and the time between events, here are the observations.

120 bpm tempo
quarter notes should be about 0.500 seconds apart
eighth notes should be about 0.250 seconds apart

starting at second quarter note, timing is exactly correct, going forward

but, within first quarter note..
first eighth note lasts 0.335 seconds
second eighth note lasts o.201

the first eighth note is lasting a bit longer than it should, cutting into the time of the second note.
After the first beat, time resumes steady. This lag only happens in the first quarter nots time.
Looking at a sixteenth note example, the first four sixteenths are not even either, of course

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If i insert a blank measure, i do not hear issues when it gets to measure two. So the problem does not seem to have to do with my midi notes, it is something about the first beat of the sequence. I dont want to work starting at measure 2, that would wreck my mind to remember +1 measure numbers..


I have windows 7, steinberg UR22 audio/midi interface. It didnt always do this. :(

Does anybody here know what might be causing sonar to fudge the first beat's timing?
thank you so much reading

J

If you mean capturing the audio of external synths driven by Sonar's midi, perhaps there is something else being transmitted to the synth at M1 B1 that causes the synth to not respond evenly. Examples, sysex or patch change.
 
E.g. a patch setting in the track header is definitely sent at M1 B1. Some synths are configured to transmit a sysex message in response when they receive a patch change.
 
How to test for this? How about cabling a computer midi out port to a computer midi in port, making a loop. Set up a new track so Sonar can record the midi in as it plays one of your troublesome simple midi sequences, starting at M1 B1. You can then check event timing and also view the events that were sent.

Thanks for the reply!

I tried this with two different instruments, a Roland 909 drum machine and a Roland JP8080 synth and they both had the same reaction.

Interesting idea to try recording the midi in and see what other things are included. I haven't gotten into that level of study with midi on this version of sonar but I'll take a look.

Maybe I can disable it sending sysex messages altogether. I will look at that too.


What's frustrating is that a couple weeks ago this wasn't happening and everything seemed normal. A year ago I had noticed it doing something like this, then months after that, I tried again and it was ok. Strange.


Regarding software updates..
This morning Windows had done some Windows updates but I can't see that would throw my midi off.

In case it was the Steinberg audio interface driver, I updated that, but no change.

I noticed there are four sonar x3 update patches on the support page. I will install those in case it is related. I have not installed any of those so far.

Thanks again, I'll look at recording midi..
J

It sounds like your project is starting at measure 01:01:00
 
If this is the case then generally accepted advice is to insert a blank measure so that everything starts at 02:01:000

Yes that is the workaround for now, add a blank measure. Unfortunate since I've thought in terms of 1, 17, 33 , 65 since forever. :D

I still need to check if it is a midi message bogging it down in that first beat.

Thanks for the reply