Hi Everyone, I'm new to Sonar and a bit of a DAW virgin as well so I hope you will forgive any newbieness. I bought a Roland Quad Capture interface on Wednesday and when I first installed it I had Presonus Studio One on my computer and the interface worked fine with recording the midi data from my Yamaha Motif XF6. I wasn't very happy with Studio One so I thought I'd try the version of Sonar LE which came with the Quad Capture. When I play the Motif with local off I hear the notes as played but when I try and record something at 120bpm with the input quantize set to 1/8 th resolution the first note played at beat one is recorded an 1/8th note later. Since the interface worked fine with Studio One then I think the problem must be with Sonar LE. I'm wondering if there have been issues with software which is actually free and if I might not experience this problem if I invested in X2 Essentials as I really like the look of Sonar.
I thank you for taking the time to read this and would appreciate any help or comments you could offer.
 
Neil Gray
 

Neil - you'll want to google 'Sonar midi buffer' or similar.  Don't use the search on this forum as it doesn't work.

Also, edit your user profile and complete your sig to include all the info about your system.  There's a 94.66321% chance that will help identify the issue.

Oh, and welcome to the forum...  but don't expect it to be serious all the time

You will need to lower your ASIO buffers or your WDM slider value until you do not hear any latency.

Make sure your sound card drivers are up to date and installed on your pc.

Make sure you have no effect plugins that add additional latency to your signal chain. some plugin effects are not meant for real time recording

CJ

Thanks guys for the quick replies but another factor has entered the problem; so far I haven't tried to record any audio so I don't know if the latency will affect that too.
My thoughts at the moment are that sinceI don't actually need to bring any audio into Sonar except from my computer then an interface is perhaps not necessary and I could instead use a usb controller keyboard which shouldn't have any latency issues.
Thanks again for your kind help, and once I'm set up Wood, I'll fill in my profile.

Best Wishes

Neil 

You need good drivers whether you record audio or not, as the MIDI will be changed into audio for you to hear, to hear the monitored sound during recording etc etc. The onboard sound chips do not cut it, Quad Capture will make your life easier. Get fresh ASIO drivers for it.

The nUSB MIDI-controller can't in any way replace the need of a proper interface/drivers. It's the audio interface drivers that handle the MIDI-signal anyway, as it is audio you hear, because MIDI is silent.

My thoughts at the moment are that sinceI don't actually need to bring any audio into Sonar except from my computer then an interface is perhaps not necessary and I could instead use a usb controller keyboard which shouldn't have any latency issues. 

Just do what we suggested and youll fix your latency issue. It doesn't matter if your triggering MIDI or recording audio. We read your post and we know your using MIDI. You need to lower your ASIO or WDM driver settings. Its non negotiable.


CJ

i would just throw in another aspect: just dont play with input quantisation (personally i think its a weird feature because it is totally unnatural to play with it) since you can anyway quantize it later to your need with two clicks...

btw.. it also could be sloppy timing of your playing - do you have at least 4 clicks of metronome preroll before recording starts ?

cheers



edit: btw. if you do not use any audio (sure you will soon ;.) you could also set the metronome to "midi" instead of "audio" and disable all the latency compensation settiings...

but thats a very specific approach that brings you only trouble when you use internal instruments...

I'd agree ref the input quantize. I'd start by turning that off before I even started to investigate other causes. Depending on your settings you wouldn't have to be far out to have notes moved.

If you do use input quantize though pressing ctrl+Z after recording will return you to the "as played" version. Input quantize is actually a two stage process that happens automatically - the recording followed by quantize. Pressing Ctl+Z or selecting Edit-->Undo simpy reverses the quantize process and leaves you with the original recording.

Me too, just record your midi and then quantize later. This also gives you the option of using different resolutions or say a triplet. 

If you are hearing a MIDI delay when you play,  then by pass all your efxs bins. Sonar is good at automatically adjusting the offset for latency so is normally fine. But the minute you start adding efx it seems to increase the MIDI delay. 

Wow guys, thanks for all the replies but as always the answer was so simple, it was the version of LE. I installed Sonar X2 Studio this morning and it works fine, the midi note lands right on beat one!
I anticipate being on the forum quite a bit in the next few weeks as I tackle the hidden depths of Sonar and your wonderful response bodes well for a happy relationship. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply, I do really appreciate your input.

Neil