Ok. The only reason I asked is because when I went to project options to send the built in audio metronome to a buss, Sonar was providing me a buss called "metronome" and I didn't set one up like that, so it almost seemed, at first glance, like it might be some kind of built in hidden buss. i didn't investigate further.

Anyway, I love your approach over all. Sample accurate metronome I think is absolutely key, and being able to setup some metronomes that swing, etc...could be beneficial as well. All that can also be done by using a midi track sent to Session Drummer2, but then you have to deal with paranoia about the timing of the midi track. Just make it with audio and then it will be sample locked. I like it.

Jim Wright - Thanks for the great info. Next interface I get will have combined audio and MIDI and will be Firewire. I currently have the Presonus 1394 Firewire for audio, but a separate MIDI interface which is the M-Audio USB Midisport. I didn't know that about the MMA and Firewire.

If what you and others say about USB is true, then it's too bad almost all of the great MIDI controllers out there now are USB. Maybe in a couple of years they'll all be Firewire.

ORIGINAL: Nick P
... almost all of the great MIDI controllers out there now are USB. Maybe in a couple of years they'll all be Firewire.

What is a great Midi Controller that is USB?
I would think they all have DIN also which makes it possible to get it connected to a PCI usb interface.

I, personally, wouldn't go firewire, just because it's not going to be as good as pci.

I'd bet an M-Audio 2496 is going to be better than any Firewire interface, for audio latency and also midi latency.

Possibly true, but time and technology march on. Ultimately I think PCI will go the way of the floppy drive, where hi-speed, hi-bandwidth interfaces like Firewire will become even more pervasive. If I was buying a new interface, it wouldn't be a PCI, it would be Firewire. However, a cheap PCI midi interface might be in the cards just to test the "jitter" factor!

There are no "cheap" PCI midi cards that I am aware of. There are a few PCI audio cards which have midi added on them.

PCI is superior to Firewire. Firewire, however, is more convenient for some. PCI is not going anywhere, there is no reason to be paranoid about investing in it.

ORIGINAL: dewdman42
PCI is not going anywhere, there is no reason to be paranoid about investing in it.

Especially as long as the Magma expansion chassis still exists... you can load up 13 PCI cards in a box, and connect it to another computer by PCI, PCI-Express, PCMCIA, ExpressCard/34, or ExpressCard/54.

MIDI Timing Issues
More MIDI Timing


I hope the links will help.

Thanks John, these articles look great. It's becoming apparent that one could almost write an entire book just dedicated to computer-based recording and the inherent MIDI timing issues that accompany such activity, whether perceived or real.

I think you guys already wrote a book.

There was an article in some mag about the AMT from Emagic and the MOTU MIDI time piece. It compared them and talked about how they work. The one thing that may be of interest here is only Digital performer and Logic support the methods used to tighten MIDI. DP for the MOTU and Logic for AMT. Sonar does not. Now the MOTU has a more universal type timing structure that can benefit any app but it will be best with DP. The AMT has to have Logic to use the time stamping. it has. I have not had a problem with the AMT 8 in Sonar though.

For anyone interested, I set out to emulate the timing behavior of a 96ppqn hardware sequencer here:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.asp?m=1191696

Some interesting results, in light of the fact that Sonar is using a hardwired internal midi resolution of 960ppqn.