MC6 dropping notes

Two things might be in play here....


1. Obviously, the sound blaster (SB) is not the best.... not even close, for recording and playing audio created in a DAW like MC6.  You should look into getting a decent USB external audio/midi interface if you are serious in any way shape or form about recording.  A lot of dropping issues are card related. The factory card can not handle all the data and it drops the overload. You hear that as clicks, pops, and dropped notes in the playback. 

2. Entering the notes in staff is a good way to do it. I use staff as well. (never could get the hang of PRV) However..... there is something you need to understand about the manual entering of notes. I think this is actually clearer in PRV.  

Every midi note has a start time, a duration, and an ending/off time. The start causes a trigger on command to the synth and the end causes a trigger off command to the synth.  In staff view, it is very easy to enter say a whole note at the start of a measure on beat one.... and then enter a quarter note on beat 3 of the same measure.  The quarter will never sound since it's on/off commands occur "in" the other note.... assuming it is the same pitch. This does not apply to notes that overlap and are of different pitches AND the synth is a polyphonic synth that can play multiple notes simultaneously. 

Since midi is very precise and works at the tick level of the beats.... 960 (?) ticks per beat, all it takes is an overlap of ONE tick to prevent the second note from sounding. 

Hope this helps.

try increasing your latency buffers "P" on the keyboard, then select AUDIO DEVICES then move the latency slider toward the SAFE side (maybe even all the way)

if that doesn't work, try increasing your PLAYBACK MIDI BUFFERS
in the same "P" preferences, under MIDI>PLAYBACK AND RECORDING then increase the PLAYBACK PREPARE USING XXX buffers - it's probably at 250msec (default), increase it to 500.

 I have tried a few of the suggestions put forwards by Beagle, and whilst they seemed to make it drop less notes, I still found that some weren't playing. This makes me think that maybe it's a ram/processor issue? I don't have the most up-to-date pc, so perhaps this is an issue, not sure if others would agree? Also, Guitarhacker, you have mentioned an external USB Audio/Midi interface, do you have any suggestions of a basic piece of kit I could look into? Just something small for personal use :) Thanks again.

very good... if you get stuck again ...... come and visit.