Using Korg MicroKey with MC5

90% of latency is due to the soundcard and its drivers - the other 10% is the CPU and RAM and harddrives. (it has nothing to do with the keyboard or MIDI to computer interface)

my guess is that you're using your onboard soundcard - it's horrible for trying to record with real time FX or softsynths because it is not designed for it.

My best suggestion is to get a recording soundcard.  they start at around $100, check my website for recommendations.

in the meantime, IF you're using your onboard soundcard, then try changing to WASAPI driver mode if it's available
OPTIONS>AUDIO>DRIVER MODE = WASAPI

if it's not available, then the next alternate suggestion is to download and install ASIO4ALL (google it) and then change to ASIO driver mdoe

PLEASE, however, if you do install ASIO4ALL and then you go order a recording soundcard, make sure you UNINSTALL ASIO4ALL before you install your new soundcard.  it causes conflicts.

Select the USB device for MIDI input under Options>MIDI Devices.
Make sure the E-Mu is selected as both playback and record devices under Options>Audio (assuming you're still using the E-Mu without the big keyboard).
Are you using the E-Mu ASIO audio driver?

You're looking at 2 different things, I believe.  when you say with nothing plugged into the EMU MIDI ports that the EMU doesn't show up in MC5 - where are you looking for it?  are you talking about for the MIDI inputs or for audio inputs and outputs?

it sounds like you're confused about the way your system should work.  let's take it one step at a time.

first, let's make sure your Microkey is set up correctly.  look again at the OPTIONS>MIDI DEVICES.  since you're not using the EMU for MIDI I/O, then just uncheck those - you don't need them and they will just confuse you when you're using MC5 for MIDI.  but you DO need the MICRO KORG USB (or it will say something similar to that).  so check THOSE for INPUT and OUTPUT but NOTHING ELSE.

now you need to make sure your EMU is set up correctly so that you have minimal latency.  the EMU will have good ASIO drivers, so let's use thse since they will likely be the lowest latency for you.  go to OPTIONS>AUDIO and change the DRIVER MODE to ASIO.  click APPLY.

now look at the RECORDING and PLAYBACK DEVICES and tell us EXACTLY what it says is selected. 

ASIO is just a protocol designed by Steinberg to bypass the windows mixing kernels which are used by WDM and MME.

all soundcards can have 3 or 4 or more TYPES of drivers written for them.  when you choose MME, WDM or ASIO in MC5, all you're doing is setting a "switch" to tell MC5 which driver to use.  if you set MC5 to use ASIO then it will use the ASIO drivers that came with the EMU, if you set MC5 to WDM then it will use the WDM drivers that came with the EMU.

Further to my last post, I have tried this with ASUS EEC PC notebook. Same thing. Latency may be improved but sound is gone. For this I downloaded ASIO4All driver for ther onboard realtek HD sound. BBC radio comes over fine but no sound from MC5. Midi shows Korg and Audio shows ASIO4All. The latter shows the realtek HD on its properties but... no sound. Don't know if the extra info helps. Thanks

Very quickly as I see you are online... I had wondered about this - - only becuase I had started to read some of the stuff on your web site...!! I'll let you know how I get on.

cool deal!  post some music for us when you get some recorded!