Alright, so even though I've been a professional musician for years and been dabbling in recording for the last 5-7 years, I still consider myself a VERY green newb when it comes to this stuff.  Here's my amateur rig specs:

Win 7 Pro 64-bit
Intel i7 3770K
16 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
Audio Card/Interface: Presonus Firestudio Project
MIDI Controller: Roland Fantom
Recording Software: Sonar 8

Here's the issue I've been having.  A couple of weeks ago I was creating a bedtrack for a video we had produced at my job, and everything was via MIDI.  The ONLY tracks I had were an audio track with speaking on it and then one track for my MIDI keyboard.  I used a piano soft synth that contained some nice delay and reverb - that was it.  What killed me was that as I was recording my MIDI piano track, as the track progressed in time the response time of the keys (latency) increased to where it was almost impossible to play!  I had to basically record little bits at a time.  I had experimented with the buffer size on the Universal Control, and that helped a LITTLE.  But honestly, with my current rig, it should be able to handle a simple task like this WITH NO ISSUES WHATSOEVER.

So here's my question.  Does anyone have any suggestions on optimal settings (buffer & whatever else might effect recording and playback of MIDI) for my current setup Sonar?  Are the buffer settings on the Universal Control the only ones I have to worry about, or are there other settings for the FS Project that I can tweak?  What about the settings within Sonar?  Anyone have anyone have any suggestions there???

Please help!  

first thing I'd do is suggest that you disable the Radeon's software and run just basic windows graphics.

Beagle


first thing I'd do is suggest that you disable the Radeon's software and run just basic windows graphics.

I do video editing with Vegas Pro 12 as well, which is why I have that card.  You'd think that with all the horsepower I have with my rig that it wouldn't be an issue.  I assume it's fairly easy to disable the card while I'm running Sonar, and then enable it again when I'm done? 

Both of my systems are less powerful than yours and I have the Firestudio Project as well, I always record audio tracks monitoring thru software with no noticeable latency.

I don't have to disable my video card, just the internal audio card. You should have no problem with that. Is your FW chip Texas Instruments or VIA?? If not, that could be the cause..

I would think so as well.  BUT I'm speaking from experience.  I also use Vegas Pro.  But my MOTU doesn't go down to low latencies without disabling my video card drivers and just using the basic video.  I have an AMD Radeon 4500 Series 512M PCIe 2.0 video card and below 512 buffers I get pops and clicks and stuttering unless I disable the video software.

however, I don't normally do this (I've actually only done it once to verify that it was the problem) - I usually just monitor via hardware and keep the latency settings at the high end.

I had to disable them in the start up "msconfig" file to verify that was the problem.  then I just put it back like it was and just deal with high buffers since this is a multitasking computer - not dedicated to audio.

Oh, btw, maybe I should've included this before -- but everytime I switch buffer settings via the FS Universal Controller, Sonar throws up a window that says my Audio Engine has stopped.  It's no big deal to click the button that re-starts it, but maybe that's also a symptom of what's going on? 

You might get more responses over in the appropriate Sonar version forum. 

But I suspect it may have nothing to do with your interface's audio buffer size setting or your graphics card and is more likely a MIDI timing (timestamping) issue or a bug in the softsynth plug-in.

Sonico


I don't have to disable my video card, just the internal audio card. You should have no problem with that. Is your FW chip Texas Instruments or VIA?? If not, that could be the cause.. 

I checked my FW card and it's a IOCREST.  I ordered it, but I've never heard of it.  How can I find out if it's the problem?  Actually order the TI or VIA and see if the problem is solved??

Goddard


You might get more responses over in the appropriate Sonar version forum. 

But I suspect it may have nothing to do with your interface's audio buffer size setting or your graphics card and is more likely a MIDI timing (timestamping) issue or a bug in the softsynth plug-in.

I thought x-posting was bad forum etiquette?  But I don't mind trying in another forum.  Anyway....    I do tend to agree with you that it has nothing to do with the audio buffer setting or the g-card, but I'm really not sure how to address the other issues you mentioned (timestamping & softsynth bug)

Are you using ASIO drivers?  Do you have the correct audio device set for the timing master?  

Just a couple of ideas.  I hope it helps.