I have a new project where I'm using several softsynths:
 
2 instances of Dim Pro
2 instances of True Pianos
1 instance of Superior Drummer
1 instance of Drop Zone
 
During playback I'm getting random dropouts of MIDI notes, primarily from Dim Pro and True Pianos, but other synths are affected as well. (Though Drop Zone and Superior Drummer don't seem to have an issue so far.)
 
There are no audio track dropouts during this time and the rest of the project plays back normally.  Sometimes all the notes sound correctly and sometimes there are dropouts.  It's not always the same notes that drop out.
 
Of course I immediately tried increasing the "prepare using xx ms MIDI buffer" setting but even setting it as high as 10000 has no effect.  I played with ASIO buffers, but no effect and not likely the cause since audio tracks  play back fine during the MIDI note dropouts.
 
The CPU meters barely notice anything is going on, it's not a horsepower issue.
 
I've seen MIDI dropout problems before, but the odd thing here is that these dropouts happen in the final .wav after mixdown as well.
 
Freezing the synths seems to help, so there's a workaround, but I shouldn't have to freeze since my system isn't anywhere near its limits with these few synths.
 
Any ideas?
 
Thanks,
 
John
 
UPDATE: Several of the tracks had the MIDI transpose effect in the MIDI effects bin.   When I removed those and manually transposed the notes in the PRV the drop-outs went away.  Now I'm thinking that there may be a bug in the transpose effect.  I'm going to do some experiments to see if I can find something reproducible.
 
UPDATE TO UPDATE: While getting rid of the MIDI effects seems to have greatly improved the situation, I'm still getting the occasional MIDI note glitch, even in the mixdown. 
 
FINAL UPDATE: The problem in the end was caused by Voxengo's CurveEQ plug.  Seems like if it's anywhere in a project it can cause issues, or possibly it has issues with Bitbridge since it's an older 32 bit plug. 
 
It only happened in this project because I haven't used that plug in a long time, but I didn't suspect it because I used to use it a lot and I use a lot of Voxengo's other plugs all the time. 

CoteRotie


I have a new project where I'm using several softsynths:
 
2 instances of Dim Pro
2 instances of True Pianos
1 instance of Superior Drummer
1 instance of Drop Zone
 
During playback I'm getting random dropouts of MIDI notes, primarily from Dim Pro and True Pianos, but other synths are affected as well. (Though Drop Zone and Superior Drummer don't seem to have an issue so far.)
 
There are no audio track dropouts during this time and the rest of the project plays back normally.  Sometimes all the notes sound correctly and sometimes there are dropouts.  It's not always the same notes that drop out.
 
Of course I immediately tried increasing the "prepare using xx ms MIDI buffer" setting but even setting it as high as 10000 has no effect.  I played with ASIO buffers, but no effect and not likely the cause since audio tracks  play back fine during the MIDI note dropouts.
 
The CPU meters barely notice anything is going on, it's not a horsepower issue.
 
I've seen MIDI dropout problems before, but the odd thing here is that these dropouts happen in the final .wav after mixdown as well.
 
Freezing the synths seems to help, so there's a workaround, but I shouldn't have to freeze since my system isn't anywhere near its limits with these few synths.
 
Any ideas?
 
Thanks,
 
John

Midi buffers should do it - but off-hand, sometimes the max-polyphony setting of a particular synth could be set too low. Just an idea...

SuperG

 

Midi buffers should do it - but off-hand, sometimes the max-polyphony setting of a particular synth could be set too low. Just an idea...

Thanks, I'll play around with that to see if it makes any difference.  One instance of Dim Pro that seems to drop out more than any others is a monophonic bass synth, so not sure that's the issue.  True pianos only has a couple of places that have more than 3 note polyphony and those don't seem to be the places that drop out.  Weird issue.
 
John

Try increasing the number of MIDI buffers - Preferences/MIDI/Playback and recording -> Number of buffers.
Default is 64. I had to increase it to 128 for a couple of MIDI-heavy projects and that cured the missing notes for me. As far as I can see there is no downside so I left it there. YMMV.

Luteman


Try increasing the number of MIDI buffers - Preferences/MIDI/Playback and recording -> Number of buffers.
Default is 64. I had to increase it to 128 for a couple of MIDI-heavy projects and that cured the missing notes for me. As far as I can see there is no downside so I left it there. YMMV.

Thanks, Chris, it's already at 128 which appears to be the maximum allowed.


John

Bump in case anyone has any other ideas....

UPDATE: Several of the tracks had the MIDI transpose effect in the MIDI effects bin. When I removed those and manually transposed the notes in the PRV the drop-outs went away. Now I'm thinking that there may be a bug in the transpose effect. I'm going to do some experiments to see if I can find something reproducible.

Anyone else notice any problems with the MIDI effects?

try preferences/audio/configuration file option "extrapluginbufs" set to 16 or 32. cheers.

CoteRotie


UPDATE: Several of the tracks had the MIDI transpose effect in the MIDI effects bin. When I removed those and manually transposed the notes in the PRV the drop-outs went away. Now I'm thinking that there may be a bug in the transpose effect. I'm going to do some experiments to see if I can find something reproducible.

Anyone else notice any problems with the MIDI effects?

Can't say I have enough experience in this . The only time I use a transpose effect is taking the odd percussion note from GM mapping to work in Garritan GPO (I'm too much a lazy slob to do it by hand...)

the midi fx in x2 pretty clearly weren't thoroughly tested.  chord analyzer doesn't work at all. :/