My audio interface doesn't have MIDI in, so I'm using a very inexpensive MIDI to USB cable to send the MIDI out of my TD4 drum module into Sonar.  All my buffer settings in Sonar X2 are as low as I can go, but I am still experiencing very slight latency. It's minimal, but not acceptable when trying to monitor drums sounds in real time through Session Drummer or Addictive Drums (DEMO).  Will a better MIDI to USB interface "cure" this problem?  I'm using a core i7 machine with USB 2 ports and 6 gigs of RAM.  Is it realistic to expect no latency? The rest of my equipment specs are in my signature.

no, a soundcard controls your midi latency.
I have an m audio midisport uno which is probably the best usb to mid addpt. out there.
it wont make a difference unless midi buffers are acceptable.

try playing with your midi buffers.

and let us know about the input quantize on the other thread so we are not wasting our time answering it.

Inexpensive MIDI to USB cables use inexpensive (slower) parts to move the midi data onto the USB bus and have questionable reliability. Unless you hunt down and buy one from a reputable manufacturer (M-Audio, Yamaha, Roland all of which are $35+), chances are you will have reliability issues. Is it a consistent latency? Or does the latency change (i.e. Jitter)?

chuckebaby


 
and let us know about the input quantize on the other thread so we are not wasting our time answering it.

Good point Chuck.  This could be the cause of his issues.

OK there is audio processing latency, audio buffer latency,  audio plugin processor buffer latency, midi latency, and midi buffer latency. They are not the same thing at all, even though people seem to want to call them all midi latency. In fact for all practical purposes midi latency, a delay as the result of a slow signal in the midi signal chain, does not exist. Midi is essentially an electrical signal, and the slowest midi connection is much too fast to introduce any discernible delay in transmission. If you had some type of weird midi repeater in the chain (with its own buffer) somewhere possibly--but just moving data through a midi cable, or even through a midi to usb smart cable will not introduce latency. A slow part in a midi cable, say 10,000 times slower than the best available part, would still not cause a significant delay. A part that produced multiple errors requiring multiple re-sends--maybe. Most likely your problem is in the computer software behavior not in the connector.

As Slartabartfast pointed out (and I recall reading years ago) MIDI travels extremely fast and was not the culprit, it was my audio buffer size which I think Chuckebaby was hinting at although he called it MIDI buffer size.  By reducing my audio buffer size I was able to hear the drums from both Session Drummer and Addictive Drums with no noticeable delay/latency.  Thanks!