Audio and Midi Timing Problems with External Gear

[blackmagicdisco]

Hi All,

So Ive recently got back into using hardware in my productions but am having non-stop problems with timing in Ableton to the point where I'm just about ready to go back to logic as I just cannot get it to work :-/

I have a midi clip which I want playing on my Analog Four. This midi clips timing is right on the beat and was programmed and quantized so I know its not an issue with the played notes. I copy the clip to a midi channel, select "external instrument" midi plugin, set "midi to" my A4 and "Audio From" to the inputs on my interface. When i hit play in Ableton it is perfectly in time.

Once I've done this i create a new audio track and have it set to my A4 outputs. The problem is that despite what I'm hearing in my monitors being in time, the recorded audio from my A4 has a delayed start so when i play back the audio alone the timing is completely off!

As I mentioned, its been quite a while since I have used hardware but to my mind, if the midi playback is in time, then surely what is written to an audio file should also be in time? I would understand if the midi playback was out of time, but its not. Ive tried various buffer settings etc but I get the same delayed start every time. I have a 1.5 year old Macbook Pro i7 quad and am using the A4 USB Midi (not overbridge) and an Apollo Twin Thunderbolt.

I have a similar issue when trying to monitor through the UAD Console rather than via Ableton too. i don't remember things being this painful with midi back when I used to use hardware and an old Apple G3 17 years ago!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

cheers,

Justin

[smutek]

Hey man, I've had issues with midi timing but not like this. I just tried to run through what you described - created a quantized midi clip, sent that midi to an external synth, Volca keys in this case, then recorded the resulting audio back into another track. The timing was right on, check it out.

On the incoming audio, if you look at the recorded clip, does your wave form seem to match up but the resulting sound doesn't? I just got a Scarlett 18i8 and it has this "zero latency direct monitoring" thing that is turned on by default, it made everything sound like a train wreck. It was driving me nuts until I realized this was a feature and disabled it, since then everything has been right with the world. Maybe there's something similar with your card?

Sorry man, I can't imagine that's much help. Good luck!

[blackmagicdisco]

I think I got to the bottom of it thanks, same as what you are saying. I think I had the direct monitoring on when I was recording it to audio. I turned that off and changed it to "auto" on the track and it seems to work. I had to use a tiny bit of track offset after but thats it.

cheers,

Justin