Live 8 midi timing issue
Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 8:17 am
In 8.03 (and every other previous version 8 release) I am getting some really bizarre, erratic and downright crippling behavior when using external midi instuments. Basically, the midi timing is completely off, the likes of which I have never seen. It seems Live is actually playing the midi notes ahead of the audio by around 50-100 ms (!). I can compensate for this with ridiculous track delays on the midi channels (although I really shouldn't have to). This delay time seems to be in constant motion, though, and when pressing play, I must press it several times to "lock" them together. This is a completely hit or miss thing too, so as you can imagine, it's not really usable. Don't even think about trying to sync up an LFO or an arp pattern. To top it off, Live crashes at the drop of a hat any time it receives CC input from one of my synths. 
Heres my setup-
macbook 2.0 running 10.5.7
korg zero 8 as FW audio interface
esi m4u on the midi
jupiter 6, dsi evolver, moog phatty and virus ti all midi'd up with audio running into the zero
Ok before we go pointing fingers at the known-to-be-problematic korg zero 8, let me just say that this setup nuns fine in Live 7 and in Logic 8. In fact, it has been the most solid and inspirational setup I've had yet and the zero has performed reasonably well as an audio interface. I do realize that, most likely, it is the combo of harware/ software that is causing the problem, however, this has rendered my investment in live 8 pretty much pointless. Don't even get me started on the APC 40 that will be here in a week which will be pretty much unusable as well.
Other tests I've run include switching out the midi interface for a motu usb midi interface, same result. I also ran the built in audio and was able to achieve nominal midi timing, but that is to be expected. I am reasonably sure that the korg is playing into this somehow, because when I switch the clock source back and forth between "mac" and "device" under Audio MIDI setup, it changes that weird delay time pretty significantly. The best I can do right now is switch quickly from device to mac and back again and it will work for the very first time i hit play when i go back to live. As soon as I hit stop, then play again, timing is off by a random ms value. Again, it is playing the midi ahead of the audio!
I'm actually really surprised that I'm the only one experiencing these issues. This is absolutely a make or break issue for me. 8 is 100% out of the question right now for anything but testing. Explanation has been sent to Ableton support. Certainly any ideas, suggestions or confirmations of this or something similar are welcome.
Heres my setup-
macbook 2.0 running 10.5.7
korg zero 8 as FW audio interface
esi m4u on the midi
jupiter 6, dsi evolver, moog phatty and virus ti all midi'd up with audio running into the zero
Ok before we go pointing fingers at the known-to-be-problematic korg zero 8, let me just say that this setup nuns fine in Live 7 and in Logic 8. In fact, it has been the most solid and inspirational setup I've had yet and the zero has performed reasonably well as an audio interface. I do realize that, most likely, it is the combo of harware/ software that is causing the problem, however, this has rendered my investment in live 8 pretty much pointless. Don't even get me started on the APC 40 that will be here in a week which will be pretty much unusable as well.
Other tests I've run include switching out the midi interface for a motu usb midi interface, same result. I also ran the built in audio and was able to achieve nominal midi timing, but that is to be expected. I am reasonably sure that the korg is playing into this somehow, because when I switch the clock source back and forth between "mac" and "device" under Audio MIDI setup, it changes that weird delay time pretty significantly. The best I can do right now is switch quickly from device to mac and back again and it will work for the very first time i hit play when i go back to live. As soon as I hit stop, then play again, timing is off by a random ms value. Again, it is playing the midi ahead of the audio!
I'm actually really surprised that I'm the only one experiencing these issues. This is absolutely a make or break issue for me. 8 is 100% out of the question right now for anything but testing. Explanation has been sent to Ableton support. Certainly any ideas, suggestions or confirmations of this or something similar are welcome.