Ableton Forum

am using Kurzweil and Yamaha Keyboards for MIDI source for recording sequences in AL - I can't reduce the latency on the input enough to record bassloops. I am using a laptop (1.80GHz Celeron CPU and 192MB Ram) with USB 2.0 and brand new midi to USB device.

I have messed with the midi sync settings in prefs but no effect ( or I am not sure how to use right). Whenever I play a sequence the notes lag just enough behind to make the sequence unuseable without edits. quantizing changes the rythmic patterns of the bass lines ( Latin grooves with notes not on the beat ) and creates other problems. Is there somthing I should do to cut this midi input latency? I already disabled all non essential services from my XP laptop to decrease load on CPU.

Try using ASIO direct monitoring if your soundcard supports it and disable monitoring within Live.

Are you really seeing MIDI latency or is it really audio latency?

Noticeable MIDI latency is very rare in my limited experience, at least if you are just trying to record notes from you keyboard straight into a sequencer. But if you are trying to eg play along with a drumloop playing in Live, what you are seeing/hearing might be audio latency. The drumloop sound gets delayed on its way to your speakers and therefore your playing is off.

MIDI sync has nothing to do with it. Turn it off, unless you really are trying to sync to an external sequencer/computer.

Check your audio latency under audio preferences. Anything more than say 20 msecs might be noticeable. Ideally, you want it below 10 msecs.

What kind of audio interface are you using? If you only have a ordinary built in sound card, the ASIO4ALL drivers might help you reduce your latency: http://www.asio4all.com/

I have a similar problem.
When I try to play live keyboards with my Midi Keyboard (Nanokey USB) Ableton seems to stutter and the timing gets very bad.
For example when you try to play a simple 4 to the floor groove it is impossible as every 3rd or so note is not played in time.
When I try to play the same groove with the "Keyboard to MIDI" function there is no such timing problem. So it is not the audio latency i am talking about.
Does anyone have an asnwer to this ?