KVR Audio

overhishead · Post by **overhishead** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:42 pm

I've noticed that in Reaper, the first midi note tends to be laggy when playing a project.

What's your experience with MIDI in your DAW? Is there a known contender for 'best' MIDI implementation, editing, etc?

mrgrim3 · Post by **mrgrim3** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:03 pm

i think cubase has good midi editing it has single note expression and some other things i cant name off top my head

ableton suite i have also but its not as great as cubase imo for midi editing but it excels at audio manipulation

other daws i cant tell you about honestly

Groundhog #31684 · Post by **Groundhog #31684** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:09 pm

If you disable the look ahead (Anticipative FX) processing in Reaper the project starts without the small delay you describe. There's a checkbox for it in preferences, in the buffering section.

Robert Randolph · Post by **Robert Randolph** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:39 pm

It's either DP, Cubase or Logic, depending on what your needs are.

As far as I'm concerned, DP is king unless you need VST Expression.

Atza · Post by **Atza** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 10:51 am

Midi needs more improvement in every DAW I ever tried.
I think Sonar's is pretty good though.

bharris22 · Post by **bharris22** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:47 am

I have found FL Studio to be the best in this area.

tooneba · Post by **tooneba** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:05 pm

Talking about piano roll, FL is good. It has many articulation tools. For all purpose midi editing Cubase covers all aspect, for example logical editor.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:09 pm

Robert Randolph wrote:It's either DP, Cubase or Logic, depending on what your needs are.

As far as I'm concerned, DP is king unless you need VST Expression.

I second this opinion

In this order: Digital Performer, Cubase, Logic, and Sonar.

Chris-S · Post by **Chris-S** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:09 pm

Groundhog #31684 wrote:If you disable the look ahead (Anticipative FX) processing in Reaper the project starts without the small delay you describe. There's a checkbox for it in preferences, in the buffering section.

Hmmm, why is this enabled by default then?

paterpeter · Post by **paterpeter** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:33 pm

Chris-S wrote:
Groundhog #31684 wrote:If you disable the look ahead (Anticipative FX) processing in Reaper the project starts without the small delay you describe. There's a checkbox for it in preferences, in the buffering section.
Hmmm, why is this enabled by default then?

It improves (reduces) CPU usage, allowing more plugins to run at the same time.

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:53 pm

Of the DAWs I own/use regularly, I like Sonar's MIDI implementation the best, followed by Logic, then (in no particular order) PT, Bitwig, and Studio One. Years ago, Cubase was my main DAW, but I haven't used it since v6.5 (got rid of it after way too many stability problems), but it always had good MIDI tools/workflow. The expression looks nice, although not something I'd make much use of, at least not enough to get me to buy it again.

UltimateOutsider · Post by **UltimateOutsider** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:58 pm

The only two DAWs I know very deeply are Cubase and Live, and Cubase eats Live for lunch in terms of MIDI, in fundamental, significant ways.

xphen0m · Post by **xphen0m** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:05 pm

Cubase is amazing for MIDI work. Sonar, honestly, needs a lot of work in that department and is YEARS behind Cubase in that regard.

lfm · Post by **lfm** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:28 am

What we need is very different from what genre you are into.

And different daws solve in it different ways.
Some daws have plenty functionality, tools from menu or toolbars to do diffferent things.
Some support midi processing through midi plugins and some even scripting for midi.
Some support midi plugin processing as a command, some in realtime while playing back.

Sonar - editing in piano roll or step sequencer is decent, and you also have support for midi plugins for DX type, call mfx. This for both command processing as operation and in realtime. And also have CAL scripting to do your own kind of operation with interactive dialogs and stuff. I often used a CAL script to ensure a minimum length of midi notes from drum pads I used, and you get a dialog to set how many ticks minumum you want etc. Very flexible, but not all easy to learn CAL.

Cubase - support for vst midi plugins and editing is said to be quite capable from what I read. Haven't used so advanced editing in Cubase Elements and Cubase Pro is not up and running yet. But no scripting available.

StudioOne - v3 introduced some kind of proprietary midi plugins format. How midi editing is I don't recall.

Reaper - decent editing, don't know if they overcome the limitation to item and have to glue all items to edit in one go. But you have JS-scripting to do anything with midi in realtime if you want.

BlueCatAudio has a plugin Plug'n Script which allow to make you own vst midi plugins and many other things. So depending on daw routing abilities you can combine vst midi plugins with many other things in vst hosting plugins like BlueCatAudio Patchwork or http://ddmf.eu Metaplugin.

So there are various ways to take on the task of midi.

Slaapstadseun · Post by **Slaapstadseun** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:38 am

overhishead wrote:I've noticed that in Reaper, the first midi note tends to be laggy when playing a project.

What's your experience with MIDI in your DAW? Is there a known contender for 'best' MIDI implementation, editing, etc?

That's odd - I use Reaper and even in projects with 40 or more midi tracks I don't experience the lag you're describing.

Are your first notes at the start of bar 1?
I suggest you always leave bar 1 open and begin the project on bar 2.

Which DAW is MIDI king?