USB MIDI or DIN MIDI Connection for E Drums?

[Santina]

Hello!

Just recently got an RME rayDAT interface but I want to know if its better to connect my E Drum modules directly to the "MIDI in" of the interface to get a better performance/less jitter , insted of using the MIDI USB protocol and plug it to a motherboard usb port . What is better? what is going to give me less latency?
Sounds logical that if I plug it to the MIDI port of the interface it will perform better but I wanted to ask.

Cheers!

[RichieWitch]

I did a lot of testing in my studio, and found that DIN MIDI was more accurate and had less drift over time than USB MIDI.

[pljones]

What do you mean by "drift over time" in this context?

[Beatmachinery]

Midi through DIN cable may be slower but it gives you less jitter

[lfm]

I trust ordinary midi interfaces more - usb ones too having proper dedicated drivers for that purpose.
Especially if running audio over usb as well.

What will be maintained and optimized for units having their own usb stuff - had issues with that and constant updates on drivers as well. Synths mainly.

My Yamaha eDrum engine only have DIN midi - so nothing to choose from in that sense for me.

Also read on Steinberg forum how people had timing issues using synths own usb midi stuff. Manufacturers just don't spend enough time on drivers for that - unless midi interface only. But they also ran audio over usb.

[RichieWitch]

What do you mean by "drift over time" in this context?

I was did several 1-minute recordings at three different tempos (90, 120, and 180 bpm). My idea of "drift over time" was how close the final recorded beat of the instrument was to where it should have been at the 1-minute mark.

[pljones]

Midi through DIN cable may be slower but it gives you less jitter

Jitter doesn't really matter much for an e-drummer unless it's really, really bad. Nor does speed, really, unless it's really, really slow... But for comparison, do you have the numbers for this? Are you saying the jitter is around 0.01 ms or 10 ms for example? What about speed difference?

What do you mean by "drift over time" in this context?

I was did several 1-minute recordings at three different tempos (90, 120, and 180 bpm). My idea of "drift over time" was how close the final recorded beat of the instrument was to where it should have been at the 1-minute mark.

Can you put a bit more detail into what you're saying as it just doesn't mean anything currently. Particularly, I'm not clear how this is going to be relevant to an e-drummer sitting an at e-drum kit hitting the pads with sticks.

[RichieWitch]

Can you put a bit more detail into what you're saying as it just doesn't mean anything currently. Particularly, I'm not clear how this is going to be relevant to an e-drummer sitting an at e-drum kit hitting the pads with sticks.

Hmmm... now that I think about it, you're right. Doesn't apply to someone playing an e-drum kit.

In my situation, I was trying to find the most reliable clock to use as the master clock across multiple sequenced instruments. So my idea was to measure, among other things, how far a clock would drift, causing me to do a lot of warping to get recordings to line up on the beat.

It was the excessive warping after recording that got me interested in my clock experiments. Sorry for the distraction.