MIDI Drum pad controller has slow response

[Mark Swanson]

OK, I have a 16 pad drum controller that uses MIDI, the M-Audio "trigger Finger", the first version.
I want to use it to tap out drum patterns and so forth. The trouble is, its response time seems slow. I have it connected through MIDI to my interface, going into Waveform and to an instance of the Drum Sampler, then out of my interface so I can hear the drum sound. The trouble is that there is such a delay that it makes doing any actual drum sequencing with it just about impossible. You can strike a pad and hear the delay, it is impossible to record any drum part with it.
Is there a better way to connect or set this up? Is the delay there because the Trigger Finger is just a poor quality device?
If I had a small drum machine with MIDI, would it be better if I ran the Trigger Finger through that before it goes into Waveform, so that I might monitor the drum sounds from it?

[Peter Widdicombe]

More often than not, the delay is latency somewhere in the path; and quite probably the sound card.

Questions:
- what platform (Mac, Windows...)
- what's the sound card/audio path (i.e. laptop with built-in driver chip through the headphone jack; or real USB audio interface)?
- what kind of output processing are you using (Windows audio/ASIO?)
- what's the number of samples in the audio section? If this is large, sound will be "better and consistent" but delayed more. If too small, you will hear frequent breakups, particularly on a slower processor/sound card. Does 256 samples work for you?

[Mark Swanson]

Thank you Peter, yes I am sure it is a latency issue.
I run windows 10 on a desktop with a 3rd gen i7. I have a Behringer UMC1820 interface. For the rest of your questions I will need a few minutes.... back soon.

[Mark Swanson]

Ok, I use the provided driver it is ASIO. I lowered the buffer setting, I have a little problem in that the MIDI device stops working (Waveform won't see it) after I change the buffer and reset the interface with the drivers' control panel. So I have to quit the DAW and re-start it each time I change it! If I use the driver's "Auto" setting, it drops the buffer to 288 samples, and that works much better!