Mac midi timing

[pasam1]

Have any Tracktion users on the Mac experienced midi timing errors with external modules?

Using an M-Audio Oxygen 8 as a midi interface, I connected an external sound module to my Ti-Book . The midi flow being transmitted to the sound module has random timing errors (some notes play late). I don't suspect the interface is causing the problem (midi timing is OK using it with other apps.).

The project has audio tracks, virtual synth tracks, and plain midi tracks that trigger the outboard gear. The midi track being used for the output gear uses no filters. I have noticed that timing will improve if I remove any racks (used on other tracks), delete Vi tracks, etc., but errors do still appear. If I re-assign the external midi track to trigger a Virtual Instrument, the timing seems rock-solid.

Is it possible that outboard midi timing in Tracktion is being affected by CPU usage (cpu meter showing 40-50% usage)? Are there any settings I'm missing that could affect the reliability of midi being sent out of Tracktion? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

Powerbook Titanium, 1Ghz, 768 mb RAM, OSX 10.2.8, latest M-Audio drivers

[dry bones]

Try upgrading your OS to 10.3.7. I'm using a 2 year old 867mhz G4 with a 6 year old Midisport 2x2 and Audiowerk8 to send/receive from a 4 year old Nova IIX, and I have no problems with timing, processor load ( providing I don't go mad with Ambience ) or MIDI in general. Sorry I can't come up with anything more concrete, but I don't know enough to say any more. Fingers crossed.

[ricupad]

I experienced the same problem when playing midi from tracktion to a roland xp-50.

R

[MM66]

I have the same problem (mac os x 10.2.8, edirol ua 20): internal vst-instruments work fine and external devices have midi timing problems. This problem does only occur in tracktion.

Has anyone found a solution yet?

MM

[IIRs]

I'm on a PC I'm afraid, but I have noticed that external MIDI timing suffers when there is a lot of screen re-drawing going on, on my system at least.

Try turning smooth scrolling off, or zooming right out so the whole arrangement is visible, and see if the timing improves at all..?

[Axl]

I posted this same problem here some months ago. I have a Roland XP 30 and it was just immpossible to work with it and Tracktion on my iBook 700. It seems that screen redrawing affects midi timing very badly when you use external devices. It's definitely a bug in the Tracktion Mac version. I now use T with my PC and have no issues with it. But this really should get fixed with T2.

Greets,
Axl

[pasam1]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I also have discovered the connection to screen re-draw. I tried reducing the color depth, but that didn't work.
As a work-around (of sorts), I minimize Tracktion after starting a sequence. That seems to correct outboard midi timing, but it's a pain to have to look at the desktop while I record/play.

Does anyone have a more elegant workaround (short of capturing the midi parts as audio)? Beno, any ideas?