Midi latency, hardware synth problems

[ewp]

Hi,

I have Traction 1.6 (from the Mackie/Tape Op giveaway a while back), Win98SE, SBLive Value (CT4780), with the Creative drivers (could not get kx drivers to install properly, may try again some day), QuickShot MIDI Composer controller keyboard.

The midi latency is appalling. Setting the SBlive MIDI In's Time Adjust to it's maximum of 100ms early is still not enough to align the recorded notes to the beats where I played them. On the output side, when recorded MIDI (after it has been aligned to the beats where it belongs) is routed to the SBLive hardware synth, a "Pre-Delay" setting of 126ms late seems to be about right. However, the timing is bad. For instance, if Traction plays back a percussive sound like a woodblock quantized to quarter notes through the SBLive synth, it is unsteady, with some hits coming faster than others.

When using a VST synth, the time it takes between pressing a key and hearing the sound is so long that it is impossible to play along and record. The upshot of all this is that the SBLive synth is unusable, and MIDI for VST synths has to be entered one note at a time with the pencil tool--very tedious.

I have used Cakewalk Pro 8.0 and Pro Tools Free, without ever having to think about time alignment issues--the MIDI tracks just line right up with the audio tracks and everything plays in synch. Of course the audio latency is long, but I can get around this easily by monitoring the line input via the Creative mixer instead of the "end-to-end" signal. I have not discovered any such workaround for MIDI in Traction however.

I'm hoping to get a little advice such as "yep, that how it is," or "here's how to make it work better." It might also be fair to say that I should quit being such a cheapskate and buy a modern PC/OS/SoundCard/latest-version-of-Traction.

Also, The best latency setting I seem to be able to get in Traction is about 30ms @ 48000hz.

If I can get the kx drivers to work, will any of the above issues be resolved or improved?

Thanks,
Eric