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Greetings all:I've just upgraded my PC as a result of finding out how crappy my MIDI timing was. I've investigated the issue a lot lately and found out that there's really no solution to tight timing on a PC, just workarounds to minimize the effect.I have since ditched all of my outboard MIDI gear that I can, and now rely more on internal vsti samplers, synths and drum machines.I use GIGA through REWIRE with Cubase SX also and its timing is crappy which I can't seem to do much about (standalone mode is worse). A steady delay could be compensated for but the tracks are moving backwards and forwards by more than a few samples (sometimes upwards of 40 and 50 samples at 44.1k).I've read about some people on this forum using GIGA with Lan connections and multiple computers. How do you minimize these timing issues when moving MIDI and audio in and out of different computers?Any thoughts on this or ways of working to compensate for it?thanks in advance,doug s.

How many MIDI channels are you running? The timing shouldn't be off by that much, even without external sync; I think it's possible that you're choking the MIDI bus itself, cuz the other elements of your system wouldn't be that far "out". Most folks I know that use lots of MIDI don't use all sixteen channels on each MIDI I/O, and even fewer when there's lots of controller data being sent. Tell us a little more about your MIDI and audio interface(s)?

Hi Doug,Have no fear, I am too the rescue! There is an issue with Cubase SX/Nuendo with emulated vs. non-emulted MIDI inputs that, under certain circumstances, can cause your midi timing to go completely out of whack. I was a victim of this years ago and it drove me BONKERS.Here is a link to the info you need. It should solve your problem.http://www.jay.fm/blog/pc-midi-timing-a ... mlDownload the little midi timing test utility program and run it. Then it do the appropriate fix as described on the page.Best,Chris

Jeez... I use TONS of midi/SMPTE/sync and never had a single problem other than offset and getting the right clock signal to the right machine. Clock not working would be a serious problem. But I would think that if a midi clock or SMPTE was out, VSTs might not function in sync either. There has to be more to this problem.Keith

I think Chris made a good catch here, it's a known issue with Cubase, apparently. I have some older modules that can choke out if there's too much controller data, but that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Ummmm....Don't use Cubase??? Just a thought...Keith

Thanks for all your posts. I'm aware of emulated and non-emulated MIDI drivers and have the appropriate ones running -- thanks for the info though.Mojobone -- 1 MIDI channel through GIGA and recorded as audio back into the sequencer is enough to see changes in timing from the original track.It seems that Gigastudio is very dodgy with a dual core processor and even more dodgy using REWIRE through SX.I test my system by playing a track (MIDI, VSTi and audio) and then recording the output to a new audio track and seeing/listening to how it has shifted against the original. The results have been very surprising, not so much about latency but about an inconsistency with the timing of each MIDI event. Audio is, by the way, rock solid (sample accurate). vsti is good also but like I say basic in/out MIDI and giga not so. The MIDI events are shifting in time as they play back against the audio. You can hear this when the phased effect you get when two tracks play back on top of one another changes slightly from note to note and not the same note every time. If I record the audio track again, and play it against the first recorded audio track the they both match up perfectly. It is the MIDI track that is shifting in time as it plays. My thought is that the shifting gets worse as the load on the computer is intensified (during mixing for instance).To be clear, we're only talking small differences of 1 - 70 samples at most but enough that there's a looseness in the timing of the song.Since upgrading my computer and using vsti synths and drum machines for my main rhythm parts instead of GIGA and outboard MIDI gear, the timing has become way better.I'm working on running GIGA now on a 2nd machine (my former main machine) but using it only for non-timing sensitive parts. I'm also thinking about the MIDI over Lan thing which was why I was asking about the timing of MIDI over a LAN connection. Seems no one has an issue with it.It is times like this when I think analog recording is still the way to go.doug s.

How long is your midi chain? How many devices?Keith

I feel your pain; I can't get the audio to synch with the video on my DVR. I've heard reports of better MIDI timing using MIDIOverLAN, but are you sure it couldn't be Gigastudio that's glitching, and not the MIDI data? Maybe you should revisit your buffer settings.

Have you ticked in the little box: use system timestamp under devices- device setup-midi?