DP's uneven MIDI countoff problem

[pkhata]

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm running DP 4.61 on a 1.25 Dual Processor G4 with OS 10.4.11, MOTU 2408-III audio interface and MOTU MidiExpress 128 MIDI interface. Sometimes I notice that when starting playback of a MIDI sequence that has a typical "1-2-1-2-3-4" type drumstick countoff, the countoff itself seems to start slightly faster and then slowdown after the 1st beat. Something is happening at the start of playback that seems to be interfering with the even sending of MIDI data; it's as if the Conductor had a tempo slowdown programmed in it, yet I'm just playing the sequence with the Tempo Slider control. I've tried changing some of the settings under the Setup Menu, like buffer size (Configure Hardware Driver) and the prefill buffers (Configure Studio Settings). They seem to make a subtle difference, but I think I still hear an uneven countoff at the start of playback.

Any suggestions?

[David Polich]

Check to make sure your drumstick hits are all 100% quantized and fall exactly on the bar/beats/ticks,
such as 1/1/001, 2/1/001, etc.

Also check that you are not sending a program change to whatever is playing back
the drumstick sound. If there is a program change at 1/1/001 as well as a MIDI
event, then that could cause a lag in playback while your responding hardware
unit "catches up".

I routinely have at least 2 empty bars before the start of a sequence. More often
I have at least four. This gives me time to let all my hardware catch up, switch to their
programs, and start responding to incoming event and controller data

Some hardware is slower with MIDI response than others. Alesis DM modules
are very fast to respond to MIDI, some Roland and Yamaha units are slower.
Every piece of musical hardware with MIDI has a different MIDI response
timing, I've learned this the hard way over the last 20-odd years.

I'm curios as to why you're not using DP's own audio click? When that
became a feature, I stopped using external MIDI drum modules to generate
clicks. The DP click is more accurate.

[Shooshie]

DP has very sophisticated countoff and metronome features. The metronome is just doggone amazing. You can program any kind of beat structure you want into it, and select them at any meter change or where you want even a temporary change in the beat structure -- say, a bar of 16ths to help you get your 16ths even, then back to quarters, 8ths, etc. Name them and recall them by name. It's really top-notch.

Shoosh

[pkhata]

Actually, David's post identified the problem, which apparently was a patch change, but strangely enough, not on the actual drum track. There was a patch change on the downbeat of the countoff on the bass track that--since I'm using a Roland XV-5080 (w/SRV-01 Drum card) to play BOTH drums and bass--also affected the drum countoff. Re: using DP's audio click vs. MIDI drums, I just like the excellent sounds in the SRV-01 card.

I usually avoid patch changes at the same time as any note-ons, but this one slipped by probably because there were lots of tracks in this sequence (something MIDI tends to encourage). But thanks very much--problem solved.

[monkey man]

Re: using DP's audio click vs. MIDI drums, I just like the excellent sounds in the SRV-01 card.

Why not sample 'em and pop 'em into the DP clicks folder, pkhata?

I usually avoid patch changes at the same time as any note-ons, but this one slipped by probably because there were lots of tracks in this sequence (something MIDI tends to encourage).

Good strategy; its mine too.