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I noticed these posts deal primarily with problems related to external MIDI connections, but what of soft-synths?

I run a G5 2.5 w/8gig of ram, usually loaded about as much as DP will take before crashing (about 3.2gig virtual memory) with orchestral samples in Mach Five, Atmophere, Trilogy, Stylus RMX and others.

I get stuck notes every day with the virtual synths, to the point where hitting Command-1 is now a reflex action. Additionally, after sending that command and all the stuck notes are silenced, sometimes a bunch of other notes will suddenly spit out at random, as if they were stuck in a buffer and released. I see no relationship between this MIDI behaviour and that with the external interfaces since, obviously, the soft-synths have no communication with a MIDI interface.

The only external synths I use are a Studio Logic controller and a Roland XV5080, which hangs no more or less than the soft-synths.

There is, without a doubt, a problem with DP and MIDI. I've been using this program since 1987 and the MIDI was more robust on my Mac+ than it is on the G5. The best, most stable and robust MIDI I ever had was with Performer 5.5 connected to 2 serial MIDI Timepiece AV's with 12 of the 16 outputs connected to an array of synth hardware. NEVER a stuck note...NEVER a crash.

The problem could be with Apple and it's Core MIDI design-or it's just a MOTU issue-I don't know. I compose for TV at the network level, it's very high pressure and this problem is more than a giant inconvenience. It's a huge time waster when I'm trying to print the cues and at any point the notes might hang and I'll have to stop and start over.

Learning another MIDI DAW is not something I want to deal with so I'll simply adapt to this significant flaw and hope they get it resolved.

Originally posted by JFB:
I noticed these posts deal primarily with problems related to external MIDI connections, but what of soft-synths?

Exactly... My Stylus RMX works great, however my outboard gear does not.

I too have been dealing with some MIDI issues with dp4.52. I'm running a dual 2.0 w/2.5 gigs of ram, Pro Tools HD, a MIDI timepiece, stylus, trilogy, atmosphere ect. Curiously I too have HUI.
I constantly get stuck notes and notes that just do not sound when I play them. DP also crashes when I launch DAE. Motu blames Digi and Digi blames Motu. My hunch is the possibility of some bad ram. I also write music for tv on the network level and it is extemely frustrating dealing with these probs however, I just did 10 cues completely in Pro Tools.
A little slower but I'm still making money.

I am a complete technical newbie that switched within the past months from Cubase and PCs to DP 4.52 and Macs, and to be completely honest, I have very few problems - certainly less than all the damn driver issues I had with Cubase and Windows.

I'm running a dual 2.0GHZ G5 with 4GB of RAM - I use only virtual instruments: Kontakt 1.5, Atmosphere and EWQLSO Silver. I also use a 828 MKII (connected via firewire of course).

I've never gotten any of these mysterious "stuck notes" or DP creating MIDI notes out of thin air. Occasionally if I delete or move a piece of music from the tracks window, I'll delete the "sustain off" trigger and that will cause the notes to "stick" but that's entirely my fault and easily fixed.

The only obnoxious things I've found with DP is after loading my projects (which normally takes a good minute or two with Kontakt loading up gigs of Sonic Implants Strings) - if the project has Atmosphere I'll have to do that "reconfigure hardware drivers" thing and wait for it to load all over again.

Also, Kontakt won't find .gig files (they're listed as extension ???) - so I have to reload them every time I open a project - and if I delete multiple instruments Kontakt will occasionally crash DP.

Aside from those problems, which are probably Kontakt's fault instead of DP's, everything works fine and dandy for me. I find it odd that all of these super professionals, ain't-got-tha-time-fo-this-MIDI-problem-yo! people are having such problems with DP, and me, a lowly newbie and poor college student, is getting it to work perfectly fine*

*"perfectly fine" for any sequencer means occasional crashes.

Originally posted by MwaileyBear:
I find it odd that all of these super professionals, ain't-got-tha-time-fo-this-MIDI-problem-yo! people are having such problems with DP, and me, a lowly newbie and poor college student, is getting it to work perfectly fine.

Actually, I don't think the major of DP users are experiencing these MIDI problems. I'm certainly not. For the few who are, though, it's clearly frustrating.

Bulletin boards are bitch-and-moan magnets, so most of what you'll read are bile, complaints and pleads for commiseration. But, that doesn't necessarily represent the overall DP user base experience.

Like I've said, I almost never have problems with it.

It is worth noting that the few users who are having MIDI problems seem to be experiencing them running external keyboards via MIDI, not internal VIs like you are. Another reason why I keep thinking it's an I/O-based conflict.

This is such a strange problem. I truely feel the pain of the DP users who are having this problem. What seems so strange is the randomness of the problem. Some peoples rigs are rock solid, while others can't seem to work without major problems. I've had no issues with the MIDI problem I've read so much about. I work in LA, and while not doing network TV, I am doing feature films, so I'm pushing DP pretty hard. I also know all the other composers who use DP aren't having this problem.

I'm wondering what it possibly could be? Some people are saying it affects VI's as well as external gear. i thought it might be a MIDI interface problem, but if VI's are affected, my theory goes out the window.

<small>[ April 24, 2005, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: westla ]</small>

I'm not having any problem with VI's at all.
Every one of my synths is rock solid exept for a weird graphic problem with Stylis. When you touch a button it corrupts the screen. who knows. DP is great and I miss it.

Originally posted by chrispick:
Or, better yet, switch over to firewire MIDI which, for me and many others, has worked flawlessly.

Firewire is a much more stable, consistent I/O than USB for many reasons (i.e., runs off its own card, wider/faster throughput, "chains" more efficiently, etc.).

Are there dedicated FireWire MIDI interfaces?? Spill, brudda! I'd love to get a FireWire MIDI interface.

Cheers,

Paul

Originally posted by PaulyD:

Originally posted by chrispick:
Or, better yet, switch over to firewire MIDI which, for me and many others, has worked flawlessly.

Firewire is a much more stable, consistent I/O than USB for many reasons (i.e., runs off its own card, wider/faster throughput, "chains" more efficiently, etc.).

Are there dedicated FireWire MIDI interfaces?? Spill, brudda! I'd love to get a FireWire MIDI interface.

Cheers,

Paul

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if they are any exclusively dedicated firewire MIDI interfaces (probably are). But there are plenty of firewire audio interfaces that also have MIDI capability -- that's what I was referring to, although I wasn't clear.

M-Audio, Edirol and MOTU all sell audio interfaces with MIDI i/o capability at varied price range.

Now, I don't know if this firewire solution will solve people's MIDI problem. I do think it's worth giving it a try though (for the reasons I've stated previously). You can always return the gear if it doesn't.

Good luck.

From *my* experience with DP, most external MIDI problems usually caused by:

1. Third party hardware with broken drivers.

2. Faulty MIDI cables and routing.

3. Unstable electricity.

4. Faulty RAM/memory.

5. Unauthorized third party software such as anti-virus software and plugins that use harsh propreitary schemes to torment DP systems supsected of running rogue software such as cracks [k].

6. Cron and other jobs such as Internet apps (Airport, Browsers, calenders, etc..and all background tasks that interfere with system opretaion)

7. DP/MOTU supplies tool (with install CD) to adjust MIDI timing. Not using this when you detect timing problems is not recommended.

8. Using MOTU hardware with DP provides better performance...although problems may be encountered with older MOTU hardware as these are not tested as thoroughly as the newer hardware (once they are in developers' hands).

9. etc..etc

Kris..

Does anyone have, "an other than" MOTU MIDI interface that is experiencing these phenomena?

I question hardware as a culprit because playing the same files on the same machine using OS9 / DP3.11 running more plugs and VI••™s seem to work solid. So it would be logical to me that OSX or DP or a combination has made them malfunction. They don••™t just go bad somehow, besides the batteries needing to be changed infrequently.

My MIDI issue has been completely random, seems no rhyme or reason. I think this qualifies as a conundrum? I have just been restarting until I ••œget a good boot••Â

Excellent post midiot. My MIDI issues are very frustrating and like yours also random. I worked on the same project yesterday that inspired my initial post and not one MIDI hiccup. Again--the MIDI madness began with 4.5, and trust me, I have run the gauntlet of fixes with no resolution. There must be some common thread for those of us who are having this problem. I hope we can inspire Motu to take a deeper look into this. Unfortunately they don't seem very interested, or are secretly going at it.

Originally posted by chrispick:
It is worth noting that the few users who are having MIDI problems seem to be experiencing them running external keyboards via MIDI, not internal VIs like you are. Another reason why I keep thinking it's an I/O-based conflict.

chrispick - Unfortunately, I am getting stuck notes with both external devices and VIs (Ivory, in particular).

Ivory?

Is there any rhyme or reson to this? I've noticed weirdness at high buffer settings but that's it.

Originally posted by Kevin Kliesch:

Originally posted by chrispick:
It is worth noting that the few users who are having MIDI problems seem to be experiencing them running external keyboards via MIDI, not internal VIs like you are. Another reason why I keep thinking it's an I/O-based conflict.

chrispick - Unfortunately, I am getting stuck notes with both external devices and VIs (Ivory, in particular).

Hmm. Interesting. Sorry about that, man.

Wow, your's is the first issue I've heard of regarding Ivory. I don't have it, but I know a number of users swear by its sound quality and ease-of-use. Too bad it's not consistently doing the deed for you.

Are you using a USB MIDI interface? My half-baked, untested theory has to do with the fragility of USB as an i/o port.