Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <software><midi>
Title: Get rid (or die trying) of latency when using a MIDI instrument
Question: I'm using Logic Pro (I have Snow Leopard) and I have a Korg R3 and a VB-99 as music instruments...I use usb connection on both and I would like to have suggestions and ideas to get rid of the latency when recording.Using my actual hardware with software tweakings would be lovely but also suggestions about buying new hardware that would solve the problems (cheap, if possible :) ) is appreciated.

Answers:
sents: text: What I do for critical recordings: I simply don't use virtual instruments running on the computer, but split the MIDI signal, route only one path to the interface and the other to a cheap general-MIDI sound module.
text: This sounds horrible, but has neglectable latency so I can well use it for monitoring and get an as-clean-as-possible MIDI track.
text: Once that's recorded, latency doesn't matter anymore
text: and I can switch to the better-sounding virtual instruments.
text: Where the sound module offers insufficient quality even for monitoring, I try step by step reducing the latency.
text: I usually go down to 48 samples, though with that I already get stability problems when running processor-intensive plug-ins.
text: It's a bit of trial-and-error.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/932/leftaroundabout
score: 7
sents: text: If you're on Windows, it's almost certainly not a hardware problem.
text: The situation is caused by the audio output going through the Windows mixer before going to the sound card.
text: That adds a significant delay.
text: Look in your audio application settings for ASIO or WASAPI output.
text: If ASIO, you need to download ASIO4ALL .
text: This will let your program bypass the Windows audio subsystem and talk directly to the sound card.
text: Using ASIO or WASAPI, the latency with my onboard sound is good enough that I can play on my MIDI keyboard without a noticeable delay.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/224/Rei Miyasaka
score: 6
sents: text: Logic has a very simple solution for this: The low latency button (looks like a car tachimeter in main toolbar).Press
text: it and then record. :)
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/1112/Pitto
score: 4
sents: text: A core element of latency is often dependent on the audio interface to your PC - the sound card on your motherboard probably won't be up to the job of even semi-pro audio.
text: We use M-Audio for most of our stuff that goes through a PC, as we can guarantee very low latency (all the bottleneck pieces are moved off onto hardware to ensure this) (I'm not affiliated with M-Audio, but their kit works well for us as we are heavily dependent on computers in our rhythm section.)
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/104/Doktor Mayhem
score: 2
sents: text: Find in your DAW settings where you can set the buffer size, lowering this to 256 or 512 can get you down to the 20-30 ms range where there is less noticable latency.
text: Otherwise you can fiddle with 'Software Monitoring', and I think there is a way to make it pass directly through.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/1342/eighteyes
score: 2
sents: text: USB is great in that it provides inexpensive connectivity options, but there is a good reason that more expensive standards exist.
text: This is one of them.
text: I'd suggest trying to get your hands on a good Firewire audio interface, such as from Avid's M-Audio line .
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/279/Kaelin Colclasure
score: 0
sents: text: I have a decent pc
text: and I bought a new icon ikeyboard
text: but it had horrible latency even after installing its driver .After
text: reading a few blogs all I did was just installed the ASIO4ALL and that was it , did not even had to do any configurations, my pc recognised it itself and the latency is gone.
text: I use sonar and it worked for me , I hope it does for you too.
text: Good luck
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/13728/Abhishek
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Using ASIO or WASAPI, the latency with the onboard sound is good enough that you can play on the MIDI keyboard without a noticeable delay. M-Audio through a PC also reduces latency. You can also find in your DAW settings where you can set the buffer size, lowering this to 256 or 512 can get you down to the 20-30 ms range where there is less noticable latency. 
There are number of ways to address this issue. As far as software is concerned, you could try using ASIO or WASAPI, or alternatively, you could try reducing the buffer size in your DAW settings. Otherwise, you could try replacing your hardware with M-Audio equipment, use a Firewire Audio Interface or even use an alternative MIDI module for monitoring purposes.