Wednesday, 13 September 2017

IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING PC MIDI AND AUDIO TIMING PROBLEMS

Many problems encountered when using PCs to record music are caused by MIDI or audio data not being delivered on time, or by its flow being interrupted. Martin Walker outlines some of the most common causes and symptoms, and tells you how to go about eliminating them.


Next to clicks and pops, the problems I get asked about most in emails from SOS readers concern audio and MIDI timing -- and just as with random clicks and pops, the difficulty is that the cause of timing problems is often not obvious (indeed, many clicks and pops are caused by timing problems, as we shall see). If you start playing back a track and everything sounds obviously out of sync then you immediately know something's wrong and can start to track down the cause. However, what's far more likely is that your audio and MIDI tracks may slowly drift apart after a few minutes of playback, or that some MIDI notes that sound perfectly all right most of the time will occasionally be slightly ahead of or behind the beat. Often the difference is subtle, and may not even occur every time you play back your song. read more @