[sdiy] Graham Hinton's MIDI FAQ. Covers timing, various platforms and nearly everything else.

[Anthony Bisset]

graham hinton's site disappeared, but thanks to the internet archive, we
can still access it.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030601182927/www.hinton.demon.co.uk/midi/promidi.html

midi timing is a complex issue.  what i have learned is to keep messages
to a minimum, sans special software/interface timestamping, firewire
interfaces or serial interfaces hanging directly off the bus (like the
atari) provide the best performance.

if we want guaranteed tight timing the operating system needs to be
realtime with special hardware and software integration.
think something like a Logic on RTLinux with a firewire AMT8

-anthony



On Sun, 7 May 2006, elmacaco wrote:

> This is my experience as well, I actually went back to using a serial port midi interface because every USB one I tried had timing glitches galore.  I've seen better USB midi interfaces lately with timestamping etc, but I still hear a lot of people complain about timing of external midi modules when played with audio or VSTi on the computer, MAC and PC, which may have something to do with all the internal delay compensation or some other internal process to deliver the goods, so a lot of talk of shifting midi notes in the sequencer app, and just bouncing to audio as soon as possible, as Jason Proctor mentioned.
>
> Perhaps it is something to do with MIDI being such an old protocol, the older gear was developed or built when it was still fairly related to the current technology, so the hardware integrated well with it, now the new stuff has advanced in leaps and bounds yet midi is still back in the 80's, so it's more like legacy support on the part of hardware manufacturers, so it's specialty markets and peripherals that handle it, but the timing is left up to hardware designed for a multitude of tasks and the software does what it can with it.
>
> I don't know I'm just wondering.
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: rude66
>   To: Ingo Debus
>   Cc: SynthDIY
>   Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 1:08 PM
>   Subject: Re: [sdiy] Atari latency, was:Camel*ont* soft Da synth!
>
>
>   the way i always understood it, is this: in the atari, midi is built into the OS, it's all there right from the beginning. on a pc, midi is not a native part of the os or the hardware, it always has to be translated via usb/pci/ whatever. i have no idea about the technical or programming side of things when it comes to this though.
>
>   however, i have to say that on my atari (a mega ste) i never ever ever had timing problems. rock solid. on every damn pc i had, even though both hardware and software were supposed to be about 1000 x more superior to the st hardware/software, i've ran into all kinds of crap. especially when syncing 3 drum machines and arpeggiators via midi clock, it can be an absolute nightmare. my hardware is fine, because when i use the good old alesis mmt8 as a clock master, everything is supertight.
>
>   and i'm not the only one who experiences this: i know guys who have super pro studios but still use the ST for midi sequencing.
>
>   r./
>
>
>
>
>   On 5/6/06, Ingo Debus <debus at cityweb.de> wrote:
>
>     Am 04.05.2006 um 19:00 schrieb elmacaco:
>
>     > Yes, the Atari Machines are known for both their tight timing and
>     > low midi
>     > latency, I rarely hear about the midi latency because it seems non
>     > existent.
>     >
>
>     Hm, what *is* latency here? How is it defined?
>
>     On a (hardware or software) synth, latency is the time between the
>     arrival of the MIDI message and the actual starting of the sound. But
>     we're talking about the Atari ST, thus certainly not about a soft
>     synth, correct? What does latency mean for a MIDI sequencer? The
>     difference between the time stamp value recorded along with a MIDI
>     event and the actual time when this event occurred? As long as this
>     'latency' is constant, it could easily be compensated by the
>     sequencer program.
>     And even if it couldn't, what's the difference between "tight timing"
>     and "low MIDI latency" then?
>
>     Ingo
>
>
>