For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
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By AntonPD Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:12 pm
yo

i'm reading that midi over usb isn't ideal (both interfaces and 'converters'), but i can't really find specific information about midi to a daw.

most comparisons are evaluating midi from the daw to one or several modules (which i'm not concerned about). are there problems with midi traveling the other way?
Last edited by AntonPD on Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By bliprock Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:47 pm
midi is way small really. USB can handle it, but it is how it handles it.
Goes both ways, like you anton :shock: :lol: nah joking of course.
But you know its a computer so its all bout the USB an how it is incorporated into the architecture, and how the operating system prioritises it as well. So that and added traffic on the serial bus means that the end result is what they call less than ideal, and why i use a mpc not a DAW. well not entirely but you know what i mean.

So technically midi over USB is overkill but it has to go through so many things that to DAW that it is not always spot on. Things like motherboards only might have 2 serial busses but they are split into 5 usb plugs. Or a whole range of issues that can happen.
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By Metatron72 Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:07 pm
Great points Bliprock. I just want to add that if you're on Windows you can go into Device Manager and look under Universal Serial Bus controllers. Right click on the entries and choose the "Power Management" tab. Then uncheck the tick box "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". You can do this on all of them, but obviously you'll use more electricity.

In control panel/power options/change power setting it's best to choose "High Performance". Again more electricity, but it's better to not even give the computer a chance to interrupt anything on your USB bus or throttle your PSU and by extension your CPU(s).

I did the same tweaks on OS X but I'd have to look up where I switched them. Like bliprock said using an MPC as a MIDI clock master is always a good choice. And like I mentioned in that other thread it generally takes audio interfaces costing $800-$2000 to have MIDI/MIDI drivers/Clock as accurate as a hardware master. No interface or external MIDI clock master it's all on the MOBO/CPU's to handle the work and a lot of the bad things bliprock mentioned can start to happen. (Unless your computer is a 25 year old Atari, in that case your MIDI is rock solid. :lol: ...but it's true)
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By AntonPD Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:55 am
good stuff!!!!

i made an error, typed 'delay' instead of 'jitter' in the title, but i guess it was clear

imma tweak away, and i assume i'll be good. not looking for perfection, just something good enough