Saturday, March 17, 2007

TIPS: Midi recording problem in Nuendo 3.2 with Edirol FA-66 FireWire audio interface

Problem: Last week one of my client faced a peculiar problem in Nuendo 3.2 while sequencing ( recording midi tracks ). The midi notes would not get recorded despite being played and heard while recording.
The nature of symptoms for such problem are :
  1. Persistent timing problems (shifted notes etc.) while using native or emulated Direct Music midi ports.
  2. Using emulated Direct Music midi ports often results in shifted MIDI events while recording (events are recorded too late or too early).
  3. After recording for a while the MIDI events are not recorded at all despite of being played and heard while recording.
  4. Sometime after recording you find that all the notes have been shifted to the beginning of the sequenced event.
The system was based on Intel D945GNT motherboard with 3.4Mhz dual core processor having 1Gb DDR2 533Mhz RAM and 2 x 250GB SATA Seagate Hard disk. The sound card he was using was Edirol FA-66 FireWire audio interface connected through Iogear "Texas Instrument" based PCI FireWire card. It seems D945GNT is not suitable for FireWire audio interfaces as I have faced audio problems using Tascam audio hardware also on the similar type of setup.
I connected FA-66 to other system and found working properly without any midi loss at all. I even tried VIA based FireWire card in the same system with no success. The problem is that Nuendo 3 midi port handling is not compatible with D945GNT motherboard as you encounter the problem while using this motherboard only. 

Solution:See that you should have DirectX 9.0c installed properly if you are using emulated Direct Music Midi ports.
  • If you are using Direct Music midi Ports then you should enable (check) the option “Use System Timestamp” provided in the Direct Music midi section of the Device Setup dialogue. This option uses another timing reference in your system when enabled.
  • If you are using Windows midi port then you should enable (check) the option “Use System Timestamp” provided in the Windows Midi section of the Device Setup dialogue. This option uses another timing reference in your system when enabled.
Just check the box as shown above in the figure and it should solve all your midi timing and recording problems.
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19 comments:

  1. O Melhor Crítico do UniversoOctober 29, 2007 at 7:17 AM

    I've been facing a similar problem but with Nuendo 2.0. The MIDI sometimes stops responding and the program crashes. I have the latest drivers and software updates and can't find a solution.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SarveshNovember 18, 2007 at 5:13 PM

    Please give me details of your system and sound card. Use winXp with service pack 2 and all latest update fixes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. O Melhor Crítico do UniversoNovember 18, 2007 at 11:50 PM

    I'm using Windows XP SP2 with all the latest updates, the latest driver and software updates. I believe the problem occurs when my dual-core processors get drift appart in timestamp, so the midi can't be correctly understood by two processors with different timmings. I think I have been able to solve this problem by making Nuendo only use on processor. I have an Edirol FA-66, Nuendo 2 with the lates updates, Reason 3 (rewired) with no updates (I don't know if there are any).

    ReplyDelete
  4. SarveshNovember 19, 2007 at 7:49 PM

    The solution which I have provided is available only in Nuendo 3.

    In your case please let me know which motherboard you are using ?

    Are you using onboard 1394 ?

    If you are using a pci card for firewire port - just try to change the slot.

    Open device manager and in view select "Resourses by type" & check if the IRQ used by 1394 port is also used by any other device or not ?

    Lastly if your problem is still not solved then I will put an article about setting firewire port speed to 400 - which is wrongly set in winxp SP2 and has to be manually configured.(if you are aware of "SidSpeed" reg entry).

    ReplyDelete
  5. O Melhor Crítico do UniversoNovember 22, 2007 at 12:10 AM

    I'm using an ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA.
    I have tried before to change the slot of the pci card and nothing changed.
    And the IRQ used by 1394 isn't in use by another device.
    I usually use Edirol's power supply, but the problem persists anyway. Although the option to use System Timestamp is also available in Nuendo 2, it doesn't solve anything.

    ReplyDelete
  6. SarveshNovember 27, 2007 at 1:44 AM

    First check which midi ports you are using - i.e. DirectX or windows midi. If you are using directX then disable the windows midi ports in nuendo device setup. The option of System Timestamp is available for both windows and directX ports separately - so if you are using directX then you should enable (tick) the option in directX only.(i.e. select the directX page in nuendo device setup and then enable the system timestamp box.)

    You can try vice versa by enabling the windows midi ports instead and disabling the directX ports.

    If this also doesn't work, do let me know so that I can give you one more tip to try.

    Lastly have you set the "SidSpeed" of your firewire port properly as I have mentioned in my recent post?

    ReplyDelete
  7. O Melhor Crítico do UniversoNovember 27, 2007 at 2:05 AM

    I'm using de Asio 2.0 drivers and the emulated port for Edirol FA66, wich is the one with the least latency. Aboute the SidSpeed, I don't know how to do it. By the way, thank you for your interest on this! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. sandyMarch 8, 2008 at 12:51 PM

    Thx A lot Sarvesh For solving the midi problem....

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMay 13, 2008 at 4:22 AM

    Sarvesh, thanx a lot for your suggestion about the "Use system timestamp" option, I've saved a lot of time getting crazy with this midi problem. Greeting from Rome-Italy and thanx again.Rocco

    ReplyDelete
  10. NickJuly 30, 2008 at 11:42 AM

    Thanks this helped a lot, it really could have messed with me, but now i'm jammin'

    bless

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousAugust 16, 2008 at 6:28 AM

    Hi... I have a problem with Nuendo 3 and I couldn't find anyone else to ask a question. Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated.

    I used it yesterday and it worked fine, but today I have a problem. Everything loads correctly but when I hit play a bunch of static and noise is all that came through the speakers. I could hear the song playing faintly in the background through all the noise. I have an external sound card. The LAMBDA Lexicon. I updated it's drivers, but no luck. I run windows xp. I also have Reason 3 and it works fine.

    Any ideas? Feel free to ask me anything, and thank you very much

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousAugust 24, 2008 at 5:59 PM

    Hi everybody
    i have some problems to use my midi cable,i connect it to my pc and my keybaord,i use Nuendo 3
    it doesnt work,i tried to go to set up device but didnt work,everything seems to be ok but maybe i have to select the right option to enable midi in Nuendo which is my problem coz i dont know how to do that.
    i have a Korgpa80
    use midisport UNO to connect my keyboard to pc
    and use Nuendo 3

    would you give me some ideas how to solve this problem?
    get back to me on
    hot_hot_but_not_4u@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2008 at 2:37 AM

    i am using a simple pci audio card (not external)and therez no playback of vsts while playing from midi keyboard.when i press a key from da keyboard i dont hear anything in the software ...can any1 help me please...

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Sonic FuzzSeptember 23, 2008 at 3:26 AM

    Nice one cheers..sorted the problem!

    Doigy

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    Hi
    Thank you so much i was stuck for two days till i saw your solution. Youre great.
    Regards from India

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousMarch 8, 2009 at 10:10 AM

    Dude, thank you for the "Timestamp" check box tip...

    brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousMay 23, 2009 at 9:46 PM

    worked perfectly.. thanks a lot!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. UnknownApril 23, 2010 at 5:42 PM

    Solution:See that you should have DirectX 9.0c installed properly if you are using emulated Direct Music Midi ports.

    * If you are using Direct Music midi Ports then you should enable (check) the option “Use System Timestamp” provided in the Direct Music midi section of the Device Setup dialogue. This option uses another timing reference in your system when enabled.
    * If you are using Windows midi port then you should enable (check) the option “Use System Timestamp” provided in the Windows Midi section of the Device Setup dialogue. This option uses another timing reference in your system when enabled.





    Thank you man!

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousJune 26, 2013 at 10:32 AM

    Thanks, i experience this problem today. I knew it was something simple.

    ReplyDelete

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