[Problem] Why is MusE the only DAW that records in sync with external synths?

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joe-b
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[Problem] Why is MusE the only DAW that records in sync with external synths?

Post by joe-b »

This is not a problem with MusE3, but with qtractor (0.9.18) and Ardour (5.12.0). The problem is that when I connect an external synth (zynaddsubfx or supercollider), the audio that Ardour or qtractor records is 'early'. Meaning that, for instance, a simple sound played on the first beat will have its transient cut off in the recording, and subsequent notes will be just a little bit 'early'. The midi to synth sounds fine, it is the recording that is out of sync.

This is not a problem in Muse3. Also, recording directly (through guitarix, for example) into qtractor or Ardour does not have this problem, so I'm assuming the problem is not audio latency, but has something to do with how they process midi?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
spamatica
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Re: [Problem] Why is MusE the only DAW that records in sync with external synths?

Post by spamatica »

To make sure you are comparing apples to apples, are you using the same midi sub system for all the DAWs, alsa, jack?

I'm not entirely sure what Qtractor and Ardour supports, as MusE supports both it would be good to know if the same is used in all the tests.

Also, not 100% sure about this, but there may be differences in the way the sequencers schedule midi. I think Qtractor and Ardour relies more on the underlying subsystem (at least when it comes to alsa) whereas MusE has an internal timer and does the scheduling by itself.
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joe-b
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Re: [Problem] Why is MusE the only DAW that records in sync with external synths?

Post by joe-b »

Yes, as far as I'm aware I'm using the same midi sub system in my comparisons (e.g. a2jmidid in the case of supercollider midi). It turns out I am able to 'correct' the offset in qtractor after recording (by changing 'clip properties' -> 'offset' 00:00:00.010 to 00:00:00.000). So at least I have a workaround with qtractor.

spamatica wrote: Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:26 pm MusE has an internal timer and does the scheduling by itself.
Interesting.

Thanks.
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