Re: Nodal MIDI Output Latency

[Jon McCormack]

Hi,

We put a lot of effort into minimising latency and timing accuracy in Nodal. So much so that it performs much better than most DAWs such as Live or Logic in tests we've run.

Latency of a few samples amounts to 0.04-0.08 milliseconds -- effectively imperceptible. Or put another way, you'd get greater timing differences by moving your head 2cm further away from your monitors!

Most DAWs (Logic included) allow you to offset midi timing, so you could try adjusting this if its an issue for you.

Regards,

Jon

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 2:48:04 PM UTC+11, dti...@gmail.com wrote:

I know that MIDI latency is generally a problem across the board, but I was wondering if there's anything that can help decrease (or eliminate it).
Basically, I want the MIDI output of Nodal to record into a track in Logic.  I was able to set this up.  However, when I send Nodal, MIDI clock from Logic, and I setup a simple pattern in Nodal (like 1/4 notes), I find that they are a number of samples late, going into Logic.

Is there anything I can do to rectify this?

[Irfon-Kim Ahmad]

On 13-02-12 10:48 PM, dti...@gmail.com wrote:
> I know that MIDI latency is generally a problem across the board, but I
> was wondering if there's anything that can help decrease (or eliminate it).
> Basically, I want the MIDI output of Nodal to record into a track in
> Logic. I was able to set this up. However, when I send Nodal, MIDI
> clock from Logic, and I setup a simple pattern in Nodal (like 1/4
> notes), I find that they are a number of samples late, going into Logic.
>
> Is there anything I can do to rectify this?

You could quantize the data in Logic.

You could also try adjusting the MIDI delay on the track assigned to Nodal.

[Jon McCormack]

Nodal doesn't read MTC (the generative nature of Nodal makes it difficult to reliably shift to a location in the distant past or future, as would be required by MTC). 

It does understand MIDI Transport controls and clock sync.

Jon

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 3:26:27 PM UTC+11, dti...@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks for the info guys.  Yeah I figured I could quantize after, or sets delays, but I was wondering if there was way to just make things more stable.
Can nodal accept MTC?

[Brendon Bussy]

I seem to remember reading in the manual that it's recommended that sync be set up with Nodal as master. Not sure if this will make a difference.

brendon

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 5:48 AM, <dti...@gmail.com> wrote:

I know that MIDI latency is generally a problem across the board, but I was wondering if there's anything that can help decrease (or eliminate it).
Basically, I want the MIDI output of Nodal to record into a track in Logic.  I was able to set this up.  However, when I send Nodal, MIDI clock from Logic, and I setup a simple pattern in Nodal (like 1/4 notes), I find that they are a number of samples late, going into Logic.

Is there anything I can do to rectify this?

-

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[Jon McCormack]

Hi Georgi,

As explained in an earlier post, Nodal can play in sync with an external clock, plus rewind, stop, pause and play. However, it can't randomly shift to a new point in time (which you're after by changing the song position). This is because Nodal is not a linear time-based system - its generative - meaning that it needs to run forward in time to actually generate the midi data.

You are correct that you can't enter a floating-point value for tempo in Nodal, however it should be able to sync to any any clock source that supports floating point tempo. We can look at adding floating-point tempo entry within nodal in a future release along with the transport sync button you've mentioned.

Regards,

Jon

On Saturday, 30 March 2013 00:34:24 UTC+11, georgi marinov wrote:

I can get Nodal to reliably play, or stop, along with Logic. However, if I stop Logic's transport and then change song position, Nodal doesn't hear, even though I'm hoping Logic sends the new position as I change it (Nodal only hears if I jump back to the beginning of the track, then it also jumps back to 0000,001.01). 

Also, if I press Play, Nodal starts from where it left off, but if I have changed the song position before pressing play, Nodal playback is now out of sync with where it's "supposed to" be (think beats to a bar, etc). 

Another thing that Nodal doesn't handle is floating point tempo, e.g. 132.3 bpm. Logic goes to TTT.tttt. There is automatic tempo sync though it does tend to lag if I fiddle with the tempo while the transport is running (e.g. Nodal goes out of sync, then I have to stop, rewind to the beginning of the track and start again because). I'm guessing this has to do with what data you read to implement tempo sync.

Finally, I think a little button next to Nodal's transport, to listen or not for transport sync/playback, would be of value. Logic has the habit of record-arming MIDI tracks as you jump through them. Then Nodal starts sending to whatever track I'm on. I understand I can work around this in a variety of ways, but convenience is a big factor on inspiration..

Great software.

g.