Troubleshooting Live MIDI Playback Audio Quality

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Level 1

8 points

Troubleshooting Live MIDI Playback Audio Quality

Hello,

I am experiencing some issues with my live MIDI playback in Logic, the issues aren't always prevalent so I believe they can be resolved but with all the troubleshooting I have done I cannot seem to find a solution.

I am running Logic 10.4.2 on a 2013 macbook with Sierra 10.12.6 - I have a memory at 8gb.

The issue:

often times when I use my MIDI controller to play/record software instruments I experience a crackle in the live playback. If I sustain, and continue to input notes, the crackle worsens until eventually it completely overtakes all melodic information.

This issue is exacerbated when I use more complicated software instruments, for example, using Alchemy is almost impossible because it seems like my computer just can't handle it.

To try to combat this issue I always run an I/O Buffer of 32 and a sample rate at 44.1 yet still, it's like i'm missing something. I close all other software running on my computer, I turn off my wi-fi, everything I know to do to try to give logic everything my computer has.

On some projects, it seems like my computer can handle way more at once, and others, it can't handle a single MIDI track with an Alchemy pad. It's super frustrating.

Do you have any suggestions to help me optimize my computer for logic? I'm really hoping it's not as simple as "oh you're computer is too old and can't handle it anymore" Help please!

Thanks so much,

Jake

Posted on Jan 3, 2019 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

Pancenter

Level 6

14,644 points

Jan 7, 2019 8:48 AM in response to J.Wells

You have a misunderstanding of how latency works... it also is present in playing software instruments, but is approximately 1/2 the time as it's not a "round trip" latency. The I/O Buffer latency is fully compensated for by Logic, the only concern is recording where you would hear the input (voice, guitar etc...) slightly delayed at higher buffer settings. It's doubtful if you would ever need a buffer setting lower than 64, most people can get by with 128.

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