External MIDI out of sync with Logic

Hi there.

iMac OS 11.2.3 i9

I'm after some help with external MIDI please.

When I press play the external MIDI starts straight away, but the computer audio and sequences start a moment later. I guess the computer takes a moment to pre roll (?) before playing, but the external MIDI starts straight away.

The work around is to manually add a MIDI delay to the sequence to get them in time.

Anyone come across this please?

Thanks in advance,

Alexander

It could be a Plug-in Delay Compensation issue, if you're using latency inducing plug-ins on Aux channel strips.

How are you monitoring the external instruments?

Hey David,

Thank for stopping by!

I did play with Plug-in Delay Compensation and I've just had another play, but no change.

I tried bypassing all plug-ins, but no change.

I reset all channels and the problem went away. It defiantly seems to be related to plug-in latency. Which is fine, if only the total latency could be added to the MIDI output!

Do you know of another way I could tackle this?

Cheers!

use the external instrument plugin instead of a raw external midi track. I believe that plugin is more in tune with PDC happening in the mixer and may do what you want, and especially if you are monitoring the audio from your external synths using the plugin to return the audio into the mixer.

As a second comment, disabling plugins will not turn off their latency...even if they are completely disabled, LogicPro will still add delay to the mix if you have AUX plugins with latency, disabled or not..that will happen.. I think you have to completely remove them from the mixer to get rid of their PDC effect, not sure what you mean when you said "reset all channels".

The "logic" behind external midi tracks, as was told to me on this forum a very long time ago, is that back in the day most people were using external midi tracks to listen to their devices through an external mixer, and not through Logic's software mixer. So external midi tracks do send the midi differently then when sent from the external instrument plugin, which by design is assuming that you're bringing the audio back into the mixer and expect it to be in sync with all the other software mixer tracks.

Hey Dewdman42,

That worked! Thank you so much, that's been bugging me for a while. It auto compensates for latency, so good...

AND, it allows me to use Logic's arpeggiator! I'd been trying to rout stuff in the Environment and all sorts!

AND, it brings up external instruments into the mixer (with latency compensation).

The reset all channels - that's just a variation on the reset channel strip command. Select all objects in mixer and use the reset channels function. I use this when clients come to me with their DIY mixes.

Yup, I started on Logic 2 doing exactly as you described with MIDI, so that makes sense.

Once again, I can not thank you enough

Alexander

x

I tried bypassing all plug-ins, but no change.

Bypassing plug-ins does not affect PDC. You have to actually remove the plug-ins from the inserts.

I reset all channels and the problem went away. It defiantly seems to be related to plug-in latency. Which is fine, if only the total latency could be added to the MIDI output!

 

Do you know of another way I could tackle this?

Have you tried using the External Instrument plug-in on a software instrument track?