MIDI notes randomly swallowed

[MikeyC]

Hey, I'm writing for a Trombone Quartet using the Solo Trombone Samples from EastWest Symphonic Orchestra. I'm just using one track at the moment, and no other ressources, yet MIDI notes keep getting swallowed during playback. There's no automation. It's never the same one, and often when I just click the note, I get a short pop but no sound. Does anyone know what's going on?

[ski]

Could be a few different things...

 

1) the polyphony of the plugin is set too low. You should have it set to at least double to number of actual instruments you're writing for. 3x the number would be even better

 

2) your buffer size is set too low. Although I think #1 above is the most likely culprit, try doubling your buffer size if it turns out that it's not a polyphony issue

 

Question for you... are you writing all the parts using one instrument?

[camillo jr]

It's likely as ski says but I can think of another possibility....

 

I've run into a similar problem with other instruments where the mod wheel was programed to change the release of the sound. Unless the mod wheel was rolled forward immediately after the song was started or was engaged via automation, the sound would act as if only the shortest release time was available. If I clicked on the note in the piano roll it would also play almost as a pop until I wiggled the mod wheel.

[shivermetimbers]

Sounds like Pac man syndrome.

 

[MikeyC]

Thanks for your ideas (even you, timbers )!

The maximum voice in Play is set to 512, I increased the audio buffer from 256 to 512, this had no impact. I don't know if this points to a buffer problem, but I'm also getting unusually high numbers of buffer unloads when I hit play (what I mean is you hear trails of the last notes played when you start play again).

One thing that seemingly helped was that I unloaded a Play instance from a second track I was preparing. The second track had an instance of Play with five MIDI channels loaded with standard Brass Quintet instrumentation. But I'm still getting unplayed MIDI notes, though they are more rare now.

On the first track I'm using one Solo Trombone instrument for four voices. I have a solo Piccolo Trumpet loaded on a second channel in case I want to try stuff out of the Trombone range.

[ski]

The buffer unloading thing is likely the result of a long-standing problem with Logic, where... well, it does that. Not 100% sure, but it's a possibility.

 

If you've got the polyphony set to 512, suggest lowering it to a more reasonable number (if that's possible in Play). The theory here is to allocate fewer voices so that there are fewer voices for the computer to "prepare".

 

Another suggestion (and this'll be somewhat of a pain) -- don't use multi-timbral instances of Play. Allocate just one instance per instrument. That's not to say that you can't write multiple parts on that instrument (even on multiple tracks all assigned to an instrument).

 

Yet another suggestion... see if you get the same lousy response by loading up a bunch of EXS-24 sounds playing your existing parts on similar instruments. Not suggesting that you resort to using those sounds. Just as a test.

[bailhe]

Does this happen at abrupt or large tempo changes?