Problem: Recorded MIDI out of sync w/ timeline and metronome
Repro:
Start new Studio One song
Insert Scaler 2 as an instrument track
Open Scaler 2 UI - set up simple C maj scale and enable DAW sync
Add a 2nd Instrument track in Studio One - set input for “Scaler 2” output, and ARM for record
Press record
Scaler 2 now plays the C maj chord on bar boundaries and the MIDI output is recorded in 2nd track.
Problem: Stop and zoom in on the recorded MIDI. The notes don’t fall on the bar markers but are late.
With some of the Perform patterns and with the metronome enabled, its clearly audible that Scaler 2 is not playing its pattern in sync with the DAW click.
Thanks - very excited about Scaler 2 if I can figure out some of these gremlins.
It is something we have been noticing as well and are about to release an update that addresses the issue.
It has been a big piece of work but Scaler 2.4.1 will be a lot more precise along with other improvements, bug fixes and new content.
The update should be available next week, we are doing the final stage of testing now.
Same. I don’t know if I’m “advanced”, but I am interested in using the capabilities of Scaler for demo creation using other VSTs as instruments. So I love that Scaler can drive MIDI out that can then be routed to other instruments. The only issue currently is the timing is off.
I’ve never experienced that myself. When I record the MIDI or Drag and Drop, it’s always right on the beat. On a Mac. Usually in Ableton Live or Cubase.
I’m on Mac OS High Sierra. I just did a test in Studio One 5 both record and Drag and Drop with performance on and it was right on the beat even with quantize turned off.
Are you on Windows?
I have yet to find a way to turn the quantize off in Scaler 2. I only see the two “Play Quantize” options “Chord Duration” and “Next Beat”. Both result in the same misaligned output. Is there a way to turn it completely off?
This is such a cool plugin. I updated to Studio One 5.4 (newly released) on Windows 10, and updated to Scaler 2.4.1. Unfortunately I’m still seeing lag and lack of sync between Scaler and S1. You can hear it when to run a pattern w/ DAW sync and enable the DAW metronome. You can also see it in the recorded output.
Hey Mike
I think it might be your humanize setting (c) but I’m trying to dup your scenario…so a couple questions:
Track 2 appears to be your Arturia piano plugin being driven by Scaler in track1,.but what occurred to generate the event? How did you create what we are looking we looking @ track 2? For example did you trigger a pattern to play in Scaler (track 1) using the transport in S1 and with record active in track 2? Or is that something else?
What is the scale of the gap you are getting?
When I do the steps above without humanize on I get a small gap (A) between notes 0.00.00.04 bars. I also added an additional bell note exactly on the beat to see if I could hear anything.
If I have Humanize turned on in Scaler, I get your image with similar delay
Exactly so. I’ve got a chord sequence set to DAW Sync with some arpessio or pattern. So its set up that pressing PLAY in S1 transport causes Scaler to start its internal sequence. Then I have Arturia listening to the output of Scaler as a MIDI Input, and I’m recording on the Arturia channel.
The scale of the gap looks like about .013 sec at 120bpm. Humanize if off.
Those smarter than I might chime in differently, but as far as I can tell and now and now that I’ve replicated what you are seeing, what you are likely dealing with is instrument monitoring latency. It has nothing to do with Scaler specifically. From the time you hit record, the time S1 needs to tell Scaler to Play, Play needs to start then the time it takes for the signal to get back to S1 is what we are talking about. There is no 0 latency…but some configurations/systems are faster than others.
For example, I tested this on dog slow 10 year old laptop. I can go from your 0.13 seconds (or much worse) down to .004 by adjusting the Audio Device & Processing settings in S1s Audio Setup area under Options.
You will find these settings here:
The settings to play with are likely: Audio Device >> Device Block Size (smaller for slower machines) Processing>> Dropout Protection & Enable low latency monitoring for Instruments (very important)
There is no one size fits all here so you will need to experiment.
Here was my workflow to find the best setting for you issue (smallest initial recording delay)
S1 project with only Scaler and Piano V
Open the edit window and set the timebase to seconds (via right click on timeline in edit window)
Zoom edit window until you can see section lines marked at the 10ths level
Hit record in S1 for a couple seconds, stop, look at the delay in your start time
The notes will not be at zero and depending on what settings you have, you might need to zoom to even see the notes
delete that event
Adjust the settings above and try again until you get the smallest initial delay
if you can’t get it as tight as you prefer, you might try the Record Offset setting in S1 to compensate for this.
