Please help - Virus TI2 Kbd issues

[simog]

Hi all,

Firstly I would like to say hi to everyone as I am a newbie to this forum but have been lurking and searching for answers to my problem with the Virus TI2 Keyboard.

I recently invested in this synth as I have always loved the Virus sound and I write Trance so it seemed well suited. I run a native setup and what ever I do with the configuration, I simply cannot get the latency issues to improve.

I use Sonar 8 PE, and read on here that there is a problem with the PDC that causes other VSTi's to experience latency when the VC plug is inserted...that is definately true. It makes my project unusable!!
When I switch to Live mode, the latency issues for the other VSTi's is gone. Only trouble is, now the Virus is out of sync!

The Virus doesn't allow recording in real time when live is disabled so I had noticed which is very strange because when I play the keys, the resulting audio appears absolutely spot on, it's just that the midi being transmitted is not in sync with what I am hearing (slightly behind).

I tried a demo copy of Ableton Live 8 too, and although the other VSTi's work perfectly with VC inserted, the sync of the Virus is out, Live or no Live mode.

I don't use the Virus as my sound card, I have an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 for that which I have tried at buffer settings of 128/384/512 and sample frequencies of 44100/48000/96000. I use the ASIO drivers.

I have for testing purposes configured the virus as the soundcard also, but again, similar results.

My PC setup :

Intel Dual Core 2.4Ghz
Asus P5E32-E Mobo with PCIe Nvidia graphics card (hardware acc off)
4Gb Ram
Sata HDD
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card
Firewire PCI card (for use with Powercore)
Windows Vista 32-bit SP1
Sonar 8PE Release 8.3.1
Virus TI software release 3.0.1.15

Who out there has one of these keyboards working properly, with other VSTi's as well in there project with no (or un-noticable) latency and no obvious Midi/Audio sync issues. Please post up your specs as I refuse to believe that the keyboard is no use. It has to be a software / OS / pc hardware issue.
If I need to go Mac to do this then I will!!

Really sorry for the long first post and I really hope someone can help me out here. I want so badly to use this synth as it was intended!

Kindest Regards,

Simon

[telson]

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card ???? :rolleyes:
Firewire PCI card (for use with Powercore) ??? :rolleyes:
Windows Vista 32-bit SP1 ??? :rolleyes:

[simog]

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card ???? :rolleyes:
Firewire PCI card (for use with Powercore) ??? :rolleyes:
Windows Vista 32-bit SP1 ??? :rolleyes:

Ok,

I presume by your comments that all three of these are a bad combination with the Virus? Could you please provide more detail as so far without the Virus the setup has been rock solid.

With regard to the Firewire card, as I have a powercore compact Firewire device, this is a requirement. Does this mean bad news?

Simon

[absynth]

try OS 3.0.2 Public Beta

The Arp Timing is really good with it, but you might geht some slowdowns when brwosing patches and switching tabs in VC

[simog]

Thanks for that, any problems with the Beta other than the browsing issues you mentioned?

I also have a call open with Access support who are suggesting a USB related issue as they have tested the Virus under Vista successfully with Sonar 8.

I have queried with them with regards to the M-Audio and Firewire cards as mentioned above. Is there a specific issue with the M-Audio card that I didn't know about?

I am a little more confident that this is my PC rather than the Virus as it would seem that alot of you have this working properly.

[telson]

in my country if someone talks about vista , the answer is svista ( greek translation : delete )

look at my setup
i have no problems at all with my polar and my daw
actually i believe that it's because of XP OS and RME soundcard
if you want to make your life easy , just think about a serious
audio interface with stable drivers

[simog]

in my country if someone talks about vista , the answer is svista ( greek translation : delete )

look at my setup
i have no problems at all with my polar and my daw
actually i believe that it's because of XP OS and RME soundcard
if you want to make your life easy , just think about a serious
audio interface with stable drivers

Hi,

Like the translation! Was going to try the Virus on my laptop which runs XP tonight. Would need to configure it as an audio interface too, but for testing purposes I guess it would quickly answer my questions!

What DAW do you use?

Cheers,

Simon

[absynth]

yes thats true, the funny thing is i had a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card once (sold it to a friend *g*)

like telson says if you want a good stable system with good sound and drivers buy a RME interface

i have the rme Fireface400, first it seems expensive, but you never gonna regret it, because you buy it only once and probably work the rest of your life with it

also you should switch to Windows7 RC 32 Bit, download it for free, you can use it till 2010, works much better than vista with audioapps!

[telson]

What DAW do you use?

sonar pe 8.3.1

[simog]

yes thats true, the funny thing is i had a M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card once (sold it to a friend *g*)

like telson says if you want a good stable system with good sound and drivers buy a RME interface

i have the rme Fireface400, first it seems expensive, but you never gonna regret it, because you buy it only once and probably work the rest of your life with it

also you should switch to Windows7 RC 32 Bit, download it for free, you can use it till 2010, works much better than vista with audioapps!

I think that the RME might have to wait a while!! Just looked up the prices and they are very expensive. Don't think I could justify another £700 - 1200 to my wife!!

Does Windows 7 work well with the VC drivers? Bit concerned about Windows 7 as I also have a powercore and they have only just got somewhere with the drivers for that under Vista, albeit still with some issues on firewire connectivity and driver initialization (just means I have to unplug the powercore and plug it back in before it is recognized properly by the driver!).

Seriously thinking of moving over to Ableton Live 8 in place of Sonar now because VC seems so much more stable in that sequencer.

Going to strip out the PC tonight, removing all components like firewire card, M-Audio card etc and install XP on a spare disk I have. Seems it simply has to be PC hardware / software as I have seen the Virus working on some youtube videos flawlessly, with one guy playing live over a running track with no latency at all.

I know the audio interface in the Virus is not going to be as good as the RME etc...but will the configuration work with this as an alternative solution to the M-Audio? Anyone succeeded with this setup?

[simog]

sonar pe 8.3.1

Do you have any issues with other VSTi's when VC is in the same project? I have a huge latency issue when I have the VC in and try to use another VSTi along-side it. Seems all I can do is hit the live button to stop the latency problems with other VSTi's.

[telson]

Do you have any issues with other VSTi's when VC is in the same project?

no i don't
you have a "large" synth mister
if you wanna make cool productions , you have to get
"large" audio interface and also "large" monitor speakers

home studio begins from that point
in order to build a home studio , save money , and try to explain
to your wife , that a great sounded project , is our life :p

[absynth]

no i don't
try to explain to your wife , that a great sounded project , is our life :p


:D exactly, thats the most important part

[simog]

Lol...well she certainly understands the comment about music is our life, but the bank doesn't agree! They tend to be a little more skeptical!!

Right, update time....

At the mercy of some of the comments on Vista / firewire / soundcards I tried a few things last night.


Firstly - Removed Firewire card, moved the M-Audio to a new slot and installed a dedicated USB 2 PCI card.

Next I installed a new HDD using IDE (not ideal but only spare I had) and installed WinXP Pro SP3. Installed all drivers fresh.

Installed sonar / Virus TI software. Virus now connected to root host bus port on usb controller.

Installed drivers for M-Audio and configured for the lowest possible buffer size (64) running at 48000.

Opened a new project in sonar. Configured audio settings to use ASIO drivers and set playback and record buffer sizes to 64 and sample rate to 48000 to match card.

Added z3ta synth to project to test for latency and pops / clicks...latency fine...totally accurate and no popping / clicking or dropouts.

Recorded short midi sequence with z3ta...no playback issues...all spot on.

Added instance of VC.

Tested for latency with z3ta and significant latency experienced (as before). Enabled live mode and latency with z3ta gone.

Copied short Midi sequence to virus track and played both together still in live mode....virus out by fraction (but improved over Vista experience).

Recorded fresh sequence still in live mode to virus track...midi notes recorded accurately but playback still out.

Disabled live mode and sequences now in sync, however, Midi/audio latency with z3ta returned.

Fiddled with project settings for sending MTC and SMTPE to Virus.

Noticed that when VC in live mode, small symbol of a clock is displayed (presumably telling me it is syncing??). Then when midi recieved, a note symbol is displayed in its place.

Most often I will see a symbol on the Virus which says "SE"...does this equate to sync error?? Would make sense if it does as the timing is off.

For me to work correctly in sonar, the VC would have to run always in live mode...and I am so close to syncing that it is frustrating. Anyone know if this is now just down to a config in sonar?

For arguments sake, I tried all the above with the Virus as the soundcard and the same results.

I also tried Ableton live 6 demo (came with the M-Audio) and oddly I was able to (once all buffer / sample rate / midi sync settings were configured) sync up the VC with the z3ta synth with VC in live mode (even with the M-Audio as my interface)!!!! Only thing is I didn't see what the symbols were saying on the Virus...I was getting quite tired by this point!

I didn't run the project long enough to see if it would stay in time for a full track (only tried about 12 bars), but was encouraged by this.

Did notice latency with z3ta in ableton with live mode off when hitting keys though! Groan!

I am hoping that my Virus is entirely ok...had noticed some people saying they had faulty ones...but I am getting more convinced that the problem is the PC / Software environment.

[Ronkaz]

Most often I will see a symbol on the Virus which says "SE"...does this equate to sync error?? Would make sense if it does as the timing is off.


that means "SysEx". a kind of extended controller message.

r

[simog]

Thanks for clearing that up...I wasn't sure as there are no references to the on screen display icons that I can find in the pdfs or in the getting started manual!

Well I downloaded a full copy of Ableton Live earlier so looks like all my future productions will be done in that...not a bad thing though as I actually really like the sequencer. Thought it a nice little side product that you can rewire it to Sonar. Will be doing some investigating tonight!

[ShortBus]

If you like ableton you will love the APC-40 officical release monday. http://www.akaipro.com/apc40

[simog]

Going to take a loo at that! Really do like Ableton, so easy to use and I don't get so many issues under this. All of the VSTi's are in sync!

Seem to be getting some distortion on some of the patches though when I updated my Virus OS to the latest beta though...strange...seems to affect pads mostly.

Going to go to 3.0.3 full release to see if that cures it.

[Nobl1v1on]

I have got a Virus TI2 61 key, with an AMD 64 X2 3800+ overclocked and running at 2.25 GHz with 3gigs of RAM and Windows XP pro, been using the Virus as my sound interface until I get the one I really want, and well I have not had a lick of trouble with latency using it with FL Studio 8, Live 7, and Sonar 7, but the first thing I do is setup the latency compensation for each respective DAW. Something to think about, have you got swap file enabled, or virtual memory running, if so turn em both off. Make sure you disable any Virus protection while you are in the midst of working, and make sure you are not signed into the internet at all,ie chats, ect. Then pull up you task manager and see how your memory is looking, you might have some background progs that are eating away at your physical memory without even realizing it.
Good luck, if I can get it up and running I know anyone else can :)

Cheers
Nobl1v1on