MIDI Fighter and Ableton optimal latency settings?

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MIDI Fighter and Ableton optimal latency settings?
Posted on: 23.06.2010 by Arlene Schmauch
The recent article on DJTT had me messing about in the midi preferences area of Ableton and I was wondering if there was a recommended setting (if any) for the MIDI Fighter?

In the preferences area of Ableton, when you select the little dropdown arrow next to your "USB Audio" driver for the MF, you have a few options that until now i had thought only pertained if "Sync" was on. Call me crazy but it appears that changing the mode from "Midi Clock" to "none" seems to have some sort of effect (more responsive?) and I wanted someone from DJTT to confirm whether or not it matters? I am using a Lenovo Thinkpad T400.

If there is a recommended setting in this area, other than to have "input track" and "input remote" turned on, I would love to hear the official word (and perhaps an explanation why?). Also is there is a suggestion for "MME" versus "Direct Music" when using the MIDI Fighter?
robert chanda
12.07.2010
Originally Posted by RCUS
In the preferences area of Ableton, when you select the little dropdown arrow next to your "USB Audio" driver for the MF, you have a few options that until now i had thought only pertained if "Sync" was on. Call me crazy but it appears that changing the mode from "Midi Clock" to "none" seems to have some sort of effect (more responsive?) and I wanted someone from DJTT to confirm whether or not it matters?
MIDI clock is a stream of single byte messages sent around 96 PPQ - "Pulses Per Quarter Note" - where each note is defined by the tempo of the track in Beats Per Minute (and depending on the age of your MIDI gear there are a variety of clock standards with 24, 48, 96 and more PPQ). Essentially it's a deluge of incoming data bytes that the Midifighter doesn't use any of, so this information has to be thrown away before any real work can get done. A USB end point holds 64 bytes so just to clear the input data several round trips have to be done. So yes, sending MIDI clock to the device can slow down the responsiveness - don't send MIDI clock to the device.

Originally Posted by RCUS
If there is a recommended setting in this area, other than to have "input track" and "input remote" turned on, I would love to hear the official word (and perhaps an explanation why?). Also is there is a suggestion for "MME" versus "Direct Music" when using the MIDI Fighter?
MME are the Multimedia Extensions are a throwback to the 16-bit days of Windows 3.1. DirectMusic is the current, up to date low-level API for MIDI under Windows, so choose that one unless your ancient MIDI interface specifically requires MME drivers (unlikely).
Arlene Schmauch
23.06.2010		The recent article on DJTT had me messing about in the midi preferences area of Ableton and I was wondering if there was a recommended setting (if any) for the MIDI Fighter?

In the preferences area of Ableton, when you select the little dropdown arrow next to your "USB Audio" driver for the MF, you have a few options that until now i had thought only pertained if "Sync" was on. Call me crazy but it appears that changing the mode from "Midi Clock" to "none" seems to have some sort of effect (more responsive?) and I wanted someone from DJTT to confirm whether or not it matters? I am using a Lenovo Thinkpad T400.

If there is a recommended setting in this area, other than to have "input track" and "input remote" turned on, I would love to hear the official word (and perhaps an explanation why?). Also is there is a suggestion for "MME" versus "Direct Music" when using the MIDI Fighter?
Arlene Schmauch
19.07.2010		Thanks Fatlimey! You always got my back!

I don't believe i had anything being sent via Ableton's outputs to the MF, but I will need to check again to be sure.

So then to clarify what you're saying, for a Windows XP system, the MF which shows up as "USB Audio x" should be receiving no information from Live, and the port type for the information going into Ableton should be DirectMusic. Will adjusting the latency and/or the drop down menu to "none" have any effect at all if only Track and Remote are selected for the "USB Audio" Input?
robert chanda
12.07.2010
Originally Posted by RCUS
In the preferences area of Ableton, when you select the little dropdown arrow next to your "USB Audio" driver for the MF, you have a few options that until now i had thought only pertained if "Sync" was on. Call me crazy but it appears that changing the mode from "Midi Clock" to "none" seems to have some sort of effect (more responsive?) and I wanted someone from DJTT to confirm whether or not it matters?
MIDI clock is a stream of single byte messages sent around 96 PPQ - "Pulses Per Quarter Note" - where each note is defined by the tempo of the track in Beats Per Minute (and depending on the age of your MIDI gear there are a variety of clock standards with 24, 48, 96 and more PPQ). Essentially it's a deluge of incoming data bytes that the Midifighter doesn't use any of, so this information has to be thrown away before any real work can get done. A USB end point holds 64 bytes so just to clear the input data several round trips have to be done. So yes, sending MIDI clock to the device can slow down the responsiveness - don't send MIDI clock to the device.

Originally Posted by RCUS
If there is a recommended setting in this area, other than to have "input track" and "input remote" turned on, I would love to hear the official word (and perhaps an explanation why?). Also is there is a suggestion for "MME" versus "Direct Music" when using the MIDI Fighter?
MME are the Multimedia Extensions are a throwback to the 16-bit days of Windows 3.1. DirectMusic is the current, up to date low-level API for MIDI under Windows, so choose that one unless your ancient MIDI interface specifically requires MME drivers (unlikely).
Arlene Schmauch
12.07.2010		holy crap 131 views and nada?! i wish i had more time to research this on the internets. i got nothing back from ableton support on this subject either (sigh).
Arlene Schmauch
29.06.2010		60 views and nada for replies. this is indeed a mysterious topic. i will try to delve deepe on the abes end. inquiring minds want to know!

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