Need help with 90+ ms Latency issue and Kat KTMP1 multipad

[Catspaw]

I have EZDrummer 2 and a Kat KTMP1 Multipad. The best latency I can achieve is 90+ ms.

Sound card is SoundBlaster Extreme X-fi

I’ve tried every combination I can find.

Kat device USB in the computer. EZD2 in standalone mode.
Kat MIDI into Presonus Audiobox USB into the computer EZD2 in standalone.
Kat MIDI into Mio 1×1 MIDI to USB into the computer. EZD2 in standalone
FL Studio 12 with EZD2 as a plug-in. Tried every driver, buffer size, offset.

Straight into MIDI-OX, the Kat seems to work well …. but, that’s only subjective. I don’t know how I would get a time value for any latency from MIDI-OX. But, it’s a heck of a lot quicker response than EZD2 in stand alone (visually.) This makes me think it’s not the interface.

ASIO4ALL reports about a 12 ms delay (EZD2 stand alone) but has no audio output regardless of Audio device selected. I’ve selected every combination in the Blaster settings window and still get no sound using ASIO.

I don’t believe it’s the sound card. I can even see the delay from a pad strike to the response from EZD2. EZD2 graphics don’t even move until my stick has rebounded well off the pad. It’s a full slow 1/16th note behind (play four slow notes and there’s always one more after I stop … it’s that bad.)

Youtube says nothing more than adjust the buffer size in your DAW which doesn’t shorten the latency.

I really don’t know what’s causing the latency … interface, computer, sound card, s/w settings … and I don’t know of any other thing to test or adjust.

I don’t mind doing the research …. I just don’t know what else to research at this point. I will be posting to the FL Studio forum and contact Kat to see what may be there also.

Any ideas out there?

Topic

[rrosin]

I recommend to investigate this issue isolated on the MIDI side and the audio side:

[1] Use an MP3 player or similar device as audio source, route it to your sound card, then into FL Studio and back out to the sound card. Compare one channel directly from the audio device with one channel from your sound card. If you have the option to record this with a second PC, you can measure the latency with Audacity or other programs.
If you cannot get an acceptable latency with this setup, you might want to change the sound card. One low budget solution working well with ASIO4ALL is “Behringer U-Control UCA202 USB Audio Interface” (~30 bucks from Amazon).

[2] To find out if your KAT device is causing additional latency on the MIDI side, you can replace it with a different MIDI device. Any cheap device will do, a pad controller or a MIDI keyboard.

Regards Reiner

[Catspaw]

Thank you for the reply rrosin. I did try something similar to what you suggested (I’ve tried so many other combos, it’s hard to remember what I’ve done exactly.)

I got help from a fellow midiot and found the solution … at least for me and my setup.

In the FL help documents there’s info on it under “system settings” I believe. It also has links to additional useful info on ASIO4ALL.

When I go back and work with this some more, I will add to this post with specifics as to where this info actually is in the FL help docs.

FL asio worked … sort of. ASIO4ALL had no sound output. When I accessed the panel, it would go “disabled”. Turns out that FL suggests going to the windows speaker tray icon, right-clicking, go to playback devices, and disable the SB card. Then go back and re-enable it. This, I think, ensures that it is closed out for any other apps using ASIO4ALL.

Open FL back up. Audio settings, select ASIO4ALL, and it worked. Buffer latency was displayed as 12 mS (also, at one time 6 mS, but, I don’t remember what setting I was at …. I will be able to go back and play around more now that I have working steps to take,) There might be other ways to set this up better, I don’t know. Auto Close in FL doesn’t seem to do it.

It was recommended that FL asio would be better, but, so far it doesn’t appear to do as well as straight ASIO4ALL. the ASIO4ALL has very acceptable (very playable or un-noticable) latency. Until I can dial all this in better, I’ll use the ASIO4ALL so I can play instead of troubleshooting.

[Catspaw]

For FL studio users …. I found my answers ( or the help I needed) in the FL 12.9 beta help document on the image-line site. Try using the search term “Buffer underruns”. There is a section called Buffer underruns and maximizing FL studio performance. It has links to things like dealing with an ASIO4ALL driver also. I was finally able to track down my answers from there.

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