[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.