Roland E30 / chinese USB midi problems

[Jaapyse]

Hi all,

I have a Roland E-30 from March 1990, connected to this chinese MIDI-to-USB adapter. When I use the input on my (Windows 7) PC as input for music production software, the sound hangs a lot. Using MIDI-OX I noticed that it often missed the "note on" or "note off" messages.

What is the most likely cause of this issue?
1. The synth or how old it is
2. The MIDI-to-USB adapter
3. Drivers

I don't mind getting a better MIDI-to-USB adapter, but perhaps some experts here know of this problem and have a better solution.
Please let me know!

- Jaapyse

 

[happyrat1]

Realistically it could be any of the three issues you mentioned.

First and cheapest to deal with is Windows latency by optimizing the drivers and deleting any TSRs which could be slowing down your system. Install the ASIO4ALL driver and google "Windows 7 MIDI Latency Fix" for suggestions on optimizing your system.

Secondly if that doesn't fix it, then perhaps buying a name brand USB MIDI Adapter would help.

If none of these work then the problem probably is the age of the keyboard. Not much you can do about that except shell out for an upgrade.

Let us know if this solves your problem.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If the sound of the notes being triggered lags behind your playing, then ASIO4ALL might help, as well as decreasing certain settings in the DAW's or driver's audio setup, such as the buffer size.

But if the problem isn't lagging sound so much as notes being missed altogether, it's probably either a problem in the keyboard itself (such as keys that aren't working as they should) or-- perhaps more likely-- an unreliable MIDI-to-USB adapter. The cheap ones are notoriously prone to data errors, such as data bits that aren't transmitted properly, resulting in the "wrong" messages being received.

 

[Jaapyse]

Hi Gary and Michael,

Thank you very much for your replies. Today I got around to testing some of the things you advised. As Michael mentioned, it's indeed more of a data corruption issue than a latency issue. I tried it again with MIDI-OX and I can clearly see that the note pops up instantly when I press or release it. That is if it even detects it at all. When playing the synth normally, I never have trouble with it not registering notes, so I'm pretty sure it's not a issue with the keys or the contacts. When I start mashing a lot of keys at the same time I will immediately see all kinds of random garbage in MIDI-OX, like "CC: Bank MSB", "Control Change" or "PC: <some random instrument name on the synth>". Definitely not notes turning on and off.

I'm still not sure what exactly is the issue though. What do you guys think?

Thanks for your help so far!

- Jaapyse

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If you don't mind spending a little more money on a MIDI-to-USB adapter from a known, reputable company, I'd start by doing that to see if it helps. Since it's a Roland keyboard, you might try the one that Roland sells:

Roland - UM-ONE mk2 | USB MIDI Interface

UM-ONE mk2: USB MIDI Interface - Now Compatible with the iPad

www.roland.com

But any brand should work; you just want to avoid the ones that are dirt cheap unknown brands because they do tend to be unreliable.

 

[Biggles]

Welcome

The Roland adapter is £30 here in the UK.

Given the age of your keyboard perhaps now is the time to look at buying another keyboard or even buying a MIDI controller keyboard which will work without the need of an adapter.

There is a Roland MIDI keyboard on eBay here in the UK for less than the price of the adapter, plus there are plenty of good units by other manufacturers.

 

[Jaapyse]

Hi everybody,

I actually bought this specific keyboard because I really like the 80's synthesizers and this was the closest I could get with my budget. Therefore I decided not to get another keyboard, but to try out the Roland adapter.

It arrived today and it works! Driver installation was a breeze, I tried playing with it and everything works correctly now! Before I knew it half an hour had passed and I was having a lot of fun. There's a slight delay between hitting the note and hearing it, but that's most likely the software. It's not too bad anyway.

Thank you all so much for your assistance, I am extremely glad I got it to work.

- Jaapyse

 

[SeaGtGruff]

That slight delay is probably the audio driver, or audio buffer settings, or both. If you don't have an actual ASIO driver for any audio equipment or sound card, try installing the ASIO4ALL driver; it's just a sort of emulation of ASIO, and an actual ASIO driver would be better, but ASIO4ALL is better than no ASIO at all. You might need to fiddle with the driver settings-- buffer size, etc.-- to get the best results. As far as buffer size, for audio that needs to be as close to live as possible, you want a smaller buffer size, not a larger buffer size, because you want the audio data to get sent to the speakers as quickly as possible, rather than held back until a large buffer gets filled.

 

[Jaapyse]

I looked into the latency issue today. When I play the sound through my laptop speakers I have no problem, but when I use my headphones, which go through a sort of USB-soundcard, it has the latency. So it's definitely not an issue with MIDI itself.
I guess that solves it!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

You should check out the driver for the USB audio interface to see what settings are being used for the buffer. As I mentioned in my earlier post, decreasing the size of the audio buffer will allow the audio data to flow through at a "less laggy" rate.