Latency problems using Oxygen keyboard to input into Sibelius 4

April 20, 2009 11:44 AM

How can I fix a latency problem with a Oxygen8 v2 midi controller keyboard inputting into Sibelius 4?

I've just become the proud owner of a shiny Oxygen 8 V2 midi controller, which I primarily want to use for recording into Sibelius 4.

When not recording I can play notes in and they come up instantly but when I try to record in 'flexi-time' there is a significant lag between my pressing the key and the computer recognising it, which obviously leads to massive accuracy problems. I'm aware that there are ways round this in terms of different input methods but I'd quite like to fix it.

I'm running XP and am computer-literate enough to be able to follow instructions/find more information if you show me where to look but not computer-literate to sort this out on my own!

Thanks!

posted by Lotto to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

The latency issue comes from the audio buffer. The larger the buffer, the greater the latency, but less necessary processing power. I haven't used Sibelius in a long time. Is there an audio option anywhere in there to decrease the audio buffer? Know that if you decrease the buffer and improve your latency, you may get pops and stutters in your audio due to the increased processing overhead. Otherwise, you may want to consider getting a dedicated audio processor like the ones sold by M-Audio (I've been using an M-Audio Quattro for years).
posted by zerokey at 11:56 AM on April 20, 2009

In Sibelius 5, you go to Play -> Playback Devices -> Audio Engine Options to adjust the buffer size. Depending on how fast your computer is, you might be able to adjust it to 512, at which point the latency should be low enough not to really bother you.

Sibelius 5 also tells you what the latency will be. If I set it the buffer at 1024 samples and playback at 96kHz, the latency is around 14 ms, which is not enough to bother me too much.
posted by nosila at 1:41 PM on April 20, 2009