Re: [LAU] midi triggering delay

I've been asking for help on the linux-audio-user list with a midi
timing problem and had many helpful suggestions but still not managed to
solve the problem, so I am cross-posting to alsa-user.

I've been trying for a week or two to get my roland edirol PCR keyboard
working with my good laptop, which is a thinkpad X61s (dual core 1400
MHz). There is a problem with midi timing - when I play notes on the
keyboard into fluidsynth, the notes are slightly delayed. The delay is
small (around 0.1s ?) but enough to be annoying. On my old laptop (a
dell 1400 Mhz single core), it works fine. I am using the keyboard
through its built in usb midi interface. I am running debian testing,
but have also tried ubuntu jaunty, which has the same problem.

The things I have tried so far (with no luck) are:
- compiling different -rt kernels. So far none of these has made a
difference, including when I just copied the kernel and modules from my
old laptop (which is running ubuntu hardy) across to the new one.
- setting realtime priorities for all the processes and interrupts
involved in the audio/midi chain. (according to instructions on this
page: http://tapas.affenbande.org/wordpress/?page_id=40 )
- running fluidsynth without jackd. (straight to alsa).
- setting the fluidsynth sample rate and other parameters to the same as
jackd.
- using another synth. (zynaddsubfx)
- running the system with no X server or ethernet.
- swapping the usb-midi lead from the keyboard to a different usb port.
- someone suggested using 'modprobe snd-usb-audio nrpacks=1'.

None of these have cured the problem. All I can think of doing now is to
move back to my old laptop for midi stuff (which is a hassle and also
annoying because I bought the new one partly because I thought it would
be good for music), or to try some other hardware solution, like running
the keyboard from a power supply and using a midi cable with a seperate
usb midi card.

Before I do this, it would be good to know if anyone on alsa-user has
any suggestions?

Thanks,

andy baxter.

andy baxter wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to get my usb midi keyboard (an edirol PCR 800) working with
> my good laptop (a 1400 MHz core 2 thinkpad X61s). I have jackd running
> with 8 msec latency and no xruns using an onboard intel HDA sound card.
> When I hook up qsynth (fluidsynth) to the keyboard's alsa midi output,
> the notes are triggered with a slight (<0.1s?), and variable time delay.
> Sometimes the note plays immediately on pressing the key; sometimes
> there is a noticeable delay. This does not happen when I use the same
> setup on my old laptop (a 1400 Mhz single core dell).
>
> The OS is debian testing at the moment, but I have had the same problem
> on this laptop with both ubuntu jaunty and a fairly recent version of
> linux mint.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what might be happening, or what I can do to
> narrow down the cause of the problem a bit further?
>
> My /proc/interrupts, lsusb, and lspci are pasted below.
>
> Cheers,
>
> andy baxter
>
> andy@email-addr-hidden:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
> CPU0 CPU1
> 0: 1207873 1669765 IO-APIC-edge timer
> 1: 2473 1983 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 8: 1 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
> 9: 19517 11123 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
> 12: 25255 22957 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 14: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge ide0
> 16: 380396 233180 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4, yenta
> 17: 829711 532117 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb5, ohci1394,
> HDA Intel
> 18: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi mmc0
> 19: 2 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb6
> 20: 18 17 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb1
> 21: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb2
> 22: 305246 302929 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb3
> 220: 8566 7543 PCI-MSI-edge eth0
> 221: 27049 24430 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
> NMI: 0 0 Non-maskable interrupts
> LOC: 426040 660568 Local timer interrupts
> RES: 2036860 2297232 Rescheduling interrupts
> CAL: 7278 7718 function call interrupts
> TLB: 14422 14326 TLB shootdowns
> TRM: 0 0 Thermal event interrupts
> SPU: 0 0 Spurious interrupts
> ERR: 0
> MIS: 0
>
> andy@email-addr-hidden:~$ lsusb
> Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0483:2016 SGS Thomson Microelectronics
> Fingerprint Reader
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0582:0033 Roland Corp. EDIROL PCR
> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
> Bus 003 Device 003: ID 07ab:fcdf Freecom Technologies
> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
>
> andy@email-addr-hidden:~$ lspci
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory
> Controller Hub (rev 0c)
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960
> Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
> 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960
> Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
> 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network
> Connection (rev 03)
> 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
> Controller #4 (rev 03)
> 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
> Controller #5 (rev 03)
> 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI
> Controller #2 (rev 03)
> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
> Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express
> Port 1 (rev 03)
> 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express
> Port 2 (rev 03)
> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
> Controller #1 (rev 03)
> 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
> Controller #2 (rev 03)
> 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI
> Controller #1 (rev 03)
> 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
> 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface
> Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E)
> IDE Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E)
> SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
> 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller
> (rev 03)
> 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or
> AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
> 05:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
> 05:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
> (rev 04)
> 05:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro
> Host Adapter (rev 21)
>
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>
>

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Received on Sat Sep 12 16:15:03 2009