I'm creating a combined horn and drum score. There are two devices. One device is my MIDI Yoke NT (with 8 VD sounds) and the other is my Audigy 2 soundcard (with 9 brass sounds).

The timing is off just a tad between the two devices. I remember reading somewhere, a couple of years ago, that this could happen with more than one device. Other than buying the larger Kontakt (or whatever it's called) to house all the sounds, is there a way around this?

Mark

Windows XP
latest Sibelius
Oodles of RAM

Hi Mark,

What you're describing probably has to do with [b]latency[/b]. Latency is a term you'll hear often when dealing with computer audio as it's usually a measurement of the time it takes from the time you request a sound, to the time you actually ";hear"; the sound. Latency is typically calculated in miliseconds, which is probably why you're hearing the slight timing problems.

With the setup you describe, there are a couple different places you can adjust latency. To keep it simple (at least for starters), try adjusting the setting for only your horn device (the Audigy) in the [b]latency[/b] column in Sibelius>Play>Playback and Input Devices. Raise the number to make horns sound a little later, lower it to make them sound sooner.

If that doesn't work, you could also fiddle with the latency slider within VDL2>File>Setup>Soundcard. Just keep in mind, lowering latency too much could create CPU spikes and sacrifice performance. Varies completely from system to system. Raising too high might create some screwy sounding rhythms, so take baby steps to dial it in, and don't be too agressive with your settings.

One other thing to check is that VDL2 is using the Audigy's ASIO driver. DS or MME might not perform as well. This is also something you'd set in the VDL2 soundcard settings window.

Thanks Jim,

The VD latency step worked by setting it to 2 (it [i]was[/i] 50). Thanks so much!

Cool!
2 is very low, but if it ain't broke.... :)