Conference napalm::commusic

676.0. "Help diagnosing a problem" by ROCK::ANDERSON () Tue Apr 08 1997 11:19

                                 
I'm having a problem with my setup that I'm hoping one of you could help
diagnose and debug.

Here's my setup and some history.

	Gateway PC
	Ensoniq Soundscape Sound card
	Roland keyboard midi controller for PC (I forget the model name/number)
	Trax midi sequencer software
	MusicTime notation editor software

I'm having trouble when trying to use my keyboard for real-time 
entry into Trax.  It works ok for a short while and then starts playing 
somewhat random pitches and sounds as I play.  The sounds occur when 
I strike keys and are either the piano sound I'm using or a sort of "noise".

After the problem starts things are pretty erratic.  It sometimes stops 
for a while and then comes back.  Playing VERY slowly seems to avoid the 
problem.  In MusicTime, things behave similarly.

Once last night, I shut  down MusicTime and Trax, started up MusicTime again and
a piano chord was banging away at me with a slow, steady rhythm.  Shutting
down and restarting  MusicTime didn't fix that problem.  Just to see what would
happen  I used the media player to play a midi file then went back to MusicTime 
and the chord-playing had stopped (but the initial problem started again  as
soon as I started playing).

Other info:

I thought it might be the batteries in the keyboard but I replaced them 
last night and nothing changed.

I downloaded and installed a new driver from Ensoniq somewhat recently.  I
think I've used the keyboard successfully since then (although I may  be
wrong).

In Trax, just playing (not recording) seems to work fine until I try to
"record" something.  Then the problem starts and just playing doesn't work 
anymore.

In Trax, non-realtime entry mode from the keyboard (i.e. single-stepping
through the music a note at a time) seems to work ok.

As far as I can tell, I'm using the exact same setups in MusicTime and Trax 
that worked a few months ago.



Does anyone have any suggestions what might be happening and how to fix  it or
how to diagnose the problem?  I don't know if the problem is hardware 
(keyboard, sound card, other) or software (Trax, Musictime, sound card driver, 
other) or techniques for isolating it.

I'm going to be taking my keyboard to a friend's house tonight to try it 
with their equipment and (I believe) rule out the keyboard.

Thanks.

Walker
                             

      
A bit more information about my problem from last night's experiments.

- In both MusicTime and Trax, even though things sound horrendous as I enter, 
the software seems to be capturing the right MIDI information (note, duration, 
etc.)

- In Trax, just to see what would happen, in the MIDI setup dialog, I
discovered "transmit sync" set so I turned it off.  That seemed to fix the 
problem with Trax.  Hopefully, I then went to MusicTime and discovered that 
it was already off there and I still had the problem.

- I discovered I had some MIDI recording software (not a sequencer exactly) 
that came with the soundcard.  I tried using it and had no problems.

- Tried the keyboard with someone elses setup last night and it seems to 
be working fine.

I guess at this point I'm suspecting a software problem although I'm not  sure
which software.  Trax and MusicTime didn't change but the driver did.  Perhaps
something the new driver is doing differently or wrong that they can't cope
with?  Can anyone explain what the "transmit sync" is about and why  that might
have fixed the problem with Trax?

Walker

    To me, it sounds like your soundcard isn't configured correctly.