• Registered: 2023-10-21
  • Posts: 14

Topic: E-Drums connected directly to MIDI on UFX III

Hello,

Brand new owner of an RME UFX III in my home studio. Installed it 2 days ago and I'm very impressed with the sound quality it delivers. I am in the process of integrating analog hardware into my workflow and I have a Ferrofish Pulse 16 MX connected to UFX III via MADI.

Anyway, my question is about MIDI. I have a Roland TD-17 electronic drum kit that is about 18ft away from my PC. I currently use a Roland USB - MIDI device that connects my TD-17 to my PC via USB. I use Superior Drummer 3 drum samples to play so I need the absolute lowest latency in order to record drums and have drummers not feel like there is a delay between hits and sound. With my previous interface I could get about 7ms RTL.

Would it be better to connect the Roland TD-17 module directly to the UFX III MIDI port ? Instead of using the USB-MIDI interface ?

About 6 months ago I purchase a MIO XM (iConnectivity) device to route MIDI over Ethernet.. but I spent a lot of time trying to make it work and it just did not want to work.. at all.. so I abandoned that and got the Roland USB-MIDI device. Just want to know if connecting directly to UFX III via MIDI would give me lowest possible latency, and still enable me to route to Superior Drummer 3 in my DAW (Studio One 6.5).

Thank you !!!
Stephane

UFX-III, 12Mic, FerroFish Pulse 16
  • Registered: 2016-06-14
  • Posts: 1,142

Re: E-Drums connected directly to MIDI on UFX III

Hi
It probably makes no difference. Midi is midi, it goes its own way, not related to audio latency.

UCX - FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2

3 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2023-10-22 09:56:50)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,161

Re: E-Drums connected directly to MIDI on UFX III

oli77sch wrote:

Hi
It probably makes no difference. Midi is midi, it goes its own way, not related to audio latency.

But the implementation in the RME driver could have less jitter.
I read something like this many years ago, but have no practical experience or data to this topic.

Maybe RME can provide some information about any potential benefits of their implementation compared to USB based or others with 3rd party driver/HW.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • mkok
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2020-11-04
  • Posts: 632

Re: E-Drums connected directly to MIDI on UFX III

I have used a td30 and now td50x. I’ve tried through there own usb interface and through my Babyface pro fs midi interface and I just can’t tell the difference. I’m running with just under 3ms latency

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.
  • Registered: 2023-10-21
  • Posts: 14

Re: E-Drums connected directly to MIDI on UFX III

mkok wrote:

I have used a td30 and now td50x. I’ve tried through there own usb interface and through my Babyface pro fs midi interface and I just can’t tell the difference. I’m running with just under 3ms latency


Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess I'll just try both connections and see if there is any differences.

Cheers,
Stephane

UFX-III, 12Mic, FerroFish Pulse 16