• Registered: 2008-10-23
  • Posts: 8

Topic: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

Hi All,

I own an original Multiface with PCMCIA/cardbus interface. A while back I performed some tests with MidiTest and got the following results:

Message latency: 0.89 ms
Message jitter: 0.23 ms
Message max deviation: 2.77 ms

I was wondering if owners of the Baby Face, Fireface UC and UFX would be able to share their respective performance results?

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

Which results do you need, DirectMusic or MME?

  • Registered: 2008-10-23
  • Posts: 8

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

The fastest wink

I'm looking to replace the multiface and want to know if I loose anything by going USB. This is for an edrum setup so fast and consistent, real-time response is critical.

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

Whether you can use MME or DirectMusic (preferably where possible) depends on your software. Most applications only support MME.

I did a whole series of tests via both MME and DM, both via Firewire and USB. Values with Miditest 4.9 are about the same as the ones you posted. Using Miditest 4.6 decreased maximum derivation by around half.

The difference occurs because v4.9 measures a *negative* value for "Message MinimumTime", which would mean that the message arrives before it is send. This either is a fault of v4.9 or of the Midi driver (the author of Miditest describes a similar case in 2004 with Steinberg drivers). I tend to think it's a v4.9 bug though.

So overall you can safely switch to whatever FW or USB interface you like. smile

  • Registered: 2008-10-23
  • Posts: 8

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

Awesome, many thanks!

For what it's worth I'll be using Logic on the Mac. At the time it was Logic 5.5 on PC. I'd still use it now if not for the 1GB ram issue and being unable to run under Win7.

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

I got in contact with the author of Miditest and he acknowledged that version 4.9 seems to have a bug. A new version is published soon ("a few weeks"). Until then I recommend to ignore the negative results and subtract them from the reported jitter value (or use 4.6 if available).

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Midi Performance (Lantency, Jitter etc)

There is a new version of Miditest that fixes the negative value bug.