Newbie here with a 2 part problem regarding midi notes from sequencer being cut off…

Part 1 - When playing a midi song file from my sequencer, the 1st note at the top of the song never starts on time. 

In Multi Mode, what I get is a click then the note will fade-up quickly. If Im playing the keyboard, all notes play fine. If I stop the song, open the midi file and click on the 1st note, it plays fine. If its a sequence where the 1st note isn’t on the downbeat of 1, then it will play perfectly, as it does when I let say a 4 bar sequence loop..second time around when it goes back to 1, there is no ‘hitch’ in the 1st note, only when I start from the beginning by pushing play.

Part 2 - I’ve fixed the problem...temporarily. I selected a multi, went to insert effects and clicked all boxes off. All sequences play fine. I still hear verbs, but no chorus. Another multi has midi channels 1-8 with inserts on, and 9-16 with inserts off. 1-8 has the hitch, and the full effects, 9-16 does not.

My problem is I want the effects back, but usable!!  So for instance when I want to use the “sweetness” rhodes, I want the full glory of that chorus. 

What can I do? Is this a firmware issue?

No. You likely have too many commands happening at Measure 001, Beat 1, Clock tick 000

IF you showed a screen shot of all that you are asking the Motif-Rack ES to do on that one clock tick, you would hiccup too.

Highly recommended that you take some of the commands and move them into a empty Measure you need to ADD to the front of your sequence. For example, say you are playing a GM file - GM requires 100ms between the GM RESET message and any other message. 100ms is not a long time but if you do not allow for this barrier you will hear what you hear (a small hiccup at the start of the music data).

If it is not a GM RESET, perhaps you have 16 different Bank Select and Program Changes all happening on Measure 001, Beat 1, Clock 000… Trying to have 16 musicians pickup their instruments and play a note all in that single clock tick is also a cause for a hiccup.

the Rack ES does not need much time - but it does need some

You should create a measure out in front of your music data for all SETUP DATA. Setup data is defined by:
Any message that is not a NOTE-ON Event:
_System Reset commands (like GM Reset)
_Bank Select/Program Change
_System Exclusive data messages
etc.

you may find that the measure can be 1 beat (it will depend on the types of commands you have in the sequence track data) we are not talking a lot of time here. If you think about a Program Change - it can take place in the time it takes a horn player to draw a breath before blowing into the horn… but the horn player cannot take that breath and blow at the same clock tick. If you follow that analogy.

Hope that helps.

Yes, I do follow, and thanks for the reply! 

I do add the space before each complete sequence in song mode. In this instance I haven’t been in song mode but in an individual sequence.. Pattern mode? I do all my midi editing in Studio Vision Pro.

For example, Im working on just the verse 1 segment and adding a string part to just that section, then I play/listen to just the verse 1 looping back into itself.. If Im listening to the Motif strings in that verse, it’s soloed, but still the hitch.

Thinking about your post, Im wondering if it having checked the Motif to receive sync, receive multitimbral messages, but not transmit, might have something to do with it getting too much info?? Seemed like this was needed to get tempo info to the Motif for arps etc.

You posted in the Motif-Rack ES forum - what do you own, as the Motif-Rack ES has no SONG mode, no PATTERN mode, and no sequencer?

Bad_Mister - 04 September 2012 09:03 PM

You posted in the Motif-Rack ES forum - what do you own, as the Motif-Rack ES has no SONG mode, no PATTERN mode, and no sequencer?

Ok, so sorry for the confusion.. I’ll try and start over.

I own a Motif Rack ES. Im using it as a sound module driven by an old midi software called VISION(Studio Vision Pro), which I run on a Mac. The problems I experienced were in the sequences in VISION, but were Motif problems, as no other module in the set-up has any problems when I switched around the midi input cables etc.

I have a hitch in the 1st note of a Motif-Rack ES patch when run by the vision sequencer, even when that patch is soloed. However, when I open the sequence in vision, and click on the 1st note it plays fine.  I temporarily fixed the problem by unchecking all the insert effects inside the Motif. So, when Im working in a sequence in Vision, I can only use the Motif without insert effects or I get a hitch in the 1st note.

It sounds like the problem is inside the effects processor not kicking in on the downbeat of the very 1st note in the sequence. If Im in song mode in a sequence(vision), I do have 1 measure of space before the song starts as you mentioned above, and there is no problem at all, but not in pattern mode(verse/chorus etc). I tend to work on individual sequences like Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse 2, Break etc. Then I string them all together into a large Song Sequence. 

I would like to be able to work on individual sequences while using the insert effects inside of the Motif Rack ES.

Ok, after a long series of experiments I’ve narrowed down the problem.. Seems it’s the patch names that come up in the midi note screen in vision causing the problems. If I take out any patch names that fall on the downbeat of 1, then all is well, even with effect inserts checked on in the motif.

What I’ve done is move the patch names to a different beat in the sequence.. wherever there’s a space of say 1/2 a measure or so. This way if I pull up a fresh chorus sequence, I push play, and it’s all crazy, but by the end of the 1st 2 measures, all my patches kick in correctly and I just need to “rewind” the sequence back to the top and everything is in place.

Weird that I have to do this with such a fine instrument like the Motif es rack, and never have to with racks that are far more inferior, but at least everything works right in the end.