M-AUDIO Pro Tools Recording Studio - Manual (Page 620)

Pro Tools Reference Guide 602
To ensure that the default controller value for a
playlist is sent (and chased), click the initial
breakpoint at the beginning of the track, move
it slightly, and set it back to the default value.
Offsetting MIDI Tracks
Pro Tools can offset MIDI tracks globally or indi-
vidually.
Global MIDI Playback Offset
Pro Tools provides a preference for MIDI offset
that lets MIDI and Instrument tracks play back
earlier or later (than audio tracks) by the speci-
fied number of samples. The offset affects play-
back only and does not alter in any way how
MIDI data is displayed in the Edit window.
This capability is provided in large part to com-
pensate for the audio monitoring latency in
Pro Tools LE. If you are monitoring the output
of external MIDI instruments with an external
mixer or sound system (or headphones), there is
no latency. If, however, you are monitoring the
output of your MIDI devices through a Pro Tools
LE interface (such as Mbox 2), your MIDI tracks
sound slightly later than your audio tracks. The
larger the setting for the H/W Buffer Size (128,
256, 512, or 1024 samples), the larger the la-
tency.
By configuring the Global MIDI Playback Offset
setting, you can align your MIDI tracks to play
back slightly earlier (by a specified number of
samples), thereby compensating for any latency
when monitoring audio in Pro Tools LE.
To configure the Global MIDI Playback Offset:
1 Choose Setup > Preferences and click the MIDI
tab.
2 Enter the number of samples (–10,000 to
10,000) for the Global MIDI Playback Offset set-
ting. A negative value causes the MIDI tracks to
play back earlier than the audio tracks; a positive
value causes the MIDI tracks to play back later.
To allow for monitoring latency in Pro Tools LE,
set the offset to a value that is roughly equiva-
lent to the H/W Buffer Size.
3 Click OK.
Individual MIDI and Instrument Track
Offsets
You can offset individual MIDI and Instrument
track offsets in Pro Tools to compensate for de-
lays in MIDI devices (the time it takes to trigger
events on a sampler or synth).
For example, if you have some kick drums that
are being played by an audio track in Pro Tools
and want them to be exactly synchronized with
kick drums that are being played by a MIDI de-
vice, you may need to use a MIDI offset. In this
example, it will usually take at least 5 ms to trig-
ger the MIDI notes, and it could take even
longer, depending on the MIDI device.
With Pro Tools HD, when Delay Compen-
sation is active, MIDI and Instrument
tracks are automatically delay-compen-
sated to provide low latency monitoring. For
more information, see “Delay Compensa-
tion for MIDI” on page 865.
The Global MIDI Playback Offset can also
be set from the MIDI Track Offsets window.
You can also apply MIDI Real-Time Proper-
ties delay to offset MIDI (see “MIDI Real-
Time Properties” on page 604).