Symphony Essentials Percussion random timing issue

yoursong

Using SE Percussion with Cakewalk by Bandlab, I found Percussion is randomizing the timing of some notes. I found it happening with the snare. Each time I play a certain midi clip, it alternates the timing of the snare where it is on the beat, then off the beat the next time, then back on again the next time. The timing is so far off that it sounds like an error. I cannot find any settings that allow me to control random timing or round robin. In the manual it looks like there are settings but maybe the settings are not included in the Essentials version. In summary, I can't use software that is randomly throwing out notes with bad timing. I won't use it again unless there is some solution.

PS. YES, all of my software is completely up to date, including Kontakt

Jeremy_NI

Hey @yoursong What's your oprating system? Can you recreate the issue in a tiny project, zip it and post it here, see if we can reproduce the issue?

yoursong

Thank you Jeremy,

My OS is Windows 11 Home, on an Intel NUC Enthusiast PC less than 1 year old, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD

I tried but was not able to recreate the issue ... In the same project I deleted all other tracks and soft synths to make a tiny project. Then the problem was no long occurring. However the problem is still easily seen in the full project. I don't want to share the full project as I am developing it under contract with a music library.

So ... it acts as if there is some sort of resource conflict with Cakewalk or some other plug-in, which causes SE Percussion to shift the timing of certain specific notes every other time those notes are played back. The midi notes are not shifted, only the audio playback. I know that's odd, I'm just describing what I'm hearing and seeing.

I just purchased Komplete 14 Ultimate in June, and as yet have only tried out a handful of the products. But I've been using Cakewalk, and many other products for over 30 years (before Windows even) and I've never seen this issue before.

I posted in the forum to see if it's happened to others

Jeremy_NI

@yoursong Understood. I'm wondering if another instrument/MIDI track could affect the Kontakt SE Percussion track, If you change the MIDI channel of the Kontakt track, does the issue go away?

yoursong

2023-10-06 SE Perc midi.jpg

2023-10-06 SE Perc Error.zip

SE Percussion is on it's own midi input / output, not shared with other plug-ins. There are 4 midi tracks where I performed each SE instrument, by playing the midi notes that SE assigned to various instruments. All 4 of these are on the same midi channel (Omni), which shouldn't be a problem (see jpg). So far I've only caught the error happening on one of the snare midi notes ... my amateur video is attached. This video is 1 take - I played the midi clip, cleared the audio display, then played the clip again and you can clearly see the timing of the audio is shifted to be out of sync with the midi note.

I understand this could be something unique in my configuration, but whatever the cause I don't think SE Percussion should be vulnerable to it.

I really appreciate this dialog and that you have tried to address it. Thanks!

Jeremy_NI

@yoursong Have you tried to put these Kontakt tracks to channel 1 or 2 or another?

yoursong

Just tried it, switching this Kontakt instance and all 4 midi tracks from Omni to channel 1, and then to channel 2.

I also tried disabling all effects & plugins (via the "FX" button in Cakewalk)

None of these changes made a difference.

More information ... I am using the Orchestral Percussion Kit.nki

The C1 key "Hits" is active. So far I have only found this problem occuring on the G2 snare note. I've not tried any exhaustive testing of the other notes.

Just as a reminder, this is now a "tiny project", there are no other soft synths or midi tracks