Configuring Audio and MIDI Synchronization

Background

Cakewalk includes a Wave Profiler function which tries to determine information about your sound card. Cakewalk needs this information in order to synchronize the playback of MIDI and audio correctly, for professional-quality results.

It is important to run Wave Profiler before trying to use Cakewalk's audio recording and playback (please see the User's Guide for directions). If you have done so, but you are still experiencing timing problems with MIDI and audio, then Wave Profiler may have been unsuccessful. In that case, you can use the following method to determine the settings manually.

Determining the DMA Buffer Size and Offset Manually

It is possible to manually determine a sound card's DMA buffer size and offset.

  1. Create a new file containing a simple, steady drum beat: 16 bars of 16th notes on a closed hi-hat. Set the clock source to Audio, and save the file as TICKS.WRK.

  2. Choose Tools | Audio Options, and set the sampling rate to 11kHz.

  3. Play the file, and listen carefully to the beats as they play back. Don't worry if the first few beats are rushed or delayed, we'll fix that later in step 5. What you should be focusing on are the beats after playback is well under way.

  4. Adjust the DMA Size until playback "settles down" and becomes perfectly periodic.
    Are some beats early (rushed)? If so, increase the DMA Size.
    Are some beats late (dragged)? If so, decrease the DMA Size.
    Once you've found the right size, write it down, because you'll need to use it later.

    Tip: All sound cards are different, so for some it's better to double or halve the DMA size, while for others it's better to increase or decrease it by only a hundred at a time. Typically though, most DMA sizes are in multiples of 1024. Therefore, you might start by increasing or decreasing the DMA size in multiples of 1024.

  5. Adjust the DMA offset until playback starts smoothly.
    Are there a few beats, a pause, and the some rushed beats? If so, increase the DMA offset.
    Are there a few rushed beats, and then a pause? If so, decrease the DMA offset.

    Tip: The DMA offset for nearly all cards is either 0 or -1, with 0 being the most common.

  6. Reload TICKS.WRK.

  7. Choose Tools | Audio Options, and set the sampling rate to 22kHz.

  8. Click the Advanced... button, and set the DMA Size to double (2x) the value obtained at 11kHz (this is the value you wrote down in step 4).

  9. Play the file again, now at 22kHz. Repeat steps 4 and 5 if the timing is uneven.

  10. Reload TICKS.WRK.

  11. Choose Tools | Audio Options, and set the sampling rate to 44.1kHz.

  12. Click the Advanced... button, and set the DMA Size to quadruple (4x) the value obtained at 11kHz.

  13. Play the file again, now at 44.1kHz. Repeat steps 4 and 5 if the timing is uneven.

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