Is it possible to offset a track’s timing, to compensate for (midi) latency? That would be neat. I have some hardware that respond much later to midi notes than other gear.
If I use it in my DAW, I have (audio) latency compensation, but if I go DAWless (which I will with my Hapax), I’m not sure how to deal with this?
Also related:
Some synths don’t respond instantly to program changes, so it would be nice to be able to send a program change message just before the pattern starts, so it will not have trouble playing the first notes of the pattern. A setting to adjust the moment when the program change message is sent (in ms before the start of the pattern) would be a great solution.
Midi latency compensation is a must if this is going to be a studio centerpiece sequencer, so hopefully it will be a feature they will add. I have an erm multiclock that might be able to handle it for now, but it would be great if the hapax would take over this duty!
I find MIDI latency is never an issue without the computer, certainly with the Pyramid, and with my short experience with the Hapax, everything kicks off straight away and with rock solid timing. I would recommend using MIDI splitter boxes (I’ve got an old Philip Rees 1-3 and a MIDI Solutions 1-4 Thru box) which should make sure everything gets the signals at the same time. Daisy-chaining MIDI Thru is what causes latency in hardware world generally.
But running from a computer, their timing is always super flappy.
With regards to sending Program Change messages before the pattern starts, not sure how this would work, as surely it won’t know what pattern you’re playing until you play it? I have a Kawai K1m which takes a good quarter or more of a second to load a new program, but I have always worked around this by pressing the button for the pattern around half a second before I want it to play. It’s not perfect, but it’s probably the best and easiest way to do it. On Hapax there is a setting to not start any notes currently playing in a pattern (so waiting for specific note-on messages, I guess) which will mean so long as you change pattern after the last note in your sequence triggers, it’ll load the new program fine before the first note plays.
You press a pattern to arm it to launch (but it will wait for the synced moment), then 10 ms before it actually launches, it will send the program change.
No, you launch the pattern a beat or so ahead of when you want it to play, PC is send as soon as a clip is launched, then it’ll be ready for when the first note plays.
I don’t really see any other way around this, as you’re mostly dealing with old, slow equipment, and sending messages from patterns not yet selected just seems to me like it would cause far more issues than it would resolve.
A beat ahead is long enough for most synths to change the patch.
So instead of sending the PC when the clip starts, it would be nice to add an option to send it a little bit earlier (obviously after you pressed the pad to launch the pattern)
The workaround I put above does basically what you want. It would be nice to have the actual feature you say for sure, but personally it’s quite low down on my list of features or enhancements Hapax could have.