116. Why is my recorded audio track out of sync with the MIDI accompaniment?

Symptoms: You recorded an audio track. For example you may have used a microphone to record vocals. Everything sounded fine as you were recording it, but when you play it back the audio track is out of time with the Band-in-a-Box® MIDI tracks.

This problem is caused by the use of a software synthesizer on your computer. Software synths have a certain amount of latency - this means that it takes them some time to produce sound after receiving MIDI data from Band-in-a-Box®. It is common for the Microsoft GS Wavetable or Roland VSC soft synths to be used as the MIDI Output Driver in Band-in-a-Box®. Here are some tips for understanding and resolving this problem.

If you are not using a DXi synth

  • Make sure that the Roland VSC is not selected for audio recording/playback in the Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices (or Multimedia) Properties window, or (in Band-in-a-Box® 2005 and higher) in the Opt. | Preferences | Audio | Drivers dialog. Having audio routed through the VSC causes latency problems. If you change your audio drivers in the control panel, close and re-open Band-in-a-Box® for the change to take effect.

  • Find out the latency of the synth you are using, and set the Driver Latency in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog appropriately. For the Roland VSC, check the latency ('response time') in the VSC settings window | Performance tab. For the Microsoft GS Wavetable, the latency is usually between 50 and 100 ms. Narrow this down by trying different values and watching the main screen during playback. When you see the chords being highlighting in exact time to what you hear, you have the right number. Make note of this number for future reference. If you are using a hardware synth, make sure the latency is set to about 0.

The two things above should resolve the problem, but if you are still having trouble use a hardware synth (your sound card's built-in synth or and external synth/module if you have one).

If you are using a DXi or VSTi synth (Band-in-a-Box® 2004 and higher) and MME audio drivers

When you have a DXi synth selected for playback, and while you are recording audio, the MIDI tracks are not played through the DXi synth. Instead, MIDI is routed to your default MIDI device (MIDI Output Driver selected in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog). This applies to MME drivers, not ASIO.

By default, Band-in-a-Box® assumes that your MIDI Output Driver is a (close to) zero latency MIDI Output driver. The recorded audio is then automatically shifted ahead by the amount of the (DXi synth) Driver Latency. So, to make sure that your recorded audio is in sync, just ensure that you do not have a soft synth selected as your MIDI Output driver. If you do not have any choice other than to select a soft synth, you can do one of the following:

  • Adjust the Opt. | Preferences | Audio - 'Offset in ms' setting before you record your audio track. You need to find out what the exact latency of your MIDI Output driver is as explained previously. For example, if you record a vocal track and find that it plays behind the MIDI tracks, this means that you were hearing the MIDI music play late - so you were singing late. Set the 'Offset in ms' to a negative value corresponding to the latency of your MIDI Output driver.

  • Use the Audio | Edit Audio Track | Timeshift Audio command to slide the audio track forward or back after you have recorded your audio track. You would use the same value here as you would use for the offset in ms.

If you are using a DXi or VSTi synth (Band-in-a-Box® 2004 and higher) and ASIO audio drivers (Band-in-a-Box® 2006 and higher)

Unlike when you are using MME drivers, the MIDI tracks are played through the DXi or VSTi synth while you are recording. This is possible because of the low latency provided by ASIO drivers. If you are finding that your MIDI and audio tracks are out of sync, either adjust the 'offset in ms' setting or Timeshift Audio, as explained above. If you are finding the tracks drift out of sync, one thing you can try is to increase the latency of your ASIO driver in the ASIO Driver Control Panel.

Note: We have an in-depth tutorial about Band-in-a-Box® latency settings.


Last edited by Alyssa - PG Music; 08/29/18 09:17 AM.
Alyssa - PG Music