Clicking over USB Audio into DAW

Kevin

Try recording the same passage directly to a USB flash drive on the JP-80 and play it back on the JP-80. If you hear the clicking there, then you most likely have some kind of audio problem in the JP. If it is "clean" on the JP, port it to the PC on the flash drive and import it to your DAW. If it is clean there, then you do have an interface problem between the JP, the PC, and your DAW software, as you suspect, but if you DO hear the clicking there, then you have some kind of incompatibility problem between the JP's audio format and what the DAW is looking for. Basically, you are just bypassing the JP and PC's audio interfaces and cabling, and by doing this, you may avoid endless hours chasing a "ghost" in the wrong place.

Good luck !

Regards,

Ted

Thanks for your reply.

The issue with recording the USB Flash Drive is that I need the MIDI performance too - and for some strange reason, Roland don't offer the option to record MIDI.

Although I need to listen back to my eventual recording and analyse it in Adobe Audition, I believe the clicks heard over headphones did not translate to the actual recording - or at least at the volume noticed during recording. It was late in the last nigh when I got the actual recording done, and first listens didn't indicate a serious problem.

Nevertheless, the audio clicks are definitely there when recording - and they do not occur when I use other controllers or when the JP80 plays back other plugins - it is definitely an issue in using the JP80 USB Audio/MIDI directly into computer.

While your various recommendations are appreciated, I don't see the point of having a USB interface unless it actually works - so I'd like to get to the bottom of the issue for the long run.

As indicated in my first post, there's absolutely nothing wrong in my setup. And it's curious to me already that I say I hear the clicks when recording but do not hear them in the actual DAW audio recording - surely if they are coming from the JP80-MPB audio stream they should appear on the Audio Track. As said. I'll examine that more closely today and tomorrow.

When recording the JP80, I'm using software monitoring from the DAW - this current setup is very portable and does not use an Audio Interface - so perhaps its a software monitoring issue. Certainly, given I was recording the JP80 piano on its own with no other tracks; I kept the DAW latency low (at 64 samples) to reduce the latency while performing. But as alredy indicated twice in this post, if the clicks were buffer issues, they'd appear on the recording.

Anyway, I'll investigate further and report back; and if anyone has experience of using the JP80 over USB, I'd appreciate your thoughts.


As an aside - while now getting used to using the JP80 - I find that the Supernatural Pianos is stunning in tone, dynamic ranges and edit-ability. However, despite various modifications of MIDI velocity curve and other keyboard settings, I find that the pianos plays too muted in the low-mid to bass end at piano and pp dynamics - it's not particularly realistic. Again I'll continue to tweak; but I have experimented with it a lot and it's hard to get a convincing dynamic sense of this wonderful supernatural instrument from the keyboard of the JP80. The piece I'm composing is quite classical in context, so not heavy playing or vamping. But as said - the tone depth and diversity of the supernatural piano is stunning.

Thanks,
Kevin.

Sorry, Kevin !

I thought you were just trying to record audio into your DAW. I am kind of at a loss where to go from here. Like you, anything else I can think of that might cause the clicking would cause it to also be recorded by the DAW software. If I come up with anything, I will give you a shout. Good luck in the meantime.

The JP-80 will not record MIDI because it does not have a sequencer. The Juno-Di and Gi and the Jupiter 50 and 80 are Roland's first venture into the world of sequncerless synths in many, many years (if ever) and they have been sorely criticized for it by many. I think they went on the assumption that everyone had a laptop under their arm or a tablet in their hip pocket and had no further need for an onboard sequencer. It appears that they may have guessed wrong on that one, and I think it has cost them dearly in market share on those four boards. Too bad ! On me, they guessed correctly. I bought the Gi and the JP-50 knowing full well that they did not have sequencers, and for the use I intended for them, that was not an issue. At least the Gi will playback MIDI from the USB stick, but the JP's will not. Even if they could, it would be of limited use, as the 50 and 80 lack a 16 part multi-timbral sound source for creating fully orchestrated backing tracks, but Roland DID market these boards (the JP-50/80) as strictly "performance" oriented. Anyway, regardless of its limitations (read that "eccentricities"), I think you have only just begun to discover the marvels of the JP-80.

Regards,

Ted

Just an update - the JP80 recording within Logic Pro did not have an audible click in it. No audible clicks can be heard (and must be related to software monitoring?)

FYI I've been using the JP80 for a small music job - a 5-minute piano piece for a play to take place in Dublin next month. I'm actually using an OASYS for this piece - to me its EX2 piano offers a broader dynamic range than the JP80 piano (as far as I've bee able to achieve)

I have used the JP80 Piano for a 1.5 min segment of that piece to be used in a promotional web site for the play (the JP80 seems more placid and better for an online web site). Here's a youtube demo of that (piano is JP80). The person who assembled this Youtube seems to have distorted / clipped the recording I sent - I assure you the final recording in WAV format from the JP80 was pristine with not a hint of hiss, clipping or distortion !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Xqh1cDM9U&feature=youtu.be


Cheers,
Kevin.