MIDI Jitter/ MIDI Note Drift During Audio Recording

[Dawnchaser]

Alrighty, so, I just discovered a few days ago (and this may have been a systemic problem going back months, that I didn't recognize for what it was) that when I record basslines, synth lines, pads, etc, off most of my hardware synths, I experience a bit of timing drift on notes being played back. I'm not talking about general consistent latency. I know to correct for that and quantize the timing of recordings onto the beat after the entire pattern is recorded.

This is very subtle random drifting forward and backward across the beat, across extended patterns (32-256 bar patterns).

I've corrected MOST of the worst of the drift (settings outlined below), but it was super bad 2 days ago.

On pads with slow attacks and releases it's almost unnoticeable, but when I'm recording a sub bassline, the timing drift throws off the groove of the low end, and when I record lead plucks and arps, it creates random timing artifacts that sound bad - and the effect is even worse when I am recording individual Stereo and Mono takes of a riff, and neither one is exactly on time the whole time, AND they're both subtly different - it causes plucks and stabs to smear in their attacks and releases, and makes otherwise tight riffs sound sloppy and bad. The drift is completely random, so there's no way to consistently correct for it at a MIDI level.

The synths in descending order of most drift to least drift:

Access Virus TI2 - USB-DIN connection, Analog-Outs
Waldorf Blofeld - USB-MIDI connection
Moog Slim Phatty - USB-MIDI connection
Roland JP8080 - USB-DIN connection (no discernible drift)

(all synths are currently running the most up to date firmware and operating systems available, and are connected on their own dedicated USB ports)

Audio Interface:

Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Gen 1 (latest updates and control software) (also on its own dedicated USB port)

DAW:

FL 20.0.2

MIDI settings:

Synchronization Type: MTC 30 fps (drop) (MIDI Clock was drifting super wide)

Audio Settings:

Driver: Focusrite USB 2.0 Driver
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz (I tried 48, but it made my PC's audio crazy unstable no matter what settings I applied everywhere else)
Buffer length: 45 msp (2ms) - absolute lowest Focusrite MixControl allows
Clock Source: Internal
Priority: Highest
Safe Overloads: Yes
Playback Tracking: Hybrid
Offset: Max left
Multithreaded Gen Proc: Yes
Multithreaded Mixer Proc: Yes
Smart Disable: Yes
Align For Tick Lengths: No
Resampling Quality: 24-point sinc


PC:

Windows 10 x64, latest updates
i7 7700K CPU
ASUIS ROG STRIX z270E motherboard (latest BIOS)
16 GB DDR4 RAM

I experimented with overclocking the system, and got +15% on CPU speed, but that made the system crazy unstable, so I scaled back to just High Performance/Optimal Mode so the CPU hits its max and no more.

I contacted Focusrite to ascertain if their interface might be the issue, or if it was generating an unstable MIDI Clock signal, but their interfaces don't generate MIDI clock signals at all, so that isn't the culprit.

Right now my 4 remaining theories are

The Virus and Blofeld and Moog have unstable internal clocks of their own, so they're prone to drift no matter what

The USB cables the Virus/Blo/Moog are using is causing mild packet loss/ slowdowns that interfere with MIDI data transmission

FL 20's internal MIDI clock is unstable, and prone to jitter

My USB ports are misbehaving and are the source of the random latency delaying or accelerating certain notes


A lot of veteran DAW-hardware hybrid users have complained that almost all DAWs, except for Cubase, have MIDI clock instability issues, and many have resorted to using external MIDI Timepiece devices to synchronize and stabilize their gear.

I read in the FL documentation that FL Studio can't slave itself to an external MIDI clock, so that leaves me in a bit of a lurch, as I have roughly 40 songs nearly complete, most of which are going to need to have basslines and synth arps rerecorded.

I've read forum posts going back 12 years that MIDI Jitter and MIDI Clock instability has been an issue in FL (as well as Ableton and ProTools), so I know I'm not the only one who has experienced this, historically-speaking.

Anyone else recently encountered this, and fixed it? Or is this a bug that's going to be fixed in a future update for FL?

Cause latency I can deal with. Random drifting of quantized notes, I can't

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