
583 MIDI Fact Sheet
Chapter 34
MIDI Fact Sheet
In conjunction with our work on the audio engine, Ableton has spent additional effort analyzing
Live‘s MIDI timing and making improvements where necessary. We wrote this fact sheet to help
users understand the problems involved in creating a reliable and accurate computer-based
MIDI environment, and to explain Live‘s approach to solving these problems.
Note: the MIDI timing issues discussed in this paper are generally not applicable to users with
high-quality audio and MIDI hardware. If you have already invested time and money into op-
timizing these factors in your studio, and are not experiencing problems with MIDI timing, you
probably do not need this information.
34.1 Ideal MIDI Behavior
To understand how MIDI works within a digital audio workstation (DAW), it is helpful to intro-
duce some common terms and concepts. A DAW must be able to accommodate three distinct
MIDI-related scenarios:
1. Recording refers to sending MIDI note and controller information from a hardware device
(such as a MIDI keyboard) into a DAW for storage. An ideal recording environment would
capture this incoming information with perfect timing accuracy in relation to the timeline of
the song — as accurately as an audio recording.
2. Playback refers to two related scenarios when dealing with DAWs. The first involves send-
ing MIDI note and controller information from the DAW to a hardware device such as a
synthesizer. The second involves converting stored MIDI information into audio data within
the computer, as played back by a plug-in device such as the Operator synthesizer. In
both cases, an ideal playback environment would output a perfect reproduction of the
stored information.
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