Align Hardware with the Mix

Resonon sends MIDI early by exactly the time its audio takes to reach your speakers, plugin latency included, so hardware lands with the mix without any setup. What is left is each device’s own response time, which you trim per port. Clock & Alignment explains the model.

See the offset

midi_latency_report();

MIDI output alignment                        auto
  audio buffer           512 fr     10.67 ms
  device + safety                    2.10 ms
  plugin compensation   1536 fr     32.00 ms  <- PDC
  ------------------------------------------
  auto offset                       44.77 ms
  port "cv"          trim   0.00  clock  -2.50  ->  44.77 / 42.27 ms   [clock]

The last lines show what each port ends up with, for notes and for clock.

Trim a device

Add trim_ms to the port’s entry in ~/.resonon/preferences.toml and run reload_preferences(). Negative sends earlier, positive later:

[[midi.outputs]]
alias   = "cv"
port    = "Eowave Portail"
trim_ms = -2.5    # this synth speaks late; send to it earlier

A trim moves the port’s notes and its clock. It can be up to ±500 ms; a value further out is reported and ignored.

Trim only the clock

Some gear settles on clock differently than on notes. clock_trim_ms is added to clock and transport messages only, on top of trim_ms:

[[midi.outputs]]
alias         = "cv"
port          = "Eowave Portail"
trim_ms       = 0
clock_trim_ms = -2.5

midi_port_trim("cv") and midi_port_clock_trim("cv") read back what is in force.

Use the trims alone

To turn the automatic offset off and keep only the trims:

set_midi_latency("manual");
set_midi_latency("auto");    // back to the default

Related

• Clock & Alignment — why notes you play through are not delayed
• Sync to a MIDI Clock — send clock to a port
• Preferences — trim_ms, clock_trim_ms, send_clock