Unfortunately, I have not used any of the USB MIDI controllers and i'm not too familiar with them but maybe some more info could help...

Is the keyboard powered via USB or using an external power supply? I would think that you would probably get more reliable operation using an external power supply.

Your ASIO drivers won't help with MIDI. They are for optimizing audio latency. However, that may be where the problem is...not with MIDI.

Create a MIDI track and set up your controller to send MIDI data to it. Press a key on your controller. Do you see the MIDI signal being recieved immediately (in the input level meter) or is there a delay?

If you see the meter jump at the same time you press the key, your problem is probably not MIDI latency and it's more likely audio latency.

You mention that the latency gets worse when you load plugins and that also would seem to indicate that the latency is audio and not MIDI. What are the specs of your computer, CPU, memory, etc?

Your ASIO drivers won't help with MIDI. They are for optimizing audio latency. But I tend to think that this is where your problems are. In Cubase, there is a section where you configure the ASIO driver. I don't have Nuendo but in Cubase SX2, its under Devices /device setup I think.

In there you can play with the buffer settings...starting with a low number and moving up until you find a setting that works well. The lower the setting the less latency you will get but how low you can go depends on your system specs. With a smokin fast system, you can get smokin low latency.

You also need to take into account what other programs are running. The more things you run, the higher you may need to set that value to have everything running smoothly.

There are no hard and fast settings for this. It's something you'll need to play with.

..and yes, you should get a new soundcard, something made for recording. It will get you where you want to be a whole lot quicker.

OH...and read the manual. it will tell you where to adjust the buffer settings for Nuendo haha.

Just something to try -

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/73418-how-improve-mouse-response-accuracy-changing.html

...and the utility -

http://download1us.softpedia.com/dl/28d5c66496e47304df7797effc05f6e6/4834bcd3/100018834/software/tweak/usbmrs11.exe

It lowers USB polling speed delays so all of your USB devices speed up. I find it interesting that your controller has no software panel... are the drivers installed properly? Is the correct driver selected in the host app?

I agree with everyone here, an onboard chip (c-media?) is no way to go for any kind of serious audio recording. They usually result in the sort of problems you are having.

Hello Pr0gr4m, i have at last found the buffer settings etc, turns out it is something you can tweak independently of starting up the program, i think you are right in saying audio latency is my problem as the midi signal is received as soon as i play a note. If i record in a clean piano part etc with the speakers muted it is in time on playback.

With this in mind i would also like to ask, in regards to VST plug ins i am using Hypersonic with Nuendo, although when i trigger the plug ins i am met with a crackly distorted noise for each midi sound. I realize this problem may well possibly be with my soundcard and i do indeed to purchase a new one( speaking of which, does anyone have any recommendations?) though for the time being is there a way i can fix this? Perhaps something to do with the sample rates? :?

My computer is Windows Xp media center 2005, there is no i mmediate concerns with the cpu or memory...with a title like 'media center' youd have thought they would have included a decent soundcard... :(

Thanks again for the help everyone, and i downloaded that little utility Briana, i reinstalled the drivers to be on the safe side but i think the problem is really the audio latency thats occurs through playback

Bravegravity wrote: although when i trigger the plug ins i am met with a crackly distorted noise for each midi sound.

hello bravegravity

your problem sounds like you set your latency too low. your soundcard and/or cpu can't process the data fast enough so it get's kinda shredded and sounds distorted.
you should increase the latency until you find the right setting where you don't get the distorted sound anymore but still have a quick response when hitting a key.

hope i could help.

It's also worth noting that most M-Audio USB devices require the use of emulated ports. Have a shufty at this thread from the Cubase forum.

http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=617112#617112