USB Keyboard Introduces Keypress Delay

[fbcit]

We ran EarMaster School 5.0 for several years on an Pentium 5 platform running Win XP. This hardware used a PS2 type keyboard. EarMaster worked fine on this platform. Recently we upgraded to Core 2 Quad platforms running Win 10 and using a USB keyboard. Since that time when doing the Rhythm Reading exercise, the latency between the pressing of the space bar and the registering of that in EarMaster is such that it is impossible to correctly follow the rhythm indicated. We have move the software to several different computers with the same results.

I realize this is not the currently supported rev. of EarMaster, however, has anyone else noticed this issue? Is there a workaround?

[Quentin]

Hello,

You should find a latency compensation setting in EarMaster 5's Program Settings, under the Sounds/Effects tab ("Synchronize rhythms"). Set the delay value somewhere between 120ms-180ms and adjust accordingly afterwards depending on the results your obtain in the exercise. That should solve the problem.

[fbcit]

Hello,

You should find a latency compensation setting in EarMaster 5's Program Settings, under the Sounds/Effects tab ("Synchronize rhythms"). Set the delay value somewhere between 120ms-180ms and adjust accordingly afterwards depending on the results your obtain in the exercise. That should solve the problem.

I tried your suggestion, but found that even once the audio synced with the black and white flashes, the problem I describe still existed. So I downloaded a trial of 6.2 on the same machine and noted that with an "out of box" configuration and on the same hardware platform 6.2 *does not* manifest the same issue.

Then I discovered that the upgrade price was a very good deal. So today we will upgrade to 6.2.

So thanks for the super-fast response. It is definitely an encouragement to stick with the product!

[Quentin]

Hi,
Yes, V6 uses its own synth engine with instrument samples, whereas V5 used the default MIDI playback software synth provided by Windows, which improved latency dramatically.

Great that you liked the trial version of 6.2 and want to upgrade. The educational features of v6 are also a huge improvement compared to v5, with a much more comprehensive course editor, sight-singing exercises, a database of real book melodies to base your exercises on, and the option to import Music XML files from notation software into EarMaster.