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Hi All, first time poster, long time reader. I just purchased a Kawai VPC1 last month and been having allot of issues with it an apple's Mainstage DAW. I'm not sure if it's my new VPC1 or mainstage but here are some of the issues.

Latency - after a while playing. I'll be playing a song and at a fast part with allot of notes they start lagging behind by a good 1/16 note or so.

When changing patches in mainstage the virtual instruments do not change, meaning I'm under a new patch and the previous patches instruments are being played

Mainstage doesn't seam to recognize the VPC1 after a patch change sometimes. I run (2) boards, a novation impulse as my controller with the VPC1 as my main board. When I switch a patch I need to reset the mini controls for the VPC1 to work while the novation is just fine.

I've downloaded the latest VPC1 editor, the latest Mainstage version and I'm on a late model 2011 Macbook pro with 16 GB ram. If there are any other resources or forums I should be posting this in I'm all ears.

As far as the VPC1, it does feel amazing when it's responding correctly.

2011 is a little long in the tooth for the latest version of Main Stage and the latest version of OSX. Try loading just one instrument with little to no FX to see if that makes a difference in performance.

Which version of Apple's OSX are you running and which version of Main Stage?

Sometimes if MIDI is not processing properly you can get a build up of MIDI data in the line and suddenly your sound triggers randomly - a bunch of notes at once. I believe the VPC-1 uses OSX's class compliant MIDI driver but there is an editor application to install.
Download the Kawai VPC Editor Software from the Kawai website:
http://www.kawai.co.jp/worldwide/support/downloads.html

Does the VPC-1 communicate with the editor properly?

Check also if you have the latest firmware for the VPC-1

You should also use the USB cable they included. If you are using another it might not be in tact, or of the same quality. USB extender cables are largely crap. Don't use them. And hubs sometimes work sometimes not, so if your using a hub, take it out of the scenario. Plug directly into your Mac's internal USB port.

If you are running El Capitan on your Macbook Pro, a system update (OS X 10.11.4) that came out yesterday also had this as one of the bug fixes:

"Fixes an issue that caused USB audio devices to disconnect"

Might be worth trying.

arieelius, as Elmer suggests, ensure that the VPC1 is using the latest firmware update.

The VPC Editor can be used to check and update the VPC1, however please do not run the update while other MIDI apps (such as Mainstage) are communicating with the board. Moreover, do not update the VPC Editor and the VPC1 Firmware simultaneously - do one at a time. Later version of the VPC Editor prevent simultaneous updating, but I mention this just in case. The firmware update requires approximately 6-8 minutes to complete - do not not power off your Mac or the VPC1 during the update process, otherwise there is the possibility of overwriting the VPC1's main boot-up code, resulting in a dead unit that can only be revived by manually reflashing the firmware.

Anyway, with all that said, I also agree that latency you are experiencing is likely due to the performance of your Mac - especially if this occurs during busy/complex passages. At the end of the day, the VPC1 is just a MIDI controller...it sends note on/off information to what it's connected to, and does not have any bearing on the latency of sound heard.

Regarding the patch change, can you provide a little more information about the steps you are following, in addition to how the VPC1 and Novation are connected.

Kind regards,
James
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Thank you all for your suggestions and questions. I'll try and address each one.

ElmerJFudd - Apple version 10.11.4 (it was 10.11.3 last night just updated it as Tom suggested) and mainstage 3.2.3 I do have the latest VPC1 editor installed from Kawai and it tells me my VPC1 is up to date. I am using the same USB cord from the VPC1 but am not using the same one on the Novation. I will try and swap that out back to the original and see if it helps. I do have both boards running straight into the Macbook pro's USB ports.

Tom Fort - as stated above, I just updated my OSX. I'm hoping this is the cause of all the disconnections.

Kawai James - Good info James, I did install the VPC1 editor while Mainstage was running and tried to update the VPC1. At the time, a month ago, it did unexpectedly quit but I was able to redo it and it tells me I'm all up to date. Should I redo it from scratch, meaning - reset the VPC1's firmware manually and updating it from the Editor with nothing running in the background?

Regarding the patch change issue I have (3) symptoms. I have the Novation controller mapped to switch patches in mainstage to start.

1st is when I switch a patch in mainstage the physical instruments (VPC, Novation) are still playing the previous patch's virtual instruments though it shows that I switched the patch to the new instruments. Even if I look back at the older patch the virtual channel strips show audio signals coming through the previous instruments meters.

2nd when I switch a patch the Novation switches fine to the new virtual instrument but the VPC1 needs to have the midi reset for it to start playing. Which doesn't always fix the problem right away.

3rd is just no response from either board after trying to switch a patch, everything goes dead silent and no patch change. After 30 seconds, maybe longer, it switches fast and trys to catch up to any buttons hit. I'm hoping the software update is the culprit, See Dan's post above.

I'm not able to test out the update to the Macbook until tonight. Tonight I have band practice and I'm using a Yamaha in place of the VPC1 purely for convenience. The rest of the rig is exactly the same so it will be a good test tomorrow night to see when I plug the VPC1 back up to the exact same set up if I get any of the same issues. I'll get back to everyone tomorrow on how tonight's practice goes, and again Friday after testing the VPC1 vs tonights performance.

As expected, great response from the forum. It's truly appreciated.

arieelius, thank you for your reply.



If the VPC Editor is reporting that the VPC Editor and VPC1 Firmware are both up-to-date, I'm confident that you are already using the latest versions available. There is a 'Factory Reset' feature built into the latest VPC1 firmware that you may wish to try, just in case:



Thank you for explaining the symptoms you are experiencing in greater detail - I'm curious to hear if the latest El Capitan update resolves the issue.

Kind regards,
James
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HI all, after testing last night with the Yamaha digital piano. Same issues! So I can isolate it to Mainstage and not the VPC1 I'm happy to report. I still think I'm having a latency issue though which I'll try and test out more tonight. I'm going to reload some older Mainstage concerts that always ran great for me and test them out tonight to see if I'm still having problems and will get back to you.

thanks again

Well, I isolated the issue to be in a new layout I created in mainstage. I loaded some older concerts with older layouts and everything worked good.

I still have to report that after an hour of practicing I do get a moment or two of latency with the VPC1 where the notes fall behind what I'm playing. This usually happens after a while of practicing. Not all the time, more with complex portions of the music plus I might be getting a little lazy with the sustain pedal.

Kawai James, is there any settings I should look into with the VPC editor to help this? Should I be running the VPC editor with Mainstage while performing?

That's good to hear. I am inclined at the moment to return to the idea that the computer is a little underpowered for Main Stage 3. Keep your setups light on # of instruments and fx. And take a look at your buffer/latency preferences. You may need to raise this value a level. 32 - 64 - 128 - 256 - 512. The higher you go the less closely connected to the sound you may feel but the computer will have more time to deal with fast notes and heavy pedal use. Some of the instruments your using may also have a polyphony setting. Of you lower the value this will also help with the amount of rapid processing put on your CPU.

Hello arieelius,



That's good to hear, thank you for the update.



No, I don't believe so. I'm inclined to agree with Elmer in that the latency you're experiencing is occurring on the Mac, rather than caused by the VPC1.



It's not necessary to have the VPC Editor open at the same time - once settings are adjusted they are stored automatically to the VPC1's memory. That said, having the VPC Editor open while Mainstage or other MIDI apps are running should not cause any problems.
The only sensitivity is when updating the VPC Editor or VPC1 Firmware - in this case, only the VPC Editor app should be open and communicating with the VPC1.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
James
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