Ableton/Live/UG/40 MIDI Fact Sheet/05 Tips for Achieving Optimal MIDI Performance
- Practices for the tightest MIDI timing:
- Use the smallest audio buffer your hardware allows, set on the Audio tab of Ableton/Settings.
- Use a good MIDI interface with current drivers, so timestamps are accurate.
- Turn track monitoring off when you listen to a hardware synth directly rather than through Live's External Instrument, and when recording MIDI generated by another device such as a drum machine. Monitoring adds latency to cover playthrough jitter, so use it only when actually playing through Live. See Ableton/Track/IO/Monitor/Off.