The information in this article applies to

• Cakewalk USB Audio/MIDI Interfaces
• Cakewalk MIDI Controller Keyboards

The switch labeled Advanced found on some Cakewalk Audio/MIDI interfaces allows for the use of either the Cakewalk driver or class-compliant (plug & play) driver.  For the best performance it is always recommended that the switch is set to the ON position.  In this article we are going to explore just what exactly the ON setting of this switch is for.

What is Fast Processing Technology (FPT) ?
FPT is a technology that allows for high speed, high resolution MIDI data transmission by a combination of driver and hardware improvements to take advantage of the high-speed extensive transmission capability of USB. 

Driver tuned for FPT
The Driver for FPT-based hardware devices uses an optimal transmission method depending on the amount of MIDI data being transmitted. The driver utilizes the bandwidth of USB effectively depending on the amount of MIDI data being transmitted. This allows the communication to be stable and very fast.

Hardware tuned for the FPT
FPT also allows for high speed, high resolution processing through hardware using HDMR.
High bandwidth MIDI devices such as the Edirol UM-880 & UM-550 can process information for each MIDI port simultaneously for accurate MIDI synchronization.

By combining these driver and hardware improvements, FPT can deliver high speed, low latency, low jitter MIDI transmission across multiple ports, while maintaining high data resolution.
(Fig.2, Fig.3 below)

Merits
Low latency and low jitter in extensive MIDI data transmission
When sending MIDI data to multiple sound modules, the UM-880/550 maintains accurate synchronization with low latency and low jitter data transfer. (fig2, fig.3)

The most suitable for Real-time performance
The high speed transfer capability of FPT allows for high resolution data transfer without compromising the performer's subtle expressions even in live performance. (fig.4)

Works with any music application software
Because FPT is an integration of driver and hardware technology, any application can benefit from the full capability of FPT. In particular, FPT performs to its fullest capacity on "thicker" operating systems like Windows XP/2000

Figure 2 During normal MIDI data transmission, MIDI packets are split into pieces and latency and jitter occurs. FPT transmits MIDI data with much lower latency and jitter.

Figure 3 With normal multi port MIDI interfaces, data cannot be simultaneously exported to each MIDI port. FPT can export MIDI data to and from each MIDI port nearly simultaneously.