Hi, Djim:

Well, that's the much-dreaded computer latency. Your 'puter is having difficulty processing everything in time and stutters and hiccoughs over notes.

When using internal sounds and/or virtual instruments, remember that the computer has to calculate all of the audio as well as send midi messages (and do the housekeeping stuff within Composer) (and run your anti-virus software and your network etc.). So, it takes serious processing horsepower to make it work.

If the host for your virtual instruments can use ASIO drivers (www.asio4all.com), then that may fix some of it or even all of it. Setting the number of read buffers used by your host to a higher number or using fewer virtual instruments, ie., smaller processing demands will also help.

Of course, outboard (read: REAL) instruments don't take that kind of internal processing power, so they would likely eliminate it altogether. But they rarely come as freeware.

Merry Christmas

David