Could you please specify what hardware are you using and what OS you're running?

When it comes to the audio, on WIndows, make sure you've set the sampling rate to 44100/48000 kHz with any of the bit-depth you've available.

My soundcard goes up to 384 kHz at 32 bits and this is completely wasteful (unless you're fully utilizing it within like sound mastering or recording, but even with the best Blu-Ray movies, you're seeing the sampling rate only up to 96 kHz in most cases), especially on Windows, since most of the media need to get upsampled, causing an additional and noticeable latency in some cases, like with the PC port of the Project Diva MM+.

Another issue could be your controller/keyboard. Always connect your main peripherals right into the motherboard's USB ports without any additional hubs as they could be adding an extra latency. I'm using the new Xbox Series controller over USB to play since Bluetooth is really slow and unresponsive and Microsoft is no longer selling their wireless 2,4 GHz dongle.

-Windows 11
-Ryzen 5 7600, rtx 4060, 32 RAM
-My sampling rate is set to 48 kHZ at 24 bits
-My peripherals are connected to the motherboard

Look I don't think my pc is the problem here. I've tried playing the game on a different pc and it felt exactly the same. Never had this problem in other rhythm games.

Also, I just figured out that the game feels pretty good when I turn off the hitsounds and listen to the sound my keaboard makes when I press the keys lol.

Have you changed the input delay?

If the notes feel too early or too late for you, you can change that in the Lag Config.

There's a global delay settings and a per-song delay settings (in Customization and in the song pause menu).

I play the piano irl, so I originally set the delay to -20, which makes me press the keys earlier than the note plays (because in real life, you have to physically manipulate the instrument before the sound comes out, but in Project Diva, they want you to press the key when the sound is made)

So consider that when you press the key or the button on your controller. you are not "causing" the sound, as you would on a real instrument. Instead, your keypresses are more like a glorified metronome. You are clapping along with the rhythm.

So I originally set the delay to -20. But it made it impossible to play on higher difficulties, and when I set the delay back to 0, it was extremely easy.

The hitsounds were also confusing me because I was playing at -20. This is because the hitsounds are following your keypresses instead of the music, so they are way off.

I only recommend using a delay if there is visual lag (like if you are connected to a TV instead of a monitor). I still have -5 delay on a small number of songs.

Another thing, if your PC is very weak or old, the processing lag can also cause missed notes.

I know about the delay settings, 0 still feels the best. It's not as if the notes feel too early or too late - the game just doesn't register my inputs consistently, it's completely random.

Even when I turn off the hitsounds, set the delay to -20 to -50 and only listen to my keyboard, I still keep getting "good" here and there even though I press it perfectly. I know this is not a me problem, I've been playing the piano for over 8 years every freaking day + spent like 500 hours in other rhythm games.

You could also try changing the note sound.

The default note sound is the drum set cymbal. Try changing it to woodblock A or woodblock B. That sound comes out way faster.

That feels slightly better I guess. Not fixed though.

There could also be a possible lag between your PC and monitor. I used to have a weird feeling when playing on my old TV that had an almost half a second latency I could never sync up with the image and sound. Since I got myself a high-refresh rate monitor, it's much better as now both the image and sound are almost perfectly synced up and I don't need to rely on any lag compensation.
I currently have R9 5900X, 32GB of RAM, GTX 1080Ti

Originally posted by loko loko:

playing on my old TV that had an almost half a second latency i

Yeah TVs do loads of post-processsing which adds delay, there might be a "game mode" that disables it but ultimately a TV and a monitor are different things - you want a monitor for the fastest feedback.

There can also be delay from your input peripheral esp with Bluetooth. Did you try a different type of controller, connecting it by USB, or KBM?

Originally posted by phiz:

Originally posted by loko loko:

playing on my old TV that had an almost half a second latency i

Yeah TVs do loads of post-processsing which adds delay, there might be a "game mode" that disables it but ultimately a TV and a monitor are different things - you want a monitor for the fastest feedback.

There can also be delay from your input peripheral esp with Bluetooth. Did you try a different type of controller, connecting it by USB, or KBM?

I haven't used Bluetooth on any of my controllers since 2019. Since Microsoft took down their 2,4GHz wireless dongle, I'm relying on the USB cables since then for my Xbox One/Series and PS5 controllers which works only on cable as I don't have any Bluetooth modem on my motherboard.

I'm currently playing on a 360Hz monitor and everything is running fine. When it comes to that TV, it has a really bad VA panel and driver which creates all of the latency. It has no further video processing features, except for adjusting the audio buffer for syncing the sound with the video if there's any latency already.