USB MIDI recording off sync

[manatonic]

The ability to have takes of MIDI input for a looped section attracted me to Reaper among other things, but in my initial experiences, I'm having a frustrating problem where if I play in time with the metronome, notes are recorded early by ~2000 samples and I have to quantize or shift everything, and adjust the duration of notes on the first beat since they get sliced apart on loop despite if "loop item source" is off.

I searched for this issue on the forum but none of the things done to resolve it for others seems to have any effect:

∙Preserve PDC delayed monitoring in recorded items
∙Record: output (MIDI)
∙Preferences > Recording > Input manual offset -2000 samples (tried with "Use audio driver reported latency" checked and unchecked)

Preserve PDC and offset do affect audio recordings I make.

My device is set for M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB which reads [44.1kHz 24bit WAV : 2/1ch 128spls ~5.3/5.3ms ASIO] on the upper right.

My MIDI keyboard is M-Audio Axiom 61 connected by USB to my PC (Windows 7 Ultimate, i7 CPU) and the VSTi I was using it to play is Synth1.

Linking the Axiom right into the Fast Track with a MIDI cable is what I'm looking at doing next and would probably fix this, but I think I'd still like to know how to deal with this setup if I have to use it, say if I get another MIDI device that would take up the Fast Track's MIDI ports.

The Axiom manual doesn't appear to have anything relating to the sort of calibration that would be required.

Help?

Edit: I was wrong; using the Fast Track's MIDI in didn't change anything after all.

Edit 2: Resolved by setting ms offset for output, which I'm assuming delays the metronome clicks.