Live as sync slave has to work better!

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 10:01 am

I want to run Live 4 as sync slave and wish for:

- Live needs to optionally respond immediately to incoming clock tempo, rather than smoothing out changes.
- make it so the 'external sync' button can be remote controlled by MIDI.

As sync masters I'm using either the AU plug-in Augustus Loop or an external hardware Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro device.

old school user · Post by **old school user** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:10 pm

I'm with Per. Please put these features in!

Thanks Abletons...

grifftone · Post by **grifftone** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:30 pm

I would like Live to sync faster to external clock. I'm using circular logic In-Time for midi clock generation. Live needs an option to defeat smoothing.

Thanks,

Griff Peters

mech · Post by **mech** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:09 am

I agree. I'm using Augustus Loop as well, and running into similar issues.

It makes sense that there would be smoothing functions for externally-generated MIDI clocks. However, In-Time and Augustus Loop are reading the very same time-stamps as Live, which are passed across the machine's internal bus. Smoothing doesn't do anything in this circumstance but add latency and load.

I'm betting that these aren't the first programs or the only programs yet-to-come which are affected by this little glitch. A simple configuration option to turn clock smoothing on or off would take care of this with a minimum of fuss.

--m.

SnackDaddy · Post by **SnackDaddy** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:55 pm

I'm with these guys - I'd also like to see an option to turn OFF the midi clock sync smoothing.

cheers,
Michael

meeble · Post by **meeble** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:40 pm

YES! Ableton, please add these 2 features - but most importantly the ability to disable Midi clock smoothing. We need good responsiveness from Live when syncing to a changing Midi clock tempo!

dinga · Post by **dinga** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 11:33 pm

Count me in...

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:57 am

This would be great!
Also, i'd love it if the sync output actually stayed in sync!!
i've been trying to use it recently, but after starting not too bad it drifts substantially for long stretchs of times. i don't know if this is due to the smoothing but at the moment its pretty much unusable.
i tried using a midi channel in live to simply pass the clock coming in through to and out port last night, but nothing was happening so i guess live can't really be used as a midi merge to pass clock straight through... DOH!

louZ · Post by **louZ** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 4:12 pm

Clearscreen wrote:This would be great!
Also, i'd love it if the sync output actually stayed in sync!!
i've been trying to use it recently, but after starting not too bad it drifts substantially for long stretchs of times. i don't know if this is due to the smoothing but at the moment its pretty much unusable.
i tried using a midi channel in live to simply pass the clock coming in through to and out port last night, but nothing was happening so i guess live can't really be used as a midi merge to pass clock straight through... DOH!

Yeah, this needs to be fixed!

I've been trying to sync Live to midi clock from different software apps (Cubase SX 2 and MIDICLOCK 1.05), but Live's tempo becomes unstable and drifts. When, for example, the tempo Live receives is 90 BPM, Live will drift between 89 and 91 BPM.

You can also hear this when routing MIDI from Cubase into a Live track, containg for example NI's Battery:

- Have both the Live track and the Cubase track contain exact copies of a MIDI file. A four on the floor drumpattern will work.
- Route the Cubase MIDI track's output to the Live track's input using virtual MIDI cables
- Start playback in Cubase
- If you don't hear both signals, adjust Live's monitor settings untill you do.
- You'll probably have to adjust Live's sync input delay untill the two signals sound as much in sync as possible.
- Then listen to both signals play together and notice that every cycle different notes sound in and out of sync.
- You can also visualize this if you overdub record the MIDI signal from Cubase. Every cycle the new notes will come on different places.

(Ofcourse you have to setup Cubase to send MIDI clock to a virtual MIDI port and setup Live to receive MIDI clock on that same port first. Also don't forget to activate the EXT button in Live)

The problem can't be with Cubase. If the Cubase's tempo would be the one drifting, Live's synced tempo would drift along in exactly the same manner. The signals from the Cubase track and Live track would be in sync. It could be that Cubase's tempo drifts are too short for Live to respond, but why would Live's tempo then also drift when synced to MIDI Clock 1.05 and presumably other apps? The Cubase tempo meter doesn't show tempo changes neither, while the Live tempo meter does.

BTW if you record the drum pattern from the Live track into another Live track (while Live is still synced to Cubase), the notes WILL be perfectly in sync. This is because Live's tempo changes affect both the track recording and the track playing back.

madlab · Post by **madlab** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 5:10 pm

Also tried to sync to external sources (Yamaha RS 7000 for example) with little success and this feautre is important to me so count me in.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 9:27 pm

Second, third and fourth this!

I run Live chasing MIDI clock from my controller kbd (Roland A-37). If I start a song at a new tempo, Live ALWAYS rushes then slows down over almost a bar before settling down.

Live 3 didn't have this problem using the exact same setup.

os · Post by os » Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:14 pm

Hi,

I've just updated Augustus Loop to v1.4.3 with much improved MIDI sync compatibility.

I'm also maintaining a compatibility chart now at
http://www.collective.co.uk/expertsleep ... ssync.html
which is something of a hall of shame for the larger DAW hosts - fortunately Live (4.1.4 I tested) comes out of it pretty well.

cheers,
os.

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:01 am

Wunder-Great!!!! Augustus ist mi favoricha!

os · Post by os » Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:43 am

Thanks Per.

I'd be grateful if you could check it out with the Live 5 beta - I missed out on the beta trial myself unfortunately.

cheers,
os.

grifftone · Post by **grifftone** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:08 am

Any news on how Live 5 functions in this regard?