Beginner : Machinedrum & Ableton sync

The Lounge Other Gear
#12

If you simply start Ableton Live and the Machinedrum by pressing their start buttons manually, then any small difference in the internal clocks of the two devices and any time difference in you pressing the buttons will cause problems with synchronization.

The MIDI capabilities of both Ableton and the Machinedrum allow you to use one to control the other by transferring precise clock signals between the two.

By setting up Ableton Live appropriately, connecting a MIDI cable between the MIDI Out port on your soundcard to the MIDI In port on the MD, and making Global settings on the MD to allow it to receive MIDI clock and MIDI transport messages, you will be able simply to press start on Ableton Live and the MD will automatically synchronise its playback with Ableton Live.

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#13

I connected a midi cable ( midi out from soundcard to midi in on the md)
here are my global settings on MD:
Tempo in : external
cntrl in : on
tempo out : on
cntrl out : off

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#14

And even then the sync will not be 100% accurate. AFAIK Live needs to be the master. And even when syncing over MIDI you’ll always have drift and jitter in the tempo. I’ve been there. Buying SyncGen Pro II solved the SW->HW sync. It sends sample accurate signals via audio to the sync box which generates MIDI clock for HW, all is tight then. There is cheaper alternative if you don’t need so many outputs - Expert Sleepers USAMO.

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#15

A few months ago i borrowed a TR8 from a friend to try it out and i remember that i didnt use a midi cable at all…i just connected a jack cable between the tr8 and the soundcard…and it was totally synced,i just had to move the waveform a little bit and everything worked fine

#16

Lucky you. I’ve never ever had a piece of hardware that synced to DAW properly without aid. Sure, Live can do some magic with beat detection but I always had to snap the recorded material to tempo manually which was quite tedious work.
Overbridge seems to be a good solution too if we are talking in Elektron family.

Oh, btw, there is setting in Live to adjust the tempo offset of each MIDI interface (MIDI Clock Sync Delay in MIDI Ports setting menu). This together with adjustment of audio signal latency on External Instrument track could give you relatively good results. I don’t remember the exact details but people reported successful stories.

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#17

I found that,should i reduce the sync delay ? its at 0 now…maybe i should try & experiment,maybe set it at -20ms and see

#18

Yep, play around with different values.
When you start Live there is a tiny delay until MD gets the Start MIDI Realtime Message delivered. This delay depends on your MIDI interface, your OS, computer configuration etc. Try to compensate it with that setting.
I assume you are sending audio from MD back to your sound card. Your sound card may have ASIO Direct Monitoring, that means you can hear incoming signal in real-time with no latency. That’s fine for dry recordings. But if you want to monitor it through Live (i.e. with some SW effects on it or without, it doesn’t matter) you also need to set either Track Delay for the track that receives MD audio or Hardware Latency if you use External Instrument module on your track.

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#19

still havent managed to figure it out :confused: any other ideas :confused:

#20

http://www.innerclocksystems.com/New%20ICS%20Sync-Gen%20II%20Pro.html

any feedback on this?

#21

noone ? :frowning:

#22

As I mentioned before, SyncGen Pro II solves any DAW<>HW sync issues for good. I’m using it and all is great. They provide you with two VST plugins. One for measuring the offset of you HW sequencer (GridLock) and one for actual syncing. You need to measure your external sequencer once and then just set the offset in the sync plugin. Recording of any external hardware with syncable clock sits nicely on Live’s grid. It’s like having one integrated system, recording straight into the clips/arrangements without any further manual peak snapping. It’s got some additional features like foot switch control (comes with one), multiple MIDI and DIN outs, MIDI controllable clock divisions, swing etc. The box is rather pricey but it’s a good investment when your setup grows. David from Innerclock is a friendly guy, ready to help or answer any issues. I’ve e-mailed him with some questions and he responded promptly. So it’s a product with exceptional support.

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#23

Hello guys,I just bought sync gen 2 ,but i havent been able to install it properly yet.
I have connected 2 audio cables from my soundcard into Transport/Sync inputs of the Sync-gen,and on ‘‘Trigger’’ i have connected the machinedrum
Do I need to make some adjustment on ableton or something? I open the vst on an audio channel but there is a static buzz coming out from the speakers,nothing else
help pls
thanks <3

#24

It seems that you are directing the sync signal (that buzz) to your speakers. It should be routed to the Sync input of SG2.

#25

I am doing something wrong :confused:
I have connected 2 outputs (5&6) to sync/transport of sync gen,ableton is not letting me set 5&6 as outputs of the specific channel though.
any ideas? ableton only sees channels 1&2 as possible outputs on the audio preferences menu

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#26

I think the problem is that for some reason ableton wont see more outputs than 1&2.why is this happening?

#27

i switched to asio driver,now i can choose 5-6 as outputs of the sync gen…but the ‘‘transport pulses’’ light is off…so something is not right here also

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#28

make sure the volume is higher enough on the sync gen channel. just play with the volume a bit.
also im not sure you need to connect the machinedrum to the trigger on the sync-gen.
i dont and i think everything works fine. but maybe i dont understand the point of the trigger thing!

#29

I believe the transport pulses should be on,so something is not right here,the volume on the 5&6 channels are high enough :slight_smile:
So all i need for the sync to work is put the sync-gen on one random channel ? and then everything inside the ableton project will be synced?

#30

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Also make sure that you enable all outputs in Output Config of Ableton (or at least up to 5/6). Then you’ll be able to assign outputs 5/6 to SG2. Are you using the right RME driver, ASIO Fireface USB?
Your status LED should be lit green. Transport Pulses and Sync Signal should be lit white and Tempo Indicator should blink according to Live’s tempo.

Edit: Maybe just try to swap cables on SG2 side. I also never know which one is which so I simply try other SG2 inputs if it doesn’t work on the first try.

#31

If someone is still interested in how solve this matter without an external clock device, I wrote a tutorial: Machinedrum and Ableton - Stable Sync via Ableton Link and iOS

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