A4 CV jitter

Hey everyone, a question for all those sending clk/reset from their A4 to external CV sequencers.

I am sending CLK (1) and v-trigs for resets on an 8 step cv sequencer (uStep)

I am noticing that at random times the A4 will fall out of sync because a reset is sent too early/late. I also notice that when I set the gate lengths of the pulses at max value that sometimes the CLK pulse will also fall out of sync

I contacted support and received this response:
The jitter of the machine is 2 frames of 32 in the rate of 48kHz. In real numbers this is around 1.3ms.

It is very noticeable when triggering percussion sounds (i’m triggering a tiptop clap module with the uStep)

Now here’s where I would like some help/input:

Will using a midi to cv converter to send clock and start/stop (from the a4 midi out) result in less jitter? Something like mutable instruments yarns, doepfer a190 or the kenton module.

I know there’s also the expert sleepers and innerclock stuff for eurorack but I really would not like to use the DAW for anything but recording.

thanks everyone. I know this is a bit obscure but hopefully someone else has noticed this and has figured out a work around

I wouldn’t call it that obscure, I noticed this immediately when I started using my A4 with modular.

You can see the jitter in the clock when looking at a module that shows BPM.

In addition, even with just pitch, you will hear it now and then. I was wondering what was going on when I first heard it but with your post above, now I know why. :slight_smile:

Yeah in general finding the cv of the a4 a little bit sluggish, for instance programming the same sequence on both the a4 and sh101 and feeding them to my mono lancet, they 101 just feels a little tighter… And the microprocessor in that thing is ancient! Hopefully there is room for improvement with it tho :slight_smile:

for what it’s worth, the only thing the 101’s MCU is doing is sequencing

let the machines rip all afternoon

even without resets the CLK pulses fall out of sync :disappointed:

coincidentally i have 14 hp left and the innerclock syncgen iils will solve this clock jitter issue once and for all on both the midi and cv side

this really only bothers me while recording (which i do ITB anyways) so if I have to use a VST to ensure razor sharp timing so be it

I’m interested to hear more people confirm that this is a common issue. I only feel a tiny bit concerned due to the delay timing issue I had during the last update which mysteriously did not impact all users :confused:

Wow this is really serious. I haven’t used it with my modular yet.
But my intentions were to use din sync to control my eurorack modcan touch sequencer…but sync doesn’t work as advertised???

@jenamu6

I can’t comment on din sync jitter personally, but it looks like it is more accurate than the cv pulses when clocked externally

check out the tests here

http://www.innerclocksystems.com/New%20ICS%20Litmus.html

it is a bit of a let down, but there are alternatives. Not too concerned, the A4 is still a bangin controller for the modular just might not be the most stable clock source for really tight percussion based cv sequencing.

I dont notice this when clocking my metropolis from the A4 :\

for what it’s worth, the only thing the 101’s MCU is doing is sequencing[/quote]
the 101 may have less clock jitter & be tight enough when its sending out cv & gate from its arp or sequencer but the processor latency when receiving cv & gate or click in to the arp or seq is about 3-5ms, its noticable and annoying.
i have been using the din sync24 from the analog 4 and occasionally it may drop a pulse or miss one at the start.
imho 1.3ms latency is acceptable for most synth duties but 1.3ms jitter kinda sucks for drums… could be worse :slight_smile:

How was the sync ‘advertised’ exactly?

How was the sync ‘advertised’ exactly?[/quote]
that’s a common turn of phrase…

just bumping this thread.

After the most recent A4/AK update I received an email from Olle at Elektron tech support following up on my concerns with the dropped pulses and overall jitter with CV clock pulses from the A4.

I was advised to try it again with the newest OS by setting the A4 as the master midi clock and voila no more dropped pulses!

I usually never hit stop on my A4 sequencer and let it run for hours while I tweak away and there is absolutely no dropped pulses now.

Thanks Olle and the Elektron dev team. keep up the great work

good to hear that it got sorted for when the A4 is the master, however can anyone comment on if this issue was resolved when A4 is not the master?

Pro tools is the master in my studio and I can’t change this.

I just ordered the keys and expect to use it to drive my modular. I sold my modular sequencers to help pay for this - so obviously this would be a concern for me…

Guessing unlikely, many machines like being the master clock when they’re doing multiple things at once.

@matic well the easiest thing to do is just try once you receive your machine but if you send trigs and burn up a track there’s no issues with missed pulses even when midi clocked externally. In my case I’m using the OT as master midi clock and it’s tight.

with pro-tools as master you will need to skip sending midi through your interface and use expert sleepers or innerclock or SND acme 4 type solution to get everything in sync. There’s 2 parts to this a) generating a jitter free audio pulse from your DAW through a vst or dedicated track and b) setting the delay compensation within your daw so everything starts at the same time

Hey nirun,
a little confused as to what your are suggesting. In terms of syncing my gear, all of my sequencers (including 2x octatracks) sync perfectly as is, I also have have 2 other midi to cv devices which drive modular sequencers which are also very tight.
I am expecting to simply sync my AK via midi clock and then output gates to my modular system… are you suggesting that this approach won’t work?
thanks in advance btw for the explanation

based on the description of your setup it will work fine provided you fill a track with steps that generate gate pulses.

When setting the cv track to “clock” pulses are generated without needing to enter anything in the sequencer. This is only the case when having your A4/AK as master provides tighter timing.

Sorry for the confusion!

ok gotcha… thanks for the explanation