I’m using A4 and Overbridge as an Ableton synced DinSync and MIDI Clock source.
The problem is that It’s not working properly.
You hit play on Ableton and most of the time DinSync is synced with Ableton with a latency of 15ms which is borderline acceptable. My audio device is an RME HDSPe MADI FX with an input latency of 3.31 ms with 128 sample buffer at 48kHz sample rate. I believe that’s top rated nowadays. So this means the real A4 DinSync latency is about 15ms - 3ms ≈ 12ms. In my experience latency starts to become disturbing after around 10ms. With A4 I’m syncing two TB-303s and sometimes a TR-606 with DinSync.
One additional major problem is that A4 DinSync latency is not consistent. Sometimes the A4 DinSync starts with a latency of 34ms which is terrible. Fluctuation in A4 DinSync is about 2ms which is quite good. However when it syncs with 34ms latency it becomes very disturbing. If it were consistent at 13ms latency, even then it would have been sort of OK. This additional latency happens once every 5-6 starts. I’m not sure if it’s related to a new firmware but it’s very frustrating.
To make the things worse, MIDI clock output from A4 has about 34ms latency, however, it’s very consistent. Unlike the A4 DinSync out, it always has a 34ms latency. Fluctuation in A4 MIDI Clock is 2ms as well so at least that part is OK.
I really hope Elektron would fix this with a new firmware.
The problem with using MIDI Clock from Ableton is that it also has about a baseline 34 ms latency and you might think that you could compensate this from the MIDI Out preferences clock delay setting but the Ableton MIDI Clock latency fluctuates depending on the load of your project, devices, Max for live etc etc so it becomes very difficult to use.
The funny thing is that sometimes A4 DinSync and MIDI Clock get synchronized when DinSync strangely starts with 34ms latency but of course this serves no purpose since even if both were always synchronized like that, 34ms latency is really terrible.
Please Elektron fix this.
If A4 DinSync was consistent, I was planning on buying the Kenton D-Sync bi-directional DinSync to MIDI converter, which has a DinSync to MIDI conversion latency of 6ms, so that would give 13ms + 6ms = 19ms MIDI Clock latency, then add my audio in latency it becomes 21ms, but I can’t even do that since A4 DinSync latency is not consistent between different starts.
Also, one additional bug is the following: If you disable all audio inputs and outputs from Overbridge configuration tool to only use A4 as a DAW synced DinSync and MIDI Clock device or just as a DAW synced standalone sequencer, it does not work. You need to at least have one input going to DAW even if you don’t need it and you only need sync.
Please Elektron fix these things.
The next best thing is an innerclock systems sync device costing around $500 ~$600.
Should I sell my A4 to buy one of those crazy expensive but perfectly working innerclock DinSync and MIDI Clock sync device?
I really hope my post would help someone.