A4 midi compensation with OB

Hi Nauts,

I’m using Ableton Live 9 with Overbridge to control my Analog 4 and a whole heap of other hardware in my studio.

My problem is that the A4 seems to be triggering just a millisecond or two later than the rest of my hardware and its totally noticeable.

I run Ableton externally synced to my TR8 and the TR8’s midi offset is set to my overall latency in Ableton.

When I offset the A4 in my Ableton preferences with the same latency it seems to do nothing. As a result my A4 is triggering late. I can’t seem to get the TR8 clock and A4 clock lined up. Even though essentially, the TR8 is setting the master clock in Ableton, so I would assume Overbridge is also clocking the TR8 clock by proxy (although I am not so sure this is happening).

Is there something I can do in the Overbridge Control panel to offset midi latency? because the option to offset the A4 latency in Ableton seems to have no effect on the timing of the A4.

To compound the problem. I am controlling my Microbrute using the CV out from the A4 and routing the Microbrute audio back in through the A4 external in. The microbrute is also triggering late, which I have assumed in the latency between the CV out and the audio in. To compensate this I need to offset all my CV triggers by 1/32 of a note on the A4 sequencer and it will push the CV note back onto the grid, but the overall audio in, through Overbridge is still late.

Help?

Hi,

I would try to sync the microbrute and the TR-8 via the A4 thru port, using overbridge.
just sync the A4 with overbridge and set it to transmit clock.

Thank you, although that isn’t going to help too much because I also have 8 other synths that need syncing. I feel it would be easier to tighten up the A4 instead of re-jigging all my hardware.

So there is no way to offset Overbridge in the control panel?

I had similar headaches in the past and nothing really worked - until I switched first to an Expert Sleepers USAMO and then to an ERM Multiclock. The latter does not come cheap but I honestly haven’t looked back once since I added it to my setup. Live / computer have a shaky clock, Overbridge adds latency (although I have to say the sync with Live is pretty solid) and the A4 does not pass MIDI clock via MIDI when synched with OB - so if you wanna keep Live as master (instead of slaving it to one of your boxes) in my personal experience there is nothing like the Multiclock.

with your current setup, you will experiment timing issues even without overbridge.
The midi clock messages are not properly delay compensated by ableton.

Cheap solution : get a compensated clock from overbridge thru your A4 with a splitter and feed all your synths. Yeah overbridge adds overall latency but Elektron promised to improve stuff. It is worth a try since you already have the A4.
Best solution : go for erm or expert sleepers.

Good luck