A4 MkI wavering midi clock

The most basic of task’s… Sending midi clock from various machines: MPC, Cubase, Sync-Lock. All with the same result. Midi clock jitter

Im at my wits’ end.

Any help most appreciated.

Ps. Updated to recent OS but no change in behaviour

If you gave us any information about your setup and your intentions, we might be able to help.

would like any suggestions to stop the BPM wavering when the A4 is slaved

If all you’re observing is small fluctuations in the displayed value of the tempo on the slave unit, then this is almost certainly just an artifact of the short time window of the tempo calculation function and tiny amounts of jitter in the master clock signals.

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Ah right, OK. I have the master set at 120bpm and its fluctuating between 19.8 and 120.2

Huge wavering! :slight_smile:
If there’s nothing noticeable by ear, that’s the most important!

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Ha! that’s from the MPC i’m testing it with now (was further drift with Cubase)

Any other device simply won’t be as accurate at reporting minute fluctuations - this is how Elektron have knowingly set it, if they wanted they could easily smooth it (and you’d still have the same sound but no clues that there may be real jitter), but that may impact on the readouts when manually nudging, so they have it overly accurate and potentially unflattering

As said, there’s a display and there’s what you hear - and in any case there’s nothing on the A4 you can do - So, stop worrying and learn to love the (non)jitter :wink:

If you aren’t actually hearing the MIDI jitter, then don’t trouble yourself over it. All of my devices that are slaved to incoming MIDI report fluctuations. It’s normal.

Most slave devices take something along the lines of a running average, the numbers you see do not equal the timing you here… The lock symbol by the tempo (at least on AR) shows the tempo…

+1 here on the wavering. I haven’t noticed any actual effect on the clock tightness, so no worries

Midi spec is such that the clock refreshes at 24PPQN. Every device does this and there isn’t a problem unless it produces audible results. Drift or audible slop can occur when you have 3 or more devices daisy chained but this is probably more pronounced with vintage devices. A thru box is your cheap solution if this is an issue. A quality power conditioner can help to minimize this some but it will not eliminate it.

Most instruments and DAWS have slight variations in midi output. It’s more noticeable when you’re recording across multiple tracks or have long delay tails on your effects.

I have struggled with this forever when making electronic music and the only solution thats reliable that I’ve found is using a external clock. And even then, you must be sure that the clock you choose doesn’t have midi jitter.

I use a ERM multiclock and its solved ALL of my MIDI jitter issues. But they are expensive.

I believe that every peson who makes electronic music will eventually come across this infuriating inconsistency in MIDI output. External MIDi clocks are the beest and from what i’ve found, only way to treat this.

Good Luck.