Ableton with Digitakt

I want to start the transport in Ableton and have the DIGI be in time/sync over midi. When I start playback from Ableton the DIGI is always out of sync. The DIGI will link to the bpm but always out of time.

thanks!

Please have a look at this topic. Itā€™s quite the same with DT.

ableton must always be master

Ableton is the masterā€¦ Hit spacebar and the DIGI starts. But, is never locked to ableton.

yes, midi-start-stop always need some time to travel through your midi chain. And DAW clock is always troublesome.

Three Options:

  1. Wait until OB comes to DT

  2. Buy an ERM multiclock which uses a plugin to avoid DAWā€™s clock jitter.

  3. Bounce down USB audio and quantize the track.

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Ok so here might be midi jitter from a computer but if you have a delay to the sound it could be that you are monitoring though your DAW and that adds more or less latency.

If possible monitor your external gear through a mixer (perhaps your sound card has a mixer) or if your DAW supports asio direct monitoring or similar.

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To clarifyā€¦ itā€™s not a consistent amount of delay. Its the right BPM. Itā€™s just when I start and stop ableton, the digi plays back at different spots in the pattern. I want it always to sync on the 1 when Iā€™m at a downbeat in abletonā€™s timeline.

Iā€™m doing this over midi not USB.

I do this in performance it generally works:

  1. In Abletonā€™s MIDI preference panel, be sure MIDI Clock Type is set to Song:

    (Shown here for the IAC Driver, cause Iā€™m out at a cafe w/o my DT, but you should do this for the Digitakt interface.)

  2. Besure the DT is stopped.

  3. Start the transport in Ableton.

Iā€™ve very very very rarely (okay, exactly once) had a case where the DT just would not start at all like thisā€¦ and fiddling with MIDI settings on the DT didnā€™t help. I power cycled the DT and all was well.

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Had the same problem but changed the MIDI clock type to ā€˜Patternā€™ (was previously set to ā€˜Songā€™)

In Ableton prefs go to MIDI set up and click the little arrow next to ā€œOutput: Elektron Digitaktā€ to reveal the settings.

This now starts the Digitakt from the beginning of the pattern and will always play from downbeat of the bar in ableton.

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Is it possible to send clock to Ableton via the Digitakt USB-Midi ? Iā€™m clocking the Digitakt via the modular and itā€™s a very tight sync. However Iā€™d like to occasionally clock a DAW as well.

I canā€™t do it the other way with Ableton as master because then I would have no way to clock the modular (I donā€™t have a midi to cv/gate module).

Thanks !

I think it can be doneā€¦Im doing it and it works well just set the midi sync to ON for the input and be sure to have the EXT button ON

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Thank you ! Iā€™ll give it a go later today. Do you have to set anything in a specific way in Ableton ? Iā€™ve never dabbed in midi except for standard clocking duties between hardware.

I dont think so mate, just set the output to usb + midi in the digitakt midi settings and then in ableton you should be fine with the settings that i mentioned in my postā€¦i use some vsts and for that you need to set the i/o section for each track you want to control correctly- midi from- elektron digitakt and set the midi channelā€¦that should be itā€¦let me know if you ll have any issuesā€¦

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It works, thanks a lot for your help !

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So instead of running through abelton mixer you think itā€™d be smoother to have the digitakt running through my focusrite straight to the monitors. I have the v6 and I am able to relocate the output of my channel 3 input (digitakt). Havenā€™t thought about just running the audio straight through the focusrite to my monitors

This works for digitone as well!

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Thank you!