AR A4 Sync Problem Question

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi All,

Any help would be appreciated. I’ve owned the AR for a while now, and recently acquired an A4. I’m trying to work with the two together – AR as master, A4 as slave. I’ve connected the two via a single Midi cable from AR’s Midi Out --> A4’s Midi In.

It works perfectly in sync when I press Play from AR. However, if I press stop on the A4 (while the AR is still playing), and then press Play on the A4 to jump back in with the AR, they’re totally out of sync (they only jump back in sync if I hit at just the right time). I did some troubleshooting to check Midi Config, and make sure Pattern Change settings were default on the A4.

Midi Config on AR: Clock Send: On, Transport Send: On, Prg Ch Send: On (all receiving is Off)
Midi Config on A4: Clock Receive: On, Transport Receive: On, Prg Ch Receive: On (all sending is Off)
Midi Ports are selected on both, Turbo is Off

Is there anything I’m not thinking of, or is this how the Elektron sync works? If I recall, the two patterns running have different pattern lengths (AR is 64/64, A4 is 16/16) – could that be throwing them off? I’m sure what’s going on is something very simple that I’m just missing…

Thanks for the help!

#2

There is nothing in the MIDI clock used which will allow the devices to resync if you stop one this way, there are other sync standards which are explicit, but this implementation of clock is just constant pulses at 96ppqn … getting the A4 back in sync would either require good re-entry timing or a double stop from the AR (alternatively, don’t stop the A4, but just kill the volume until you want it back on)

there may also be mileage in the song mode (i don’t really use it) as this may facilitate explicit song position pointer SPP info, but this would require pre-planning of structure

I’m sure there are better workflow tips out there, but i’d just work on the timing of the restart in the meantime

#3

Once you hit stop on a slave device you’ve ended the sync. When you first hit play on the AR, it told the A4 to start at the same time, if you hit stop on the A4 then it’s stopped, the AR won’t tell it to start again until you stop and start AR again.
To keep sync and not have A4 playing you could select an empty pattern on A4 and use sequential pattern change to switch back and join in on time. You could also use a performance macro to mute everything. There’s probably more options as well. In the future song mode with empty patterns might be of interest if you need the A4 to stop at certain times then join back in…

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#4

Thanks! That’s super helpful info!

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