Arrangement/song sync with song position pointer OT/AR

[loa]

Judging by the OT and AR manuals it should be possible to send song position pointer from OT to AR if you activate midi transport send and receive accordingly.
I did a quick test with 3 patterns on OT and AR. I’ve create a simple arrangement with the 3 patterns on the OT and the same song on AR.

What I’d like to achieve now is jumping between pattern by changing the row on the OT (which is midi master). So I engage both arrangement mode and song mode, I press play on the OT and I select the third row on the arrangement hopping it will play the third pattern on the AR too but unfortunately it doesn’t work.

All the pattern are 4 bars, midi is working correctly and I cannot find information about song position pointer.

Does anybody has any experience with synced song/arrangement on Elektron machines ?

[sezare56]

Salut.
Did you try with pause ?
Apparently, it requires a Continue message, not sure if OT sends it. Can’t check now.

Some reading :

SPP messages with midi controller?

From the MIDI spec: A sequencer’s Song Position (SP) is the number of MIDI beats (1 beat = 6 MIDI clocks) that have elapsed from the start of the song and is used to begin playback of a sequence from a position other than the beginning of a song. It is normally set to 0 when the START button is pressed to start sequence playback from the very beginning. It is incremented every sixth MIDI clock until STOP is pressed. If CONTINUE is pressed, it continues to increment from its current value. Th…

[loa]

Coucou,
What do you mean by trying with pause ?

I just tried to start the arrangement from the third row and the Rytm started from the third row too, so the SPP seems to be recognized. It doesn’t seems to work when I try to jump between rows but when I start the arrangement it does work.

[sezare56]

Pause : “stop” with the play button.
Continue : press play again

I’m not sure if it can work with direct row changes while playing.
Probably requires a Continue message, probably not sent when you change rows directly. I’d check with a midi monitor.

Possible with a midi processor, but if you read the link above it’s tricky.

[loa]

Thanks, I figured out after replying what was pause. Unfortunately it doesn’t work neither, I can change the start of the song before starting it, but when the sequence plays, I cannot jump on the arrangement and having the rytm to follow.

So, as far as you know, SPP is just useful to begin the song ?

Yes, I’ve read the all thread and it seems tricky, I guess I’ll pass on this and deal with some sync problems.

[sezare56]

checking…

SPP is just useful to begin the song ?

Without trickery, I’d say yes.

So after checking a midi monitor, SPP is sent after STOP, or when you press YES if it is stopped or paused.

So if you press PLAY/YES/PLAY*, it should work. Can you give it a try? Please do it in time !

Theoretically, this should do PAUSE/SEND SPP/PLAY

*With the cursor above target row.

[loa]

Yep, it works ! But you stop the playback, in a live situation it’s something people will probably notice.
However, it’s nice to know that in case of emergency I can use this technique.

Thank you so much for your time and knowledge @sezare56 !

[sezare56]

Empirical!
Does it work with the right timing, like 2 beats before break?
4.3 Play
4.4 YES
1.1 Play

[loa]

Yes, it works, but you have to be super fast otherwise you’ll hear a start/stop, I mean no sound for a short time.