Whatsup,
I currently have a MIDI setup with Digitakt as the master to control 3 other devices. I use a MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru as the MIDI hub and everything works well EXCEPT syncing in time with Ableton.
To MIDI sync with ableton I have MIDI In to my MIDI keyboard which is connected to my computer. Ableton recognizes the MIDI signal but when I hit play on the Digitakt it takes a while for Ableton to sync up with the tempo (even if I have the same tempo in Ableton matching the tempo of the Digitakt).
Ive seen a Ricky Tinez video where he addresses a similar kind of lag it seems but I’m not sure if my issue is related to that. I’m wondering if a different MIDI hub is the solution or if I can change my MIDI settings/cabling connections to make everything sync up in time?
Not too sure what to do at this point.
The issue, and this is common with most DAWs, is that they run at a much higher resolution than MIDI Clock. When a DAW is following MIDI Clock (or even analog Sync Triggers), they kind of do a stutter at the start because they don’t know what to do with their extra pulses until they’ve received a couple of the MIDI Clock pulses to calculate BPM from. (ie: they are doing interpolation to keep it all moving).
There are a couple answers. If you start your projects with 1 measure of pre-roll, it’ll have enough time to do the calculation and it’ll start on the 2nd measure without any hiccups (or if your DAW supports it, have it do a count in while following MIDI Clock).
Or, use the DAW as the master clock and have it send the signal out to the other gear.
Tinez is usually talking about a different sort of lag that can happen when the DAW sends master MIDI Clock out. There are other ways to combat that as well, such as using audio clock output and latency adjustment features found on devices that can bridge between audio clock and MIDI Clock, such as CLOCKstep:MULTI or Multiclock.
I can try to answer any other questions you have.
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That helps narrow things down. for now, ill just be sticking with the method you mentioned about giving Ableton some time to catch up to the right tempo. should definitely work for the time being!