Overbridge is the thing that made me notice my jitter and timing issues even more. Ableton and most DAWS have unstable midi clock, due t them prioritising other functions over the midi clock. I doubt a software solution will solve and jitter/unstable clock issues. This is why I bought hardware. there are many options out there. .
1 Like
What if you have the Elektron receive transport but not clock and just manually set the clock to match your DAW?
1 Like
note 
1/ midi outside of your daw gets sloppy/jittery because your OS doesnāt highly prioritize midi.
Audio is way better handled so the best way to send a midi clock outside of your daw is with an audio signal and using your audio interface driver, and a midi sync box interpreting the clock
2/ Ableton has an auto latency compensation for audio. This doesnāt apply for Live sending midi clocks. So the clock has to be resynced for each iteration of a session.
A midi sync box has a vst plugin sending an audio clock message. this allows to take advantage of your daw latency compensation so that your clock gets automatically compensated
1 Like
Yes, I just ordered an Expert Sleepers USAMO to end this jitter for good.
I use Ableton 10 so I am thinking this should be a good match for my Digitakt. I just want to record audio into the DAW and nail it on the grid. Especially once overbridge drops.
Dumb Question - With no overbridge, do I still need USB into my PC from the Digitakt? I am guessing no since I am just wanting to start the digitakt with Ableton sync and then pipe in the audio. But I have not slept much today and may not be thinking clearly
Hi, i am pretty sure that overbridge will highly improve the stability midi clock going from ableton to the digitakt using the same kind of trick the usamo uses.
That said with usamo you are not bounded to overbridge for sync and you can also sync other devices.
The usb cable is for overbridge and audio interface functionality, usb midi, firmware updatesā¦
But you also have the midi port to pass all kinds of midi, sysex messages if you need to ā¦
When using my Digitakt with FLStudio, NI Maschine, Reaper, or Bitwig, the tempo fluctuates during playback. Is there a way to fix this that I am missing?
With Cubase and Ableton, the tempo does not fluctuate.
You know I had this issue recently.
I messaged my DAWās creator and asked them if itās possible to simply create a bar of MIDI clock data but send start/stop messages on say bar 2 or 3.
They said no but I need to put it up on their suggestion forums because this is a common issue for all my synths. It creates mad pitch wobble the first few seconds, and with a delay and reverb can sound horrible.
I agree. The beats hit on time, but not ON time, if you get what I mean.
Is there a way to disable clock receive on the digitakt, but still receive transport data?
When I check MIDI clock on say my Octatrack, which has decimals, its always around 0.2BPM less than whatās set in the DAW.
Regardless, when I listen with zero latency monitoring the hits are pretty much precise. Lots of perceivable syncopation when using DAW sequenced gear comes from monitoring latency.
Thereās no latency when triggering the digitakt via midi. There is only latency in both directions when using the sequencer in time with the project timelines.
I have this with Reaper jitter up to .5bpm. When I use my Novation SL MKiii for clock to Elektron boxes itās 0-.1. I use a Mio10 so the computer sends transport control to the Mio, but clock comes from the SL MKiii.
with same approach I use clock from amazing midiox while transport control from ableton to get almost 0 jitter with no on pourpose timing hardware.
I hope we find a way to fix this soon. When you record, there is a very noticable fluctuation in tempo. I wish there was a way to just disable receiving tempo from DAW but keep timeline and transport.
Many people in the same boat with MIDI over USB jitterā¦
Initially I didnāt care as my DT and DN slaved to Ableton fluctuated by 0.2 bpm up/down. DN is slaved to DT via gold plated MIDI cable. I ran some tests (turn on metronome on DT and DN) and record the click track on 4/4 beat and saw they hit after the grid marks but also before the grid marksā¦ Which made me think my 4/4 beat is wobbly.
After recent Win update my BPM with same setup started drifting by 5BPM, which started to concern me. Ran the same tests and saw the same hits coming late then early (before and after the grid). Then i listened to a recorded track I exported and somehow my drum parts are not tightā¦
Started researching for MIDI sync boxes, saw ERM too costly but proven, then researched ES Usamo, 5 times cheaper but only 1 MIDI out. Dunno if this out gets splitted, it will stay stable or if it will be stable in DN slaved to DT slaved to Live via Usamo.
I was close to buying Usamo but decided to give Overbridge a try. It really synced very tightly my DT and DN to Live starting on time, no missed hits, rock solid 128.00 bpm, no fluctuations.
So voila! I can now overdub with my VSTs over DT and DN, and have freed up 4 TRS ins on my audio interface.
The only problems Iām getting with OB MIDI syncing is that after some time sync gets lost, maybe after 100 bars of playback. Iām not using Overhub but a regular non-powered TP link hub for ā¬15. Tried directly plugging DT and DN USB into my laptop, not much of an improvement again midi sync lost after a while, therefore Overhub wonāt helpā¦
So I figured it really depends on your workflow:
- If you want hybrid setup between DT,DN and VSTs and DAW FX time synced with OB (delays, rev etc.) Overbridge is saving you dollars and i/o but you need to print your 8 bars into Live and then arrange/mix
- if you want to fully live jam for hours and record in a hybrid Elektron/DAW setup maybe you need to invest in ERM or Usamoā¦ because OB loses sync after a while, you can only stop/start over to fix.
I really want to run 2) above, so is anyone achieving this with OB or ERM or Usamo?
Thanks
A bit of topic perhaps but I would advice all of you to ignore what the bmp display says on any gear that is being slaved my midi clock and instead measure the jitter.
Do this by recording a 16th note pattern and zoom in an start counting samples between transients.
At 48khz in 120 bpm 16th notes is 6000 samples apart. Innerclock systems stated that Digitakt has 32 samples of jitter when being slaved to a steady clock.
(Itās in their litmus test results. )
2 Likes
How do you set up MIDIOX to do this?
the trick is about feeding the digitakt with clock from MidiOx, then filtering just midi transport commands from ableton
Man thats awesome. So you are somehow able to set up MIDI OX so it sends MIDI and clock out when it sees start and stop from Ableton? And this is going over USB MIDI I am guessing out to your Digitakt?
I know someone asked in that IG post you linked, but is there anywhere you think I can find a guide on how to do this?
Would be huge.
you can be able to send timing clocks from midiox (at constant bpm), they are proven to be more stable than ones from ableton. you can merge this stream, going to digitakt by usbmidi, to the midi out of ablleton which contain both timing clock anc transport control. then you have to filterout from ableton timing clock so eventually just transport go to digitakt.
i dont a proper rig to do it now, but if you wish you can contact me on private and we can arrange to let I setup for you by remote