I know this has been discussed extensively, but I have tried a few different things and am stuck on how solutions to these problems help. I guess I would like some confirmation before I drop $ on an Innerclock or the like.
So, when using Octatrack as master with Ableton, the tempo in Ableton can be seen to fluctuate constantly. Most seem to think that this is a result of Ableton not liking to be slaved. So how would an Innerclock system change this? Even though the Innerclock is rock solid, does Ableton still freak out?
Another alternative is to slave the Elektrons to Ableton. Octa/MD do not give a reading of incoming tempo, so it is a bit hard to make a judgement on whether this is a sucessful avenue.
If anyone is using an external clock for recording purposes with a DAW I would like to hear your thoughts/experiences.
The InnerClock Sync Gen is designed to output a very stable MIDI + Din sync clock signal to multiple ports, and remain in sync with a host running a special plugin.
The plugin outputs a sample accurate audio pulse, which the Sync Gen uses for syncing.
It is not designed to work the other way around i.e. you would not slave Ableton to the Sync Gen.
As you’ve read elsewhere, Ableton Live does not like to slave to an external clock. In fact, most hosts don’t really work very well when slaved but it does seem that Live is a bit more jittery than say Logic (using MTC) or Cubase based on what I’ve read too.
Basically, your options are:
Sync the Octatrack to the clock from Ableton. To do this you will need to set up the correct options in Live’s MIDI preferences, and tell the Octatrack to slave to incoming clock. You’ll need some kind of MIDI output from your computer.
In this situation I would not worry too much about being able to see the tempo on the external hardware - it’s only ever an approximation anyway and will fluctuate a bit (this is perfectly normal).
Get the Sync Gen (or a similar device e.g. the new Roland sync box) if you want super tight timing, and find that (1) is not giving you the results you need.
Most people find (1) is fine if only syncing 1 external hardware sequencer.
You also need to be aware of the latency of your audio drivers with respect to the incoming audio. All sound card drivers introduce a latency, depending on the buffer settings.
Most sound cards have what is called direct or zero latency monitoring, which sends the incoming audio directly to the outputs, bypassing the drivers. When recording you need to compensate for this in the host so that the recorded audio lines up with the stuff you’re doing in the host, or edit later to line things up manually.