I’m having issues with my A4 and the CV Clock Out. I have CVD set up as a clock and CVC as a set of triggers.
When I start the A4 from the A4 then the clock and trigs are in sync. The problem I’m having is when I have my A4 slaved to my OT (or anything else) and press play, the A4 transport starts in time and the CVC triggers are in sync, but the clock often starts on a different beat—it’s in time but the downbeats don’t match.
I don’t understand why this is happening, especially as the transport and trigs are in perfectly in sync. I can of course use a track trigs for a clock, but I’d prefer to use the actual CV clock as I don’t want to use a track up just for a clock/trig pulse.
A Grayscale Synapse which has LEDs that show CV activity (and then to the audio out to listen to the CV pulse alongside the metronomes of the OT and A4).
The Synapse is great, but in this context it’s not relevant since it’s just passing on the control voltage. What are you trying to control in your eurorack?
Listening to CV pulses from the A4 is just too geeky. Give us a real life application!
From the Synapse it could go anywhere (from a Tempi to a Maths trig in). Either way beats are out of sync (trigs on the A4 CV track) with sequencers (clocked by the A4).
Essentially,the A4t appears to have it’s own free running clock which can start (or not) on the correct downbeat when the Midi transport fires up. Also double stopping doesn’t seem to fix things.
If I have the A4 as the master it’s perfectly in sync (and always is)… but, the OT likes to be the Master and not the Slave, so would need to re-order the midi flow I guess.
I’m going to report it to Elektron and see what they say. Stay tuned.
OK - so I broke my set up down to it’s basics. Octatrack Midi Out to Analog Four Midi in. CVC = trigs on 1,5,9 & 13 and CVD clock set to 4 (i.e.: match the trigs). Press play on the OT and… they’re perfectly in sync. Both lights on the Synapse blink in unison and the metronomes are synced. Every time. Success.
When I go back to my proper set up which is OT into iConnectMidi4+ which goes into (and controls) Bitwig. From there the A4 is connected via Overbridge and Sequencer Sync is set to Clock. Press play and everything plays in sync (i.e.: metronomes and CVC trigs on A4) except the clock (though sometimes it will if I start it and the phase / stars are aligned).
Therefore the issue is either Bitwig or Overbridge. Next I tried removing the OB plugin and wiring up the A4 via Midi to Bitwig - works perfectly.
So the issue appears to be Overbridge. I’ve tried the different sync modes but nothing seems to solve the issue.
With this in mind, can anyone replicate this to confirm it’s a bug and not just me
Late to the party here sorry.
Are you trying to sync bitwig to the OT?
If Bitwig is like any other daw I’ve used, it’s always better to use the daw as master clock
It’s the same problem if Bitwig is the master (or Slave). And for what it’s worth, Bitwig’s Midi is pretty rock solid - no issues with the OT as the Master.
I had pretty much the same setup as you by the sound of it a while back.
Ableton, AK, RYTM, and Eurorack also driven by synapse module from AK.
Everything was rock solid perfectly in sync.
For what it’s worth my setup was:
Ableton acting as master clock.
Clock sent to AK and RYTM from Ableton via USB midi.
Octatrack clock driven by din midi cable, the clock sent from AK midi din thru port.
AK also sending CV into synapse and driving my modular.
Octatrack and modular audio outputs sent into Ableton via AK stereo inputs.
Everything was 100% rock solid in this configuration.
Edit: forgot to mention AK and RYTM connected via Overbridge
Interesting - your set up does sound identical to mine then.
I sort of fixed it all by hacking a midi cable and 2 mini jacks into a custom DIN SYNC cable which feeds to my Metropolis and from there across the system. This means my 4x A4 CV tracks can be used for more exciting duties than Clock… but still, my OCD wants to find out why it wasn’t working in the first place…
I couldn’t get the Octatrack to sync properly at first.
The secret for me was sending the midi clock from Ableton into AK via Overbridge, then forwarding the midi clock through to the OT via standard midi din cable from the AK midi thru port.
Transport for all devices controlled via Ableton obviously.
From what I can gather you shouldn’t even need the iconnect midi interface?
Hard to decipher this stuff over the net though
The iConnect is only there for the other gear. It’s a weird one as aside from the clock not starting in phase, everything else in the set up is in some no (including the A4).
I stripped it all back again down to just DAW and A4 via OB (nothing else) and the out of phase sync with the Clock still happens. I’ll send support another update and see what they say.
Hi, old topic but I have the same issue. My config is Ableton Live Master and Iconnect midi+ to communicate with hardware. My AK is slave and I use CVD OUT for clock (value 16) to sync Eurorack modules (planar 2 or voltage block).
When Overbridge is open in the session the VC clock start, but not at the beginning of the pattern.
However, if I remove Overbridge from the session and sync the AK through MIDI cable, it works perfectly.
Did you had an answer from Elektron?
Thanks
I didn’t get any help from Elektron - they suggested checking the pulse width and voltage of the clock (errr - it’s their hardware, they should know this).
I explained that the A4 starts in time and if you place trigs to act as a clock then they are BANG in tempo and sync. But, using the A4 CV clock setting generates a clock that at the correct tempo but 75% (a 1/4 beat) of the time starts out of phase - which is the problem.
Of course, using trigs is an option but that uses up a valuable CV track.
I packed my A4 up not long after and went with another solution (I also ditched Overbridge in general). Maybe OB2.0 will fix this?
Give us a real life application!
