I realized months ago using my DSI tempest to modular synth that sync was not sharp. Measuring stuff around, I realized I had 6ms offset.
Now I’m new to Octatrack and I have the same problem. Basically OT master Tempest slave; the tempest plays behind 6ms. It is audible and makes a “clap” sound if 2 sharp transients are played (one on OT one on tempest)
The way to solve that is to use multiclock from ERM. But then you need a bunch of MIDI merge boxes to input keyboard to OT etc…
WHY why WHYYY doesn’t the OT (and all serious midi hardwares) have a settable offset on MIDI clock out ? I tried the Delay Compensate but it doesn’t work in this case. Did i miss a feature somewhere ?
I would love to be able in Project / Midi / Sync to be able to add +/-10ms offset to the midi clock out (or in). Is that crazy ? would you guys use this ? I never read much about this problem. All YT videos off people using midi sync say “perfectly synced”… it’s not really use your ears or measure it you’ll be surprised and for drum machines it kills your transient to have a 6ms delay.
I don’t own a Tempest but I never had any problems with OT as master with other gear, 6ms lag would be a problem for me too, it seems like maybe the problem lies with the Tempest?
Thanks,
Yes I’m absolutly sure it’s a tempest problem but not only. Hardwares have more or less latencies with syncs.
But I’m 100% sure it’s not about Tempest salve or master. I did all test you can imagine for the last months. watching videos about it… doing YT videos myself about it and Tempest is always behind 6ms EVEN WHEN MASTER !! that’s crazy. Aand I came to the conclusion that the only way to work this out is with multiclock. But it’s so frustrating that modern hardware don’t have some little offset feature to solve that or what ever goes down the chain (some say multiple thru in cascade create more latency. Specially when this hardware is a “hub” from sample, sequence to midi like the OT.
You can easily solve this with a BomeBox, no need for a multiclock.
You could even make the offsets adjustable with midi control for each device.
But yeah, a lot of hardware also has a slight delay on the output.
I think a Waldorf Blofeld has more delay than the Tempest.
There is always a delay penalty for digital processing.
And hardware with D/A converters always has a slight delay by design.
The older the converter design, the longer the delay, up to several ms.
The Bomebox can work without wifi.
I guess @DreamXcape is talking about a midi offset, Tempest master, OT slaved with 6 ms added latency to sync it with Tempest?
Sorry to rock this old thread, Im experiencing similar problems but I am only using elektron boxes (DT, DN, OT, RT). No overbridge, just midi cables. Initially I was sending clock from Ableton to one of the machines using the midi interface built into my Babyface. Then I just deleted Ableton from the ‘chain’ and began using OT as Master, then RT as Master.
Ive switched the order around, Ive used different cables and even switched those around, what Im seeing is the DN is usually early regardless of Master and my OT sometimes likes to play nice and other times it is also early
At first I thought the DT was the problem but it’s looking like the DT is the most spot on to the clock.
ERM would certainly resolve this, but I agree. instead of blasting $600 away, why cant we manually offset times in the settings menu somewhere? Or if I really want to be a prick, why doesn’t Elektron make us aware of shifty clocks? Perhaps provide a fix to the problem?
I really hope im overlooking something but this is the reason I skipped using Overbridge (to eliminate latency and lag especially while recording). But now im dealing with phase issues and have searched all over the forums for a solution.
My Ocatrack has consistently started almost exactly two steps late (at 120bpm) when I start it with a transport message from the DAW, regardless of wehther or not it’s the master clock. Doesn’t happen wiht any other hardware I own, has persisted through three different MIDI interfaces and an Expert Sleepers USAMO, and two complete reworkings of my studio MIDI routing. I haven’t actually tested it with transport messages sent from another hardware sequecer since I never use it like that.
Never found a solution, so now if I need it to run in time with a computer I just send it a restart from the DAW (because once the sequencer is running, it works fine - it’s only when you first start it that there’s a problem.
Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
FWIW, if you’re using a USB MIDI interface the timing is going to be inherently poor, it’s jsut a side effect of how the USB subsystem works with a multitasking OS. But I’m using a MioXL with RTP-MIDI (so no USB involved at all, and timing as tight as or tighter than most hardware) and it didn’t solve the problem.
EDIT: if by “phase issues” you mean actual audio phase cancellation (rather than rhythmic phasing, which is how I initially read it) then there’s no solution - the bandwidth of MIDI isn’t high enough to achieve anywhere near sample accurate timing. Like, orders of magnitude too low.
