-reliably sync different instruments to Ableton Live for tight sequencing/recording
-have 2-4 hardware instruments play in sync, including ones that, at least in their current state, may require individual amounts of delay compensation, e.g., Tonverk, TR-1000
Compared to a few years ago, there seem to be more options to solve this. I’ve read about
ACME-4
Multiclock
Nome II
I’d be interested in first hand experience with these and how others have addressed the above challenges.
Midi clock issues are a reality in vintage gear and are given by their not exactly perfect engineering and also by their age. There are some gear from the past with design flaws, resulting in a sloppy response when played via midi (famous for this is the Roland D50 synth). If you play vintage gear you may need a midi clock management engine like the ones you mentioned. Instead, I’ve never encountered problems with modern gear: I don’t use Tonverk or TR-1000 but I find it difficult to think that they have clock fails. In short, in your case I think an ext midiclock device could be overkill
There’s a techno duo whose name escapes me right now who use one of these in a big hardware studio (AME multiclock I think) for creating groove as well as error compensation. Cool idea.
This blog post on the Sim’n’tonic website nicely explains the various Midi clock and sync issues that can occur between hardware devices, and also between a DAW and hardware: MIDI Clock: The Pulse of Synchronisation – Sim'n Tonic
I was just remembering yesterday, that I really miss a master clock that would work like a dj deck - tap tempo button + nudge platter + tempo encoder with fine resolution of 0.01 BPM. So it’s possible to live s sync dawless to some other music stream.
Does Nome II do latency compensation already?
OMG, it does the dj deck thing I was suggesting years ago
I didn’t know about Tonvwerk bugs . Well, when I buy a new musical instrument and it has engineering issues, I send it back and ask for a refund. We’ll probably have to wait until Tonverk has a more mature firmware.
@catastrophone Returning items is great solution, thanks for the tip!
The other way of getting accurate sync between DAW and hardware sequencers is with dedicated hardware like we are discussing.
Both ACME and ERM are excellent devices with minor functionality differences.
The ERM has a few extra features (and a screen). The clock divider is more functional.
The ACME-4 has more output ports and the shift knob (in 16th steps) is excellent for ‘rotating’ patterns and generating interesting polyrhythms. Also it has those half / double time switches. It easily powers from USB which is handy.
I bought the ACME before the multiclock existed and would have a hard time saying one is better than the other. In terms of looks and heft though I prefer the ACME.
If you have or consider a Squarp Hapax, I can only recommend it. Pulse Sync, DIN and USB outputs, latency compensation… everything perfectly in sync with a DAW as master.
But only for syncing, a Hapax is way over the top of course.
I hear the SP404 MkII has some MIDI clock issues (and some other issues I’m not aware of). There’s other new devices out there too where the clock’s off but I don’t know which ones yet.
FWIW I spent Covid era trying to recreate a legit 80/90’s bedroom studio, using hardware and one of my main takeaways was how ‘latency’ was non existent. I pressed play/record and it just worked. The only latency was how long it took the electricity to travel down my 1-3m cables. What I’m trying to say is , separate sequencing from audio recording and you will have no issue.
