MIDI/pattern sync issue with OT & other Elektron gear

Hi all — I’m having some MIDI sync/pattern change issues with my Elektron rig. I know this is a problem with mixing Elektron and non-Elektron gear, but in this case my stuff is all Elektron. Here’s the setup (all machines are running the latest OS):

OT (master) —> Digitone —> ARmkII — > A4mkII

The OT sends clock, transport, and program changes out on channel 2, which is the PC receive channel on the Digitone. The Digitone sends PC on channel 3, which is the AR receive channel, etc. Except for the OT, all the machines are set to send and receive clock, transport, PC, CC. Physically, the OT MIDI out goes to the Digitone MIDI In, the Digitone MIDI out goes to the AR MIDI In, etc. — the through ports are not used. The ports are configured for MIDI on all the boxes. The MIDI cables are short — 2 36”/91cm and 2 18”/46cm. For what I’m working on, the patterns on each machine are 16 beats long — there are two patterns total.

The issue is that when I change the pattern on the OT, the final machine in the chain lags behind 1 full bar. This seems to be only a problem with whatever comes after either the AR or A4 — when I have the setup arranged as described above, the A4 lags behind the other three machines, which all change patterns in sync. If I change the positions of the AR and A4, then the AR is the one that lags. If I put either the AR or A4 between the Octatrack and the Digitone, then the Digitone lags. I’ve tested a variety of combinations of the machines, updating the PC channel info to correspond with the physical hookups, but the results are always the last machine having a lag.

I’ve seen threads about this issue when trying to sync Elektron boxes and, for example, MPCs — but if anyone has suggestions/ideas for a full Elektron setup with this problem, they’d be most welcome. Thanks in advance!!

So you are not using the thru ports?
If you set them all to use the same channel for PC and use the thru ports everything will get the pc from the Octatrack

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Thanks for the reply! I switched things up using the Thru ports and setting the PC receive channels to be the same – that did the trick. Thank you!

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