I’ve looked at the Innerclock gear, but ruled that out as you’d need two devices (Sync Gen Pro II and Sync Shift MK3, two power supplies and can’t shift/Shuffle per channel as far as I can tell. I’ve ruled out the Roland as it uses USB MIDI to sync with the DAW (really?!) and only two MIDI outs.
So it seems The only true competitor (at least for my purposes) seems to be the SND Acme-4 for around €840+Tax. Sounds like the E-RM Multiclock will be closer to €500 and comes very close in terms of capability. From what I can see here’s some of the differences based on the info available on the E-RM device so far…
Acme Pros
USB bus powered
Build quality
Half/Double time per channel
Software editable swing, 12 swing patterns
Shift timing per channel in 16th note steps
Adjustable for start lag for external gear
Available since 2011 and works with Elektron gear
Proven
5 year warranty
Acme Cons
Price €840 / $1459 NZD
Price
Price
2 of 4 ports capable of DIN sync
E-RM Pros
Price approx €500 / $868 NZD about 40% less!
Display
Power switch
Hot Pluggable Devices (who cares?!)
Sounds like all ports switchable between MIDI and DIN sync
Presets can be saved and recalled on display
E-RM Cons
External PSU
Not yet proven
So the E-RM Multiclock is looking really good, here’s what I’d love to see on or soon after release:
Mac OSX AU clock plugin for 10.8+ 32 & 64 bit, Win VST too of course…
Offset per channel displayed in realtime on display!
Start lag / driver latency. Offset calculated by plugin
Multiple swing patterns, editable via software
MIDI controllable parameters
Confirmed support for Elektron gear
5 year warranty!
Ability to name presets
Can’t wait for Messe!, maybe we’ll even get overbridge
I have it for almost 6 weeks in my rig and I can tell you it works fine. Even my nasty sync-slave DSI Pro2 finally stopped smearing with its four dealys.
Is the timing any better with these boxes than using Overbridge sync? I’ve always wanted an external sync box, but now that Overbridge is here (and getting better), it seems extraneous?
Hot plugging is def important for people like myself who have more instruments than the unit allows for. Last thing you want to have to do is reboot in the middle of a session because X synth isn’t currently plugged in…
Very happy with this box! It is an investment but I do not have sync issues anymore! My setup is as follows:
Audio sync in: Ableton via the Multiclock VST
Ch1: midi sync to NI Traktor
Ch2: midi sync Rytm running in Overbridge mode (not synced via the OB plugin)
Ch3: midi sync to Octatrack
Ch4: midi sync to Analog Four in Overbridge mode (not synced via the OB plugin)
In Ableton I’m using several compressors/effects on the Rytm and A4 channels. You can see the multiclock is correcting quite a bit to keep stuff synced, depending on the setup and amount of effects I have to correct this, but once set it stays in sync for hours.
Could someone with one of these tell me how fine the shuffle adjustments are, or if they’re stepped? Doesn’t seem to be much info in the manual.
Thanks
been using mine since around December : finally - properly on the grid timing from Live to all my hardware, inc Elektron machines.
Overbridge sync has got light years to go before it gets as tight as the E-RM - I find OB wanders all over the place…
