I suggest you try this:
- Set the AR as the midi clock master to the A4.
- Enable the metronome on both machines.
- Record the output to separate tracks.
Take a look at the result. Do they line up perfectly? No they don’t. Can you hear it? Well yeah you can. Does it matter? Well probably not, but it’s there.
Ok, so now do the same test but this time use a DAW as midi clock master for both the AR and A4.
Is the result the same as the first test or is it worse? For me using my DAW it’s pretty much the same.
The points I’m trying to make here is that:
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Using a DAW doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get problems with midi jitter and delay. You need to measure and evaluate how big “problem” you have with your setup.
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Using hardware does not magically “fix” the shortcomings of midi jitter/delay. There’s plenty of hardware synths, drum machines that are terrible at midi.
I suspect people who come from a pure DAW/plugin world get a bit freaked out when they buy “real” gear and start using midi clock and sending notes back and forth since they are used to always having sample accurate timing in their DAW.