OT as Tempo Master w/Ableton

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

When I use the OT to control Ableton (sending MIDI transport), everything seems fine at first. Both set to 140bpm for good measure.

I arm my recording in Ableton and hit play on the OT and Ableton records.

HOWEVER, when I play back what has been recorded (using OT play button), I can see and hear the tempo in Ableton going out of sync ± MANY bpm.

With WARP on (the default), I can hear the terrible effect of this.

If I go into my samples and turn WARP off, everything has been apparently recorded fine, it plays in sync.

So, I guess my work around is to default to WARP off in Ableton. Not great, but maybe doable.

Any similar experience, workflow tips?

My intent is to try to stay out of the box and record material into Ableton so that I can assemble it into a track as a following step. I feel musical working out of the box with OT, but I’d rather layer and arrange in Ableton

I like the idea of not syncing the two at all and just playing willy nilly straight into Ableton…

But then I will have work to do getting everything back on the beat.

Alas…

#2

…ableton is headheavy and does not like to be synced externally…
there’s always a little jitter when it comes to midi sync…ot can handle that better…
ableton not so much…
so try the other way around…ot follws abletons clocking will do fine…

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#3

Okay, I tried to avoid making my computer central, but I guess I could use a midi controller to hit play on Ableton so that I don’t have to hit spacebar

Thanks!

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#4

I think on OT you have separate controls for clock send/receive and transport send/receive, so you can try using OT’s start/stop (transport send) while it is sync’ed externally. Don’t know how well this vibes with Ableton though (it might not separate the concepts).

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#5

I’ve had better luck using the CV Clock In utility (part of Ableton’s MaxLive CV tools) and a device that can send CV Sync triggers into Ableton. Or making Ableton a “sample accurate” clock master using a device that can receive audio clock from Ableton (instead of MIDI) and then translate that into MIDI Clock or CV Sync protocols for other external gear to use. Depending on which method, a dedicated Audio Input or Audio Output is required on the audio interface.

For the kind of external device needed, if a synth can send a CV Trigger for sync, that’s all you need to start with for using CV Clock In. But if you want to make Ableton the master by outputting an audio clock, then a device that accepts and understands how to use audio pulses. CLOCKstep:MULTI is an external device that can do both of those things.

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#6

Thank you all so much I love this forum. I thought I would never stop screwing around with my setup and get down to business.

I opted to send midi clock from Ableton to OT.

I can do this and STILL have the OT send sync and midi transport to my other devices.

So, I jam and build sounds and layers with JUST OT…

Then I can hit spacebar and record with Ableton when I’m ready, without changing any midi settings.

It went really smoothly with everything nicely on the beat and I popped out this track today that felt like it came together so easily.

Really excited to use this workflow more!

Thankssss :pray:

PS: I didn’t zoom in and see how neatly everything fell on the grid, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t mix samples from Ableton and the OT. Everything was recorded out from the sync so I didn’t have to deal with the timing hell of mixing different sources :slight_smile:

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#7

I thought about this but didn’t try it yet, like send the play command to Ableton by sending transport, but then let Ableton do the Sync. It’s worth a shot

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#8

…no big worries to add any further internal daw sources to ur once recorded hw cake now…

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#9

I was in the same boat as you, but right now I have the OT clocking and syncing everything when the computer is off for jamming, composing etc. The moment I fire up Ableton everything follows the DAW (After I turn on ext sync on the OT, but that’s a small price to pay :p)

I also monitor everything (even Digitone’s HW outputs while using Overbridge) through the MX-1 during recording making everything feel super snappy.

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#10

Can’t you leave ex sync ON in the OT all the time? It worked fine for me yesterday to do what sounds like the same process as you

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#11

I definitely could, but then the MX-1 would be in control of tempo which is not practical in my case. Also the MX-1 in return receives sync from the MC-707 (if it’s turned on) through aira-link so that complicates things a bit as well in that situation. I’m pretty happy with my current solution :slight_smile:

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#12

Easy enough, sounds like a fun setup!

#13

Can I ask please what are your midi settings?

I’m trying to use Ableton as the master and OT as primarily wanting to use Ableton as sound source and sample. However, having no luck at all. I managed to get the OT to be used as a midi keyboard though.

#14

.:thinking:

.:thinking:

Wrong master keyboard imho. :content:

So your sequences aren’t played ? Did you check mutes / solos in MIXER page ?

#15

My bad as I was on the phone and I’m a lazy typer when I’m on it. What I was trying to say was, I wanted to sync my OT to Ableton. I understand, Ableton as master is better due to USB jitter and drifting if OT was. Ideally I be using OT to sequence stuff in Ableton, and then sample the audio however, I want to press play and it also start the OT so my record trigs are in sync to sample. Hope that makes sense?.

#16

Sorry but I don’t use Ableton so I can’t help much.
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?context=topic&context_id=126420&q=Sync%20ableton%20%23elektron-gear:octatrack%20&skip_context=true

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#17

Managed to sort it, thanks anyway

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