I have. no issues here.
PT is either Master or Slave with no problems
[just tested OT <-> PT to be certain I remembered correctly]
What sort of issues are you having?
I frequently have mine synced up to M:Samples without issue but, I have synced it to other stuff as well.
If I have a 4 to floor kick on tracker, and same on master device (usually OT) the PT is fluctuating around a few ms resulting in flamming. The clock delay options donāt really help, and if it is set to -6.5 the timing wanders pretty badly.
is it not the standard jitter that fluctuates between +/- 0.2?
I find all the Elektron boxes do itā¦I keep tempo off screen cuz it drives me nuts. outta sight outta mind.
could be time for one of those E-RM Mulitclocks? hear they werk super well.
ORā¦hope MIDI 2.0 helps resolve that?
I dunno. less than informed person chiming in
I am not experiencing anything noticeable in this regard but, I am not recording externallyā¦ just running M:S into audio in on tracker and comparing while they are both playing.
I tried with a few different samples on each device at different pitches/volumes with nothing that jumped out as being off.
Or maybe it is just a bit confirmation bias on my part due to past issues with sloppy clock on other devices (ASR-X / MPC500) and since it actually stays in time (to me ear) I am thinking it is tighter than it might actually be. Like it could be off but within my tolerance realm.
Maybe Iāll re-wire a bit a grab some recordings and see how it how looks on screen.
Nah, I can clearly hear it when running 2 boxes together, like if doing a mix between 2 boxes both running a 4 to the floor kick. Most of my gear is pretty tight, can notice a slight bit of phasing which isnāt too bad, but some gear is pretty bad and sounds like a DJ who canāt get the beats to line up.
Elektrons, most Korg gear, Deluge, OP-Z, Squarp Pyramid, all pretty tight.
Roland gear most of it usable, not as tight as the above.
Tracker and MPC One are the worst, sometimes very noticeable, to the point of being unusable in this scope for me.
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ya I got into that mode of testing everything click to click on boxes. drove myself mad.
I keep telling myself [as I cant afford. word clock, whichā¦is that a thing anymore?] there are so many folks, released, that dont seem to talk about/have that issue. they just do it. SOā¦either they are smarter, richer, or just deal with it.
I imagine if shit is EQ-ed well, and there is a little jitter it should be manageable? again I just remember spending SO much time messing around trying to get the clicks DEAD ON. but there is so much room all over the chain for micro desync, audio routing, midi, shit gear, tight gearā¦
im the end I think all the fixes come in post. my shits so bad, I dont think its worth the time fixing it.
butā¦I may be way the fuck off base here. and if soā¦D I S R E G A R D please 
ill just shift stuff thats slightly off in my DAW after recordedā¦IF I do it all
Try this, set a pattern on OT to 4 steps (for ease of testing) put a kick on step 1, sync Tracker to OT, set OT tempo to 120, put same 4 step pattern in tracker. Press play on OT.
You should notice a smearing of the kicks, you can fiddle around with the midi clock delay in Tracker config, but it does not solve the problem. So set it back to zero offset, now on OT microtime step 1 +3 clicks so it is 1/128 it will be in time with the Tracker kick and the smearing is all but gone.
Let me know if it works like that for you.
Will doā¦[my discovery later]
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iām experiencing the same sync issues as you describe.
iām using the e-rm multiclock for my sync source and the tracker needs to be shifted about 5.7msec early to be in sync with the rest of my setup. i should point out that nothing else in my setup needs any offset at all to be in very tight sync with each other when using the multiclock.
also i found the midi offset feature on the tracker useless. it cause the tracker to drift even more than it naturally does.
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Thanks for chiming in.
SOā¦here is what I gotā¦and I hate to tell you, its NOT just timing that is the issue the test given.
first offā¦I dont think id use the same sample coming from two different sources overlapped. that presents a problem RIGHT out the gate. not fair for a test. BUT, I will say that I DO hear the offset. yes, NOT great when using the same sample, but not bad when using diff samples, if noticeable. even less so when used how you would more likely use the two samples, I used two diff samples later in the test.
breakdown
OT master, PT slaveā¦set up as you suggested, 4 stepsā¦
- 1 kick on its own OT
- 2 same kick sample on OT and PT [noticabley not lining up, not sounding good. crappy] * image 1
- 3 same kick post edited to line up exactly, still sounds bad description below ** image 2
- 4 two different samples playing at same time. sounds great, on time!
- 5 two samples how youād probably use them, SOUNDS AWESā¦cant hear an issue.
- image 1 [this is the amount of offset when recorded. that is very tiny. im zoomed in quite a bit]
SOUND SAMPLE 2
** image 2 [here is THE issue, im zoomed SUPER tight, and note that the waves, tho the same sample are slightly different. the outputs must affect the sample ever so slightly, but enough that as close to EXACT as I could get them lined up, they wonāt sound good. they are different so it flanges. I inverted one wave, and they didnt cancel out. so, they are inherently different once passed thru each box.]
SOUND SAMPLE 3
CONCLUSION: you are correct, if you put the same sample and slave one to the other and press play, it sounds like shit. and off. BUT, as the boxes output differently itāll never sound good, unless thats a vibe you like [then awesome]. but if you use it with different sounds, its not noticeable, not enough to be a problem. and if it is, then a simple micro shift in one of the track [an I mean MICRO] will fix it, but it wonāt hinder the recording process. and if you are worried about it live, I dont think anyone would notice. half the crowd are usually too lit to even rede,ber what they heard
FINAL NOTE: I agree with you, but I dont think its an issue.
edited to add more info on the images
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Yeah, i posted about it before. It makes it so I only use the tracker for pads and wide ambience/sound bed stuff when Iām running an external drum machine.
You donāt notice it as long as you arenāt using hard transient sounds, on-the-grid sounds on the tracker AND another piece of gear.
But the second you start using the tracker for drums alongside another drum source, it sounds like a bad beat match.
But I think the tracker is nice when you just use it for melodic ambient stuff, and itās also great standalone, in which case beats are no issue.
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Thanks for testing yours, for me it is an issue when wanting to sync because I often might have 2 different songs on 2 boxes then wanting to mix between them.
That was how I noticed it, I donāt mind that they sound different, but they need to be in time.
I think the difference in the sound when lined up is partly because the tracker isnāt exactly 44100 but 44117 (IIRC)
I recently got a USB battery pack on a whim, and the biggest surprise of it is how much itās got me playing my Tracker. This thing is a joy to explore on the couch or on the go. Really loving all the firmware updates, too, and feeling like the Tracker is in really good shape as a full-featured hardware device. Not sure thereās anything else that can get me to that constantly-changing drum sound quite like it.
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Havenāt really tried sequencing with it, honestly. Thought about it, but initial approach didnāt feel intuitive. Maybe in the future!
I have let go mine. I guess it will be more useful in different hands. Tried to like the workflow but after 3 months I quit. I guess Iāll die an Elektron fanboy. The PT (and probably the Play too) is a great product, well designed and innovative. I hope Polyend does very well and keeps on putting out great hardware.
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I adore my Tracker. I just wish I had more experience with sampling to make better use of it. My brain doesnāt think in terms of samples, it thinks in terms of evolving synthesis. And as much as I love everything about the Trackerās workflow, I have a lot of trouble picturing how whatās in my head can be reduced to sequenced samples.
The exception to is, of course, drums and other one-shots like that. But Iām more comfortable doing drums on a DT or 404. And on the other side of the spectrum the M8 gives me an embarrassment of synth options. But Iām not an LSDJ junky, Iād much prefer the M8ās synths in the Tracker body (at least when sitting at my desk and not on-the-go). But given the option to curate samples or tweak some patches, Patches win every time for me.
So my poor Tracker has kind of fallen into a unused valley between drum machine and synth. I wonder if anyone has ways they use samples that inspire them that they could share? I should really dig back into some mod scene stuff, too.
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It sounds like maybe the Tracker just isnāt for you š¤· synthesis isnāt really its strength. Although Iām curious as to why you prefer to use DT or the 404 for drums / one-shots, because thatās where the Tracker really shines. Is it just a familiarity thing or you feel that they serve this purpose better? Because I feel like the Tracker is unbeatable for drum programming pretty much
Thatās the dream.
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