Hey guys,
So I am running into a problem when trying to sync DT with my computer/akai advance 49. The advance is running VIP which I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with that, but it basically controls VST’s from the PC in the keyboard. I’ve tried to use a regular midi cable and have gotten pretty close but it is always off by 2 steps. So it isnt syncing correctly. I think I may be missing something here. Has anyone been able to successfully sync DT with their computer running a VST and using a midi keyboard? Because that’s basically trying to do. This would also help with syncing DT and Maschine as well if that is possible. Any info would help. Thanks!
You don’t say which DAW you are using, but you need to send Midi Clock to the DT and make sure that DT is set to receive it in the sync settings. I don’t really understand what the Advance has to do with anything, Midi controllers don’t send clocks, it must come from the DAW or master Sequencer. If you mean you are use the Advance Midi out to DT, then that is just a connection between the DAW and the DT acting as a direct midi port.
You left out the most important piece of information which is what you are trying to sync it to 
Well i was trying to run it in standalone mode without a DAW. I guess I could try opening it up in Ableton. Should I still connect the midi between the Digitakt and the Advance if I do that?
Buy you said it was out of sync, out of sync with what? I’m still confused.
You can use USB midi or a hardware Midi Port, it doesn’t matter as long as you send a clock from what you want to sync it to. As I said before the Akai is just a Midi Port like any other.
You should also make sure the DT has clock Receive and Transport Receive ticked.
Yeah sorry… it was kind of difficult to explain. Which was why it was difficult to find a solution online. I do thank you though for your patience and help. I’ll try to explain it the best way I can. I’m still kinda a noob at all this. Trying to slowly move from DAW to just hardware. But I really like what I can do with VIP and the advance.
I was basically trying to sync the digitakt to the computer… thinking I could get the sounds from VIP which is really just a VST or standalone VST suite that runs other VST’s in it. The advance is just a controller for that. What i wanted to do was get the sounds from that running in the midi tracks on the digitakt. So I can sequence those on the sequencer on the digitakt. The advance has knobs that I can control attack, decay, envelopes etc… on that which i still wanted to use while the digitakt is running those sequences.
I do have ableton and FL studio as well that i can run those through too if i needed to instead of running VIP in standalone mode. Which, thinking about it, seems like the logical thing to do since VIP in standalone doesnt necessarily send midi clock. Or at least doesnt seem to.
I was able to connect the midi cable from the digitakt to the advance. Which probably did nothing now that I think of it seeing as the program is running on the computer. But I think what I did was use the USB midi and set the digitakt to send midi out to the computer which ended up making the problem where it was 2 steps off. But I did get the whole thing to work the way I wanted before, other than it not being in sync. I had to set the steps for that on 3 for the first one rather than 1 being the first one. So basically the I want the sounds from VIP, which is on the PC to be able to be sequenced on the digitakt. I hope this helps.
I don’t know anything about advance standalone, but if you want to use it, the way to do it is to use DT as the master assuming that Advance standalone receives midi clock. You would make sure that DT is set in the Midi/Sync/ page to send clock and transport. Connect DT midi out to Advance Midi In.
Using Live is a much more sensible solution IMO. Here is the settings page help for sending sync in Live:
Why not use a USB cable with the DT? This will provide midi input and output with a single cable and make it less confusing because they will be called Digitakt In and Out. It will also give you the option to use the DT Overbridge 2 plugin too.
Once you have done this, find that options page above and make sure you are sending midi clock and transport.
To Sequence a VST now you just need to select the DT Midi as the source on the VST track you want to sequence. I don’t use Live but there will probably be a monitor button which you need to activate so that it still plays when a different track is selected.
To use your advance to play/record the sequences on the DT, make a channel set to whatever the Midi Auto channel is set to on your DT in sync settings. Choose the DT output as the destination and Advance as the input. The auto channel will play whatever track you have selected on the hardware making it easy to record.
It may seem complicated at first but once you’ve Done it once, it will be easier to remember. You could also save as a template so that you can always have that starting point.
Once you get all that working, you may find there is some latency on the Midi, so you will need to look into how ableton deals with that. There is usually on Offset value somewhere allowing compensation. But I wouldn’t worry about that until you have the above working 
Hope this helps!