@jbone1313 Thanks for the update on Ableton 12 and your really helpful posts! Can’t wait to try this new feature in Live 12, but still waiting for beta approval though having ordered the update on day 1…
I’m still struggling with the following issue, maybe someone here can comment on this.
Mixed use of MIDI CC/notes from Ableton with built in sequencer of synth:
I’ve been experimenting with different sync setups and have also used the ERM Multiclock. I also found that a good MIDI interface does not perform notably worse when it comes to clock stability. If you want to sync more than 4 external devices with sequencers and need to shift the clock for each device, I found that a MIDI interfaces with more ports (or using different interfaces that you might already own) even offers an advantage, but let me explain this and please correct me, if I’m wrong:
I am using Ableton as my Master clock and sequencer, I mix and record 10+ external hardware devices in Ableton with internal FX to keep latency low.
I am getting perfect sync when using the external instrument device to compensate the latency per track and only one master midi clock like the ERM Multiclock. But in this scenario I have to decide beforehand if I want to use Ableton to send notes and set the hardware latency correspondingly OR if I want to use the internal sequencer of a connected piece of hardware and set the hardware latency value to match this. But I wanted to trigger MIDI notes via Ableton while using e.g. the LFOs and sequencer on my Alesis Andromeda at the same time in sync. I’d also like to be able to trigger my TR-8 via MIDI from Ableton, but switch to program the internal sequencer of the TR-8 directly while playing my live set without having to readjust anything.
I was able to achieve this using these two laborious approaches:
- Set a negative clock delay with sync turned on for the corresponding MIDI out port in Ableton’s preferences. Then set the hardware latency of my external instrument device to match the MIDI note latency.
But this does not stay in sync for a longer time (50 minute live set) and I also have to adjust the negative sync delay for the MIDI out port quite often. Naturally, always, if I change the buffer size or add devices with latency to the set.
- with the ERM or a single clock source: I set the hardware latency of the external instrument to sync to the external sequencer and then move the starting point of the MIDI clip to the right, so the notes trigger in sync.
Especially the latter seems rather clunky, but I had tried to achieve the same effect by adding a negative track delay to the track containing the external instrument with no effect. Then I tried to send the MIDI notes from a pure MIDI track with a negative sync delay to the track with the external instrument - also no effect. Finally, I tried to send the notes directly to the MIDI port of the Andromeda (without external instrument) with negative track delay - some effect, but no matter how high the track delay, recordings are always a little too late.
While both of these methods are working, they’re not really intuitive.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how to optimize this or see an error in my approach?
Thanks in advance 