Tempo from OT to AR uneven

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
1

Hi

I´m on OS 1.02C(AR) and having some uneven tempo when slaving to the OT clock.

OT´s master tempo is 85 BPM but the AR tempo is drifting between 84,9 and 5,1 BPM. My Strymon TimeLine that´s further down the Midi chain is showing 85,1 BPM.
Anybody with similar experience?

best

2

I get this too syncing AR to Octatrack.

3

Assuming you meant 84.9 to 85.1 it is normal behavior. MIDI is old.

4

I see this flux delta in all my gear. I just sort of expect it not sure why if midi tempo says 85 why machines would do anything different. But there you have it.

5

Thanx for the feedback guys. It doesn´t seem to give me any problem sync wise so I wont pay any more attention to it.

6

you might want to try if u get better results with MTC, transport send/receive in OT.

being picky, its not really because MIDI is old.
what is old is the 5pin DIN connector that allows a lousy bandwidth of 31.25 kb/sec. however real time messages such as clock have priority since they can occur in the middle of other messages. MTC can tighten things up if both devices have a proper implementation (time stamped messages allow to catch up for delays).
however, USB midi is known to be even sloppier. modern computers tend to have worse timing than old computers (atari, amiga).

the main reasons imho is that

  • much more going on in modern music gear, complex to ensure tight sync in every situation.
  • more high level programming. great for productivity and teamwork. but less control of low level.
    if we had OSC instead of MIDI everywhere we surely had better resolution for parameters. not necessarily tighter sync. if every music gear had an atomic clock inside and every message had a (GMT) time stamp attached to it, catching up for timing drifts would be easy too.
7

Do you actually hear the tempo fluctuation and does it bother you? Or is is purely a theoretical nuisance.

8

its a theoretical nuisance.
people spend big bucks for inconsistencies in analog gear. I welcome sloppiness for digital technology too :slight_smile:
nothing to worry about at all, imho.
however, audible drifts occur on a slaved AR if you do quick pattern jumping with “busy” patterns. discussed elsewhere