Ableton Live 8 + MPD32 Tap Tempo problems.

[Radio Antiquity]

Hello all.

I've been searching the internet for fixes for this particular problem but never found anything relevant or advice that actually fixes my problem. Hopefully someone on here can suggest something to solve it.

Basically I want to control the tempo (BPM) of Ableton Live using the tap tempo feature on my Akai MPD32 but Ableton never picks up on the master tempo I set on my MPD. In the top left corner of Live I can see Lives receiving the tap tempo signal (the external sync light flashes in time with the MPD) but Live doesn't act on it. Its worth mentioning that ALL of the other transport controls on the MPD do exactly what they are meant to and everything works perfectly apart from this one setting.

I have seen it suggested on a range of forums to change the tap tempo command from a control message to a midi message and then click the external sync [EXT] button in the top left hand corner of Live, but I have found this to allow the tap tempo to work but stops all my other transport controls from working. I have also made sure that the midi clock is set to internal on my MPD and tried a few other things.

I just want to be able to control Live using my transport controls on the MPD and for Live to automatically pickup my tap tempo as well, without having to change how the messages are sent, remapping things or losing other working controls. I am using the default Live preset on my MPD and maybe its just me but surely its stupid to have to tweak all of this stuff to be able to use tap tempo AND my transport controls especially with it being one of the few "fully" supported control surfaces in Live.

If anyone has a fix for this it would be hugely hugely appreciated. I've spent months trawling forums and websites trying to get this working.

Thanks in advance.

[dentaku]

Yeah, I tried syncing my MPK49 with Live also and I just gave up. Now that I'm more interested in using this feature again I'd love it it someone has figured it out. Live would keep loosing sync with the hardware if I remember correctly.

I don't really want to tap out a tempo though, I just want to set the tempo with the knob of my MPK and have Live sync with it so the beat repeat of the pads end up perfectly in time with the software.

[Radio Antiquity]

Yeah exactly. When I tried the mentioned fix (changing the tap tempo from a control message to a midi one) it starts syncing then disconnects. It feels like it should be something so simple since both are supported by Live. Surely your shouldnt have to spend hours tweaking just to use some of the basic features.

[dentaku]

I just did a test by simply turning on sync for my MPK49 and clicking on EXT in the top left corner of the interface.
It's nice and quite useful for getting the note repeat to sync with live even though it's a tiny bit inaccurate (the tempo drifts almost 0.5 BPM constantly) AS LONG AS PLAY IS PRESSED.
Once you UN-PLAY you just get "The MIDI signal has been lost error."
It's just weird. I can't have PLAY always on!

I wonder if I can use the standard MIDI out for sync and the USB for everything else and see if it fixes the problem?

I'll try out changing tap tempo from CC to MIDI NOTE and see if it works for me.

I guess I'm gonna be experimenting with this stuff tomorrow. I know there are other posts on this forum and on the Vyzex forum about this stuff but when I read them I didn't understand it. Maybe now it'll make more sense.

Another longshot would be to use some kind of third party software that would be used as a master MIDI clock who's signal you could send through Midi-Yoke or something like that to Live and tell Live to sync to that then tell the Akai machine to sync to Live by switching it to External?
All I know is that swithcing the MPK49 to External makes the arpeggiator, note repeat and transport buttons stop working.

Yeah exactly. When I tried the mentioned fix (changing the tap tempo from a control message to a midi one) it starts syncing then disconnects. It feels like it should be something so simple since both are supported by Live. Surely your shouldn't have to spend hours tweaking just to use some of the basic features.

[dentaku]

OK I've been experimenting and I just got the MPK49 to sync with Live by setting the MPK to External (instead of syncing Live with the MPK49 like I did last time) and it works as you'd expect EXCEPT again you need to press PLAY in Live to get the keyboard to work at all when you're using the arpeggiator or note repeat.
The transport buttons work and you don't get the sync error but having to press play in Live to get the note repeat to work is kind of annoying.

[Radio Antiquity]

Cheers for the suggestions so far man. I guess we will have to keep plugging away untill we find a solution that lets everything work.
Ill be in the dungeon... whipping my MPD...
Take care and good luck with finding a fix.

[dentaku]

I've also not been able to find any way to change Tap Tempo "from a control message to a midi message" on the MPK49. It doesn't seem to work that way. the tap tempo on this machine only controls the hardware, it doesn't send OUT any information that I can tell.

So far, setting the MPK49 to External and putting Sync On for "Output: MPK49 Output (Akai MPK49)" is the best way to get everything working well together even though it's annoying to have to press PLAY if you want to use the Arp or the Note Repeat.

[dentaku]

Just to reply to my own reply. It turns out that having to press PLAY to get the arp or note repeat isn't annoying like I imagined and it's great to finally have my MPK49 be in sync with Live. It makes the drum pads quite allot more useful now plus there's no more constantly blinking LED on the keyboard now.
Live has a better arp than the one built into the MPK so that's not really a big deal for me though.