Sync to external midi clock issues

[joelbgwu]

I've read some posts about how ableton live 8 has problems reading an external midi clock. I am having this issue too, when I use my korg kaoss kp3 as the master and ableton as the slave. The kp3 reads a steady tempo, but ableton tempo fluctuates +/- .5 bpms. This isn't a huge problem because I play with a live drummer, but after I record a loop into ableton while it is sync'd it consistently crashes after about ten minutes or so. I suspect this has to do with the constant analyzing of the +/- .5 tempo changes and abletons tempo/pitch correction. I may just have to give up completely trying to sync ableton to an external midi clock. If anyone has any tips for me on how to solve this problem it would be much appreciated. Also respond to this post if you are having this issue too, maybe if enough people complain then it will be addressed in an update


Joel

Ableton Live 8 (current update)
Windows XP
Korg Kp3
APC40
Emu tracker Pre USB

[joelbgwu]

I'm going to try this....


"I'm not getting good sync in Live. The BPM in Live jumps around when I am syncing. What can I do to fix this?"

Please check the Preferences Audio tab in Live and make sure you do not have the buffer size of the audio device set high.

[dentaku]

I've seen slightly bigger fluctuations than that but since my MPK49 and Ableton Live don't like working that way anyway (Live loses it's sync with the MPK49 all the time) the most solid way to sync for me was to have Live send OUT the sync signal to the MPK49 and now everything is synced perfectly.

Can the korg kp3 receive sync from Live instead (do it backwards from what you're currently trying)?

[joelbgwu]

Yeah the kp3 can receive midi clock, but for my purposes I'd rather be able to sync ableton to other devices. I lowered the buffer size and the sync descrepancies have lowered to +/- .2. The small sync fluctuation doesn't really bother me that much, it's just that ableton was crashing after ten minutes of playing a loop. I'm now in the process of testing it with the lower buffer size and the sync changes are still happening, but it has been 30 minutes and it hasn't crashed yet (which is the most important part for me.) I also changed default sr and pitch correction from high to normal. By the way does anyone know exactly what that is or how it works?

[joelbgwu]

Everything seems to be working ok now. Since I lowered the buffer size ableton hasn't crashed. The tempo still changes by +- .2, but that's ok. I don't need an exact tempo for what I do. I even changed back the sr and pitch correction back to high. Ableton is great peice of software, with everything working I had a really productive music day!

[joelbgwu]

Ableton started to crash again while in ext mode on my PC. I switched the setup over to my MAC Book Pro and now everything appears to be stable I must have been having driver issues with windows XP. Oh well my Mac isn't as fast as my PC, but I feel a lot more comfortable playing a gig with a stable system.