Syncing 2 Laptops

[gavgrant]

Hi chaps!

Looking to sync 2 laptops together for ableton.

I'm pretty sure this is possible.

Can anyone confirm? (1 Mac - OSX Lion and 1 pc - Windows 7)

Thanks for your help.

g.

[noland]

An external Midi Clock should do the job

[gavgrant]

My presonus firebox?! Although the windows 7 pc dosent use firewire...

any suggestions?

[stallos]

Gav

which sound card are you using with which laptop
is one using just the onboard soundcard?
If seperate soundcard use the midi clock sync and connect to each other
you can usually do this with controller too if no soundcard for one laptop
One laptop will be the master and the other will be the slave
So one laptop will not be able to control the master transport controls
There are some issues with drift however
Although apparently these have been improved, I have synched 2 laptops for a while so not sure how much better it is these days
you need to set values in live preferences, the a good section on this in the manual
dont forget the EXT button
You should be able to see a flashing light if you are getting midi from the master
cheers

[gavgrant]

Thanks Stallos.

sorry, i should have been cleearer.

1 Mac using Presonus Firebox soundcard
1 PC - can use eithr internal or audio 2 dj soundcard??

controllers -

Apc40
Novation Nocturn

Thoughts??

[stallos]

ok cool

i'd use both soundcards
decide which one you want to be the master and which one you want to be the slave
connect the 2 cards together using a midi cable. MIDI out from Master and midi in to slave

Then you need to go into prefs and enable sync for the device in your midi prefs

check out the synchornisation section in the manual will explain it better than me
but essentially...
When an external sync source has been enabled, the EXT button appears in the Control
Bar. You can then activate external sync either by switching on this button or by using the
External Sync command in the Options menu. The upper indicator LED next to the EXT
button will ash if Live receives useable sync messages.

takes a bit of patience this, there is a probably a youtube video somehwere where someone shows step by step if you get stuck, will see if i can see one

when its working you will see on master a flashing light so its sending midi out and one slave you will see a flashing light saying midi is coming in

[gavgrant]

Yeah, Ive managed to sync Ableton and Traktor together on 1 laptop so I understand the midi clock side of it/ext button flashing etc etc

I’m just a bit unsure how to set up 2 separate laptops with 2 separate controllers and 2 separate soundcards…

Also, I won’t be able to connect my firebox to the audio 2 dj card.

[stallos]

does one of your controllers have a midi in?
you could connect the midi out of your firebox to the input of that

eg
mac laptop with firebox and noavation (master)
windows laptop with audio dj and apc (slave)

[oddstep]

yep midi cable or get some software that allows you to use a ethernet cable to transmit midi data. i have found its better if midi and audio go out of different holes in the side of the laptop.

[gavgrant]

Ethernet cable??

hows about ethernet cable straight from laptop to laptop using some software???

silly question perhaps

[23kon]

Ethernet cable??

hows about ethernet cable straight from laptop to laptop using some software???

silly question perhaps

I tried it this way before and it gave me nothing but grief.
I'd try the straight midi way first and see how you get on.

[gavgrant]

Ok, gave this a bash at weekend but could not get it working.
We have the following:

Mac Laptop
Windows laptop (no fire wire port)
Apc40
Novation Nocturn
Presonus Firebox
Native Instruments Audio 2 soundcard

What we want is to be able to sync these up, so we can each use our laptops with 1 controller each.

I understand that they key to syncing these up is through MIDI, so could use an Ethernet cable straight from one laptop to another?
What about the audio side of things? i assume one laptop has to be master and the other slave?

Thanks
g.

[stallos]

audio wise you have different options depending on what you want to do

If you have a DJ mixer you could each output to a channel on the mixer
You could then mix between the 2 laptops
Alternatively you could route the audio (using your firebox soundcard) through one live set
Connect output audio of laptop 1 into input of firebox soundcard connected to laptop 2
Create a track in your live set on laptop 2 which will be the track for the audio coming out of laptop 1, Turn on monitoring on said track. Will have some latency though

i've never tried ethernet but have used midi with success

[gavgrant]

yeah, of course. route the audio 2 soundcard through my firebox! simple.

doh

i just need to work out how to send midi from mac to pc now via ethernet....? do i need to download a program for the mac, pc or both??

[savyurrecords]

I would just use MIDI ports to sync each laptop up. All you need is a MIDI IN on the slave and a MIDI out on the master. You can buy USB-MIDI cables online for cheap now.

If you want to do the ethernet thing you will need a program on both the mac and pc. The only one I know of to run on both mac and PC is MIDI over lan, it is not free but not too pricey.

Are you capable in setting up an IP network between two computers? Familiar with how to configure IP address, subnet mask, etc. Then by all means give the ethernet side a shot. Oh I hear to avoid Wifi as well.

Just use standard MIDI cables man.