Using RC-300 as a Midi clock master for Ableton Live

[Waldgeist]

Hi forum, I'm trying to set-up a Boss RC-300 loop station as a midi clock master for Ableton Live. The idea is to use Ableton's drum racks as a drum machine for a live setup. I know that the RC-300 can only be used as a Midi clock master, and that's fine for me as this is exactly what I want.

I already managed to set this scenario up in principle. The RC-300 sends clock ticks to Ableton and also starts Ableton's play mode automatically if I press one of the RC-300 record pedals.

But now to the problem: Each time I press "record", Ableton accelerates the song tempo for a very short time period (e.g. to 130 bpm instead of the 80 bpm set-up in the RC-300). This happens for some milliseconds until the tempo returns to the desired 80 bpm. But this short timeframe is enough to confuse me because the drums start to fast and I unconciously try to catch-up with this tempo which leads to a mess.

I can only guess that the RC-300 restarts its midi clock each time you press one of the recording pedals, and hence Ableton thinks that there is a higher bpm rate and speeds up its own clock. Another assumption would be that the RC-300 sends a higher bpm rate directly for a short period of time, which would be a bug in the RC-300 then. Or, Ableton has a bug here and cannot reliably sync to an external midi clock if the song is started.

Did anybody experience the same problems and find a work-around for this?

[LongTex]

Four years on, no answer?

I'd also like to be able to use an RC-300 as a master clock.

Is that simply not possible? Is there some other way to place tempo data into both Ableton and an RC-300?

[Amewa]

With the EXT button turned on the RC300 will start Ableton, if the RC300 is set to MIDI or if it is set to INTERNAL. I have found the same tempo drift occurs when the RC300 is set to MIDI. It locks up correctly when it is set to internal. Hope this helps.

[dreadlobster]

With the EXT button turned on the RC300 will start Ableton, if the RC300 is set to MIDI or if it is set to INTERNAL. I have found the same tempo drift occurs when the RC300 is set to MIDI. It locks up correctly when it is set to internal. Hope this helps.

No. No it sure doesn't.

[Amewa]

Maybe, not for you!!

[Eric Le Baron]

I am also looking to replace the RC300 rhythm track with beats in Ableton. I would like to be able to trigger scenes and clips in Ableton with the RC300. I would like to do this with an entire set list of songs. Is this possible? Also, does the midi clock need to be synced if the bmp is set the same in the RC300 as the song in Ableton? Thanks.

[Amewa]

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐂-𝟑𝟎𝟎 𝟑 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.

RC-300 SYSTEM MIDI SETTINGS:

Sys:MIDI Rx Ch (1-16 Something other than Tx Ch setting below.)

Sys:MIDI OMNI: 𝐎𝐅𝐅 (For now)

Sys:MIDI Tx Ch (Set to channel your 🅶🅴🅰🆁 devices will listen to)

Sys:MIDI Sync 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 (NOT MIDI)

Sys:MIDI PC Out (𝐎𝐅𝐅 to keep things simple for now, 𝐎𝐍 if you want the other devices to follow Program Changes.)

Make sure the EXT on Ableton is set. Press play on RC300.

Or, You can send cc messages from the RC300, assigning them to clips. ( I have pedal one sending cc20 to intro, cc21 to chorus, cc22 for Bridge. When I use CCs, I leave the system setting as MIDI

Make sure in Ableton midi prefernces, you have the RC300 output sync button checked.