Live's Midi Synch Issues/Bugs discussed on CDM

[d-track]

two laptops
live 7 + nio 2|4 on my pc and motu traveler + live 6 on my friends macbook pro.
we connected the 2 cards via midi cable and tested the sync with the metronomes. we couldnt achieve a setting that is perfectly in sync... but about 100-130 bpm it only means 10-12 ms slides... could be better...

[d-track]

issues with ableton seriously make me think move to logic.
ill wait for logic 10 and live 9 come out and will make a decision...
till i stay with live and trust in abes

[BinaryB]

please post your system specs.

Would be good if Ableton released a list of Laptops / motherboards that were tested and worked well with ableton.

[jamief]

Have been using live since version 1 and it has never been good. Have worked on pc and mac with many differnt setups trying to sync outbaord gear over the years and they unfortunately always drift out of time with each other- sometimes faster than other times dont know why ? Have also tested live as master and slave variations often but again same driftting persists. Now i rarely ever use it via or sending sync.
Of note is my old Atari st was 100% sync reliable - without fail running cubase. Never driffted and used it many many times running 909 and 303's and the like while luggin it around fields tunnels and wharehouses good fun.

[3phase]

With all of the problems that I have read about over the last few days: midi export resolution, midi sync, and general 8.1 bugs, I sincerely hope that the Abes are in no rush to put out a Live 9. I would really rather them work out all of the kinks and make a super stable 8 before they even begin to consider another update.

i guess nobody would buy a version 9 before 8 is not running smooth.. seeing that for twice the usual updateprice you can change the patform...

[hps909]

5 pin din out of konnekt 48 into sampler the old school way

What are your settings in Live?
There are a few things to do right away, turn Track Monitoring to off on the track you're recording the sampler into.
Play around with having Delay Compensation turned off while recording the Sampler.
There's a setting to lower the buffer size of plug ins etc. I'm not certain, but I imagine this works with the External Instrument plug in as
well as software instruments.
Make sure that the settings Audio Preferences’ Overall Latency adjustment has been made, which is described in the built-in program tutorial on setting up the Audio Preferences
Other things too, but that's a start.

Thing is the way you describe the latency, it sounds more like Jitter, but at 50+ milliseconds, that's ridiculously high.
What's your buffer setting in Live?

i'm not running it on an external instrument track it's running on a midi track only, so buffers and PDC do not come into the equation, i direct monitor through my soundcard .. your exactly right about jitter thats exactly what it's like but like overly exaggerated
i'm running at 500 odd samples buffer so that shouldn't mess with timing too much
live 7 does not exhibit this behavior on the same machine..( that i notice anyway)


I'm no noob i have been in computer music for the last 15 years... i will have to send this to abes support i think, something is not right

[Machinesworking]

i'm not running it on an external instrument track it's running on a midi track only, so buffers and PDC do not come into the equation, i direct monitor through my soundcard .. your exactly right about jitter thats exactly what it's like but like overly exaggerated
i'm running at 500 odd samples buffer so that shouldn't mess with timing too much
live 7 does not exhibit this behavior on the same machine..( that i notice anyway)


I'm no noob i have been in computer music for the last 15 years... i will have to send this to abes support i think, something is not right

500 is pretty high actually, I run at 250 usually, and sometimes 128. As far as monitoring through your soundcard, can you hear it drifting, or are noticing it drifting in Live when recorded? That's what I was trying to get at, in Live if the track is monitored that sound is recorded into, it will ad delay, also, PDC adds delay to all tracks, especialy tracks with no FX on them (to compensate for the delay of FX laden tracks) so it's quite possible for it to mess with timing of recorded tracks. <-- I don't know if that happens it's just a simple matter to turn it off for the sake of testing.

Not at all saying you're a noob, this stuff is just annoying to track down so any help I hope is appreciated, even if I'm just repeating what you already know!

Also try it with Live 7, same set etc. then you really know it's something wrong with 8.

[hps909]

yeah i'm appreciative that your trying to help don't get me wrong .. was 6.30 in the morning here when i typed that brain not working properly

it drifts when i'm monitoring, i will do some more testing see if the recorded audio drifts aswell .. if it was a PDC issue then it would start out of time and stay out of time would it not? not start in time and drift out.. it's like the internal tempo is set at 130 and the output tempo via midi drifts from 132 - 125 tonight i will render some audio and you can hear what is happening and i will screen shot recorded audio to see if it is drifting just through monitoring ..

[Machinesworking]

yeah i'm appreciative that your trying to help don't get me wrong .. was 6.30 in the morning here when i typed that brain not working properly

it drifts when i'm monitoring, i will do some more testing see if the recorded audio drifts aswell .. if it was a PDC issue then it would start out of time and stay out of time would it not? not start in time and drift out.. it's like the internal tempo is set at 130 and the output tempo via midi drifts from 132 - 125 tonight i will render some audio and you can hear what is happening and i will screen shot recorded audio to see if it is drifting just through monitoring ..

Cool, I know with MIDI sync, the difting can be awful if certain things aren't happening. Remote HAS to be on for one. It's not a matter of it being useful, it simply doesn't come close to in sync without it on.

I record a couple analog synths I have here all the time with Live, with little real issues, though a slow attack bass line (analog bass is always a little fussy attack wise) slightly drifting isn't going to send off any red flags really.

[marius4560]

I sync my Korg Electribe to Live (Korg is Slave) via MIDI cable. I have no sync issues and no drifts.

You have to set the correct MIDI delays in the settings. If you change the audio latency later, you may have to adjust the MIDI sync again. Don't use track delay. That seems to have no effect. Also the delay setting for the 'Externel Instrument' seems to have no effect. But delay in Live's MIDI settings works fine.

For adjusting the MIDI timing delay I use a drum track with battery and a drum track pattern on Electribe. The Electribe is routed through Live as 'External Instrument'. Once the delay is perfect, I'm done. No need to re-adjust.

THANKS!!! Been working on this for hours, googled the problem, and luckily I found this post. I didn't find the "midi clock sync delay" because its so well hidden. For any of you guys out there with the same problem as me, its in the Midi Sync tab in Preferences, and you have to click one of the arrows to find it. Solved my sync problem between my Electribe MX and Ableton Live 8, which was of by 20 milliseconds Try it!