What is the best method to synch two laptops running Live?

[danryanfl]

I want to synch two laptops (for two separate performers) running Live. One person will be DJing, the second person will be creating drum loops and hooks, playing samples, etc and adding them to the mix

Is a midi cable necessary or is there a way to use network adapters/router to have the computers communicating?

[jestermgee]

I would recommend a MIDI cable...

If you have a MIDI out on your audio interfaces (hope you are not using the internal audio ) then it's quick, easy, reliable to setup a sync. I have computers in the studio done to run powerful projects without rendering down tracks.

There is a method across network which I experimented with years ago. I think it was simply "MIDI OVER LAN" but if you google that it should get you on your way. That method would involve installing a MIDI driver on each machine, setting it all up and hoping there's no shift or glitch in the drivers etc.

Guess it depends on the laptops you are using (win/mac). I think Mac may have something in the OS to assist with MIDI over lan. Not sure, i'm a PC user

[danryanfl]

If you have a MIDI out on your audio interfaces

I have midi in/out on my firebox, but my other audio card is an audio 2 dj (only stereo outputs). However, the second computer will have an Axiom 61 attached (via usb) which has midi in/outs on it. Do you think it will be ok to run midi between the Axiom and the Firebox, or will that not be efficient because the axiom is not the audio interface?

Also, is it better to sync with midi clock or midi time code?

[ollyb303]

1, 2, 3, spacebar!

Honestly the closest I've ever got to keeping 2 instances of Live on separate machines in sync.

[danryanfl]

that is hilarious, but at the same time, it would probably work pretty well...

[jestermgee]

1, 2, 3, spacebar!

Honestly the closest I've ever got to keeping 2 instances of Live on separate machines in sync.

Ha, I remember this was the way back in the day when we had a demo copy of Rebirth. 15 minutes to sync, create and play a "set" before the timeout (in the days before the internet was in every house and 100Mhz was plenty of power). Doesn't work well these days as clock speeds in a PC are seldom accurate from one PC to another so it wanders in just minutes.

RE: the MIDI connections, I have a firebox which I use the MIDI out of one PC to an Edirol UA-25 audio interface on the other PC... It doesn't matter (or shouldn't matter) which device you use as your MIDI out/in so long as you set it correctly in Ableton. I would suggest buying a MIDI cable and just testing it out. Thats what I did. You only need a single MIDI cable if you only need to send the timing from one PC to the other (one way).

As for the question about MIDI Clock or MIDI Timecode... No idea. I'm not too advanced with MIDI. I just know thatsetting Ableton on my "Master PC" to send MIDI OUT of my Firebox and setting Ableton 2 on my second PC to accept MIDI IN the Edirol allows me to control Ableton 1 and have Ableton 2 follow (play, song position, tempo change etc). I guess if you needed to have Ableton 2 affect Ableton 1 as well you would need more setup which is beyond me.

[Warrior Bob]

Ableton has some kind of MIDI sync feature that I've never used. I have heard that it's supposed to be pretty buggy, but it might've gotten fixed. This thread here links to an interview the Glitch Mob did over Facebook where they said that they had quite a bit of trouble with the sync feature, so they do everything on one laptop now.

Personally, I like to map the play button to a MIDI controller and manually sync myself to whatever is going on. I start by finding out the tempo, then pressing start on the beat. If I mess up, which I often do, I use the tempo nudge buttons to get back in time. Finding the tempo can be tricky when there's a live source, but it helps if they keep a steady beat (like a DJ) or if they're using another sequencer. When I sync to my buddy on his Fruity Loops machine, I just have him call out the tempo and I type it in randomly.

1, 2, 3, spacebar!

Yep, pretty much this plus tempo nudge!

[yur2die4]

I'm a fan of having a third device with multiple midi outs as the master. Then slaving both Ableton instances to that. The only downfall is tempo changes. But it probably still handles them better via this method than any other.

Ableton could really bring it to a whole new level if they could solve this. Does OSC do any kind of sync?