When transport is not running there should be midi clock to vst instruments and also the activated midi out sync.
I'm currently slaving ableton to an external midi clok (not mtc)
When transport is not running , the vst instruments don't get clock info , so lfo's and so on are not synced.
I wonder why that is.. it should be fairly simple to implement this feature , maybe you could have an option in settings to set on if you want it that way or not.
I can't imagine i'm the only one who wants to jam or to try out my sounds editing while not in transport mode ...
I'm now not using ableton live for this but bidule (vsti host) ...
I want to use external hardware midi clock because it seems more stable , all my other gear (hardware) responds to this send midi clock in a normal way , except for ableton live who is not senting the midi clock to it's vst or external gear except when transport is running , i find this odd to be frankly.
Thee could be several possibilities to implement this
1 )You could for ex adapt the midi tempo to the external sync , when you switch to internal sync ..
For ex midi tempo = 120 (internal) you set external sync (for ex 100) , when you switch back to interal sync it stays at 100 (last synced value) , so one could switch to internal to and have the same tempo as the external gear wich is synced by the (100à) external midi clock
2 )It could simply made possible to send the received midi clock (i can see the lights going for receiving clokc signal) to all the vst instruments that are enabled and also the external midi connnections that are enabled to be synced in preferences .
Please ableton , listen to this and fix it
kind regards