Link Rewire Client

[dave baker]

Ableton should create an app that can be a rewire client in Pro Tools or other rewire host and provide the accurate sync that is available with Rewire to a Link session.

What i want to do: I want to sync Live to a pro tools session that has a tempo map with lots of little tempo changes in it. It's a tempo grid that follows a live performance.

Problem: Syncing Live to anything using MIDI beat clock does not achieve tight sync. Especially when it's trying to follow a master that is constantly changing tempo, as in my use case. On the other hand, the sync when Live is a rewire slave is tight. Why not use Rewire, then? You lose too much functionality--no hosting of plugins and no controllers that use control scripts. So no Push. That takes away too much of the reason I want to use Live in the first place.

So in this situation I have to settle for either:

1. Loose sync, or...

2. A horribly hobbled, crippled, stripped down version of Live.


Neither of these things is acceptable. If Ableton cannot make Live able to host plugins and use control scripts as a rewire slave, then I have a suggestion.

Create an app whose only function is to be a rewire client, receiving tight sync from a rewire host, and make that sync available to a Link session. When used in this way, certain aspects of Link would obviously not be available, such as the ability for any Link-connected app to change tempo for all connected apps since the whole point of this scenario is for everything to be locked to a specific tempo map. But this should make it possible to get much better sync than is possible with MIDI clock, and not suffer the severe limitations imposed on Live as a rewire slave.

[dave baker]

Basically I want to be able to use Link to sync Live to Pro Tools, or Logic--and I doubt if Avid or Apple are going to support Link--although I'd love to be wrong about that.

Creating as rewire client that you could sync to via Link would be a way to do that. It would also make Link more of a "pro" technology--enabling tight, solid sync among pro apps with none of the serious drawbacks of actually running Ableton as a rewire slave.