sync/latency problems w/ external drum machine(s)

intrepid traveller · Post by **intrepid traveller** » Tue May 02, 2006 4:39 pm

hi there

i don't really know the best way to address the latency issues that i'm hearing while trying to drive my elektron machinedrum alongside ableton live.

idealy i'd like live to not only play in perfect sync w/ the machinedrum, but i'd also like to record machinedrum audio into live.

i can achieve this but there is a slight synch problem. after recording the drum audio, one can see that the waveform is slightly behind the tempo grid.

reducing the buffer in the motu traveler obviously gets the sync closer, but i'm wondering if there is a way (track delay?) to get live to play in PERFECT sync with my external gear. i have a real 808, a 909 and 303 i'd also like to run alongside my ableton loops in a live PA situtation, but so far the sync is not exceptable and i'm having trouble figure out the latency issues and ways around them.

thanks so much for your help in advance

all the best,

graham | intrepid traveller

here is my setup:

motu traveler
G5 iMac
elektron machinedrum
latest version of ableton live

eamoon · Post by **eamoon** » Tue May 02, 2006 4:59 pm

you can adjust the external sync timing in the MIDI prefs -- click on the MIDI output you're using to sync the machinedrum, then adjust the "sync delay" setting until it sounds right. you probably also want to have it in "pattern" (not "song") mode.

however, the recording sync problems are trickier. I generally adjust recorded clips by hand unless I'm only using recorded audio in a song (in which case all of the clips will be offset by the same amount anyway, and will play in sync with each other.) I think the issue is that Live doesn't correct for the latency of the audio input device. sometimes this is actually helpful, though (if I'm running external sounds through Live effects, then record those sounds, they'll be delayed by the same amount as before.) it would be nice if there was optional input latency compensation for the more common case, though...

intrepid traveller · Post by **intrepid traveller** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:53 pm

i tried moving around the sync delay and it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever on the machinedrum timing...

am i doing something wrong?

husker · Post by **husker** » Tue May 02, 2006 9:44 pm

Try turning monitor to Off on the Audio track where you are recording the machinedrum audio. For me tha keeps everything in sync when I record external gear, and I just monitor externally.

mikHATz · Post by **mikHATz** » Wed May 03, 2006 12:20 am

I know its not what you want to hear but ive had this problem to using external synths and samplers controlled by Live. The way i have dealt with it is to adjust the track delay til it sounds right. i havent done this in a while but i think i remember the correct delay adjustment being something like the overall latency. so if you have an overall latency of 16ms. then delay? the necessary track by -16ms. Maybe someone else knows a better way, but i dont think ableton has any functionality to deal with latency on external gear.
MIK

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Wed May 03, 2006 1:12 am

1.)are you loosing sinc?

2.)or is the whole recording just delayed?

1.)if you are loosing sync try to make live the SLAVE and something else the MASTER. this has always worked best for me. i'v had problams with jumpy timeing before and that fixed it.

2.-a)) if you are recording directly into live track delay will fix this
turn on delay compensation and adjust all the tracks that are playing to sync with the incomeing audio

2.-b)if you can play through an external mixer you can monitor this way and record the mix into a new chanel in live (this should make up for a-d/d-a conversion..as everthing will be playing at the same latency)