Electribe + live = weird timing hicups?

bytheriver · Post by **bytheriver** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:27 pm

So I have a new electribe ER1, which rocks, and I've got it slaved to Lives midi clock.

Play on Live starts the step sequencer, and I can put in drums over the top of projects in live and tweak the drum synth parts on the ER1, just what I wanted and its sweet.

Trouble is, every so often, the whole thing goes tits up and makes a very obvious hicup, like its missing half a beat and leaping forward or something. Seems totally random.

Is this is a problem with lives midi-clock? I've heard it can be a bit iffy.

Is there a way around it, maybe slaving live to the ER1?

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:46 pm

bytheriver wrote:So I have a new electribe ER1, which rocks, and I've got it slaved to Lives midi clock.

Play on Live starts the step sequencer, and I can put in drums over the top of projects in live and tweak the drum synth parts on the ER1, just what I wanted and its sweet.

Trouble is, every so often, the whole thing goes tits up and makes a very obvious hicup, like its missing half a beat and leaping forward or something. Seems totally random.

Is this is a problem with lives midi-clock? I've heard it can be a bit iffy.

Is there a way around it, maybe slaving live to the ER1?

Lives midi clock shifts at differing rates depending on CPU load. I gave up trying to use the ER1 and other drum machines in real time over clip playback and FX tweaking in Live. I spent months on it and got no consistent results.

Now I just end up jamming over the top, recording it all to audio and then cutting/warping it into time afterwards.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:55 pm

Many posters have reported less-than-acceptable MIDI sync timing with using Live as the MIDI clock master.
People generally use Live as a slave to a hardware device if they need a sync.
So yes, you should have better results using the Korg as the master.

bytheriver · Post by **bytheriver** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:06 pm

Ok, thats kinda cool since it'll mean I get groovy soft 'start' 'stop' 'pause' buttons which light up, never a bad thing!

I'll give that a bash.

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:07 pm

the_planet wrote:Many posters have reported less-than-acceptable MIDI sync timing with using Live as the MIDI clock master.
People generally use Live as a slave to a hardware device if they need a sync.
So yes, you should have better results using the Korg as the master.

its not really that much better, there are still lots of timing issues, especially with time based FX, ie delay. It seems better to start, but Live as slave seems to drift sync over time as well.

kristoffer1989 · Post by **kristoffer1989** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:13 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:
the_planet wrote:Many posters have reported less-than-acceptable MIDI sync timing with using Live as the MIDI clock master.
People generally use Live as a slave to a hardware device if they need a sync.
So yes, you should have better results using the Korg as the master.
its not really that much better, there are still lots of timing issues, especially with time based FX, ie delay. It seems better to start, but Live as slave seems to drift sync over time as well.

Does it? I thought live updated like every beat or so to not drift apart?

There really schould be a solution to this? I mean. old crappy drummachines manage to stay in sync. Why wouldn't a 2008 software on a nice computer be able to do the same thing?

nimbledoe · Post by **nimbledoe** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:41 pm

i think it's the other way around...

i have a ES-1 and i was told by many people over the years that the midi sync on Electribes is less than perfect ; especially when used with other gear apart from the Electribe series...

that said i haven't tried it with live

contakt321 · Post by **contakt321** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:51 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:
the_planet wrote:Many posters have reported less-than-acceptable MIDI sync timing with using Live as the MIDI clock master.
People generally use Live as a slave to a hardware device if they need a sync.
So yes, you should have better results using the Korg as the master.
its not really that much better, there are still lots of timing issues, especially with time based FX, ie delay. It seems better to start, but Live as slave seems to drift sync over time as well.

This was my experience as well. I have heard it's been improved. I need to give it a go again.

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:00 pm

Ive got 3 electribes and a Novation KS4.

If i use them without a computer in the chain at all, ie ES1 master - ER1 - EA1 outputting notes to the Novation, I can run for hours with ZERO DRIFT. i can tweak any number of parameters and FX on any of the units and it stays rock solid. I can solo the kicks and there is no phasing at all.

As soon as I add Live to any or all of this chain, wether master or slave it drifts quickly and unpredictably, and all the time based delays turn to slop. Maybe its better now, but i spent a lot of time trying to build a live performance rig based on the Tribes and Live as the brain, and gave up, it simply wasnt consistent.

kristoffer1989 · Post by **kristoffer1989** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:07 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:Ive got 3 electribes and a Novation KS4.

If i use them without a computer in the chain at all, ie ES1 master - ER1 - EA1 outputting notes to the Novation, I can run for hours with ZERO DRIFT. i can tweak any number of parameters and FX on any of the units and it stays rock solid. I can solo the kicks and there is no phasing at all.

As soon as I add Live to any or all of this chain, wether master or slave it drifts quickly and unpredictably, and all the time based delays turn to slop. Maybe its better now, but i spent a lot of time trying to build a live performance rig based on the Tribes and Live as the brain, and gave up, it simply wasnt consistent.

This is so stupid. Makes you hate computers sometimes.. Why won't computers and hardware work together...

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:15 pm

kristoffer1989 wrote:
adventurepants_ wrote:Ive got 3 electribes and a Novation KS4.

If i use them without a computer in the chain at all, ie ES1 master - ER1 - EA1 outputting notes to the Novation, I can run for hours with ZERO DRIFT. i can tweak any number of parameters and FX on any of the units and it stays rock solid. I can solo the kicks and there is no phasing at all.

As soon as I add Live to any or all of this chain, wether master or slave it drifts quickly and unpredictably, and all the time based delays turn to slop. Maybe its better now, but i spent a lot of time trying to build a live performance rig based on the Tribes and Live as the brain, and gave up, it simply wasnt consistent.

This is so stupid. Makes you hate computers sometimes.. Why won't computers and hardware work together...

it works better with other hosts, its really just Live. Some people have reported success using something like Plogue as a midi host, and running it alongside or inside Live.

kristoffer1989 · Post by **kristoffer1989** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:51 pm

adventurepants_ wrote:
kristoffer1989 wrote:
adventurepants_ wrote:Ive got 3 electribes and a Novation KS4.

If i use them without a computer in the chain at all, ie ES1 master - ER1 - EA1 outputting notes to the Novation, I can run for hours with ZERO DRIFT. i can tweak any number of parameters and FX on any of the units and it stays rock solid. I can solo the kicks and there is no phasing at all.

As soon as I add Live to any or all of this chain, wether master or slave it drifts quickly and unpredictably, and all the time based delays turn to slop. Maybe its better now, but i spent a lot of time trying to build a live performance rig based on the Tribes and Live as the brain, and gave up, it simply wasnt consistent.

This is so stupid. Makes you hate computers sometimes.. Why won't computers and hardware work together...
it works better with other hosts, its really just Live. Some people have reported success using something like Plogue as a midi host, and running it alongside or inside Live.

I see. Well in thant case Ableton should take the hint and fix it. Thing of how many people that use live live. And want to use it with hardware. That's a lot of poeple dude!

aizo · Post by **aizo** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:54 pm

There's a semi popular artist name Tonikom that uses 2 esx's and live....well live. but all the pictures I see that she has I don't see any midi cords so she's syncing them the hard way

http://www.myspace.com/tonikom

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:10 am

aizo wrote:There's a semi popular artist name Tonikom that uses 2 esx's and live....well live. but all the pictures I see that she has I don't see any midi cords so she's syncing them the hard way

http://www.myspace.com/tonikom

tap tempo is probably the most reliable way, its easy to get the tribes starting on the one if youre quick enough.

computercontrolled · Post by **computercontrolled** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:28 am

Same problem here with my ER-1, i tried in cubase and the same thing. son in my case its not only a live issue, not sure if my soundcard has something to do (m-audio 410) i was told that firewire in pc may have more latency than usual, im not so sure about it so i still have no idea how to solve such issue.

Electribe + live = weird timing hicups?

Electribe + live = weird timing hicups?

Re: Electribe + live = weird timing hicups?