[6377] External Sync - Wobbly Tempo. . . ?!?!

[benjamingordon]

Hi.

I have ableton8 with a midi input coming from my Akai MPC1000.

I know how to set up external sync as ive done ti many times before but with live7. Now im having some serious problems.

The tempo goes wild and cannot work out what tempo should be playing. Say im sending 120BPM from the MPC, Live will quickly increase and decrease +15 & -15 from the tempo. . . which is causing some very obvious repitch issues.

Also, everything seems out of time as if delay compensation were off. I looked in the options menu and delay compensation is greyed out whilst external sync is on. . .

Im pretty stuck to be honest. . .

Any ideas?

Cheers, Benji

[Razzkazz]

I'm having sync issues while using a boss RC-50 loop pedal. Only drifts of +/- 1 bpm, buts its enough to make rhythmic thinks sound off. I know ableton suggest

Please check the Preferences Audio tab in Live and make sure you do not have the buffer size of the audio device set high.

I tried this using a buffer size of 128 and I still get the same results.

Anyone any ideas?

[benjamingordon]

yea im still getting this problem with low buffer size but ive realised the difference between tempos is -15 - +15. . . this is an extremely obvious wobbling and i have tried it with different midi devices now and all do the same. . . so i know its a problem with live8.

any ideas anyone?

[Razzkazz]

good to hear (sort of) it happens with other devices. Was beginning to think it might of been my loop pedal. I've wrote to Ableton before and they didn't get back to me, which is unusual, but thought it was because in my mail to them i didn't mention i'd tried lower buffer size's as they suggest in their FAQ. So i've written to them again a few minutes ago, lets hope they can shed some light on this issue. I've been doing a lot of searching around in the forum and there is other people with sync issues, but no solution as of yet. Are you using a mac or pc?

[l-rs]

I use a TR-707 to trigger both my 303 and Ableton for a tight sync. Since version 8 just turning on EXT doesn't work anymore. I have to go into the audio settings, set DirectMusic to MME and back again. Only then does it accept the signal from the 707.

I also notice that when I set the 707 to a certain bpm, the display within Live 8 shows deviation from about 2 decimal points. I don't remember that from Live 7.

Also there's a noticable crackling on some vst's when EXT is selected. It goes away when it is deselected, but then I can't use the tight clock.

I've mailed Ableton stuff and sent them an .als file but somehow this sounds pretty familiar (and therefor related!)

[benjamingordon]

i am literally unable to fix this. there is nothing i can do.

ableton 8 will NOT sync externally from any of my MIDI devices. . .

ANYONE else experiencing this?

[timmybuk2]

I have noticed in the past that my instruments in former version were not TIGHT in playback. Logic Audio was tight, and i guess i got spoiled. i hope they fix this. I haven't moved to 8 yet, but if this issue is currently happening, i may hold off.

[aftertouch]

ive never been happy with sync in ableton. On my xp PC cubase used to sync great with my mpc1000. and ableton 7 sort of did, but it wasnt ultra tight.

on my macbookpr, logic sync up tight with everything i send at it. on the other hand ableton is still laggy as fuck.

i played around setting it as a master or a slave, i also fucked with the delay settings until both devices metronomes were ontop of each other. Even though once the beats played they were still phasing in and out of sync.

[Razzkazz]

As i mentioned i've been using a Boss RC-50 loopstation and been having much difficulty with sync. I've been searching the forum and the net for info and been doing some experimenting. Still haven't got stable sync but heres what i've learnt for what its worth.

Trying to sync ableton as slave to the loopstation using an audio buffer of 256(lower buffer settings definitely give better results), the bpm in ableton constantly changes somewhere between +/- 1.5 bpm while using either a motu ultralite, novation remote25 or edirol um-2 as a midi interface. If i use my motu midi expressXT as the MIDI interface the tempo only drifts +/- 0.5 bpm with the same settings. If also read elsewhere of people getting different results with different setups.

When I sync the loopstation to ableton, tempo's are accurate some of time. Certain bpms are out by .1. Playing a metronome on the loopstation and in ableton to 2 clicks didn't line up so I adjusted the midi clock sync delay in ableton for both in and out to minus values(in another post someone else said they solved their sync issue by setting positive values) to get the clicks to line up (depending on what way i'm syncing). At the minute im going with what i hear as opposed to what the tempo read outs are telling me. I also had these problems sometimes while using Cubase and Logic pro, which leads me to believe that this problem might be more than just an application based one?

In saying all this the loopstation has a bad rep for sync anyway but i do remember having stable sync when using Live version 6.

[Razzkazz]

Just an update. I stated previously that i was getting only very small drifts. I've since found that the higher the tempo im working at the larger the drift will be (-/+ 5 bpm) while my mac is synced to the loopstation.

[rude_NHS]

i am literally unable to fix this. there is nothing i can do.

ableton 8 will NOT sync externally from any of my MIDI devices. . .

ANYONE else experiencing this?

i get quite a big lag when i try to sync my e;ectribe, even with my sample buffer as high as 40ms, its still behind the beat somewhere around 10 to 50 ms. not good i'm afraid.

[rude_NHS]

also, i've noticed one thing with the tempo, when you type in a new one and hit enter, it takes about 2 seconds to adjust to the new tempo, smooth as it is, not what i want all the time. whats going on there?

[ryanDigital]

I'm getting similar midi timing issues with the actual timing of the notes as well. No way can I sync up the step sequencer on my evolver or run any of my drum machines. Haha, forget feeding it an external clock source! lol

It's really weird and terribly awful. Apparently there are midi issues all over Live 8. Absolutely the most buggy software I've ever paid for. It is good to know that I'm not the only one with serious external midi issues, but this all needs fixing ASAP.

[triss]

right i'm suffering with this exact problem with two copies of ableton running. One as master one as slave. Midi cable running from sound card to sound card.

bpm wobbles all over the place. any fixes been found yet?

[Christian_E]

I see you mentioning the MME driver... should try ASIO4All instead
its much faster and handles low latency better than the MME/directX