Eternal External Sync Problem

[stjohn]

Hi, I know this is just another one of those threads that will probly sink into the abyss of this forum, but im in desparate need of some advice. I just start syncing my drummachines again, because im performing with them on friday, but the sync is all over the place. i remember it not being great before, but it was never this bad.

it starts out ok, in time. then every now and again the sync just drops a m/s.. u can actually see the waveform lag a bit in 'clip view'. i think some1 referred to this as jitter in another thread.
stopping and starting the master (my machinedrum) knocks it back inline but the above will inevitably just happen again.

im convinced the problem lies in Ableton, because the machinedrum's clock is supposed to be great, and my soundcard is a Motu Ultralite mk3 which has an equally good track record..

at the moment im using Live as the master, but dont feel 100% cinfident doing so, but if you guys have come across any fixes or tips for have live as an EXT sync id love to hear them.. heres my setup.

Machinedrum->Electribe ESX1->Yamaha DX200->Ultralite Mk3-> Live Session View w/ audio and FM8.

ive looked around the net but found no conclusive answers. much respect...(gig friday )

[stjohn]

so i ended up having to drag my desktop into the gig. i think this problem has something to do with CPU spikes on my new laptop. which causes weird problems with MIDI lag and Audio dropouts?.

has anyone else experienced anything like this? or should i consider returning the laptop ?

[Tone Deft]

Live's midi clock is pretty bad, which is utterly embarrassing for a program called LIVE. I'm very disappointed that Ableton didn't tighten this up with version 8.

get all the latest drivers for your laptop. there are pages out there on how to maximize your computer for music, IOW turn off all the useless bullshit you don't need.

slave Live to your gear, don't slave your gear to Live.

and please do make a lot of noise about this issue, it's bullshit.

hey geeks - do you think max4Live can help with this issue? make a midi sync generator in max and slave Live and your external gear to that?

[stjohn]

you see the funny thing is... that it was working perfectly with Live as Master on my desktop..
so i guess it is down to something on the laptop. ive tried disabling all the crap, but stil no joy.
im going to test the sync with reaper or something too, just to see. maybe its a combination of both Live and stupid background processes.

[Tone Deft]

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... eating+you

I don't think it's a platform thing even though Macs suck.

60% of people found that it works but it's not steady.
14% have no problem
12% have epic fails
10% think I'm a tool

[stjohn]

thanks tone.. ill read through that. any more relevant links are more than welcome.

[timothyallan]

I ended up selling my external Korg ES1 because I could never get it to sync using my Motu828mkii. Same with a borrowed machine drum...

[stjohn]

does any1 have luck with reWiring live to something else with a stable clock? or will Live still have the same problems. im talking purely for live use because thats is why i got this laptop... and without a proper sync its pretty much useless

[timothyallan]

you lose plugin delay compensation if you don't have Live as the master... which means no VSTi's or 3rd party VSTS/AUs without manually delaying each channel

[stjohn]

you lose plugin delay compensation if you don't have Live as the master... which means no VSTi's or 3rd party VSTS/AUs without manually delaying each channel

hmm not the worst scenario i guess. going to try Reaper for the laugh

[aqua_tek]

i had the following happen:

at first the sync was out of whack. then i installed an update (7.0.10, if i'm not mistaken) and it magically started working. Then I installed 7.0.14 and it went crazy again.

So, yes, add another vote to the "please, get this fixed ASAP" bin.

[starving student]

i wont even begin just please-what everybody else said

[theque]

this problem never gets any attention, i wonder if it will be fixed before live has a full re-write. maybe it is unfixable at present

[pepezabala]

i had the following happen:

at first the sync was out of whack. then i installed an update (7.0.10, if i'm not mistaken) and it magically started working. Then I installed 7.0.14 and it went crazy again.

So, yes, add another vote to the "please, get this fixed ASAP" bin.

yes, there were combinations of hardware and versions of live that actually worked quite good. I can't really recall which versions of live, OS and interfaces, but two years ago we trusted it and it worked. Must have been live 6 on osx 4.03 or so.

But since at least version 7 we always had problems. The CPU load on the computer sometimes seems to distract the midi sync.

I often prefer now to not sync by midi, only manually by adjusting it myself, DJ-style.

[Gurulogic]

Yeah, the Abes really gotta hire themselvelves a midi clock guru..
The issues I've had, it almost seems as though Live takes over so many resources for a a split second with certain actions (ie:dumping a huge volume of midi CC's to the mix parameters) that it starves the midi interface from receiving the proper data.Some of my gear puts up with it some of it doesn't. The rest of the time everything is fine.I could swear Live makes my midi interfaces skip a beat and it's not Live's clock that's faulty at all, but something else.