Ableton Forum

I'm sure this has probably been asked many times before - I did a search but did not find anything that quite answered my question.

I'm looking to synchronize the clocks within Ableton running on two separate laptops. I vaguely understand the principles of how to do this once the laptops are connected.

What I want to know is, what is the best way to connect up the laptops. Preferably looking for a solution that doesn't involve spending lots of money.

Cheers

The short version is send the Sync signal from the MIDI output of first laptop to MIDI input on second laptop (look in MIDI prefs for your particular MIDI devices). One will act as Master, one will act as Slave.

Once you've done this you need to press the EXT button in the transport section at the top of Live's interface one the laptop receiving the MIDI clock. It will then follow the first laptop when the play button is pressed.

You will need to account for any latency issues as well. Activate the metronome on both laptops and edit the value in the driver error compensation (MIDI prefs again) on the Slave laptop until both metronomes are perfectly in time.

This method is (generally) using MIDI clock, not MIDI timecode. Using MIDI clock you will be able to change tempo throughout the set, but not easily with MIDI timecode.

BE AWARE though, that this is a very unreliable way of doing things. The is no guarantee that your particular hardware/software setup will work in this way properly (i.e. reliably). This is why if you look around, the only tried and tested way to get it working solidly is to purchase a MOTU Midi Timepiece. In my experience MIDI interfaces that use a JetPLL chip for MIDI jitter correction seem to work better.

Having said all this, I have successfully used this method on more than one occasion and the only issue I had was the noticeable drift during a tempo change.

If you have not enough inputs/outputs or if you want to synchronise more laptops, you can use MidiOverLan : http://www.musiclab.com/products/rpl_info.htm
It's not free but there's a trial version

Wow, that is expensive !

I totally agree

In this case, of sync two computer I contacted with the Ableton.
And they said me that easiest way to connect two computer is to use two MIDI/USB interfaces, but this connection is unstable and can be crash while playing.
The best way to sync two computer is LAN. If you use Windows, unfortunately you must buy ipMIDI http://nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html or MidiOverLan http://www.musiclab.com/products/rpl_info.htm , but if you use Mac computers, that osx have built-in midi sync on lan function.

hej folks,

here is a nice & free tool for windows...

http://www.linuxsampler.org/ethernetmidi/

- open the network status window and look what your ip is
- open ethernetmidi and put the ip from pc1 and pc2

- start ableton and make shure you have 2 virtual midiports such as midiyoke1+2 active
- select midiout - midiyoke1 in midi track
- create a midi track in ableton and set some notes

- select midiyoke1 for input in ethernetmidi and midiyoke2 for output on each pc
- now press start in ethernetmidi
- play midi track as loop

- now the it works - i hope

readme.txt

EthernetMIDI by Benno Senoner ( [email protected])

For up to date information: http://www.linuxsampler.org/ethernetmidi

CHANGELOG:

Version 0.0.2
Some fixes, sysex should work (but untested, please report)
MIDI thread runs with TimeCritical priority

Version 0.0.1
Initial version



DOCUMENTATION:

WARNING: EthernetMIDI comes WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY use at your own risk.

EthernetMIDI is an application that allows forwarding MIDI
data between 2 PC using arbitrary network devices that provide fast IP forwarding.
A 100Mbit LAN will work fine.

To function (on PCs) it requires that you install a virtual MIDI port utility.
For example

Maple Virtual MIDI Cable works well: http://hardnote.com/maple.htm

or
MIDIYoke: http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http:// ... /myoke.htm

But keep in mind that MIDIYoke has been reported to be incompatible with GigaStudio
so don't install it on your GigaStudio machine.

Let's assume you installed Maple on 2 machines: PC1 and PC2.

Keep in mind Maple creates 4 Midi In ports and 4 Midi Out ports.
When you send data to:
Maple MIDI Out Port 1 it gets sent to Maple MIDI In Port 1
(sampe for ports 2,3,4 .. data sent to In 2 gets sent to Out 2 etc)


You can select Maple Midi In Port 1 as the port that will send it's data
over the network.
So when you send data from your sequencer to Maple Midi Out 1 it gets
sent to the remote PC via network.

On the receiving side you select eg Maple Midi Out Port 2 to get the
MIDI data that comes from the network.
This data is forwarded to Maple Midi In Port 2.
You can tell your sampler on PC2 to use Maple Midi In Port 2.
That way the sampler will be driven by MIDI data coming from the network.

Assume you want to forward MIDI data between PC1 and PC2.

PC1 has IP address 192.168.0.1
PC2 has IP address 192.168.0.20



Open EthernetMIDI on both PCs.

On PC1. in the Remote Host fields enter:

IP: Address: 192.168.0.20 (IP address of PC 2)
leave port to 9000

leave local port to 9000

In the "Local MIDI port forwarded To Ethernet" listbox select the
MIDI IN port that should be forwarded to the remote machine over the network

In the "Forward Ethernet to Local MIDI port" listbox select the
MIDI OUT port where MIDI data coming from network gets sent to.


On PC2 in the Remote Host field enter
IP: Address: 192.168.0.1 (IP address of PC 1)


If you want to disable sending outbound MIDI just set the remote port to 0


If you have the windows XP (SP2) firewall enabled on the PCs
enable UDP port 9000 by doing

Start -> Control Panel

double click on Widnows Firewall
click on the Exceptions tab
click on Add Port
Enter the following
Name: EthernetMIDI
Port Number: 9000
check the UDP flag

click OK



Now press Start on both machines.

MIDI forwarding is now active in both directions.
PC1 can send MIDI data to PC2 and viceversa.
The MIDI activity LEDs do flash green when there's MIDI activity
on the associated ports.

You can fire up multiple instances of EthernetMIDI
to comminicate with multiple remote PCs but you need to use
a different network port, eg 9001, 9002 etc

Please send feedback and questions to [email protected]





have fun!
cheers
T

Many thanks, man. Gonna try this one !

If your both on mac you can sync wirelessly via the network midi device. FREE

Veiss wrote:If your both on mac you can sync wirelessly via the network midi device. FREE

I have had a big problem with drift using this method.

ive done it successfully using a cross over cable and OSx's network over midi, we just used our metronomes to measure the latency and adjust one of the machines master track delay.

Thanks Wehkah