Ableton Forum

Hello,

I'm trying to sync Abelton on it's own computer/soundcard to slave from another computer/soundcard running the Master clock and have experienced some erratic clock issues that look like two Master clocks are conflicting. In Abelton, when EXT is on the incoming bpm is registering around normal...slightly faster and I haven't had a chance to adjust the latency yet because during the testing of the playback to try and adjust the latency by ear I get an erratic bpm in excess of 238bpms.

I'll explain my set-up and hope you can help me.

On system one, I have MacBook Pro running Native Instruments' Traktor Pro 2 and using the Native Instruments Traktor Audio 10 soundcard's physical midi out port to send clock (this is the Master) to
System two which is another MacBook Pro running Abelton and using a Allen&Heath Xone 2D as it's soundcard where it's receiving midi by physical midi cable connection between the two soundcards.

I set-up a generic clock device for the Traktor Audio 10 to send clock out of it's physical out port.
I have Traktor midi set-up to Master at 125bpms and sending clock to the Xone 2D that is set-up to sync in Abelton midi preferences so that it should work.
When I have 'EXT' on in Abelton, the bpms are about 3bpms above the correct bpm but as soon as I press start in Traktor to send the clock...Abelton jumps up to 238bpms.

I have tried to narrow down the culprit which may cause this issue and cannot figure it out.

My mixer is an Allen&Heath Xone DB4, which has midi control as well but is set up in Traktor as a midi device to control the Traktor decks and.....only within the Traktor's virtual midi device set-ups.

I also have Maschine working on system one, which is using the DB4's USB audio soundcard and is set-up to receive it’s own clock start from Traktor with it’s own generic clock device going to the Traktor virtual output which is Maschine’s midi input. Maschine has been double checked and isn’t sending another clock because I tried it with the Maschine program completely off and the bpm conflict is still constant.

So what is?

I tried the set-up of ‘all ports’ as the output for one generic clock in Traktor and it makes no difference. I wondered if DB4 is regenerating clock somehow but I haven’t tested it with it’s USB unplugged to see if this makes a difference but its crazy and unstable. I may need to re-look into how to connect the Xone 2D to Abelton if it is causing a conflict as well in midi prefs but am not sure what's going on right now.

Any help would be appreciated.

runningoutofspace wrote:I may need to re-look into how to connect the Xone 2D to Abelton if it is causing a conflict as well in midi prefs but am not sure what's going on right now.

Any help would be appreciated.

(I've never done this so there's no way I would have known that the buffer size might be the culprit)

From Live's midi/sync faqs page

"I have timing problems when syncing Live and____via MIDI sync. What can I do to fix this?
Make sure that the "MIDI Clock Follows Project Position" option is enabled in Cubase 5. Also check the buffer size for the audio device; the lower the buffer size, the better sync in most cases.

"I'm not getting good sync in Live. The BPM in Live jumps around when I am syncing. What can I do to fix this?
Please check the Preferences Audio tab in Live and make sure you do not have the buffer size of the audio device set high"

So now if this works, I'll have to find a decent buffer size that won't interfere with operation.

You will find many many cases on this forum of people having trouble syncing. And very few cases of success :/. Best of luck!

Yeah, this is why I've never really tried it. Forever, I've been playing straight unsync'd with the bpm setting of the other system, tapping a mapped play start until it feels right. It works fine for the most part but can drift. I'm thinking that this unsync'd method may be best method for me if the buffer adjustment doesn't work and I'll take my chances until sync is "right"