Ableton Forum

HI there

I need to link up 2 laptops for live performances with ableton. Both laptops have firewire Focusrite Saffire's attached to them, the idea being that we would either use one to send a midi tick to the other, or use the Digital I/O to use Steinbergs VST system link, running ableton in rewire slave mode.

Here's the problem, the Saffire does not appear to support running as a midi master, using either the midi or digital route. Our attempt to use system link was completely unreliabe, we also tried sending out a click track on one of the midi ports to the other soundcard, but the computer set as the master would immediately hang. It looks like we may need new soundcards.

Has anyone tried syncing 2 copies of ableton, and if so which devices were successful, and by which methods. I have also been recomended midi over LAN, but have already spent over 4000 pounds on the setup and cannot afford any more software. The limit i have to spend on the soundcards is £300 each (around $500 i think for any americans reading)

Any advice greatly appreciated, would love to hear from someone who has actually had this working!

Sure, I've sucessfully synced two laptops using a dirt cheap ROM I/O usb midi interface (among other things).

Your Focusrites shouldn't care about master or slave. Aren't they acting just like ordinary midi interfaces or do they try to do anything smart with the signal? Master/slave is a setting in Live, and your interfaces should just shut up and transmit/recieve whatever midi comes in/goes out.

The coolest way to sync is using Ethernet, just a twisted Ethernet cabel between the computers or through a hub if you want to sync more than two computers. You don't say if you are on PC or Mac, but if you are on a Mac you have that feature already built in. For PC you have to buy some (pretty expensive) software like MidiOverLAN or IPmidi.

Edit: I see that ipMIDI only costs USD 79 now. The developer's site www.nerds.de seems to be down at the moment though. I think that would be a very good investment for anyone who wants to sync two computers. Midi over IP/LAN is much faster than ordinary midi and will give a much tighter sync. You could even go wireless if you feel like living dangerously...