Ableton Forum

I just got that great synth

I have synced the A6 to Live 5 and the A6 plays it's sequences in sync but it's not tight.
I have a 2 bar midi clip looping in Live. For 2 bars it's in perfect sync but when the midi note triggers the A6 again it's out of sync.
this goes on -sometimes in sync, sometimes not in sync.
And about half of the times when I start my host the A6 starts a little too late.
Anything I can do about that? The delay feature does not take care of this since the A6 does play in sync sometimes.

Is Live causing this or is it the A6?

Hope you can help.

Actually it did help setting the delay on the A6 track in live to -27 ms
but it's still most of the times out of sync when I start Live
but it then syncs after the first loop.

This is something I've dealt with in the past. It always takes exactly one bar for the sync to kick in. You could try setting the A6's internal sequencer (if it has one, I know nothing about the A6) to the same tempo as your project.

thanks for the tip

the_planet wrote:This is something I've dealt with in the past. It always takes exactly one bar for the sync to kick in. You could try setting the A6's internal sequencer (if it has one, I know nothing about the A6) to the same tempo as your project.

not a good idea because for some reason A6's internal clock jumps to non rounded values when using the knobs to dial it in.

i.e 128.436 or 124.833

sweetjesus wrote:

the_planet wrote:This is something I've dealt with in the past. It always takes exactly one bar for the sync to kick in. You could try setting the A6's internal sequencer (if it has one, I know nothing about the A6) to the same tempo as your project.

not a good idea because for some reason A6's internal clock jumps to non rounded values when using the knobs to dial it in.

i.e 128.436 or 124.833

I suspect that's because they use the internal oscilator tuners to check tempo. I believe that the tempo is determined by X number of oscilations at Frequency Y. That's probably why they can't hit too many round numbers. I seem to recall that 125.000 bpm (or was that 135.000) worked perfectly though.

I too had problems with syncing my A6 (in fact all hardware synths). It was one of the many reasons why I gave up and went 100% software.

M. Bréqs wrote:I suspect that's because they use the internal oscilator tuners to check tempo. I believe that the tempo is determined by X number of oscilations at Frequency Y. That's probably why they can't hit too many round numbers. I seem to recall that 125.000 bpm (or was that 135.000) worked perfectly though.

I too had problems with syncing my A6 (in fact all hardware synths). It was one of the many reasons why I gave up and went 100% software.

Wow. That's pretty damn interesting. Where did you pick that up? I'd like to read more about that (and maybe some other analog quirkiness) to satisfy my nerdery!

the_planet wrote:

M. Bréqs wrote:I suspect that's because they use the internal oscilator tuners to check tempo. I believe that the tempo is determined by X number of oscilations at Frequency Y. That's probably why they can't hit too many round numbers. I seem to recall that 125.000 bpm (or was that 135.000) worked perfectly though.

I too had problems with syncing my A6 (in fact all hardware synths). It was one of the many reasons why I gave up and went 100% software.

Wow. That's pretty damn interesting. Where did you pick that up? I'd like to read more about that (and maybe some other analog quirkiness) to satisfy my nerdery!

...Just a guess. Or a deduction is more acurate. If it were a digitally controlled tempo (ie set by a computer with X number of samples equalling 1 quarter note) then you could hit round numbers easier. But you can't, and there HAS to be a reason why. No programmer without schizophrenic tendencies would say that the tempo should step from 128.704 to 129.073 (or whatever). It tells me that those tempo differentials are derived mathematically.

So, how could they do it? Well, the Andromeda has auto-tuning oscilators. That is, you push a button and the andromeda plays a sequence of notes (internally, it's silent to the user) and compares them to a series of digital samples at set frequencies. It then tunes the oscilators to match. If it has this feature, it would be fairly simple to use that to set any time based algorithm - attack, decay, release phases of envelopes, LFO rates, and even the delay effect.

Again, it's just an educated guess.

M. Bréqs wrote:

the_planet wrote:

M. Bréqs wrote:I suspect that's because they use the internal oscilator tuners to check tempo. I believe that the tempo is determined by X number of oscilations at Frequency Y. That's probably why they can't hit too many round numbers. I seem to recall that 125.000 bpm (or was that 135.000) worked perfectly though.

I too had problems with syncing my A6 (in fact all hardware synths). It was one of the many reasons why I gave up and went 100% software.

Wow. That's pretty damn interesting. Where did you pick that up? I'd like to read more about that (and maybe some other analog quirkiness) to satisfy my nerdery!

...Just a guess. Or a deduction is more acurate. If it were a digitally controlled tempo (ie set by a computer with X number of samples equalling 1 quarter note) then you could hit round numbers easier. But you can't, and there HAS to be a reason why. No programmer without schizophrenic tendencies would say that the tempo should step from 128.704 to 129.073 (or whatever). It tells me that those tempo differentials are derived mathematically.

So, how could they do it? Well, the Andromeda has auto-tuning oscilators. That is, you push a button and the andromeda plays a sequence of notes (internally, it's silent to the user) and compares them to a series of digital samples at set frequencies. It then tunes the oscilators to match. If it has this feature, it would be fairly simple to use that to set any time based algorithm - attack, decay, release phases of envelopes, LFO rates, and even the delay effect.

Again, it's just an educated guess.

the problem is possibly as a result of the knobs as opposed to the internal clock

not sure that this will help that much, but had the exact same problem with my alesis micron and midi sync when running live 5.

upgraded to 6 the weekend, and after re running all latency comp stuff again tested again - suprised and happy to be completely in sync

the midi clock received by the micron is far more stable that before ( you can visably see this on the display)..

j

That's great to hear Joe. So Live 6 will take care of this?

Can anyone else confirm this please since I haven't upgraded yet?

Soarer wrote:That's great to hear Joe. So Live 6 will take care of this?

Can anyone else confirm this please since I haven't upgraded yet?

6 is happier with my a6... a little less weirdness when playin synced arps and sequences

sweetjesus wrote: 6 is happier with my a6... a little less weirdness when playin synced arps and sequences

Now I REALLY regret selling my A6. Sync issues was a big prob for me...

I have live 6 demo installed on my PC and I can't say that there's any difference regarding the sync problem. The A6 is out of sync about half of the times when I start Live's sequencer.

It does not take 1 bar but as little a as a an 8 or 16th note to get into sync again. Of course the A6 sequence is then delayed by that same amount. So maybe a half bar is better then.