Ableton Forum

hey guys, i want to use my machinedrum's midi clock to run ableton but am struggling with getting the settings right. i have it connected via midi to my comp and all that good stuff, but how should i set up the settings in ableton preferences to make sure it locks in? should i have the input sync on ableton on? the output?

i've been able to get this set up for the most part, but it blocks out the play and timeline controls in ableton. i dont want that. i still wanna program from ableton, start/stop from ableton, but just use the MD's nice midi clock. i also want to prgoram the md from ableton, not vice versa (although it really is just triggering patterns from withing ableton) anyone have any suggestions?

if youre running in ext mode (ie the clock coming from the MD), then Live is slaved to the transport of the MD. So you cant press play on Lives transport, you have to start play from the MD.

If you want to use Lives transport, then youll have to slave the MD to Lives clock.

for syncing, run the metronome on both Live and the MD. adjust the midi delay in the midi preferences for the output of your midi interface until the two metronomes are in sync.

Lives timing can be funky, and can shift with CPU load and other things. youre probably better off slaving to the MD.

The MDs clock is known to be stable. But slaving to something automatically puts the transport controls to the master. That's just the way it is.

-M

Don't forget that you can't make use of the (P)lugin (D)elay (C)ompensation
in Live when you sync to an external clock. This kept me from syncing live to my mpc an. The other way round works fine for me.