Ableton Forum

Ok I am about to pull my hair out with this. I am trying to get Live 7 to chase Pro Tools with Midi Time Code. Live 7 is on one computer, and Pro Tools is on another computer or else I would use Re-Wire so that is not an option. I have Pro Tools sending MTC out correctly. I went to the Preferences in Live and set everything up correctly. I set Live for MTC at 30fps with no offsets, and click the EXT button for sync. When I play Pro Tools, Live starts, but not on the first beat. It's like it starts on the 8th note after the first quarter note. Live is also set to the correct tempo to match Pro Tools. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS FREAKING PROBLEM???? This should be a pretty simple operation here.....What am I doing wrong? please help?

what version you are using?. come to think of it, the problem might have been around since 6.0.10..., during beta, i think i did have problems, doing this with logic and protools, maybe a bug? i know it used to work, maybe 6.0.9 or 6.0.7, i was doing this fairly regularly. i never changed the mtc framerate tho... you are not alone. live seems to have gotten a little less stable with ext. midi as of late... i'm not sure!

I'm running Live 7 and Protools 7.3.1. I'm using the Focusrite Saffire Pro 10 I/O interface as well......Any tips for me..............?

i'll check it out out tomorrow after work, if anyone else hasn't helped you out by then. till then, don't take it out on your hair! which digi interface?

Hahaha man I'm trying not to but I'm at the point of being totally pissed right now!!! It's a Digi 002 Rack I'm using with Pro Tools. But I honestly think the problem is with Live, or the stupid Saffire software that comes with that Saffire interface I'm using with Live. It's pretty simple to generate MTC with Pro Tools.

cool, i understand... i don't think it's pro tools or the sapphire, i use an mbox2pro and a rme ff400, so the only thing in common is live... if it is live, i hope it gets fixed soon, might try e-mailing ableton, probably way more help than digi. i'll mess around with it, and if i notice problems, i'll email ableton, too, ass well as here.

I'm having a similar problem when syncing Live 6.0.10 to my MPC via MTC.

I send the sync out from my MPC to Live with ext. on. The frame rate is set to 25 on the MPC (as this is what it defaults to).

Everything eventually syncs up but it sounds off beat initially but picks up to speed eventually. I thought this was an issue with the MPC at first. I guess it is a problem with Live receiving midi sync information.

I suppose you can just add a blank bar at the beginning to allow the clock to catch up and sync.

Probably not particularly helpful but..
You can now pick up old 'motu didigtal timepieces' for about £50.
These act as a central sync point for the whole studio ?
By the sounds of things would cure these sorts of problems ?

Yeah but I shouldn't have to go buy a freakin' midi time piece. If Live would work like it's supposed to there wouldn't be a problem. Is this a bug? Anyone have this same problem?????

bump

I suggest to write a mail to support, they will answer you directly.

your "problem" sounds normal. MTC always has a pick-up lag, without the lag it would be innacurate.

You should e.g. start your music on bar 9 and play from bar 8 and have the same BPM in both computers.

You should also slave the audioclocks if you want to avoid hiccups/discontinuities if working on longer material.

Lastly MIDI sucks itself, I'd recommend to try MIDI-over-ethernet, its the only solid way to sync two copies of Live over beatclock.

hey! if you could explain a little more as to what you are/trying to do, i might could help...my problem is a little different, i get jumps in tempo like steve_duda says, in the first bar. after this, sync is perfect. but i am using midi clock, not mtc... i can get the terms crossed but in my understanding, wouldn't you use this for syncing to video?

I have been syncing Live 7 to two different external sources via Midi Clock without problems. Did you make sure to use MME on the Midi Input Ports? Live 7 sets those to DirectMusic by default, but that's buggy yet (MME is too, but far less). Set all Midi Ports to MME for the time being until they fixed DirectMusic.

Steve_Duda wrote:your "problem" sounds normal. MTC always has a pick-up lag, without the lag it would be innacurate.

You should e.g. start your music on bar 9 and play from bar 8 and have the same BPM in both computers.

You should also slave the audioclocks if you want to avoid hiccups/discontinuities if working on longer material.

Lastly MIDI sucks itself, I'd recommend to try MIDI-over-ethernet, its the only solid way to sync two copies of Live over beatclock.

No....it isn't normal. I realize it takes a bar or two to lock in most of the time, but like i said before, it never catches up. I've worked with midi time code a lot in the past and never had a problem until I tried to slave Live 7.