Clock Sync Drifts With Logic In Cycle Mode

[muleskinner]

Hi,

Firstly - thanks for throwing us Tempest users this life-raft!

I can get the Tempest to sync to Logic pretty much fine as a slave to Logic's clock, however I've noticed that when Logic is in 'cycle' mode the clock drifts out on each subsequent cycle by quite a bit making it pretty much un-useable in this scenario (which is a really PITA for me).

Has anyone else run into this and is there a solution? I am still on Logic 9. It could well be an issue with Logic as much as the Tempest.

I'm finding the only way to work like this is to sequence in Logic and send MIDI out to trigger the Tempest's pads but obviously this is not ideal - I bought the Tempest for the sequencer!

cheers

[momo]

- The only computers being able to deliver tight midi clock were the Atari, Yamaha (till today used by vince clark) and i think later Commodore becouse they had the midi port directly on the motherboard. Modern day computers are by design incapable of delivering 100% tight midi clocks.

-To solver this issue and give you sample acurate clock Sync Gen and Sebastian Niessen have Synchronizers for sale. They have multible ports and options, like groove, polyrthms, work wonderfully and cost....alot. Any hardware synth etc slaved will also induce some lag. In tests the tempest has shown to be one of the best if not the best out there, so Logic is the guilty one in your case.

-Sofware designers themselves dont spend the same importance implementing midi clock. I´ve used cubase and it synced, but far from tight. Logic is know to be much worse. I´ve switched to bitwig 3 months ago and must say its syncs so good and responsive that i have moved away from making a sync generator my next purchase, looks like they have a master clock which then slaves both the programm and the midi out.

sorry i could´nt help with you specific problem, but to come to an happy end with it sync generators are the only propper solution. Bitwig works for me, doesnt feel like the drummer is drunk.

[muleskinner]

Thanks. I thought it was probably Logic. Sync is OK (as in useable at least) when not cycling but cycling throws it off big time.

I have a Motu Midi Xpress XT which will act as a master clock but only using MTC which the Tempest doesn't seem to support. Logic won't slave to Midi clock either, only MTC.

Looks like I'm stuck using Logic as sequencer for this type of 'overdub sequencing'. Interested to know if Logic X performs any better if anyone is using it.

cheers

[goldphinga]

Hi, i use my Tempest with Logic 9 too but I don't have the drift you describe when using cycle mode. Do you have enable song pointer position enabled? Could you outline your settings so i can double check with mine and see if there are any differences....?

[muleskinner]

Hi There,

Thanks for the offer of help - strangely I went back to this last night and it was all working fine, no drift on cycle at all. Bizarre. Anyway, I took a screengrab of my settings regardless as it would be good to see whether this matches with yours...

The 'negative delay' on the clock is what I find about right to get things to sync up a bit tighter.

cheers

Logic MIDI Sync Settings For Tempest

Screen Shot 2014-07-08 at 22.11.02.png (104.64 KiB) Viewed 3270 times

[goldphinga]

Your settings looks the same as mine. Are you connected direct to your computer via USB or via an interface just out of interest?

[muleskinner]

Via USB. I tried via 'normal' MIDI through my interface (MOTU Midi Express XT) but couldn't get this to work - the clock was getting transmitted OK but the song position wasn't, almost as if the MOTU were 'swallowing' the position info. I never bothered figuring out the problem as it seemed to work OK via USB. What are you using?

[goldphinga]

I'm using USB too, connected direct to my macbook pro...works great!

[BobTheDog]

Where does your loop cycle start?

I have had many problems in general with logic cycle if it starts at the first bar.