Arpeggiator synced with an extrnal clock/daw/hardware

[Arsaell Thor Ingvason]

Hello!

I just purchased a Rev2 and need some help with syncing.

I use both an external sequencer (akai mpc 2000xl) and then a daw(ableton) but I haven’t figured out how I get the rev2 arpeggiator to sync with the tempo of the external sequencer.

Just to be clear, i dont use my mpc and ableton at the same time.

I just read in the menu that it is possible to sync the arpeggiator with external midi clock but it doesn’t say how.

Can anybody give me advice on how to make this work?

Thanks

Arsaell

[rhullings]

Yeah, syncing the arp to a DAW (Pro Tools beat clock in my case) only works when the rev2 receives a "MIDI start" message, which Pro Tools only sends from the very beginning of its timeline (bar 1, beat 1). If you start playback from anywhere else in the timeline, Pro Tools (and many other DAWs) send a "MIDI continue" message, which the rev2 ignores and thus the arp will be out of sync, even though it's at the correct tempo. Sequential support has recently confirmed this with me. Pretty sure this goes for the sequencer and LFOs as well - anything that can be clock synced. It's a drag and I'm looking for a work around.

Support suggested sending a pulse to the rev2's Seq jack and setting the Seq jack global to the trigger setting. I've yet to try this again, but I've been annoyed by this problem for a long time and a while back tried something like this. The problem was that, while it worked, I couldn't change the time division of the arp on the rev2. I'll give it another shot one of these nights.

[Troy92Evans]

Yeah this is a really rough shortcoming unfortunately. It’s terrible for working on recording because unless you want to play from the beginning of the timeline every time you record a part you can’t have LFO’s or ARP in time.

[Arsaell Thor Ingvason]

Yeah, syncing the arp to a DAW (Pro Tools beat clock in my case) only works when the rev2 receives a "MIDI start" message, which Pro Tools only sends from the very beginning of its timeline (bar 1, beat 1). If you start playback from anywhere else in the timeline, Pro Tools (and many other DAWs) send a "MIDI continue" message, which the rev2 ignores and thus the arp will be out of sync, even though it's at the correct tempo. Sequential support has recently confirmed this with me. Pretty sure this goes for the sequencer and LFOs as well - anything that can be clock synced. It's a drag and I'm looking for a work around.

Support suggested sending a pulse to the rev2's Seq jack and setting the Seq jack global to the trigger setting. I've yet to try this again, but I've been annoyed by this problem for a long time and a while back tried something like this. The problem was that, while it worked, I couldn't change the time division of the arp on the rev2. I'll give it another shot one of these nights.

Ok I see, thats very unfortunate :/

But Do I have to activate the midi start message?

[rhullings]

Sorry, I don't know - I don't have Ableton or a MPC. I do have a Digitakt, but everything in my rig clocks off of Pro Tools. I've been meaning to set up a DAW-less rig for a while tho. Yet another thing to test....

My current workaround, which is not great, is that I use a KeyStep to control my rev2 when I want to punch arp parts into a song. That little controller plays with Pro Tools better than my fancy rev2.

[RobustAmerican]

Nuendo has 3 settings in the sync/clock page...

1. Midi clock follows Project Position
2. Always send Start Message
3. Send midi clock in stop mode

I have them all turned on and this takes care of the issue.