MIDI clock not recognized

[vjtk]

I'm not able to get Avenue to recognize my midi clock. I tried the different midi clock options (there is no explanation in the manual as to what these options do) under preferences, but no reaction whatsoever. I've tested other apps and they see my clock signal no problem.

[bart]

What software or hardware did you use to generate the midi clock? Did you activate the midi device that is receiving the clock?

[vjtk]

Good questions.

The clock is being generated by a SoundBITE Micro, going into a UC-33e Input, then MIDI to USB (a internal command of UC-33e - which is active) into my machine. Modul8 sees my clock no problem?

[VJair]

just checked this on a similar system

Redsound Voyager connected via midi to UC33e conected via USB to laptop

Ableton responds to clock stop / start and copys tempo.

Avenue doesnt respond.

[vjtk]

to be more specific, I was able to get Avenue to respond to Live's tempo changes, in other words there was a speed change on the BPM synced clip in Avenue when the tempo changed in Live. Still no clock from the Micro to UC-33e to Mac set-up though. I was using this same set-up with Resolume 2.41.

[VJair]

i only tried with one piece of software at a time running, but ill try with both a bit later tonight. going to have a go with a different midi interface too just too see if it makes any difference.

[edwin]

Just to explain the different MIDI clock settings:
- disabled : ignore midi clock
- start/stop: start on MIDI start stop on MIDI stop
- switch to manual on stop: start on MIDI start, continue with last received tempo on stop

We use the same MIDI clock scheme as we used in Resolume 2.41, but we will have a closer look. I'm interested whether this is a UC-33 problem or something else because our 'Novation Remote 25 SL' is working fine.

[VJair]

ok, tried a different setup...

Red sound voyager connected via midi to Audiophile 24/96 pci card

Ableton responds

Resolume 2.4 responds

Avenue does not respond

[ethios4]

Been working on this with vjtk...

We were having problems with MIDI timing when we were sending a stream of 16th notes out of Live into Resolume. We realized the problem was from using an older version of Live (v5)...the MIDI engine was overhauled for v7 of Live and is much tighter now.

I have Live v7 on my laptop, so from this point on all testing was done by sending MIDI from a laptop running Live 7, via MIDI cable into the Mac Pro.

We ran tests on the MIDI clock sync by playing identical audio clips (simple 2 measure kick drum pattern) in both Live and Resolume. We had the clip set to Beat Snap (1 bar) in Resolume. We were trying to get them perfectly in sync.

First off we noticed that MIDI clock works much better for Resolume if you go into Live's MIDI preferences and set the MIDI clock output to "Pattern" instead of "Song". In "Song" mode, the clips were getting out of sync in about 20-30 seconds, and there is no way to get them back in sync except by stopping and re-starting MIDI clock in Live. When we switched to "Pattern" mode the clips stayed in sync much much better. We had a sick audiovisual jam going for about 10-15 minutes and the clocks were only out of sync by maybe 30-50 milliseconds.

It is a small problem that the clocks get out of sync. I don't know enough about MIDI clock to know why this would happen. It is definitely better in "Pattern" mode, but I imagine that by the end of an hour long set, the clocks would be out of sync by at least 100 ms, which would be too much for tight audiovisual work. The "resync" button just resets Resolume's "one" to the button, not to the incoming clock signal.

Aside from this issue, we had a great time AV jamming with Resolume! I think adding AV to Resolume was a great idea, and really adds a lot to an already very useful product.

vjtk, wasn't there one other issue we ran into?

[vjtk]

One thing that was obvious was that you must use separate audio and video clips to get really good timing on triggering clips. We tried using a video only with an audio only on top and everything went quite well. If the two streams are in the same .mov then the timing is off quite a bit - noticeably.

The other thing we noticed was the BPM readout when slaving to MIDI clock. The number display (###.## BPM) flickers quickly when receiving clock, but is never constant. For example, when sending 140BPM from Live, Resolume reads between 139.23 and 140.56 roundabout. It never simply reads 140.00. Why is this? We thought maybe this was what was causing Resolume to get out of sync with Live over a longer period of time when using the "pattern" mode for MIDI clock out of Live 7. We've also noticed similar behavior on the V4 when sending clock. The BPM display always fluctuates, as with the last example, between 139 and 141 when sending 140 clock signal. Even though it never reads "140" constantly, it still SEEMS to be in perfect sync. Maybe this is the same with Resolume?

We were also wondering if all the complaints about MIDI being inaccurate are directly connected to the problems we are experiencing when trying to sync two MIDI devices, in this case two computers...