Resolume Forum

Hey All,

I've been figuring out why the midiclock function "Switch to Manual on Stop" isn't working for me;

We got a MPD232 a while ago and I'm used to smashing the spacebar for bpm. However the MPD232 has an internal clock which is very usefull. Midiclock option "Start/Stop" does work. The manual doesn't bring me further either.
Is it that the midi controller isn't sending out a STOP function?

Also a little note; When I do use the "Start/Stop" function, the BPM meter fluctuates a bit, very minimal. Is this normal or unintented?

Midi beat clock is a combination of four midi commands: Tick, Start, Stop and Continue.

When you enable midi clock out in Ableton, it will implement 3 of these. So when you press the play button in Ableton, it will send a Start, followed by a Tick on every beat. It will continue sending Ticks until you press the stop button in Ableton, at which point it will send a Stop.

By switching between Start/Stop and Switch to Manual on Stop in Resolume, you decide how Resolume reacts when that final Stop is received. In Start/Stop mode, it will follow Ableton and completely stop the BPM counter. In Continue mode, it will switch to Resolume's own BPM controls after a Stop is received.

The important thing to take from this, is that each device and software can implement Midi beat clock differently. For instance, afaik Ableton never sends a Continue command. Other devices may only send a Start once during startup, a Tick as long as they're turned on, and never send a Stop.

I had a quick browse through the manual of the MPD232, and it seems the Start and Stop buttons on the controller can be configured to send Midi Start and Stop. You'd have to check if you have them configured like this. In that case, pressing Stop on the controller should force Resolume to implement the Stop behaviour you have selected in the Preferences.

Because it doesn't send a fixed value, but rather a tick on every beat, Midi beat clock is notoriously wavy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_beat_clock

Thx for the explanation Joris!