Syncing Two DAWs

[lydian91]

I am trying to create a setup where Ableton Live follows Digital Performer's tempo. I had thought the Midronome could do this, but it looks like this capability is not robust enough (yet). Currently, I'm running the Midronome plugin in DP and it's working great sending tempo to the Midronome—rock solid. The problem is subsequently going from the Midronome to Ableton, which requires USB and introduces jitter.

I'm using this for film scoring, which requires frequent tempo changes, so the sync has to be rock solid both to and from the Midronome. So first, I just want to confirm that it's currently not possible to achieve this level of tight sync between two DAWs?

I have some familiarity with Max MSP, and I was noticing that Max has a "link.session" object.
https://cycling74.com/forums/announcing-link-package

It accepts bpm values and allows Max to communicate with Ableton via Ableton Link. It's very reliable, so I'm wondering if perhaps there's a way to run the 24 ppqn audio pulses from DP into Max and somehow translate this stream to the link.session object?

Of course Ableton Link support from the Midronome would be great, but perhaps Max could be a suitable workaround in the meantime. Any savvy Max users out there? I've also posted on the Max forum and will report back with any findings.

[Simon]

Hi

Well you're trying to sync two pieces of software, running on the same machine (I suppose), using a piece of hardware?

I would highly recommend using a software solution - which one, I'm not sure. There must be something that exists for this somehow, maybe you're on the right track with Max MSP

Hopefully someone in this forum can help or at least guide you in the right direction

Good luck!
Simon

[lydian91]

Yeah unfortunately Ableton Link is looking like the only game in town for really tight software sync. There may be something here with Max, but I think the more likely scenario is having to just wait for either DP or the Midronome to support Link. Pro Tools added Link support not too long ago, so I take that as a good sign that Link will continue to become more ubiquitous. Unlike Rewire...

[Simon]

I see Then Link is clearly the way to go - but again it would be much better to do it in software so that it's software-to-software communication, without involving any hardware