Hi
Interesting setup! I remember seeing that diagram before...
Make sure you
keep track latency to zero on the Midronome plugin track in Ableton. Using on other tracks is an interesting idea (to do "per synth" compensation), but yes it might affect the Midronome's timing.
About your question on the shift slider in the plugin:
- positive shift is handled by the plugin, delaying the timing sent to the device which will delay all clocks
- negative shift is handled by the DAW, the plugin increases its plugin latency so that the delay compensation mechanism runs it "earlier"
Note that:
- the timing might move a little (about +/- 1ms) every time you press play, that's just the limitation of the DAW
- sometimes the DAW timing gets confused if you have changed sample rate and buffer size a few times - if this happens simply restarting the DAW makes it go back to normal
Generally if your goal is to have exact "on the grid" recording, I would suggest you record the Midronome's metronome so you can see where its timing is.
I understand you must love your RK006 and it clearly is a central piece of gear in your setup, but just be aware that having all clocks going through it means it will affect timing. And if it can shift/modify clocks, then it means it "recreates" the clock instead of simply transmitting it. Basically any "smart" hub will have to receive the data, analyse it, and then recreate it, while the cheapest and "dummest" hubs will be 100% hardware, simply transmitting whatever they receive - these are the best to use with the Midronome.
If you have a simple MIDI hub at hand, just to see the difference, it would be very interesting to try the following:
- send the Deluge MIDI Data to the Midronome over USB (use the mac to forward the data)
- the Midronome will then merge it with its clock without affecting the clock
- then use the simple hub to connect the Midronome's MIDI outputs to all devices
When you try this, start with all track latency and all shift settings to zero, see where your devices record in terms of timing. Based on what you wrote I guess you'll get stable latency but have those 12/18/21 ms latency on your devices.
Also for the devices that have a analog sync input and do not need MIDI notes, try using the ANLG output of the Midronome to sync them (to save MIDI ports), on your modular setup for example.
Finally, regarding your question about the first beat, this is probably caused by your synths and the sudden change of timing when you press play. The Midronome does all what it can to smooth the transition from master clock to slaving to Ableton, but that means the clock the synths receive might jump a little on the first beat, and some synths might react slowly to the changes.
I hope that makes sense - lots of technical info for you to digest
That gives you a taste of how complex U-SYNC is - this is just the top of the iceberg
Simon
PS: if it's ok I would move this topic to the general "
Question about the software" so that everybody can see it?
