Nome clocking Ableton Live (please forgive me).

[beansharicots]

Hey there. I'm just a dumbdumb trying to figure out how to correctly set this up so that Nome is the master clock and Live follows its clock. A lot of the documentation seems to be geared for people wanting to do it the other way around, which seems to defeat the purpose. It works fine bidirectionally but I'm still using Live's clock. Can some kind person give me a hint on what settings are needed both in Live and the Nome? I have it setup correctly as a control surface. When I config Ableton to follow an external clock it appears to be receiving it, but doesn't receive the start message. I'm so confused so please be kind!!

[simntonic]

Hey, no worries at all.
From what you describe, it sounds like you are missing a setting in Live.

You can check in Live's Preferences → Link, Tempo & MIDI, and for the Nome II (Clock) input make sure:
• Track = On
• Sync = On

Then in the main Live window, hit the “EXT” button (top left). That’s the one that actually tells Live to follow external clock.

Screenshot 2026-03-18 at 11.21.35.png (7.04 KiB) Viewed 16286 times

After that, pressing play on the Nome should start Live as well.

One thing to keep in mind though, Live (and most DAWs) aren’t super tight when following MIDI clock. It’ll work, but it won’t be as solid as using U-SYNC / audio sync, which is why most of the docs focus on that direction.

Hope that helps.

[beansharicots]

Ah ok, I think I may have misunderstood how this works. I'm on a Mac and have USYNC installed and running. If I choose to not sync Live externally, I suppose the best option is the bidirectional? But, isn't Live still sending out MIDI clock? My goal is to clock my Eurorack and external hardware sequencers, as well as VST's here and there and have everything synced up for recording into Live.

[beansharicots]

I might as well tack on my other issue. What are the correct settings in AN1 and AN2 to get Pam's Pro Workout to sync and stop/start properly. Previously I was using MI Yarns for this and it work perfectly. I'm getting all sorts of strange behaviour with the Nome.
Thanks in advance for your patience. I don't know why I can't figure this out, but it is what it is.

[beansharicots]

Jeezuz, I think I have it mostly figured it out. For syncing Pam's I set ANL to follow, AN1 to '24, AN2 to RES, PL1 to both and finally MID to follow.

I gave up on the idea of clocking Live as it seems it will create more problems than I care to deal with. And for my case, there doesn't seem to be a point in doing this. Nome controls the clock and Live does everything else. So far all my external gear is properly synced and recordings look nice with a little shifting within U-SYNC.

Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

[simntonic]

Hey, thanks for sharing the process, and no worries at all, glad you got it working

Since you’re using U-SYNC, Live is effectively the master, and Nome is just following very tightly. So you get the stability of the DAW clock without the usual MIDI sync issues. Your Pam’s settings also look right for what you’re trying to do.

[beansharicots]

I guess there's still one thing that I don't quite understand. Nome 2 has a much more solid clock than Live. But, if I use Nome as the master then Live might behave a little squirrely following Nome. But if I use Live as master, then I'm not quite getting the full benefit of Nome. Is this correct? Or am I misunderstanding something. Initially I envisioned Nome being the master clock for everything, but once you mentioned Live's timing might be a bit off following, I shied away from this idea.

[simntonic]

Hey beansharicots,

Yeah, I see where the confusion is, totally fair question.

The key thing is: with U-SYNC, you’re not really using Live’s MIDI clock in the usual way.

Normally, Live’s MIDI clock is a bit all over the place, both when sending and receiving. That’s why using Nome as master and having Live follow can feel a bit unstable.

With U-SYNC though, it’s a different story. It kind of “reads” the timing inside Live and turns that into a much tighter "specific" clock before sending it out. So even though Live is technically the master, you’re not dealing with its usual jittery MIDI clock.

So in practice: Nome as master has a great clock, but Live can struggle to follow. In
Live + U-SYNC you get stable timing everywhere, including your hardware

So you’re not really missing out, you’re just using the setup that plays nicest with a DAW.

Your current setup is basically the sweet spot

[beansharicots]

Ah yes, now I finally get it! Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

[walking_line]

I found this thread, and thought it might be the answer to my problem, but no dice. I've got a similar use case: trying to sync up my Eurorack with Ableton 11. I've got everything set up as per the U-SYNC QuickStart, and the bidirectional control works, but no matter what I do, the recordings never line up on the grid. The difference is between my setup and the above, is that I'm sending MIDI clock out of the Nome to the Intellijel MIDI 1U, which sends clock to Pam's which distributes to the rest of the rack. No matter what I do, the recording is always ahead of the beat by between 30 - 51 milliseconds. When I adjust the U-SYNC shift slider, I can hear the effect, but the recording is always off by the same amount. I get similar results bypassing the Nome entirely and just sending MIDI clock to the rack straight out of Ableton. I'm at a loss now. I've toggled all the settings a gazillion times, to no avail. @Simntonic, any advice here?

[simntonic]

Hey walking_line,

The key clue is this:

“I get similar results bypassing the Nome entirely…”

That means the issue isn’t the clock, but the recording latency back into Ableton.

Your clock is tight, but the audio coming back from your Eurorack has a fixed delay (interface + buffers), so it lands off the grid by the same amount every time.

A couple of things to try:
• Enable View → Track Options in Ableton
• On the recording track, disable “Keep Latency”
• Or compensate with track delay

Once that’s adjusted, it should line up properly

[walking_line]

Hey walking_line,

The key clue is this:

“I get similar results bypassing the Nome entirely…”

That means the issue isn’t the clock, but the recording latency back into Ableton.

Your clock is tight, but the audio coming back from your Eurorack has a fixed delay (interface + buffers), so it lands off the grid by the same amount every time.

A couple of things to try:
• Enable View → Track Options in Ableton
• On the recording track, disable “Keep Latency”
• Or compensate with track delay

Screenshot 2026-03-23 at 14.11.12.png

Once that’s adjusted, it should line up properly

Thanks for the reply. I don't seem to have the "Keep Latency" on my track options. I've attached a screen grab of my View menu as well as the Track Delay option at the bottom of the track. I'm on 11.2.5, maybe that's my issue (no "Keep Latency" option to disable)?

I'll try to play with the track delay and see if I can get something happening.

[beansharicots]

walking_line, I don't have it either. I think we need to upgrade Live! I've been putting this off for a while ...