Tempo sync accuracy with Mainstage

[AnotherSimon]

Hi all - happy Nome user here. It now forms a central part of my live setup, which looks like (in terms of MIDI):

Controller keyboard <USB> Laptop (MBP) <USB> Nome II <MIDI> MIDI hub <MIDI> synths, effects units

The Nome acts as a MIDI master clock for the setup, overlaying the clock onto to MIDI signal going to the outboard gear and also acting as tempo source for the laptop. This also allows me to send an audio metronome to the rest of the band when we want to do that (thanks Simon for the recent updates which allow double time).

The only thing that is not quite working as expected is MainStage picking up MIDI clock from the Nome. There always seems to be a small offset, like +/- 0.1 or 0.2 bpm showing up in MainStage compared to what I have set on the Nome. I can generally fix it by pushing up the tempo to something really high and then winding it back down again, but over time as I make changes it "drifts" out again.

I've dealt with it for now by adding a couple of buttons to my MainStage setup so I can bump the tempo up or down, but it is annoying - does this sound like a problem with MainStage, or are other people seeing similar problems?

Thanks.

[simntonic]

Hi

If you focus on the timing, i.e. what you hear and feel, rather than the BPM that MainStage is showing you - is anything out of time, or drifting?

Simon

[AnotherSimon]

Yes, it is different enough to cause a perceptible drift when I’m using a loop sequence in the computer - for example I when use a string cycle from NI’s Sequis which has quite distinct bowing pattern on the beat, it will be noticeably off the beat from the hardware synced to the Nome after a few phrases.

I think it’s probably just the way MainStage reads MIDI clock, given that the software takes a few seconds to sync up with a change from the Nome.

Some people have told me to shift to Live but it just doesn’t have the flexibility and ability to map my controllers that MainStage has (aside from the 10 years or whatever it is of working with MS and my unwillingness to spend a lot of time rebuilding everything… In the band I play in we have a songlist of around 100 songs but each time we play we have no specific plan).

[simntonic]

I see. But that's not drift. Drift is if you leave the clock running for 20min and after some time you hear the two things (Nome and Main Stage) are getting more and more out of sync.

Either way I would not be looking at the BPM readout of MS, it is not representative of drift or latency - it's more there to give you an idea (and "estimation") of the actual BPM source clock - in case the Nome display was not big enough

I guess your actual issue is that there is a slight latency in MS from when it gets the clock to when it maps its internal timing to it. Is there any latency adjustement parameters you can change in the software?

Simon

PS: Ableton also has its own latency so it would not just solve your problem. But they spent a lot of time working around the computer limitations and they have tons of settings you could adjust, as well as a lot of documentation about latency

[AnotherSimon]

OK, thanks - I'll experiment some more to see if I can trace the problem more effectively. In general, MainStage is great for playback of plugins with a lot of custom control, but playback and sync feels like a bit of an afterthought, especially compared to Live. I'm pretty sure there are no ways to change offset / latency in there other than just changing the buffer size.

I do believe that there is some level of drift i.e. the tempo of the cycles I'm hearing from the computer slowly move out of sync from the hardware ... but I'll record both to different channels in Logic (using a loopback for the DAW) and see if that is real or just my (getting older) ears.

Thanks!