Sim'n Tonic Forums

So I recently purchased an Expert Sleepers USAMO. I’m using it in Cubase to send midi clock externally to a couple of synths and Ableton (in ext. sync mode).

In a nutshell, unfortunately, USAMO has a severe limitation I’ve only just discovered in that it won’t send Song Position Pointer data (SPP) when I have a 2 bar loop repeating in Cubase (or any length of loop for that matter). The only way to get this to work is to restart the song at the beginning and listen through. You can’t move the song locater around. This of course isn’t workable!

Would the Nome II be capable of fixing this and sending detailed SPP info alongside its rock solid clock so I can jump around the song in Cubase and everything follows in sync?

More detail: When I have the two bar loop playing in Cubase, the other synths and ableton just play on bar after bar into the distance, not following the play head looping in Cubase. It’s frustrating because I assumed USAMO would handle this as it purports to have SPP built in. When I use Cubase’s own midi clock output sent to ableton and the synths, the looping works, but of course the Cubase propriatory midi time code isn’t as reliable as USAMO’s.

I’ve done a fair amount of googling and searching on here and there is little to no discussion of using these devices in a real work music making situation where you need to jump around to different sections of a song, loop parts for a few minutes whilst editing. Can I do this with the Nome?

Really hope you guys can help with this!

Hi John, welcome to the community!

Thanks for the interest and for asking here!

Short answer: no, you will get very similar results with the Nome.

The resync will be much better when you move the playhead around in Cubase (especially with U-SYNC if you're on Mac), but it will only make sure things are playing in time (i.e. both at the same position within the bar), but not that the bar played in your sequencer is the same as the bar played in Cubase.

But It's an interesting idea you have! If I understand well you would want the Nome to sends an SPP message matching the bar number in the DAW, with U-SYNC it should be pretty easy since the Nome has that info already

The problem would be it may fit your use-case, but could be very annoying to other users: for example if someone wants to start their sequencer from bar 24 on their DAW, with this implementation the Nome will send an SPP "bar 24" (instead of the current SPP 0), then their sequencer might play from bar 24 which could be al sorts of behavior.

And to be honest MIDI SPP is one of the mysteries of the MIDI spec - I have a feeling that most devices ignore it unless it is SPP 0 (it would require testing on many machines to be sure).

Another possibility could be to send MIDI Time Code, which is designed for those kind of application (following a timeline) unlike MIDI Clock which was clearly designed for precise tempo sync but not timeline sync.
In any case - I'll keep munching on that

Feel free to create an official feature request if you want but be aware that only features that the community really shows an interest for get implemented.

Simon

I’m still trying to get my head around how the Nome would be beneficial to me. My current perception is that the Nome is really for people who want their groove boxes to be in sync with their DAW, and for someone that has synths but not groove boxes it's not needed. Can you please help straighten out any misperceptions?

I use Ableton 12, Apollo 8, Push 3 (occasionally in standalone), Oxi One, Moog Minitaur, Sequencial Prophet 6, Zen Delay, Strymon Big Sky, Boss GP-10, and a TR-8S.

I don't use the TR-8S much unless I'm in a live context running everything off of the Push 3 in standalone mode.

Generally speaking, it make sense to me how the Nome syncs with Ableton and how you get external clocks in sync via MIDI cables coming out of the Nome… but with Minitaur and Prophet being my primary external gear, the clock sync is less important and consistent timing of the midi and having 0.0.0 on the midi aligned with 0.0.0 on the recorded audio is more important.

For the Oxi, do you have to run a midi cable to the Oxi from the Nome, or are you able to send Nome clock through USB to the Oxi?

Other than clock sync, what other problems would the Nome solve for me?

Thanks for any insights!

There are countless different setups and almost every person uses the Nome in a different way.
In your case, yes it would sync all your gear to Ableton very precisely. And no it's not only about groove boxes but any sequencer or any synths that has timed-features and could sync to an external clock (MIDI or analog).

Live it can also be very useful just by the fact you have one tempo control for all your gear, the metronome, the pedal controls and other similar features.

But generally speaking the Nome solves problems - if you don't have any, you probably don't need it

Simon