Can someone provide a step-by-step sync guide for idiots (me

[shoeshineteeth]

Hey,

So, i've been a guitar player in various bands since my teenage years, but for the past number of years have gotten away from it and have slowly been getting more bored with guitar and more excited by synths. Over the past few years I've bought and sold lots of synth and studio gear and am getting proficient at the individual instruments. However, I haven't a clue on how to sync all the gear up together for more efficient recording into Logic Pro X. Here's the gear I have:

Synths:
Analog Rytm
Moog Sub 37
Arturia Minbrute SE
DSI Prophet 12

Interface:
UAD Apollo

DAW:
Logic Pro X

I tend to find myself recording synth sequencer parts first, then try to add the Rytm, etc. but my sequencer is out of sync with the DAW, which is out of sync with the Rytm and I always seem to be trying to line up the audio files instead of actually recording. Can someone help with a step--by-step for idiots? Or is there something simple I can be doing like using the Apollo as a master clock for everything or purchasing some sort of syncing device? Thanks for any help!

[Jeffery&wayne]

Do you have all the external gear plugged into the interface with midi? If so you can send them the clock from your daw. Also if you do have them hooked up there could be some latency, and you'll have to compensate for that. I have ableton so I can't speak for your daw but it should be able to


Also in your gear you may have to set them up to accept a midi clock from your DAW, I had to do that when I had a korg elektribe( or however you spell it). It was in the midi menu on the korg. So you may have to do the same with your gear.

[toddmtnbkr]

Jeffrey,
Can you elaborate further?
I'm having the same issues this guy is having.

I have:
Sub 37
Motu Mk1 Ultralite Interface
Thunderbolt to Firewire connection from AI to HP laptop
Ableton Live 9

Are there settings in Live to adjust for this potentially latency issue?

Thanks
Todd

[tagirov]

The Ableton Live has midi clock sync delay setting for each midi port.
You may read further this article https://www.ableton.com/en/help/article ... live-midi/

Basically, you just need to set timing offset properly for each device you sync to the DAW.

And you need to set audio latency options as well.

There is an explanation of Live's approach to midi timing: https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/midi- ... -solutions

I work a lot with Ableton and external midi devices and have learned one key thing.
You have to have different timing setup for live performance and for recording synths back to live as audio.

If you sync the synth or drum machine to Live and record them back to Live as audio, you have to set attitional delay compensation to some negative value to get the recorded audio exactly in time with its midi source.
In most cases I just record the audio without setting any delay compensation, with extra silent bar or two after the end of original midi part and just move start pointer of recorded audio part to get in in time with the rest arrangement and its midi sequence.
Most important that you have to do some tests with midi sync offset and audio recording latency to get exact offset values both for live use and for tracking.

That's just how things work with Live.

To get solid and stable midi clock for external devices, I would set a good multichannel midi interface, which has internal routing and midi message filtering.