External MIDI Sync Problem

[abelpa]

When using a triton extreme as a master clock controller, I am seeing radom, but rapid and small fluctuations tempo within cantabile.

This causes any plugins using the host tempo to behave erratically.

So, any instrument or effect with tempo sync'd LFO's or BPM Delays are stuttering. Approx +-0.2 to +-0.4 bpm shows up in OhmBoyz Delay plugin, antares Filter's BPM delay

The same set of plugins are working perfectly using the same setup in Brainspawn Forte, but I really fancy switching over to cantabile for the flexibility it will give.

Cubase 5 is also behaving correctly with the same setup.

I prefer to use external sync from the Triton as I can, via a quick glance at the on-board 'blinking' LED in the ARP section, check that I have tapped or re-tapped to the bands tempo correctly.

Anyone had similar experiences or a solution?

Regards

Paul

[abelpa]

Topten are working on a solution.

Great!!

[Marc3]

Does anyone know if the fix has been released by now?

I am having a similar problem.... but don't know if the issue described by abelpa is supposed to be ironed out by now. I'm using the newest version... but I could not find anything about this in the changelog yet.

[TiUser]

Is this just a technical finding or does it affect your musical perception?

I am not sure about midi sync but probably it can't be more accurate.

Basic timing accuracy of midi is 1/64 note and probably the simple clock realtime event does not provide higher resolution. I guess it's also difficult to follow timing changes on the midi clock pulse... even some HW devices like the Virus are not very good in that...

But not sure - maybe it's really a bug that needs to be fixed...

[Marc3]

Is this just a technical finding or does it affect your musical perception?

in my case it's actually causing a huge problem - it's not just technical nitpicking!

I am not sure about midi sync but probably it can't be more accurate.

i heard different. from several reliable sources i was told that midi clock is very inaccurate by todays standards. almost all modern sequencers don't support Midi Clock anymore (at least in slave mode) since it's "archaic" and in most cases causes problems (these are not my words ; ) Great that Cantabile still supports it though!
it's probably a different story with MTC - which seems to be widely used, although it's also regarded a bit outdated and it's often recommended to use the newer standards if possible - in addition MTC does not provide any tempo information which makes it useless in my case.

But not sure - maybe it's really a bug that needs to be fixed...

in the meantime i contacted the developer and was told that there is a "possible" fix for this in the newest Beta Build.
I did not have a chance to try it yet though. all this is not for myself... I do this for a good friend of mine who is technically not very skilled. I will see her again in a few days and then I am going to test it on her machine.

The actual problem i was referring to is different to the one which was described in the first post but I guess it's cause is the same.

the setup is quite unusual:
- External Hardware Multitrack recorder sending Midi Clock to a PC
- PC is running Cantabile in "sync to incoming midi clock" mode.
- Cantabile hosting a sequencer which by itself is a VST Plugin.
- This sequencer (EnergyXT VST version) is set to "sync to host" so that it picks up the tempo of cantabile.

The sequencer runs fine so far as long as it has to handle only midi.
But if audio is dropped on one of the tracks, the playback is very jerky and stuttering. this is ONLY the case as long as it's synced to cantabile. once sync to host is turned off, it plays back normal.
i THINK the cause is that it constantly tries to "re-sync" to the fluctuations of the tempo coming from cantabile.

As I already said I will soon have the chance to test the new build. If you have any other suggestion what could "fix" the problem please let me know.

btw: thanks for your answer to my other question (several audio inputs) - I will check this one out too : )

[rudy.de.volder]

Hi, just to say i tried to send MTC via an external source, but it seems Cantabile isn't even responding on this clock, just MIDI-in is flickering. When sending the same MIDI-stream to Sonar it automatically picks up the signal as SMTP. It asks to switch to that clocksource and off we go.
So, i to am interested in seeing progression in this problem. Because i love Cantabile as a realtime performer.