MusicDevelopments

markoit · Post by **markoit** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:43 am

Has anyone had any success in using RapidComposer to sync the playback start/stop/position of Studio One? Not S1 to RC, but actually the opposite: I'm looking for RC to “pilot” S1.

The Presonus website states:

Sync to External Devices: Click this box to make Studio One follow incoming MIDI Time Code (MTC). Note that some MIDI devices only transmit MIDI clock data, not MTC. Studio One requires a greater degree of accuracy than a simple MIDI clock can provide. For conversion from SMPTE, an outboard synchronizer is required. For additional accuracy, using an external word clock (master) is recommended.
MIDI Time Code: Select the device that will receive MIDI Time Code (MTC). The gray field to the right of the device name indicates the current status of MTC transmission.
MIDI Machine Control: Select the device that will receive MIDI Machine Control (MMC).

Does RapidComposer send the MTC and MMC information needed by Studio One to stay in sync?

In the MIDI monitor I get:

Screen Shot 2021-03-29 at 17.41.21.png

But nothing really moves in Studio One!

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 5:09 pm

RapidComposer sends MIDI Start (FA) and MIDI Stop (FC) which most DAWs can use to start/stop transport.
I did not know this does not work in Studio One. Today I added sending MMC to the external host, which seems to work, sort of. On macOS RapidComposer can start and stop playback in Studio One, but for some reason Studio One ignores the location (SMPTE timecode) that RapidComposer sends. E.g. when I play back from 6 seconds, the timecode is correct in the MMC sysex (checked in the MIDI Monitor) but playback starts from where the playhead is, not from 00:00:06:00. I am struggling with this, but will upload a beta version tomorrow so you can try this.
MTC is not sent by RC, only MIDI clock.

Thanks,
Attila

markoit · Post by **markoit** » Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:01 pm

Thanks for taking a look at this, I’m looking forward to try the beta!

Based on the snippet of Studio One docs I attached above, it looks like Studio One relies solely on MTC, am I correct?

I tried to also sync the softwares in the opposite way too (Studio One to RapidComposer) but that doesn’t seems to work either. Play/stop is fine, but the position is lost.

lovemusic15 · Post by **lovemusic15** » Wed Mar 31, 2021 3:16 am

musicdevelopments wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 5:09 pm RapidComposer sends MIDI Start (FA) and MIDI Stop (FC) which most DAWs can use to start/stop transport.
I did not know this does not work in Studio One.

I have the same problem with Ableton would be great if you could fix.

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:42 am

The beta version with MMC is uploaded now. Please PM or e-mail me if you need the download link.
You can enable this feature under the Settings / MIDI tab.

I did not have full success with Studio One (I have S1 4, not the latest version). When RC sends "MMC Locate" before starting playback, the playback position should change in Studio One, but it does not. Playback starts, and RC sends a single MTC to Studio One immediately after playback start, but again, the playback position does not change. Maybe I set up Studio One wrongly, I don't know. Please let me know what you find.

Thanks,
Attila

markoit · Post by **markoit** » Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:42 am

Hi, Attila! I tried the beta and I can confirm it's still not working well here. I have access to two DAWs and, unfortunately, none of them is fully working.

Logic as master, RC as slave
Playback position works flawlessly, and start works well. Stop is behaving a bit unusually in RC as the playback position jumps ahead a few, random beats (I have no snapping enabled in the playback option.)

Logic as slave, RC as master
Start/stop/position are not working: Logic always tries to position the playhead at a weird position.

Screen Shot 2021-04-06 at 02.40.26.png

Studio One 5 as master, RC as slave
Play/stop sometimes work, sometimes they do not. The position is never correct, or gets reset. Sometimes there are two playheads in RC's timeline.

Studio One 5 as slave, RC as master
The behavior here is exactly the same as the one above.

I could be wrong, but my understanding is Studio One 4 doesn't have external sync to work as slave. This seems to be a new feature introduced with version 5. However, version 4 can work as a master! Are you noticing the same problems in trying to sync RC's playback from within Studio One?

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:51 am

Thank you for your help in testing. I have a feeling the timecode that RC sends is wrong, but I am 100% sure that the SMPTE timecode is sent in the correct form. (I have tried to send all formats 24/25/29.97/30, but the result was the same.)
You can check the MIDI events in the MIDI Monitor in S1 but I found everything was fine. In Studio One 4 playback always started, but it seemed the timecode was ignored, so it started playback from the wrong position.
Is it possible some DAWs start from 01:00:00:00, that is why they ignore my timecode?

I'll check Logic later.

Thanks,
Attila

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Wed Apr 07, 2021 2:18 pm

Some good news, and a bad one:
In v4.2b2 MIDI machine control works very well with Logic Pro X and Reaper, but Studio One 4 ignores the 'GOTO' MMC command. I don't know why, probably I'll contact PreSonus, they were helpful in the past.

In this update you can set the 'song start time' which should be synchronized with the DAW. E.g. Logic Pro uses 01:00:00:00 by default, that is why you saw minus 8 bars on the display. Reaper uses 00:00:00:00.

This is when RapidComposer sends MMC, at the moment it won't receive these commands, that will be the next to be added.

Thanks,
Attila

markoit · Post by **markoit** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:24 am

Hi Attila, Apologies for the late reply, I've been slammed at work lately

Which settings are you using in Logic? I just tested this: the playback position is passed and updated correctly, but the playhead doesn't move.

RC sync.gif

For reference, here are the settings I've been using.

Screen Shot 2021-04-10 at 01.57.23.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-10 at 02.00.39.png

I have great news: the RC to Studio One sync now works flawlessly via the IAC Driver Bus!

Below is the only setting to activate for this to work.

Screen Shot 2021-04-10 at 02.09.28.png

And yes, I would reach out to the folks at Presonus: the Studio One to RC sync is still not working. But at least we can now work with the opposite. YAY!

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:45 am

Hi Mark,

That is great news!
I have no "Synchronization" tab under "Advanced" in Studio One 4... Anyway, I'll advise everyone to upgrade to S1 5.
For Logic please set Sync Mode to Internal rather than MTC (RC does not send continuous MTC) and it will work.

Studio One to RC is not yet implemented, that is why it does not work. I'll do my best to add it soon.

Thanks,
Attila

markoit · Post by **markoit** » Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:30 am

Oh, thanks for the note. My bad: I can confirm Logic works perfectly with that setting!

And for Studio One... Yes, if I remember well external sync has been added just recently with 5.2. My understanding is that there's no way to do this in version 4.

I am looking forward to the Studio One to RC feature but, as I mentioned in my previous message, having at least RC to Studio One sync has been amazing so far.

Thank you for your patience and be open to improve this feature so quickly!

MusicDevelopments

KVR Audio

MIDI Sync Between RapidComposer and Studio One