Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › NEED HELP with 45000 looper MIDI sync!
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February 7, 2014 at 11:00 pm #83343greenmachineMember
i guess this goes for anyone with 2800s as well. i just got my 45000 and i love it so far, however the main reason i picked it up is for looping capability with a live electronic group where i will sync the looper to our another musicians computer through a MIDI interface, into ableton live.
right now i am just trying to figure out how to do it myself. i have a fastlane USB MIDI interface which works fine, running into ableton live. i dont have any experience with MIDI sync, only with controllers.
i read what little there is in the reference manual and there wasnt quite enough for me to go on.
i am ONLY trying to sync the looper to abletons MIDI clock, so i can loop and such normally, but with the quantization locked in to abletons clock. i am not trying to control the transport commands with ableton as a master, only sync the two devices together. i read the bit about beat sync mode, but there were no directions on how to go about making this work. i am usually pretty good with music tech, but MIDI sync SERIOUSLY has me stumped. i know ive read on these forums from plenty of people who have done this succesfully.
please respond if you can help me in the slightest! thank you for reading and definitely break it down in the simplest way if anyone here can. thanks!
February 9, 2014 at 3:12 am #119670greenmachineMemberi was able to figure out how to sync in “beat-sync” mode after a while. however, sometimes when i record a loop and it is set, when it plays back a section will be cut out from the original audio. this is typically accompanied or followed by by drastic pitch/time instability. if i unplug the looper and plug it back in, reset the MIDI master clock, it will start looping normally again.
after reading up online i noticed that many people have had similar issues with the 2800…i read that there was a software patch fixing the bug that EHX released before the 4500, would this patch take care of the problem in the 4500?
just in case anyone has problems with the syncing, this is what i did:
-open new file in ableton, in preferences, under MIDI/SYNC, set the track, sync, and remote buttons to “ON” for the MIDI interface in the OUTPUT section.
-make sure the quantize/external sync buttons are off and unlit on the looper. then turn the external clock button on so it is lit. press it again for “beat-sync”—it should be flashing rapidly.
-press the quantize button next to the external button, it will be a solid light.
-play and record the loop, if everything is set up correctly it should operate just the same, but the looper starts and ends the loop on time with the downbeat of the nearest bar that you end the loop on. from what i understand this can be up to two beats max after downbeat of the last bar of the loop.
*it took me a while to hit on the right formula for the looper to sync to the external MIDI clock. i had to download and reinstall the driver for my MOTU fastlane MIDI interface. looping works fluidly about 80% of the time, with the pitch instability and cutting out occuring only some of the time but enough to be obnoxious. however when i use this live, i will be slaving the clock (only in beat-sync mode) to another members macbook in ableton. the clock will be running for the extent of the set, so if there is a way to treat the sync instability WITHOUT resetting the master MIDI clock, PLEASE let me know!
July 15, 2014 at 2:00 pm #120109BratscheParticipantGood luck, midi sync seems to crash my 45000.
July 29, 2014 at 2:46 am #120134dentyoneMemberI’ve only had luck with using the 45000 as the MIDI clock master. Never had it work as a slave even once. Fortunately for me, that will work for my current set up, but I still feel like a very important promise outlined in the features list has been broken.
November 13, 2014 at 8:49 pm #120395JetJaguarMemberGreenmachine. Can you send a screenshot of you configuration in Ableton?
March 12, 2016 at 5:31 am #121334RocksteadyBerlettiMemberHas anyone been able to connect their 4500 to a drum machine with midi?
It would be nice to do loops longer than 4,8 bars and also have them quantized.
Thank you
March 15, 2016 at 2:10 pm #121344Flick (EHX Staff)ModeratorQuote:Has anyone been able to connect their 4500 to a drum machine with midi?It would be nice to do loops longer than 4,8 bars and also have them quantized.
Thank you
I think the best thing to do is first check the MIDI Notes & Tips section of the 45000 manual, it’s on page 18. Here are some important points from those notes:
1. Quantize needs to be enabled on the 45000 prior to recording a loop that is synced to MIDI clock otherwise the loop length will not be a perfect number of bars (it could be any number of bars, each bar is 4 beats). If your loop is not a perfect number of bars than even if the tempos between the devices are synced, the loop will sound off as compared to your MIDI Clock master after the loop cycles once or twice.
2. Whether the 45000’s Ext. Sync is set to Full or Beat Sync modes, the 45000 still needs to receive a MIDI Start signal from the MIDI Clock master to know where the master is located within the context of a bar. For Beat Sync mode (also called Clock-Only mode in the manual), you can start the MIDI Clock master before you press NEW LOOP on the 45000.
3. The 45000 takes time to catch up to a drastically new tempo from the MIDI clock master. By drastically new tempo we mean a sudden tempo change greater than 5% of the previous tempo. Some MIDI clock masters output MIDI clock all the time, this is the best case for the 45000 as it will always follow the MIDI clock tempo changes even if the 45000 is not playing back at the moment. Other MIDI masters only output MIDI clock when they are playing, if you have this type of MIDI master and change the tempo on the 45000 while the units were stopped then the 45000 will need at least 1 bar to catch up to the new tempo. When this occurs you hear wild pitch changes in your 45000 loop. The best thing to do in a case with a large tempo change is to allow the 45000 to play along with the MIDI master for a few bars, possibly muting the 45000’s outputs if necessary, after a few bars stop the 45000 and then proceed with recording a new loop and or playing back an established loop synced to the new tempo.
October 17, 2016 at 10:16 am #122140BassmanParticipantQuote:Has anyone been able to connect their 4500 to a drum machine with midi?It would be nice to do loops longer than 4,8 bars and also have them quantized.
Thank you
I realize this has been a while, but just in case you still need to MIDI this to a Drum Machine I will do my best to explain how to do it.
The 45000 has two ways that it MIDI Connects to a Drum Box. The first way is total sync, where the light is solid on the 45000, it then will obey Start/Stop Commands, when the drum machine is started and stopped. The second one is when it is blinking, the 45000 will only start when the user presses the unit to play, or stop. However the MIDI Clock for both will still stay on with both settings to set beat tempo.For connections, you take the MIDI OUT of the drum Machine into the MIDI IN of the 45000.
When the Quantize is ON, here is something you really need to know, the 45000 has a 4 beat count delay before you record, so in other words, when you lay down your first loop, this only applies to the first loop you record, does not matter what track you use, you must allow a 4 count beat before you start playing to record AFTER you PRESS the record button. So your recording will start on BEAT 5. This applies to every NEW loop you make. The next track you record on that loop, does NOT need to do this.
You need to turn the Quantize button ON when recording loops.
Also you need to have the Program Changes settings on the Drum Machine turned off. A least mine had to. Roland DR-770.
Just a side note, a whatever speed you record at you must play it back at that exact tempo, or it will start to change the pitch of the recording. -
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