Problem: All of a sudden I am no longer able to get DN to respond to changes in clock delay from Ableton. This makes it impossible to sync the two against drift, and I have about 60ms latency. That’s about 1/32 note at 120bpm, so yeah.
Set up:
Ableton Live 10
Digitone (currently on beta firmware 1.11, but also observed under production 1.10A
The strange thing is that it worked very well until I connected my new Model D to the DN over MIDI. I went to check the drift and while I was adjusting it, I realized it was no longer responding – by that, I mean that regardless of how I set the midi clock delay in Ableton, the Digitone played back with the same latency.
I verified that Ableton is sending midi delay properly to other gear by doing the same test (which basically involves beatmatching the ableton metronome against a click track on the target.
Has anyone else struggled with any of this kind of thing? I’m going to return the DN tomorrow. I’d like to simply exchange and give another chance, but I wanted to see what far more experienced and accomplished users thought.
Thanks!
And you can exclude that the Model D is the culprit? Everything was well before the Model D was connected … 
Moog is not sacrosankt. I had some interesting/strange midi issues with a Voyager and Sub 37, which did seem not to like every gear in the midi setup.
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Hah. Yeah, def exonerated the Model D. Honestly, I am of several minds on the D, but it’s undeniable that it is well built and sounds great. The fact that it’s $300 is, to me at least, mindblowing.
Thing is, I just can’t imagine what hardware fault in the DN could cause this behavior.
Just a question … is it:
- Digitone-midi-out --> Model D, or
- Digitone-midi-through --> Model D ?
Have you made the test with a different synth and it generated the same issue?
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It was Digitone->midi out->Model D. I had trouble getting midi thru to work properly. And actually, I liked the idea of sending Model D data to the DN on the channel for midi track 1 and then out. I then ran the Model D audio back through the DN so that I could drench it in effects, etc., which by the way sound gorgeous applied to the D.
At any rate, when I hit the problem, I took all of the D out of the loop and even factory reset, and the problem still existed.
I verified Ableton by doing a test syncing Maschine. I wasn’t able to test with other outboard synths, since I only have the DN and the D right now. (My first investments in hardware synthesizers in ages.)
Cheers
I don’t exactly understand what your midi routing is, because you say that the DN gets data from the Model D, the Model D is also connected to get data from the DN. Where is Ableton?
Maybe I can help, if you explain what you would like to achieve in the first place.
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The Model D is probably confusing things.
The issue: My DN seems to have stopped responding to MIDI beats sent by Ableton. Regardless of where I set the Midi Clock Delay in Ableton for the DN, the latency is the same. It was working and then it just stopped, and changes no longer had any effect. As a result, I am left with about 1/32 note latency at 120 bpm (60ms), which is kind of a bummer.
The goal: I want Ableton to compensate for the MIDI latency so that audio from the DN is in sync’d to beat markers and will record/play back in time with the rest of the project.
Some details:
- I have latency on the DN of about 60ms – ie, when Ableton sends a midi note, the audio returns and is recorded by Ableton about 60ms later.
- I measured that by creating a simple midi file of quarter notes, playing that to the DN on a high-hat sound and recording the returned output in Ableton.
- From there I can measure how far behind the transients are from the beat markers.
- I used MIDI Clock Delay values to bring the DN back in sync.
-
However, at one point the DN just stopped responding, and changes to delay had no effect.
- When this happened, my setup was
- midi: Ableton -> DN USB Midi in -> DN Midi Out -> Model D
- audio:
- DN main out -> Duet 2 -> Mac Mini -> Ableton
- Model D out -> DN external input L
- I removed the Model D from the equation and re-tested without success.
- I also tried a factory reset, and I uninstalled the latest beta and used the latest production (1.10A?)
This is a very good and precise description. I have to go thinking and maybe to check with my own Ableton/DN setup. I have had this kind of latency with other gear too.
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Check if delay compensation is checked under options. This screws up my midi clock delay every time.
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Thanks, which ‘options’ area are you referring to? I don’t see that checkbox in Ableton.
Got this image via google. Delay compensation above the selected reduce latency option.
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Is it responding to clock at all or does it just stay at its bpm? If DN is on 120 and you send it 100 bpm does it stay on 120?
Yes, it does. It just appeared to stop responding to clock delays in Ableton. Since I have confirmed that delay compensation in Ableton was working in another use case, I assume that something is wonky with my DN. After all, this is definitely a machine with quirks.
Thanks to both you and @SonicRevolutions, I think I have a resolution. I just want to confirm it first, heh.
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