Hi all !
I haven’t posted here for a while, but I thought I’d share my recent experience with Overbridge 2.0, coupled with the Digitone.
First, a little bit of context
I have been a Mac user for the past 15 years or so. As such, I have been lucky enough to never run into MIDI sync issues. I enjoyed solid timing, near zero jitter, and manageable latencies, with multiple, very different setups, soundcards, MIDI interfaces and DAW’s.
Then, my Mac died, and I decided to move to a Lenovo PC with Windows 10. The choice was mostly motivated by cost, and a general tiredness with Apple’s recent design decisions. I figured that my choice of an extremely powerful PC would provide the same experience with MIDI timing. Well, I was wrong, and after countless nights trying (unsuccesfully) to sync my gear to MIDI clock through USB, I was ready to return my new laptop, bite the bullet, and get my Mac repaired. No matter what I tried, the MIDI sync was just too jittery to be useable.
I got really depressed by the whole affair, and was very much regretting my purchase. None of the manufacturers I contacted were able to provide any kind of significant help or insight.
Now, the Overbridge 2.0 finally got unlocked for the Digitone. So I decided to try it, with very little hope, since the sync in the previous OB versions was dead awful. It was only out of curiosity, and because I really had ran out of options.
After installing OB, I connected to my brand new windows laptop, running Ableton 10. I started Ableton, and was absolutely delighted to hear, and visually confirm, that the sync provided in OB through the Digitone is virtually jitter free. It’s actually very impressive. There was a bit of latency, but not much. After tweaking the settings for buffer sizes, I am now happy to report that I’m enjoying completely jitter free, latency free connection between my laptop and the Digitone. I now have to test out the rest of the studio, but for the moment, I have to say this is the most stable I have seen any system run, Mac or PC.
I was, in the beginning, quite opposed to the idea of OB, as I always thought that Elektron should focus on hardware, not software. Well, I must now retract my position, and thank Elektron for creating this tool, which has solved all my issues at once ! To create something that allows perfect sync, no latency, and multiple 24 bit audio into a computer is nothing short of revolutionary. Lots of people, including myself, have expressed the need for a new standard to replace MIDI, and, dare i say, I think this new standard has arrived.
From this day forward, I will never again USB MIDI for sync, or feel the need to buy a soundcard. The Digitone fulfills both roles with excellence, and I’m left here, really happy, and ready to make music again !
So, one more time : Thank you, Elektron ! Congratulations on persevering, and creating a tool that will undoubtedly change the way we interface our hardware with our computers !