I’m not sure about sending program changes via OB, haven’t tried.
I’ve tried doing a similar thing, just getting Live to simply be in sync with the Elektrons.
Seems there’s 2 basic ways, master or slave.
Slaving the Elektrons, the AR and A4 sync super tight with Live, the OT drags to catch up over a few bars after starting the playhead.
If you start and stop the playhead a lot, this is pretty annoying.
If you work on really long tracks all at once, not as big a deal.
After a few bars the sync stays pretty tight for me.
Slaving Live the AR and A4 to the OT.
Using the OT to drive pattern changes on the A4/AR, works perfectly, and using Midi to sync Live from the OT makes Live’s playhead kind of “drag” to catch up over a few bars after starting the playhead.
Again, if Live’s playhead is not running, it doesn’t respond to Midi as expected.
Personally I like slaving Live, because the boxes sync seamlessly with each other and there’s not really a situation where I wouldn’t want to do that. I can set them up to be that way once, and if I want to use one individually, it’s easy.
This method seems ideal for me wanting to use Live as a synced FX processor, as well as recording it.
If I’m not using midi that much from Ableton to A4/AR, it seems logical to set Live as the slave, and deal with the first few bars weirdness in some workaround.
For me the sequencer layout is the number one reason I got these in the first place. I also like saving my work directly to the Elektrons, midi notes, automation etc.
I can definitely see the value in using Live as a midi interface to do some crazy things the Elektrons dont do on their own. If I was doing that, and making use of Live’s automation, effects, and recording it, I would definitely figure out how to use Live as the Master, and deal with the OT acting weird over the first few bars.
The midi sync between the AR/A4 and OB is incredible.
You cant OB sync > OT.
And Live is notoriously terrible at syncing with external gear, so most people who move down that road get a dedicate box to help all things sync.