I just got a digitone to pair with a rytm and I’m wondering what’s the best way to set them up with ableton in order to get the best sync stability.
2x usb for each box with specific delay times for each
1x usb for one of them + midi out chain (maybe digitone>rytm to be able to use digi’s kbd to play rytm samples)
1x usb + midi thru to get the tightest midi clock relay
Have you tested these different options to see which ones works best?
If you only have these two, I would suggest Overbridge.
Didn’t think about that. I got my system running pretty stable with 128 sample buffer at 48KHz. Won’t overbridge make the system unstable? I’d only use it for sync/transport of the rytm as I prefer to use my own converters, but the digitone makes sense to just track via overbridge.
A midi interface 
is this right? is a midi interface (say edirol) more stable than using the USB on the elektron boxes? or overbridge?
yep that’s my experiences over the past 20 years
I prefer to have a piece of hardware connected to a dedicated midi port on a midi interface when working with a daw, is so much easier and stable compared to creating a chain by using the thru port.
I have a lot of hardware, very old that only takes din sync so have to be converted, old shit from the 90’s and new like Dn & Dt
Its al connected to a 8 in 8 out midi interface.
Everything is perfectly in sync no drift of what ever.
…what audio interface u got in use…?
…ableton is hosted by mac or windows…?
…is ur rytm mk1 or 2…?..depending on ur interface, only mk2 and it’s physical single outs make sense to actually record without ob…
while ur tone will win big time once using ob in any way…
consider the overhub to make sure u use one dedicated usb port on ur computer to run many ob capabable machines at once properly…
I use OB with the No Sync option and I use MIDI cables for syncing my Machines via a MIDI Thru box (Kenton). I also use the Inputs of the AR MKII, DN, DT and A4 MKII for my other Synths. Very tight setup.
Why the No Sync option? Because I want to Start the Machines from my Main device (DT in that case).
like some mio’s or some motu midi interfaces for example
you can configure them the way you want with midi filtering etc, etc, al the way…then you can save the configuration and you can use them stand alone
no fun and hassle with thru boxes and so on
the motu xt for example, you can switch with a touch of a button to DAW use or stand alone midi patchbay
I know Its not that sexy piece of a hardware like a new synth or groove box
But you soon will forget the investment when everything works fine
But when things run out of sync etc etc you will 
yes I had a UM550 some years ago. I regret selling it as they’re not very common these days. It had merge and thru routings.
My question is whether using 2 independent ports (midi or usb) and tuning the sync delay for each in ableton is better or worse than just driving one box and they using the midi clock output from that box to slave the other one. Assuming the biggest source of jitter is the Usb than this at least would ensure that both boxes would follow each other even if drifting a bit in relation to ableton.
Am I over thinking this?
just un-sync everything play everything at different tempos and call it a new genre!
done that already