MIDI woes

I have a midi sequencer and synth i want to hook up via midi 

now i really want to sync it with ableton. i have run the sequencer as a slave and as master

with slave every time i want to listen to the daw i hit play and it triggers the sequencer.. so i have to hit play and then stop on sequencer every goddamn time. and then master i can record and sync everything but i can`t move the cursor around the timeline, every time i hit play the playback of the daw starts at the beginning.

 

so i`m thinking, it`s important for my hardware to be synced up but does it really have to sync to the daw?

 

i mean in theory i could use a program like acid and when i`m finished recording a take zoom in and line up each sound manually

that could solve me a headache but it would also means the beats  won't be perfect 

 

should i keep researching?

 

hell, is anyone doing something similar in ableton?

So this is not going to be super helpful to you,  but I have had similar problems in the past, with various hardware units and DAW's.

 

The most recent thing was with Reaper and some Volcas, they seemed to be especially bad at responding to midi transport control iirc correctly.

 

I think my approach was, for playback, to disable the midi port from the DAW each time i did playback. It was annoying.

 

Lately, I've been doing a number of things that basically amount to the unsynced record and line up you described. I feel like Reaper lets me get a high level of precision doing that.

Unplug the midi cable when you don't want the sequencer to start? Or disable the midi/audio track you don't want to hear? I fail to see the problem... See if your sequencer can disable play on sync, so you'll have to start it manually.

 

Oh wait, are you not routing the synth audio through Ableton?

Edited October 2, 2018 by Gocab

Are you using Windows?

 

If so, this might help: https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/5yi8vg/stop_ableton_sending_startstop_messages_to/

 

It's just trading one hassle for another but it might be more palatable to you.

^ That reddit thread may be the same issue?

 

  On 10/2/2018 at 7:26 AM, yek said:

I have a midi sequencer and synth i want to hook up via midi 

now i really want to sync it with ableton. i have run the sequencer as a slave and as master

with slave every time i want to listen to the daw i hit play and it triggers the sequencer.. so i have to hit play and then stop on sequencer every goddamn time. and then master i can record and sync everything but i can`t move the cursor around the timeline, every time i hit play the playback of the daw starts at the beginning.

You might be able to tell the synth/sequencer to not respond to start/stop messages but stay still be synced to time when you manually play it. Go to the MIDI settings in Ableton and play with the Track/Sync/Remote settings for your hardware. Also the Record/Warp/Launch section of settings may also help you here, maybe more likely the issue?  (reading the manual for this section might help narrow it down...you may have already done all of this of course!)

 

Also, the hardware may of course have similar settings.

  On 10/2/2018 at 2:28 PM, auxien said:

Go to the MIDI settings in Ableton and play with the Track/Sync/Remote settings for your hardware.

That was gonna be my suggestion too (trying combinations of both the midi in and out with sync and track - think remote is only for things with motorized faders)

When the sequencer is master i plug midi cable in its out and the other end into my audio interface and then slave, midi out of interface and midi in to sequencer

Or, should i be using two cables and hook them up like a loop..

It depends on which way the MIDI is going. If you're wanting hardware controlled by Ableton only, then MIDI Out from computer to hardware. If you want hardware to control Ableton, then MIDI Out from hardware to computer. If you want both, then two MIDI cables In and Out. 

 

I've read your original post like 6 times and I'm still not sure what you're really trying to do tho tbh so I dunno really? 

  On 10/2/2018 at 8:01 PM, auxien said:

It depends on which way the MIDI is going. If you're wanting hardware controlled by Ableton only, then MIDI Out from computer to hardware. If you want hardware to control Ableton, then MIDI Out from hardware to computer. If you want both, then two MIDI cables In and Out.

 

I've read your original post like 6 times and I'm still not sure what you're really trying to do tho tbh so I dunno really?

I want to record my external sequencer,rs7000, into ableton

I want it synced, master or slave

Doesnt matter

I would think the easiest way is to make the RS master, MIDI out to Ableton, tell Ableton it's slave. But you may have to futz with Ableton settings so Ableton doesn't reset to 1:1:1 each time you hit play, I think that was part of the issue, right? I think (could be wrong) you can get Ableton to just follow tempo but not reset to the beginning each time... Would suggest checking the Ableton manual for relevant settings.

K, thanks aux