Hi, I do some lo-fi recording and I'm new to midi, so this is probably an extremely basic question. I have an Alesis SR-16 drum machine and an Alesis Micron keyboard. I want to sync the arpeggiator on the keyboard to the drum muchine, so I have the midi out from the drum machine connected to the midi in on the keyboard. The arpeggiator is synced to the drum machine, but there is a definite and noticeable latency. Is there a way to get rid of this latency? Do I need to also have the midi out from the keyboard going back into the drum machine?

Some MIDI clocks are better than others I'm afraid. I presume that if the arpeggiator is working in sync with the drum machine, you have adjusted any settings on the Micron that allow for external syncronisation. Other than that, I don't think you will be able to improve the synchronisation other than looking at something with a better MIDI clock, such as an MPC.

This thread from the other place indicates that the SR16 isn't very good at keeping time.

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Hmm...so you have the Micron configured to take its MIDI clock from the SR16...? You might consider these...

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Once I have my tempo set, I like to record the drum machine's audio output into my audio software. There are a couple of reasons for this: First, I don't have to worry about sync problems happening down the road, second, sometimes slaving a drum machine to a sequence causes a very slight delay of a few milliseconds. This is especially true of older machines, and uncompensated MIDI interfaces.

If you record the machine, you can slide the drum tracks forward to eliminate this delay, and have the timing match your other tracks perfectly.

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http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=184551

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Have you checked over at the Yahoo Ion/Micron group. I think I've seen threads about sync issues over there

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Yahoo group

Thanks for the help, guys. Bummer that I can't get them to sync up in real time. Looks like I'll have to "slide" the drum track over, which'll take some trial & error with my archaic setup, but it's do-able. I also joined that Yahoo Micron group, so I'll see if they have any recommendations. Thanks again for the responses, I really appreciate it.

I expect Richie's right in that you won't be able to get these two behaving better on their own, though you might as well make sure you've updated to the latest Micron OS in case that does any good.

http://www.alesis.com/micron

If it's for recording purposes though, it should be possible to come up with some workaround. There's no excuses for an 'archaic setup' in the age of Reaper and cheap secondhand PCs.

(Maybe you could try slaving them both to the DAW's MIDI clock or something...)

Is there a way you could determine whether the latency is caused by the SR-16 sending a 'late' clock, or by the Micron responding slowly? Those are different issues. Have you tried syncing the arpeggiator from a different MIDI clock, such as your PC?

Is Reaper really as good as they say? What are the downsides of it?

Quote Kevbo:

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Is Reaper really as good as they say? What are the downsides of it?

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None really. Missing a couple of things - but all DAWs miss some feature of another one. A very very good piece of software and absolutely worth looking at. The only thing I don't like about it is its "customability" and rather messy look. Minor quibble though...

I'm using Reaper full time as well now, largely because there seems to be very little it can't be persuaded to do, and for its efficiency compared to some other sequencers.

I do agree that the "customability" can be a double-edged sword though. Time after time I've Googled Reaper functions that don't do what I expect, only to find there's a simply tick box that needs changing to do this.

The problem is that although you invariably end up getting it to work perfectly the way you want it, other Reaper users get confused because yours operates 'differently' from theirs, and you can get confused when trying to work on Reaper in someone else's studio for the same reason


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote Martin Walker:

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I'm using Reaper full time as well now, largely because there seems to be very little it can't be persuaded to do, and for its efficiency compared to some other sequencers.

I do agree that the "customability" can be a double-edged sword though. Time after time I've Googled Reaper functions that don't do what I expect, only to find there's a simply tick box that needs changing to do this.

The problem is that although you invariably end up getting it to work perfectly the way you want it, other Reaper users get confused because yours operates 'differently' from theirs, and you can get confused when trying to work on Reaper in someone else's studio for the same reason


Martin

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But Reaper, being Reaper, has a solution for that too. Once you have it configured and running the way you like, you can put it on a USB stick and take your set-up with you.

Andy

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