Analogue-sequencer

Nick,

I am not disputing that you and others have had success using MTC - I
use it all the time.  But I am just pointing out the difference
between the two.  

MTC offers nothing but a precision starter, at a certain address,
starting the machines all at once, hoping that the internal clocks
will run together long enough not to cause a problem.

Some applications, for example ACID, cannot sync to midi clock - only
be triggered by MTC.  Unfortunately, it also cannot output the exact
same tempo that my some of my other sequencer do.  For that matter, I
have the same issue with the P3 (not being able to get EXACTLY the
same tempo as the master sequencer).  

But I can send midi clock to the P3 and it will play in sync, because
midi clock is a tempo reference.  The matter with ACID remains
unsolved, because MTC is not a timing reference - it is a list of
addresses from which to start or locate.... 8*)

gc



Nick Rothwell <nick@...> wrote:
>
> > That's interesting to hear that midi time code is "inferior" to MTC -
> > they are two completely different things - midi clock is a time
> > reference, while MTC are simply addresses.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by "simply addresses". MIDI Time Code  
> (MTC) is a MIDI encoding of timecode (hours/minutes/secs/frames),  
> whereas MIDI Beat Clock is an encoding of bar, beat and beat  
> division. (MIDI beat clocks run at 24 per quarter-note; the SPP  
> locator messages are more coarse, to the nearest four or six clocks  
> (I don't remember which).)
> 
> If you want to lock rhythmic instruments using MTC, then they'll have  
> to have the same tempo map, and be reasonably accurate following it.
> 
> > Try locking up two digital devices with "timecode only" sync, and they
> > will drift after a minute - and will be really far gone in five
> > minutes.
> 
> When I was gigging for mindSpiral, we had several devices running at  
> the same tempo (including my trusty P3), but had problems getting  
> some of the plug-in systems to lock to beat clock, so for the most  
> part we let them free-run, with no discernable drift. I would expect  
> devices doing MTC-to-beat conversion themselves to be no worse than  
> this.
> 
> 	-- N.
> 
> 
>    nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http:// 
> www.cassiel.com
>