Analogue-sequencer

Hi robin,

internal of a software host with instruments or standalone of a  
software you won't have such timing problems if
the developers make sure plugins follow the internal tempo exactly  
(its a C function allowing things like sample accurate triggering) so  
that is no point of discussion.
tempo is calculated by the CPU (intel, AMD, PPC) in PPQ and often runs  
interpolated so you have higher increments, good hosts get locked with  
the audio card driver so the clock can
be stable internally up to a certain degree (ASIO, Cora Audio) so no  
timing problems need to happen for this DAW integrated system of host  
+ plugin-instruments,
I didn't made a statement against this.

BUT as soon as you start to use the midi engine and try going outside  
of the CPU (classic midi, USB, ethernet) getting tight tempo is a
problem, so is the groove. you have some significant jitter to deal  
with so sooner or later the dtempo drifts and things run out of sync.

do your homework and read about timing with computer software topic  
carefully in the web.
the short summary is since AtariST all following  mac/windows CPU  
calculated tempos are not tight any more,
due to the multitasking/multithreading CPU architecture its not  
possible to achive that goal for developers and they don't adress this  
as priority issue either
as the most users don't notice anyway as they do everything in the  
box, also the possibilities of modern DAW will give you many other  
advantages in music production
but they are definitely not the holy grail of groove and thight tempo.

people like Colin and other hardware developers building  
stepsequencers / grooveboxes etc. craete dedicated hardware for the  
purpose
of better timing and quality groove combined with a tactical hardware  
interface.
as soon as you try using the common available protocols (midiclock,  
MTC) your sync sucks - somtimes you can ignore this often you can't
if you have TR909, TR808, MPCs and want them synced well to a current  
DAW.

seems you haven't tried the above for yourself and thats OK but don't  
expect a Software emulating the P3 or similar will perform equal to  
the real device,
as soon as its triggering midi hardware it will show its weakness- a  
dedicated hardware device will perform better period.

the most accurate way of syncing a DAW with midi hardware a wordclock  
and SMPTE is required , only some MPCs have this feature, or you need  
a special device inserted
(Atari ST with Notator, innerclock sync-shift etc.) to manually  
compensate offset and have a low jitter constant clock.

cheers,
henry



but if you want to replace a dedicated hardware sequencer



Am 20.11.2008 um 14:42 schrieb Robin:

> If what you are saying about software vs hardware were true - how do  
> you
> explain Ableton Live?
>
> Seems to keep excellent tempo while in control of a multitude of VST
> instruments - in and out midi streams and many tracks of audio...
>
> Todays computers tweaked for music performance are very good at  
> multitasking
> and can emulate hardware very well.
>
> I run three computers and three copies of Live - al tempo synced via  
> midi -
> to a nord electribe - solid as can be. My P3 is SLAVED to this  
> system...
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> 



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