How bad is the actual drift you are
>;hearing
Midi clock sends a pulse, not a specific BPM
number, and jitter is normal (though not desirable, of
course). If a slaved midi unit thinks that
the clock has changed from 140.50 to 140.51 it will change the number displayed
to 141. I've seen softsynths do this too.
Jonathan
Wooohoo I have watched weird clock drifting from the midi clock readouts: With
clock set to external, from my MC505 the tempo is 142. I only have the 505
sending clock, no other midi transmitted. When I stop the 505 the readout on
the XL-7 is 142 on the Base tempo screen, 141 on the LED display!!!! When I hit
start, the ext. tempo reads 143, led reads 142!! Then if I hit stop and then
start the led reads 139, EXT reads 140, then slowly comes back to 141 sometimes
142... ???? This is all very exciting!
Oddly the 505 is one of the few pieces of gear I have that actually plays back
at the same exact tempo as my computer unsync'd (No midi cable) with no drift.
Actually all my roland gear plays back at the same tempo unsynced, even the
sampler if I make sure it says it's tempo in samples is exactly right. I don't
think it specifically matches my soundcards clocks, since I use multiple sound
cards, and have switched like five times. I've also never had problems with my
other gear locking to it either even notoriously badly clocked gear.