Logic Pro and external sync limitations, no beat clock input / slave

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Logic Pro and external sync limitations, no beat clock input / slave

WHY? Why push me back to Digital Performer for real MIDI implementation? Logic's audio system sounds so much better and is so much more efficient. Serisously, do all you kids honstly think us old farts stopped using MIDI and the choice gear throught time?

Apple listen. I have one of the greatest American produced keyboards of all time. And like Apple developers, they belieived that everything would yeild to them. This means that the onboard MIDI sequencer (better than computers of the time) and buffers overflow, locking the keyboard requiring reboot from a SCSI boot drive. Yes, this is a serious musical instrument and sounded better than computers of the time. When keyboard acts as a sync source everything works great. My ASR-10 wants to send beat clock, all I need to do is sync 8 different stereo tracks, one at a time, as I dump them into logic. Sure I can go back and nudge back and fourth until it's close enough. But why remove such a basic feature and cause so much stress?

Timing doesn't have to be sample accureate, just the euivilent of a clap board at the start. "Pretty standard really".

There's a lot of older gear that computer techs just can't appreciate because artists utilize something that an "in the moment" mindset just can't digest.

If you want artists to utilize your gear, step up and learn your market. Or we'll go somewhere else and you'll be out of a job like everyone else that didn't listen to a statement like this. Seems to me that every new generation has less money to play with than the last. Rather than make you stuff crappier every year, how about reaching back. Work a little, do a good job and maybe the guys that are subsidising your current patrons will supprot you.

Posted on Feb 24, 2012 12:07 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Ryan Burkholder Author

Level 1

143 points

Apr 30, 2017 2:06 PM in response to Ryan Burkholder

Figured a round about way to get Logic to slave to beat clock.

1. Find an old copy of MOTU Digital Performer, I used v7.

2. Install on an old Mac, doesn't need to be much. I used OS 10.7 on an early 2011 salvage MBP. OS 9 works as well, but MIDI is slower.

3. Connect MIDI interface.

4. Connect the first interface to the MIDI interface of the computer running Logic. Configure ports appropriately.

5. Set DP to sync to beat clock and transmit MTC.

6. Set Logic to sync to MTC input.

7. Set Logic to begin at the SMPTE hour 0:00:00.00 to match DP.

8. Hit play on the old MIDI sequencer and watch it trigger Logic, recording in your sequencer's MIDI data directly into Logic!

9. Clean up old 24 clocks per quarter note MIDI data.

10. Party on dudes!

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Answer 2

Jan 18, 2017 5:08 PM in response to Pancenter

The ability is still missing in the current release of LPX

The MIDI buffer overflow is a known problem with the Ensoniq ASR-10 workstation. It's buffers weren't deep enough to handle incoming sync data. Sometimes an event heavy MIDI sequence played off the internal sequencer will cause the overflow. The workstation is basically built around a PowerBook 100.

I'm still using MOTU's Digital Performer v5 for MIDI input from vintage sequencers. The current version of Digital Performer still supports syncing from incoming MIDI beat clock as well.

I'm not sure it's a wise move by Apple to discriminate against a large culture of musicians using vintage gear by not including MIDI beat clock. How hard would it be?.

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Answer 3

Feb 24, 2012 12:08 PM in response to Ryan Burkholder

Wow, my censored comment has to do with a gasious expelling of the natural breakdown of organic material. Sorry I wasn't processed enough.

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Answer 4

Brazeca

Level 3

715 points

Feb 24, 2012 2:27 PM in response to Ryan Burkholder

Ryan, the answer to your "WHY?" is planned obsolescence. When you work inside the box, everything is easier and there's no MIDI sync nonsense, so they are "gently" pushing people to software synths.

However, there's a workaround that Akai MPC producers use to sync audio when tracking to DAWs:

Program a short percussive sound at the very beginning of each track where the sound doesn't start in the beginning of the first bar. Obviously it's not necessary for drums or other parts that start right away. If you want it to be absolutely perfect, move all your sequences a bit forward so that there's silence in the beginning, and put that percussive sound on every single track. When you track into Logic, you will see where exactly to align the multitrack.

If you are into MIDI, that is really easy and doesn't require figuring out how to sync through MIDI 🙂

PS: I am not sure if I understood correctly that you wanted to track in audio, but this would also work with MIDI tracks I suppose.

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Answer 5

Pancenter

Level 6

14,644 points

Feb 24, 2012 10:42 PM in response to Ryan Burkholder

Ryan...

You should first look to correct the MIDI Buffer overflow problem, it sounds like a MIDI loop, this can be corrected in Logic.

The MIDI in clock sync has been removed on most Audio/MIDI sequencers mainly because of sync problems. Logic (and others) use the digital clock of the audio system to correctly sync MIDI and audio. MIDI (clock sync) resolution is 24 beats per quarter notes, audio resolution is whatever the sample rate selected, (say 44,100 samples per second). All modern DAW systems, at least the few I'm familiar with use audio clock, MIDI is synced to audio. The reason I mention all this is that MIDI clock is not professional quality sync, not only that... even with all of it's efficiency, Logic was never that great at stable MIDI clock lock, Logic 7 was the last version that could sync to MIDI clock and timing was starting to get iffy by then. Another reason is it allowed improvements to the audio engine that otherwise couldn't have been made. When Cubase adopted the Nuendo audio engine is when clock sync was removed, and that was before Logic had dropped MIDI clock sync.

Have you had a look at Reaper, I belive it locks to incoming MIDI clock.

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