Clock sync with DAW

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staticdeathnoise

Member
Hi forums

I am having a nightmare of a time trying to sync the Axe Fx to an external clock source. It is connectd to my computer through USB as well as a MIDI interface, it is not being used as a soundcard in my DAW instead I am sending clock information from my DAW to the Axe Fx through a MOTU MIDI express XT and the Axe FX either does nothing to change tempo or it defaults to 250BPM regardless of the project's tempo that I am trying to sync to or it just syncs to random tempos (60, 42, 140 etc etc) its totally baffling. I have tried all sorts of setting on my interface and apart from sometimes setting the tempo to random values I can't seem to achieve anything.

Failing this I would like to completely stop the Axe Fx from responding to external clock sources and then that way I can just tap-tempo or pre program the tempo into the presets but as it is the Axe FX always defaults to 250 when my DAW starts playback. Disconnecting MIDI is not an option as I am transmitting other data to Axe Fx on MIDI.

The DAW in question is Reaper btw.
 
Never messed with the MIDI stuff from the DAW to the AxeFXII, but you should be able to filter out the TEMPO information from being sent from within the DAW. Do not ask me how to do it because I have never done it in real life.
 
Someone else might be able to chime in but my first thought is that it might be getting 2 clock sources, from USB as well as midi. Try unplugging one or the other temporarily to see if it's possible with one or the other. Maybe the midi channel is different on the Axe from what is being sent from Reaper. I just scanned through the Axe menus and as far as I know if it's receiving midi clock it will sync the tempo. I'm sure you're aware but midi clock won't be sent unless your DAW is playing.

I'm not a Reaper user but I use Ableton and I just use USB for midi and Axe Edit. In Ableton there is a setting to tell which midi devices will receive sync information.
 
Firstly I am not sending anything through USB as I am not using the Axe as an audio interface in the DAW. Also have disabled that particular output in the list of devices in the DAW. Now some progress:

I made sure to only send MIDI data to the one output on the MIDI interface rather than all of them, and now it works. Except that it doesn't always work first time. I can still get a tempo readin of anything up 20 BPMs faster or slower. but this will always correct itself if I stop and start the project again. This is very inconvinient though. Why would this happen?

Also I separated the signals so I am sending the CC messages via one MIDI port and cable to the Axe FX and then sending the clock data via another output and cable to the MFC 101. Could it be that transmitting it from the MFC to the axe via the ethernet cable is making it less accurate?
 
Further to the above, after tweaking some MIDI hardware options in my DAW (allow multi threading for MIDI hardware messages, and disabling low latency on the output with the clock data) I have managed to get it to the point where it is accurate first time, every time.

Only minor issue now that in those projects where I send other CC messages as well as clock info throughout the project I get a drift of 1 BPM at random spots. This is weird because it doesn't necessarily happen when the other CC messages are being sent and sometimes it happens even before any CC messages have been sent at all. Not sure if this is totally random or whether or not this will happen to all projects that will have CC messages being sent to the Axe Fx.

Another weird thing is that I unplugged the second MIDI cable from port 2 on my MIDI interface which (I thought) was carrying the MIDI data based on how I had it setup in my DAW but the Axe is still getting the MIDI data even though it is not connected to the port I am supposed to be sending the clock data too. This is I suppose convenient more than anything but a bit weird. I also suspect this has nothing to do with the axe and maybe some sort of weird thing going on with my Midi interface...
 
Ok I seem to have it all worked out now, decreasing my soundcard's buffer size a bit helped and gave me consistency of tempo throughout a whole song that I was previously getting fluctuations of 1BPM in random places. So its basically a buffer issue it seems.
 
Another issue that I just became aware of after sorting out the above issue is that now everytime I start or resume playback in a project where I am sending MIDI clock data to the Axe FX for the first two bars (presumably when the Axe FX is syncing to the tempo) the audio of the guitar drops out a couple of time. Anyone else come across this?
 
I also want to know how I can sync the Axe fx tempo to the tempo of my DAW (Ableton). Never tried it but reading all this doesn't give me much confidence in it. Why is it so hard to sync your Axe fx? Shouldn't be so hard. Can someone walk me through it?
 
Bodde said:
I also want to know how I can sync the Axe fx tempo to the tempo of my DAW (Ableton). Never tried it but reading all this doesn't give me much confidence in it. Why is it so hard to sync your Axe fx? Shouldn't be so hard. Can someone walk me through it?
Click to expand...

It's pretty simple really. Depending on what you are using for midi (usb or midi cable) make sure in Live preferences you have sync enabled on the midi out to the Axe FX. Press play in Live and you should be set. Make some changes to the tempo in Live and make sure the Axe is reflecting these changes. That's all I did.
 
Bodde said:
I also want to know how I can sync the Axe fx tempo to the tempo of my DAW (Ableton). Never tried it but reading all this doesn't give me much confidence in it. Why is it so hard to sync your Axe fx? Shouldn't be so hard. Can someone walk me through it?
Click to expand...

Hey I know I gave the impression that it was too hard but it wasn't really, the problem is that every interface and DAW has its little quirks and when you start hooking hardware up there is a hundred possible variations and unfortunately there is a lack of specific information out there so you sometimes have to go through trial and error. I got it working in the end and it was fairly simple when I figured out how, don't know about Ableton though. The only issue now is a little audible audio dropout for the first two bars when the Axe FX receives the midi clock information. Is this a known bug?
 
awdwon said:
It's pretty simple really. Depending on what you are using for midi (usb or midi cable) make sure in Live preferences you have sync enabled on the midi out to the Axe FX. Press play in Live and you should be set. Make some changes to the tempo in Live and make sure the Axe is reflecting these changes. That's all I did.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Can I sync the Axe fx to Ableton's tempo and use Axe Edit at the same time?
 
Insert Piz Here - pizmidi

I just found this link and thought about your problem. Not sure if it will work, but you should be able to use it to filter out the tempo from going to the AxeFXII. It should be the one called midiNotchFilter as it is said to isolate, remove, or channelize specific MIDI messages.
 
staticdeathnoise said:
Firstly I am not sending anything through USB as I am not using the Axe as an audio interface in the DAW. Also have disabled that particular output in the list of devices in the DAW. Now some progress:

I made sure to only send MIDI data to the one output on the MIDI interface rather than all of them, and now it works. Except that it doesn't always work first time. I can still get a tempo readin of anything up 20 BPMs faster or slower. but this will always correct itself if I stop and start the project again. This is very inconvinient though. Why would this happen?

Also I separated the signals so I am sending the CC messages via one MIDI port and cable to the Axe FX and then sending the clock data via another output and cable to the MFC 101. Could it be that transmitting it from the MFC to the axe via the ethernet cable is making it less accurate?
Click to expand...


I have two Axes hooked up to an rjm mastermind gt. I can send clock from maschine to GT and both axes sync up. Weird thing is they show same tempo as machine plus or minus a hundreth or two, but the RJM shows about 3 BPM lower. All seems synced when I play along to a maschine project.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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