Sending MIDI Clock

[Joe_K]

I'm going to start looking at using a MIDI clock for syncing delay units and loopers in a couple songs.  I'm thinking of using my iPod Touch 5 and SLM as my master MIDI Clock since it is already at the head of my MIDI chain and has tempos set for each song.  Will this be a stable enough clock?

Also, I only want to send Clock for a few songs.  Can this be controlled remotely?  Is it tied to the starting/stopping of the tempo?  I do that already, and if so, I would want to keep doing that without the Clock being sent on most songs (the reason being is that some of my delay and modulation units have presets that aren't set to a subdivision of the tempo).  Any chance for a "Send MIDI Clock" on a per song basis?  Other ideas?

I know I can add a device like this:  http://www.disasterareaamps.com/shop/smartclock  but it is pretty pricy to just use in a couple songs.

[arlo]

I'm going to start looking at using a MIDI clock for syncing delay units and loopers in a couple songs.  I'm thinking of using my iPod Touch 5 and SLM as my master MIDI Clock since it is already at the head of my MIDI chain and has tempos set for each song.  Will this be a stable enough clock?

I would encourage you to test it with your setup and see if it does the job for you.

Also, I only want to send Clock for a few songs.  Can this be controlled remotely?  Is it tied to the starting/stopping of the tempo?  I do that already, and if so, I would want to keep doing that without the Clock being sent on most songs (the reason being is that some of my delay and modulation units have presets that aren't set to a subdivision of the tempo).  Any chance for a "Send MIDI Clock" on a per song basis?  Other ideas?

The MIDI tempo output is tied to the tempo button in the app. There is no way to set some songs to play the tempo only within the app, and set other songs to both play the tempo within the app and send the MIDI tempo. I don't have any other ideas -- maybe someone else does.

[Joe_K]

I would encourage you to test it with your setup and see if it does the job for you.

The MIDI tempo output is tied to the tempo button in the app. There is no way to set some songs to play the tempo only within the app, and set other songs to both play the tempo within the app and send the MIDI tempo. I don't have any other ideas -- maybe someone else does.

THanks for the quick reply.  I'm setting up now to test it out.  Just so I'm clear, if I go to Settings -> Tempo & Pitch and I turn on "Send MIDI Beat Clock", the clock signal will be sent as long as the song tempo has been started and is running?

[arlo]

Yep, that's right.

[Joe_K]

I figured out the mechanics of it, but I hit an unexpected roadblocks.  Not due to SLM.  But maybe there is something in SLM that can bail me out.

My iPod has dedicated Out and Thru, and I use both (iRig 2).  The Out goes to a foot controller so SLM can send it program change commands.  That foot controller cannot pass data thru unfortunately.  I knew this already, but I forgot.   Luckily, the SLM data only needed to go to the foot controller, so I just merged the iRig Thru and the foot controller Out in a separate merge box before the data went to the rest of the system.

Wanting to use SLM as a clock now means that I need it's Out data to be received by devices other than the foot controller.

I'm thinking of ways I might solve this.  One idea is to put a splitter after the iPod and use only the iPod Out and get rid of the Merge.  Should I be able to get the Thru data being received by SLM to go out the iRig Out?  Is that what the Soft Thru options is supposed to do?  I have it on already, but I don't remember exactly why.  Maybe I needed it on for data to go to the dedicated iRig thru?

Let me make the question more clear:  Is there a way to have SLM send Out and Thru data on just the Out port of an iRig 2?

[arlo]

Set List Maker's MIDI Thru function takes any MIDI messages it receives, and sends them back out again.

Other than that, I'm not a good person to ask about MIDI networking. Maybe someone else here can help with that. You might want to start a new thread with a relevant subject line so people can find it.

[Joe_K]

I just confirmed that my Thru data is going out of the iRig Out port ... so I didn't have to use the iRig dedicated thru originally, I could have split the Out as an alternative.  That solves one thing.  About 4 more to go! 

Thanks.