Is there a workaround for only having one clock destination?

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

Hey all, so I'm still ping-pong'ing heavily between Live and Reason, depending on how much hardware I'm using. But Reason is just still so much more fun for me. However I have a growing number of devices that all require transport sync, and I don't necessarily want to rely on MIDI thru for it. I mean, I can. But I also have some devices that only have MIDI in, so adding/removing devices would mean constantly having to shuffle the order around.

I've recently been playing with LoopMIDI to slurp MIDI data out of combinators and drive visual effects (which is really good fun btw!) and I wondered if some kind of virtual MIDI port like that could be used, perhaps in conjunction with a program acting as a clock source for Reason and all my hardware. Any ideas?

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

Okay may have answered my own question here. Created a new port in LoopMIDI called "To Devices", and sent Reason's clock output there. Then in VCV, split Clock, Stop and Start out to multiple MIDI devices. I've now got the TR-6S and MC-101 starting playback at the same time, without using MIDI thru. Which is more than I could do before.But it only works from the beginning of the song and doesn't appear to be relaying transport position to the devices. So that's half the puzzle; sending Reason's clock to a virtual MIDI port. I just need a program now that can distribute that signal out to all my devices.
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LABONERECORDINGS
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12 May 2022

You tried BOMEs MIDI translator? might be of help as you can send out to BOMEs but have extra rules in place too

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

LABONERECORDINGS wrote:
12 May 2022
You tried BOMEs MIDI translator? might be of help as you can send out to BOMEs but have extra rules in place too
Hi! Trialling it now but I can't figure out what I'd need to create/enter to just relay one MIDI port to another. Or I'm just being dumb. Highly likely.

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

Ah nvm found it - I was trying to set up like, translate rules. Turns out it's just in the project settings under MIDI routing. Seems to work perfectly! I'll have to buy this next month though as I've spent money hand over fist this month and I gotta keep it real haha. Emergency dental treatment will do that to ya. But thank you for the recommendation. This appears to work perfectly.

This really strengthens the case for Reason to do this natively though. Instantly it's just SO much more fun being able to blend pattern sequencers like the TR and MC, with Player controlled hardware synths. This is exactly the workflow I was after.

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

Okay another update - MIDIOX appears to do the same thing for free. I'll test more extensively tonight but I've got start/stop/reset/song position going to at least two devices from Reason now. So that's certainly something!

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LABONERECORDINGS
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12 May 2022

Nice, at least going in the right direction. BOMEs can be very cool for adding extra functions to MIDI input and converting to output too (we created a BOMEs template for BCD2000 to control Traktor waaay way back)

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

LABONERECORDINGS wrote:
12 May 2022
Nice, at least going in the right direction. BOMEs can be very cool for adding extra functions to MIDI input and converting to output too (we created a BOMEs template for BCD2000 to control Traktor waaay way back)
Yeah it might be the better solution going forward, as MIDIOX is *very* old. Thanks again!

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chimp_spanner
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12 May 2022

"Easy as pie is how it works!"


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homemadenoise
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13 May 2022

This was my solution. It works for me


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chimp_spanner
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14 May 2022

Damn I wish I had’ve found this earlier haha. Great minds eh? Happy to have it working - the only thing that isn’t working right atm is arp/seq sync on the Deepmind. Which is weird, cos it’s working on literally everything else. I’m gonna take it all apart today and get to the bottom of it. It’s a mess back there anyway :)

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mimidancer
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14 May 2022

chimp_spanner wrote:
14 May 2022
Damn I wish I had’ve found this earlier haha. Great minds eh? Happy to have it working - the only thing that isn’t working right atm is arp/seq sync on the Deepmind. Which is weird, cos it’s working on literally everything else. I’m gonna take it all apart today and get to the bottom of it. It’s a mess back there anyway :)
on the deepmind you have to set the master sync source. Set it to USB if that is what you are using. Choices are Int, MIDI. or USB. I hope that helps.

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mimidancer
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14 May 2022

chimp_spanner wrote:
12 May 2022
Okay may have answered my own question here. Created a new port in LoopMIDI called "To Devices", and sent Reason's clock output there. Then in VCV, split Clock, Stop and Start out to multiple MIDI devices. I've now got the TR-6S and MC-101 starting playback at the same time, without using MIDI thru. Which is more than I could do before.But it only works from the beginning of the song and doesn't appear to be relaying transport position to the devices. So that's half the puzzle; sending Reason's clock to a virtual MIDI port. I just need a program now that can distribute that signal out to all my devices.
do you get different lag times out to the devices with this setup?

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

14 May 2022

mimidancer wrote:
14 May 2022
chimp_spanner wrote:
14 May 2022
Damn I wish I had’ve found this earlier haha. Great minds eh? Happy to have it working - the only thing that isn’t working right atm is arp/seq sync on the Deepmind. Which is weird, cos it’s working on literally everything else. I’m gonna take it all apart today and get to the bottom of it. It’s a mess back there anyway :)
on the deepmind you have to set the master sync source. Set it to USB if that is what you are using. Choices are Int, MIDI. or USB. I hope that helps.
Yeah it already is, it works in Live. I might just remove all the virtual cables/ports and start again as I noticed some MIDI ports were showing up with /!\ in the external MIDI device, so there could be a conflict somewhere!

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

14 May 2022

mimidancer wrote:
14 May 2022
chimp_spanner wrote:
12 May 2022
Okay may have answered my own question here. Created a new port in LoopMIDI called "To Devices", and sent Reason's clock output there. Then in VCV, split Clock, Stop and Start out to multiple MIDI devices. I've now got the TR-6S and MC-101 starting playback at the same time, without using MIDI thru. Which is more than I could do before.But it only works from the beginning of the song and doesn't appear to be relaying transport position to the devices. So that's half the puzzle; sending Reason's clock to a virtual MIDI port. I just need a program now that can distribute that signal out to all my devices.
do you get different lag times out to the devices with this setup?
Hard to tell atm, but I mean…probably. I think the Roland’s are about 14-15ms. The Microfreak is closer to 20ms. This is where it would be nice to have it in the program, as you could set MIDI sync offsets per destination, like in Live.

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mimidancer
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14 May 2022

chimp_spanner wrote:
14 May 2022
mimidancer wrote:
14 May 2022


do you get different lag times out to the devices with this setup?
Hard to tell atm, but I mean…probably. I think the Roland’s are about 14-15ms. The Microfreak is closer to 20ms. This is where it would be nice to have it in the program, as you could set MIDI sync offsets per destination, like in Live.
It is like that in Abelton Live too(mixed lag I mean). To fix this issue I send out one clock to MIDI splitter the units seem to lag together. that way. My guess is when reason adds this feature it will be like this too. Then it is easy to adjust comp time. I say one clock to rule them all.

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

14 May 2022

On the subject of LoopMIDI another really great use I found for it is driving audio/MIDI reactive visual programs, like Magic Music Visuals. I just chuck my instruments into a combinator, then put an external MIDI device inside that and send through a virtual MIDI cable to the application. Was jamming with a setup the other night where every drum in my Redrum was represented by a shape and some cool visual effects. Was totally hypnotic just watching it all so tightly locked to the music.

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