Re: Repeater: Persistent Problems with Sync

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

on 9/9/01 10:48 PM, Charles Cohen at ccohen@voicenet.com wrote:

> I bought the repeater with the intention of syncing it to other MIDI 
>rhythmic
> sound
> making devices, and it just isn't working for me.
> 
> Try this experiment to make it obvious:
> Slave a drum machine to Repeater MIDI out.
> 
> Program a continuos pattern of sixteenth notes with some simple short 
>sound
> like a rim shot,
> and no other sound. Set a slow tempo on Repeater.
> 
> When first booted up, the Repeater seems to send a nice steady MIDI 
>clock and
> the slaved
> drum machine sounds fine at any tempo from Repeater.
> 
> After *any* Play or Record operation on the Repeater, even of a silent 
>loop or
> one of
> the Factory Demo loops off the card, I hear the slaved drum machine 
>hesitating
> at *every*
> fourth sixteenth note. A small amount to be sure, but enough to make it
> musically useless
> to my ear. 
> 
> Using Repeater as a stand alone device seems to work well and is *lots* 
>of
> fun, but
> that's not what I bought it for.  If I can't get it to sync very tightly 
>with
> other MIDI
> clocked gear, I'm afraid it's going to become a door stop in my world.

Are you sure this is happening?  Try it again and make sure the Repeater
hasn't been put to sleep prior to your test.  Unplug it and start it fresh.
I'm using the Repeater slaved to a Roland MC-307 and I've found NO midi
synch problems at all.  As a matter of fact, the MC-307 has a big turntable
style "pitch" control that can control tempo.  The Repeater seems to chase
the change flawlessly, as the pitch of my loop does not change.  Seems
pretty sweet to me.  Now that my new Mac is up and running, I'm going to 
try
it using Metro.  I'll let you know the results.

Mark Sottilaro