Re: Syncing the EDP to the Repeater

["muman" <muman@eskimo.com>]

Hello all,
Sorry about repeating (repeating) my problem. I have a number of 
excuses, but I won't bore you with any of them.

> 
> does Repeater actually generate MIDI clock out? I looked through the
> repeater feature lists and manual and saw mention of sync to midi
> clock in, but couldn't find anything about clock out. It's hard for me
> to imagine it doesn't do that, so I'm guessing I missed it?

Yes, I'm getting stable clock out. 3 other Electrix components and 
an emu sound module sync accurately.

> Assuming it does, you should see the sync LED flashing on the EDP to
> indicate it is receiving clock. This is the decimal point on the lower
> right of the display. It should flash where the Echoplex thinks the
> beginning of the loop is. Are you seeing that?

Yes, I'm seeing the flash.

> once the echoplex has started receiving sync and the LED has flashed,
> pressing Record will put you into a waiting period. The display will
> show "ooo".  It waits for the next startpoint to come along, at which
> point it automatically starts Recording. When you press Record again,
> it again shows the "ooo" and waits for the start point again, at which
> point it stops recording. Did it do that much?

Yes, it also appears to correctly start the recording.

> Then, assuming the EDP continues to receive a good midi clock it will
> continue to sync to it by aligning it's start point with the midi
> clock. You can tell when it actually adjusts itself, because two
> decimal points will flash.

Here is where I run into a problem.
I just created an empty loop on the EDP of 4.1 (Repeater = 
120BPM, 2 measures). The loop actually started on the 2nd 
measure 2nd beat, than drifts one half beat every cycle.

> If the incoming midi clock tempo stays within a reasonable window, the
> echoplex will continue to sync to it. This is to handle drift between
> machines. (I forget the size of the window exactly, somewhere around
> +/- 5BPM). If the clock changes by more than that, the Echoplex
> assumes you intend for things to go out of sync and stops trying to
> sync itself to the source. With Repeater you can change loop tempo a
> lot, which I assume would change the midi clock out tempo too? If you
> are doing that and Repeater is the clock master, you will get mixed
> results with other devices. Some things will follow it and some won't.

During the sync process, I am not changing the Repeater loop 
tempo.

> also, are you using the current software for the Echoplex,
> LoopIIIv5.0? That made a lot of improvements for midi sync. Most
> importantly, it allowed the echoplex to continue keeping itself in
> sync after the initial loop was recorded.  The older software just
> sync'd the initial loop and then ran free, which tended to have
> problems with drift.

I am using Loop 3, v5.0

Thank you for your help.
Louis Hesselt-van-Dinter