Syncing LFO speed to MIDI clock?

Despite having owned my MPC4000 since 2002, it was only this week in 2009 that I tried to sync an LFO to MIDI clock.... and I couldn't get it to work!! Oh noes!!

Can anyone help?

I was trying to program up a song to play live on stage.

I have a multi with about 6 parts in.
Most of the parts contain drum programs, and are playing a drum loop, from the MPC4000's own sequencer.
Another part contains a keygroup program with an electric piano sound, and I am playing that myself from a MIDI keyboard plugged into MIDI IN-I.

What I wanted to do was set up a tremolo on the electric piano, with the tremolo speed synced to the tempo of the drum loop.

(NB I could just manually set the LFO speed to match the tempo of the loop, but that is not as slick because it means if we try changing the tempo of the loop, I gotta also recalculate the LFO speed and change it manually too...)

So: Turn to the excellent Ak.Sys V2.0 User Guide PDF, pages 75—78, where it explains the LFOs.

I go into PROGRAM mode, I go to the EDIT2 page, I make sure I have selected to edit ALL keygroups at once, I turn LFO2's DEPTH up, press WINDOW to get to the modulation matrix and set LFO2 >>> AMPLITUDE +50 or so.
And yes, I get a good tremolo, and I can adjust the speed using the LFO RATE setting.

But what I want is to set MIDI SYNC on (see Ak.Sys manual p.78), and set the beat division to 1/4 (so I get 4 tremolo wobbles per bar).

But when I do that, the tremolo dies, I get nothing.

I think the problem is: the MPC4000 sampler section is not receiving a MIDI clock?

I have read the "*** NOTES ABOUT MIDI CLOCK SYNC****" on p.78.
It seems to be saying that MIDI clock for this function will be received on the sampler's INT-A or INT-B virtual port (and it warns not to send it to both).

But I want to send the MIDI clock from the MPC4000's own internal sequencer to the sampler, not from an external machine (routed from IN-I or IN-II to INT-A or INT-B)

Is this not possible?
I fiddled around in MISC mode SYNC page, but no joy.

Has anyone else managed to do this?

Hi there,

I have had no problems with sync'ing the lfos from the internal sequencer clock - but I have done nothing that I can think of that you haven't already done....

Hmmm, how mysterious!

Feline, I cannot reproduce your problem. Syncing is working without any problems.
I tested both LFOs, different waveforms, different speeds and different modulation destinations.

It is working!

By the way, if you want to get 4 wobbles per bar, you have to set it to 1 (instead of 1/4), supposing you have 4 beats per bar.


TSR

Hmmm. Doesn't seem to matter what interval I set it to,
it stops working when I turn the midi sync on.

What are your MIDI routing and Sync settings then?

Here is the testing-setup that I used.

MAIN SCREEN
Type: Drum / Out 1: Part / Part 1 - any synth program

MIDI SCREEN / ROUTING
Everything set to "sequencer"

MISC/SYNC SCREEN
Everything set to "off"

Hope that helps!

TSR

I will check that when I have my MPC powered up next!

I got it to work!

Thanks to TSR!


Well here's what I had to change:

in [MIDI] mode, in the ROUTING page,
at least one of MIDI in-I or MIDI in-II have to be routed to SEQUENCER.

I don't really understand this!?!?

I had them both routed to SAMPLER A and SAMPLER B respectively, and doing this with both appears to kill LFO sync on Programs.

I need MIDI in-I routed to SAMPLER A for my multitimbral live set up (as I'm playing a ton of different sounds on different Parts in the Multi, basically using the MCP4000 as a multitimbral sound module)
But I wasn't using MIDI in-II, so I can set that to route via SEQUENCER.

Strange.

wow Ive always had mine set to Sequence but Im sure my set up is not quite as involed as yours seems to be
Good to know for the future

edited: answered my own question.

Keep it Lovecraft, dude...

Well, I thought I'd answered my own question...

I'd appreciate it if someone can try this:

I recorded a 1/16th note repeat of a snare type sound. I wanted to adjust the pitch of this sound over time synced to midi clock (re trigger off).

Lfo setting/mod matrix: lfo > pitch > 100

Lfo settings/edit pg 2: sync on 1, 2 or more bars.

O.k, when I run this set up the lfo sync doesn't act as I expected; the lfo rate still has an effect on the lfo timing, which seems to imply the clock sync is erratic due to the continuous note repeats. If the sync value is made lower, 1/2, 1/4 bar etc, the effect of the lfo becomes apparent but the rate still has an effect.

At first I thought the lfo sync was on the piss but I tested it with longer sounds with the notes further apart and it works fine. So, whats going on with the note repeat, lfo sync and the rate amounts?

I should say that the results of this 'error' are quite pleasing if not a bit baffling...

Did anyone check this? I'd like to know whats going on here...

I forgot to mention that the lfo depth has been tried at various settings, as has the mod matrix amount.