Bought one of those usb2midi things..

Hey all,

I recently bought one of those usb2midi adapters, to midi sync my 500 with ableton live...

Yes it sends midi message, and yes the sound is recorded from the mpc's main outs, but I allways get a delay that f*cks the sequence's timing!

When I'm just hiting play on Live (master) to see if a key melody goes well with what I have on the mpc, it works, but when I try to record the mpc's sequences, I get the annoying "space" before the sound begins, which makes everything off time...

I tried to change the delay, to positive, negative, but I'm not getting any good results....

Do any of you tried one of these adapters and made it work?

Thanks in advance!

In my personal experience, syncing an mpc to ableton is very difficult.

I could be wrong, but isn't this just a latency problem due to your computer soundcard?

@beetle I guess not, I'm using a MacBook with a external soundcard (audigy 2 nx) and I've tried both with or without the external soundcard...

@séance do you think that the problem resides in ableton live? Any suggestion on another DAW?

carbono wrote:@beetle I guess not, I'm using a MacBook with a external soundcard (audigy 2 nx) and I've tried both with or without the external soundcard...

right you are. I've only played around with Live once or twice so can't really comment - I presume when you check the latency (I seem to recall a beep sound which you could adjust using a sliding scale until it started to break up) it's all fine but there's issues when you try and record.

I presume you've seen this. Sorry if I'm telling you basic stuff that you already know - I'm just trying to help.


Using MIDI Beat Clock & MIDI Machine Control (MMC):

In Ableton Live:

1. Open Ableton Live Preferences:
1. Macs: Press "Command + ," to open Live Preferences or navigate to Live Menu > Preferences…
2. PCs: Press "CTRL + ," to open Live Preferences or navigate to Options > Preferences…
2. Press the MIDI Sync tab on Left Menu.
3. Under "MIDI Ports / Input," enable "Sync ON" for the MIDI port to which you have connected your MIDI
cable from the MPC.
4. "Sync Type" to "MIDI Clock."
5. Close the Preferences window.
6. Press [EXT] button on top-left of Ableton Live Project screen. This will enable External Sync control over the
transport of Ableton Live.

On the MPC500:
1. Go to the MIDI/Sync menu.
2. Press Mode + PAD 7.
3. Turn the data wheel to display "Sync."
4. Press the DOWN cursor.
5. Use the data wheel to change the sync mode to "Master."
6. Press Play on MPC. Ableton Live will play in-sync to MPC.

Ableton Live as Master, MPC500 as Slave
Connect a MIDI cable from an available MIDI OUT of your MIDI interface to an available MIDI IN on your MPC.

Using MIDI Beat Clock & MIDI Machine Control (MMC):

Note: Ableton Live only sends MIDI Beat Clock.

On the MPC500:
1. Go to the MIDI/Sync menu.
2. Press Mode + PAD 7.
3. Turn the data wheel to display "Sync."
4. Press the DOWN cursor.
5. Use the data wheel to change the sync mode to "Slave."

In Ableton Live:
1. Open Ableton Live Preferences:
2. Macs: Press "Command + ," to open Live Preferences or navigate to Live Menu > Preferences…
3. PCs: Press "CTRL + ," to open Live Preferences or navigate to Options > Preferences…
4. Press the MIDI Sync tab on Left Menu.
5. Under "MIDI Ports / Output," enable "Sync ON" for the MIDI OUT port to which you have connected the
MIDI cable from the MPC.
6. Close the Preferences window.
7. Press Play on the Transport or a Clip to initiate sync. The MPC will now play in sync with Live.

Yeah, I followed that instructions on akai's website, and I think I'm doing every step correctlt, the problem is that delay at the begining of the sound clip...

But I really don't remember hearing any bleep on setting the ms of delay....but I'm not at home right now, when I get home I'll try it again...

maybe the problem is USB itself? Idk. USB isnt zero latency, therefore your probably going to get that unwanted "space" at the beginning. thats why i never bought one of those USB->Midi things.

go to google...download asio4all

I think asio4all doesn't exist for Mac Audio...oh well, those were 4£ wasted..=P

BAM!!!!!
http://www.akaipro.com/syncableton

~EDIT~
I post first and then read the OP question. Been drinking... heavily.

@séance do you think that the problem resides in ableton live? Any suggestion on another DAW?[/quote]

Definitely not, Ableton is a wonderful program. It's difficult to sync an mpc with ableton but if you get a supported controller it couldn't be easier.

Try going the other way, sync the MPC to Ableton perhaps?