Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
By Secondhand Therapy Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:24 am
Hey Everyone!

So this is my conundrum - I am trying to use Ableton as a master clock only for recording purposes in my setup. When I jam out the MPC Live is the master clock of everything, connected to a Digitone -> Digitakt -> Eurorack setup (through each devices individual thru ports) - but when it is time to record - I find that it makes a lot more sense to switch Ableton to be the master (lots of reasons for that but mostly because of it's wonky external sync - you can't seem to use the session record view if synced to an external clock source).

The problem is that whenever I do this - all of the devices start getting their BPM double / triple temp'd. When I make the Digitone the first piece in the setup this problem no longer exists so I have narrowed it down to the MPC live. I have a feeling this is because the MPC is set to both send clock data as well as receive it, its clock is going all over the place? I would have hoped by setting Sync on Midi output A and input sync on it would just know to pass the clock through, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

So my question is - is this possible at all? i.e. receive an external clock source into the MPC, and then pass it on to the rest of my devices?
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By DeaDeus Sun Nov 22, 2020 5:11 pm
I am doing this now and then - and no issue yet.
My masterkeys is the Korg M3. If I let the MIDI signal running through the MPC (X in my case) back to the M3 the MIDI signals goes nuts - it's creating a loop.
Fortunately I can switch off incoming MIDI data to the Karma of the M3 - this is the arpeggiator of the Korg. No MIDI loop/feedback anymore.
If your devices do not have a input filter (many synth do not have it) you need to use a gadget like a MIDI filter. I have for those special cases the "Pocket Filter" from Anatek. As it was build 1988 (!) I doubt it is still around :-) except as second (3rd, 4th, 5th...) hand. But there must be another gadget around doing exact what is required.

This is the only thing I can think of, as the set-up of your system in whole is depending on the MIDI flow.....