Best Sync Techniques for Multitracking onto a DAW

I've been using the free JJOS for a while and have been recording with the midi clock onto Sonar (I set the daw to the same tempo as my mpc then make the DAW my master and mpc slave). I record all my sounds on my mpc on different tracks so when I record onto Sonar I can eq and add fx to every unique sound separately. What has become a problem however is a very slight timing issue, because I have all these sounds multi-tracked some don't record at the very same timing and high-hats often are off beat and I have to manually time correct them on Sonar.
I've noticed a big difference between beats I've recorded directly from the mpc with no multi-tracking and the ones where I've multi-tracked and it almost always seems the mpc mix downs have much better timing and flow but incidentally are more poorly mixed.

I recently found out that the JJ OS1 includes mmc/mtc support so I tried it out but when I loop my beats on sonar they are still don't line up.
What do you guys do to multitrack record? and in your opinions is mmc/mtc a better alternative to simply using a midi clock?

I use 1 dedicated output that sends a very short pulse click track on its own channel that I use to pull everything back in line. I also use mtc and record all tracks at once in ableton (although I am starting to question my use of ableton for this purpose based on this very issue)

I do notice tho that even though (since both mpc and daw have to manually have tempo set in mtc) that even though for example they are both set to 170 bpm, the mpc actually comes out at 170.03 or something, which does throw things out of alignment over time as it slightly changes over time. Hence the click track.

But then again I have my mpc sequencer looping as opposed to continuous play so I think the timing difference is coming from it going from end to start.

I did notice that mpc doesn't like being a slave.. It makes it's timing go funny as it tries to correct / adjust to match daw

Midi clock isn't perfect. You need to input a bar of blank space prior to the start or your recordings to allow enough time for the mp and your sequencer to lock. Some people put their space on bar 9, start recording on bar 10, then shift everything back to 0 when done tracking.

I'd suggest searching the forums or copping one of tutors (really dope) Using your MPC with... Ebooks.

It took me a second to understand what you meant, its actually brilliant I'm going to try it out tonight!

golfdogz wrote:I use 1 dedicated output that sends a very short pulse click track on its own channel that I use to pull everything back in line.

I also implemented some delay on the audio card which helped but its still not perfect.

Got nothing synced in cubase when I multitrack, it's just audio straight into it.. Just hit record in cubase and press play on the mpc and when finished the recording, all channels will be synced.. If I could only record one track at a time, I would use the mpc's own count-in click sound, and then its easy to zoom in on the recordings and line them up going on the visual representation of the waveforms.. Sometimes I wouldn't bother zooming in either as just dropping the audio so that the clicks seem somewhat visually in sync would be enough, and other times a bit of sloppyness is an improvement to the groove..

jonestown massacre wrote:Midi clock isn't perfect. You need to input a bar of blank space prior to the start or your recordings to allow enough time for the mp and your sequencer to lock. Some people put their space on bar 9, start recording on bar 10, then shift everything back to 0 when done tracking.

I'd suggest searching the forums or copping one of tutors (really dope) Using your MPC with... Ebooks.

I've been doing this technique I truncate only the second 4-8th bars of my recordings for 4 bar beats. However this is where I've been finding the problem in tenths of a second they dont line up. Has anyone tried mtc or mmc and found it to be more accurate than midi clock?