I have a quite specific problem which prevents me to use my setup as I’d like. I’ve used Reaper as main DAW rewiring Renoise for a long time and the transport sync always worked like a charm. But I’m trying to re-organize my workflow and meet a problem.
I want to integrate my Electribe SX (hardware groovebox) to my setup more consequently, and as Reaper doesn’t manage to send decent MIDI Clock information, I thought I could use Renoise instead to sync the Electribe and make it switch between patterns. I made some tests with Renoise running as main DAW (without Reaper being involved) and it worked really well : I sent MIDI clock from Renoise to the ESX, plus used an extra “midi instrument” sending pattern commands to the appropriate channel for ESX pattern change (thanks to this thread !). It worked well, everything was in sync.
So I loaded Renoise again but with my usual config (Reaper [Rewire master] <-> Renoise [Rewire slave]), and then it appeared that the Electribe ran out of sync. When I press play, the first beat of the ESX play together with say the metronome of Reaper, but the ESX gets out of sync right after that, playing all the next beats BEFORE the rest of the tracks (any of them, Reaper and Renoise included). The latency is over 100 ms and it’s never exactly the same. I didn’t experience any of these problems when running Renoise as a main DAW. As I said also, Renoise always run in sync perfectly since I use it “rewired” to Reaper.
So I was wondering if any of you has an idea where this could come from and if there’s a solution to this problem. If any of you know any other alternative solution (even if it implies using other programs) I’d like to know because I really would like to solve that problem.
Thanks!
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And now let’s go write another thread on Reaper forums regarding the deficient “send midi clock option” (but no hopes on this side, the problem have been signaled for a long time and the developers never wanted to hear it). [/details]
Well that could be a strategy but first of all I’d be glad to see if there’s any chance to fix the thing on the Renoise side, I don’t think this weird sync behavior is the fault of Reaper, but of Renoise when it’s running as a Rewire slave!
Thanks vV for pointing this out, your help is always appreciated on this forum. I’ll try ask Taktik if the problem is related ! And then upgrade my license, I bought it at 1.9
Yes, this may be related. But in general it’s “more safe” to send clocks by the ReWire master. Probably running Renoise as a master and Reaper as a slave could work better in your setup then?
Yeah I thought about that but fact is I still want to use Reaper as the master program. I want to run most of my vsts here, send midi notes and automation to external gear and do the mixing for all the tracks (Reaper/Renoise/Hardware). I come from a sound engineering school and have this approach of “traditional” mixing, and Reaper is a good DAW for that.
So I realize this thing of wanting to send MIDI clock with Renoise is actually a makeshift job, Reaper should actually be the program doing the job in my configuration. But fact is its “external MIDI clock send” function is simply broken and no one cared to repair it for years. I found out a guy made a JS plugin for sending a good clock to midi output but it doesn’t work, I guess the plug isn’t updated anymore (I mailed him anyway and I’m faithfully waiting for his response).
Anyway if I can’t find a solution on the Reaper’s side I’d like to find an alternative, even if it’s not so direct. I mean if this strange Renoise-Electribe sync behavior is fixed I’ll still have to use something like an additional MIDI output (USB for example) because if I don’t Renoise and Reaper won’t use the same MIDI output in the same time !..
I’m not sure to what extent this problem is significant to you but in any case thanks for your reply!
