Syncing Indigo arpeggiator with Logic

[tenorjazz]

I was wondering if someone out there can help. I'm trying to get the arpeggiator on my "new" Indigo to sync with the tempo in Logic 9. Can't figure out what I need to do to make it work. Would appreciate any ideas on how to do this.

[Ruari]

I don't have an Indigo but how I sync some of my other synths is:

In Logic go to Settings>Synchronisation>MIDI then check the transmit MIDI clock button & select the synth/port you require

In the synth settings find MIDI clock settings then set to External, once you have done this you will need to press play on Logic to start transmitting MIDI clock to the synth otherwise when you press a key you will hear nothing & think it hasn't worked.

[tenorjazz]

I'm certain I have done those steps. I know I set up the Logic side like you said. It says in the Virus manual that if sync is set to auto the synth will normally run on the internal midi clock, but if it detects an external midi clock it will automatically sync to that clock.

But where I am trying to get it to sync is while I am recording. If I press a key on my controller keyboard that is routed through Logic, the Virus should see the midi sync signal and cause the arpeggiator to play in time. At least this is what I would expect because that's how it works on my Yamaha Motif and Triton Extreme.

I just must have something else not set up right.

This all brings up another point, I see that when you set up the midi sync in Logic you can send it out to all the midi instruments at once making Logic the master midi timer and all the instruments would slave to it. Has anybody tried this on a midi hub and found that what ever delay there might be, it is still workable?

[Ruari]

It doesn't make a difference if you press play or record, you should still get the same result.

If your Yamaha & Triton both function as expected setting up this way then that suggests the problem lies within the Virus, what happens if you have the Virus MIDI sync set to external rather than auto?

I don't have any latency issues to speak of but if you are worried about latency creeping in as you use more & more gear, there is an excellent video over at MacProVideo called Logics Latency Toolbox which will really tighten things up for you.

[tenorjazz]

Thanks Ruari...

I don't know if it's different on a later Virus, but mine is an Indigo (B) and doesn't have a "MIDI sync" per-say. There is a MIDI RX with 3 options... Disable, Auto, Send.

The manual says "This parameter activates or deactivates the receiving of MIDI-Clock globally. The Virus automatically detects the presence of MIDI-Clock (Auto). Therefore this parameter is not intended to switch MIDI-Clock on, but switch it off if you should feel that this is necessary (Off)."

The manual doesn't talk about the (Send) option so not sure what it does, but guess it's for sending the MIDI-Clock so the Virus can become the master clock. At first I thought this might work, sending MIDI-Clock back to Logic, but I don't think I could get the MIDI-Clock all the way through to the other external synths or to the other computer that needs to be synced through MIDI-Clock.

Another interesting parameter is MIDI Arpeggsend... Looks like this is used to generate notes to MIDI Out, thus allowing me to record the Arpeggiator notes back to my DAW. Very coool.

[tenorjazz]

Grrrrrrrrrrr

Well I just spent the last 3 hours trying to figure this out.. no luck. I just can't figure out how to sync the arp on the Indigo with my DAW. I thought that maybe it was Logic, so I tried Ableton and still could not make it work. What am I doing wrong!!!

[Ruari]

Originally Posted by tenorjazz

Thanks Ruari...

You're welcome

Seeing as I don't have the Indigo I don't really know what else to suggest for you to try. It would probably be better if someone with an Indigo could chime in here to advise you a bit better.

Good luck getting it sorted mate.

[tenorjazz]

Thanks Ruari...

So, are there any Indigo owners out there that have been able to sync their arpeggiator with their DAW?? Please.... I love all the cool things you can do with the Virus arpeggiator!!!

[tenorjazz]

OK.. I'm listening, but I'm just not hearing what you were saying.

So here's what I did:

1. Set my Indigo Midi ClockRX on Auto
2. Set Logic to transmit Midi Clock to all my Midi devices, in the Preferences/Midi/Midi sync
3. Made and external instrument and pointed it to the Indigo
4. Set the tempo at the bottom of the Logic screen
5. Played my midi controller while changing the tempo. This is where I screwed up, you see at this point you need to press either play or record to send out the midi sync info. I was just playing the controller expecting that to kick off the midi sync.

So even though I was listening to what you said, I really wasn't hearing it.

(My wife complains that I do this all the time , she must be right after all)

What happened was I pulled a loop into the mix and wanted to play along with it so when I clicked the play button, the arpeggiator worked just like it was suppose to.

[Ruari]

Aha!!

Originally Posted by tenorjazz

…at this point you need to press either play or record to send out the midi sync info…

That is very easy to overlook (which is why I mentioned it in my first post to you ) you won't be the last person to get caught out by that. It's worth trying to remember that because if you ever use the Logic Environment the same rule applies to things like the Arpeggiator & Delay modules in there too.

Glad to hear you are sorted now anyway