Another little project, or rather proof of concept. I was considering solutions like the Innerclock Systems SyncLock, using an audio track to send sample accurate clock, and converting that to a very stable midi clock.

Also, I considered the problem with starting and stopping midi clocked sequencers in sync. Normally, the main sequencer sends a sequencer start to all clocked equipment when you press play, and a sequencer stop when you press stop. That’s all fine, but what if something goes wrong (especially live) and you need to stop one seuencer, fiddle with something, and then restart it in sync (or, what if you accidentally press stop on a sequencer). I, for one, would very much like the possibility to have the sequencer restart in sync on the next downbeat.

So, I thougt, what if you divide the clock signal between two audio signals, one signalling start of bar, and the other signalling running clock. I dug out my Arduino and breadboard, and with a bit of (very simple) patching and coding I came up with this:

syncstart.mov

Ableton live is feeding two clock signals (pulse waves), via an UltraLite mk3, to two digital input pins (with interrupts) on the Arduino. The arduino is generating midi clock using the timing from the clock signals and in turn driving a Machinedrum UW. A button enables me to start/stop the MD on the downbeat of the bar after the button press. In the demo you can hear the MD starting/stopping in sync with Ableton Live:s metronome.