Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

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luminousnature
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Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

Post by luminousnature » Sat Jun 25, 2016 12:00 am

Hello,
After following the manual and trying all I could imagine (including midi link sync) I am not able to get patterning or Samplr to slave to Auria's clock. I also tried searching for this topic which must be here but with little result. Should these be able to sync? It seems they should also receive MMC which would be awesome. Any ideas? Thanks!

luminousnature
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Re: Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

Post by luminousnature » Sat Jun 25, 2016 5:12 am

. . . the main thing I'm really wanting to do is find an efficient way to get audio loops I have created in Samplr into Auria and in sync with each other. Many of the loops I create are difficult to cut by ear and seeing the waveform due to the nature of the audio. Thought if Auria would start Samplr when recording I could just cut after the desired amount of bars etc. thanks

Cpu Red
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Re: Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

Post by Cpu Red » Sun Jun 26, 2016 4:25 am

Patterning has a function called Inter App Audio Sync. If you add Patterning to a track as IAA you can use this to slave Patterning to Auria. The problem i have found is once your Auria track loops over, then Patterning stops playing. Another instance where i wish Auria had Ableton Link. It works so well, things like this wouldnt be a problem anymore.

I remember one post maybe a year or more ago where someone had figured out the right options to pick inside of Auria to get it to sync with other apps but it might be hard to find that post.

I am a little bit confused as what you are trying to accomplish with Samplr. If you are just trying to adjust the length then you can move the whoke file into Auria and cut it there. Can you please elaborate?

ajun
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Re: Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

Post by ajun » Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:50 am

Yes, you can get Patterning and Samplr to sync with Auria’s clock. Patterning directly, Samplr with a workaround involving Pattering.

Basically, MIDI on iOS is a bit of a cluster#_{%. While everyone is using Core MIDI as the underlying framework, the implementation and user interface are up to the developer and so every app is different to a greater or lesser degree.

I’m assuming the approach you took was to send MIDI clock out of Auria to Patterning and Samplr by toggling the “Send Clock” buttons for both, and then select MIDI clock receive from Auria in Patterning and the same in Samplr?
That would be the logical approach (“I want clock to go out of here and come in from there”), but it’s not how Core MIDI on iOS works.

You have to think of things in a much more literal sense on iOS and understand that names are referring to ports (inputs and outputs, which are not the same) and not the apps per se.

When you send clock from Auria to Patterning by toggling on the “Send Clock” button, you are directly sending it out of Auria to an input port called “Patterning.” Therefore, to get Patterning (the app) to sync to the clock from Auria (the app), you don’t set it to receive clock from the “Auria” port, rather you set it to receive clock from the port called “Patterning”, since that is where the clock is being sent. Yes, it seems bizarre to select that port since it seems like you’re making a feedback loop, but you have to understand that that is not the output of the Patterning app, but rather, an input port named “Patterning.”

Some apps try to avoid this user confusion by calling this port the “Virtual Input” port (e.g. Xynthesizer, Tweaky Beat), but that might be just as confusing since it’s not intuitive what’s feeding that input. In operation it’s the same principle: to MIDI sync Xynthesizer to Auria you would set “Send Clock” for Xynthesizer in Auria and then in Xynthesizer you would set “Clock In” from the “Virtual Input.”

So what’s the Auria port you see on the MIDI receive page in Pattering? It’s the default Core MIDI output port for Auria. But, Auria, like a lot of hosts, doesn’t provide a way for you to send MIDI clock to this port, so, in this case, it’s useless.

Now, this isn’t how all apps behave. Some apps like Patterning, the MIDI/Link apps (both “Link to MIDI” and “MIDI Link Sync”), do provide a self-named output (or, with apps like Xynthesizer / Tweaky Beat it’s called the "Virtual Output"). So, if you were trying to use Patterning as a MIDI clock master, you could set it to output clock to its own “Patterning” output and then in any slave app you could set them to receive clock from that "Patterning" output port.

And Samplr? Well, similar to how Auria doesn't allow you to send MIDI from its self-named output port, Samplr doesn't allow you to receive from its self-named input port. Immediately you can see there's a problem here. If Auria can't send from the Auria output port and Samplr can't receive from the Samplr input port, there's no way to directly sync the two.

The workaround to this actually involves Patterning. As noted, Patterning has access to both its self-named input and output AND it can send MIDI clock while receiving clock (essentially acting as a pass-through).
So you can:
-set Auria to send clock to the “Patterning” input
-have Patterning receive clock from the “Patterning” input
-set Patterning to output clock from the “Patterning” output
-set Samplr to receive clock from the “Patterning” output
-and you’re set! Easy, right?


There are apps like Auria that don't have access to their self-named output port.
There are apps like Samplr that don't have access to their self-named input port.
There are apps like Elastic Drums that ONLY have access to their self-named port.
And there are apps like Thumbjam that can direct MIDI to other apps, but also, always send MIDI out of their self-named output (that can't be switched off).
And....
Like I said, it’s a mess.

Ideally, app developers move to making their apps AU or full IAA Instruments (not just Generators) and this stops being an issue. But devs aren’t exactly rushing to make this happen as in a lot of cases it would involve a major rewrite of their code. Audiobus 3 is looking to simplify MIDI routing, so if it’s simple for devs to update the SDK, that might be a quick path to some more sanity with MIDI on iOS.

Until then, remember, think literally: if you're sending from app "Y" to a port called "X", you need to input from port "X" in app "X"

wigglelights
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Re: Trouble with Clock Sync with Samplr and Patterning

Post by wigglelights » Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:31 am

Thank you ajun! That is one of the most helpful and certainly clearest posts I've ever seen on the midi sync topic! Thank you thank you thank you!

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