Midi time code

hi everybody ;-)
i have no experience of time coding, but i have this year a project where i need to associate VVVV with others softwares. TimeCode sounds the best solution.

does any one as a working TIME CODE MIDI Based set of patchs, demonstrationg how to slave a patch, and how create a master patch generating Midi Timecode ?

hi
tell us more about your setup!
it really depends on the software you want to slave and the precision you want (frame sync?)
not sure generating the timecode in vvvv is possible and the way to go!
have a look at midiOx it can generate both MidiTimeCode and MidiClock (less precise)
some sequencers like cubase need a “real” MidiTimecode to be slaved…
others like Live supports Midiclock and midiclock in slave mode
but can only generate MidiClock.

salut circuitb ;-)

[quote=“circuitb”]
MidiClock (less precise)
[/quote] >> good to know. you have any experience in it ?

project:

extending whitecat capabilities by inserting slave and mastering MIDI time code.
This enabling serious work for open-air fix install or museums. anything needing midi synchronisation between machines and softwares.
i would like also to frame sync VVVV patches. I have some bad experiences about sound and video synchronisation.

I have a lot of users using VVVV and art-net to render video playbacks.

Actually reflexion is to integrate the remoting GUI inside whitecat ( time position, play pause etc buttons).
So writting of a custom protocol, and synchronisation if lights (generated) and sound (played) by whitecat need a perfect sync. Talking about 100th second of precision.

So that s why i was thinking of MIDI TIME CODE.
I m thinking its something universal. But i m affraid to hear that live is using Midi Clock.

So what could be the best approach, especially working with devices/softwares very different ?

ok, any body having experience and patches to share with MIDICLOCK ?

Hi, I use vvvv for visuals synced with ableton for live audio for individual songs which are played in order during a set.

Once they are actually both triggered together they stay in sync surprisingly well without needing to share a timecode. I’ve tested that repeatedly up to 30mins or so.

But I’ve had real life problems triggering the two reliably together, normally during gigs (ggrrrr) so I decided it might be better if they could at least talk to each other and then I could add a “force sync” control to slave the video to the music if they were miles out.

I tried the ableton control patches (using liveOSC) which I fought with for 2 days straight of trying everything with zero success (could never get the two to communicate).

Also looked into the MTC but as has been said here ableton doesn’t do that.

So right now I’m using a bodge using midi clock and unusual time signature (64/1 @ 100bpm) in ableton with each song given its own fixed time slot of 20mins (so that I can easily translate the midi clock to percentage through the song) and then I just use midi triggers to jump to the next track. when nothing’s on screen it just jumps to a silent loop way off at the end. The project is always set to “play” at all times (removing the chance of the play buttons not working from triggers like what happened at a gig once)

This way I can also have two big numbers up on screen (frame no from ableton and from vvvv) so I can see straight away if there’s a problem. I have a force sync button which jumps to the frame from the ableton timecode. Which makes it briefly jerky but normally fixes it from there onwards.

It works but it’s a butt ugly solution. Can’t help thinking there must be something more elegant.

oulalalala… you mean with a clean simple patch everything is ok ?

well it was clean and simple once and no it didn’t work! So I guess not.

edit: not sure what you mean - the patch is not that complex. just the fact that you have to constrain the way it’s setup in ableton. But it works. If anyone wants to see it i’ll post it up. Though if you are lucky enough to get livvvveOSC working then you won’t need my crazy version…

i built a max for live device for osc syncing with vvvv. would this be helpfull?

definitely!

cool. It’s a simple patch which sends the transport data from live and receives pitch, velocity and duration from vvvv via osc and translates it into midi. Has to do with a step sequencer i’m working on.

Syncing works and ableton receives the notes and everything is fine. Only thing is that i get doubled midi notes (instead of one note, several small notes close to each other). Still searching for the problem…

StepSequencerOSC.rar (8.3 kB)

casinowilhelm will be happy ;-)

still in need to see how to get synchronisation with MIDICLOCK and ableton or any other software .

I am happy! another weapon to use is always good. Works great for timecode from ableton but not the other way round so far. Seemed to be missing “osc-route” which I found here: http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/patch/4029
but that hasn’t helped. Is that the right version?

karistouf - did you ever look into midi-ox? quite a few people seem to be using it as a master time code generator - that was going to be my next attempt - maybe trying to slave them both to that. Or to something like reaper?

Ah right osc-route is what you need to have installed in your Max/patches folder. And you need to close all max windows and press the port buttons in the device. Happy that you can use It.

yep that works. thanks for sharing that!

the midi clock node should be easy to understand, just make sure, that the midi input port you are using is not used by another software.

ok, thanks a lot for all this informations. any patch around demonstrating slaving vvvv with midi clock ?

this help at all?

using midi-ox as timecode generator:

http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=10109

yes, completely, now i need some time to code it ;-) thanks a lot

Just a quick note, I now use rtpMIDI instead of MidiOverLan, free, works on Win7, and works with native Mac LAN MIDI driver. Funny this thread came up, I need to sync Live to vvvv! Or really have vvvv set the Live BPM (from video analysis) and then sync to it. Will report back…