Will Mainstage sync to midi clock

I can get Mainstage to catch the tempo from midi beat clock sent from an MPC1000 into Mainstage.

I can also get Mainstage to catch start, stop continue messages.

 

But I cannot get any sequenced based plugins to really play in sync with this midi beat clock. They are more than an 8th note behind.

 

Either Mainstage doesn't really sync only recognies the tempo or I've set this thing up the wrong way.

 

Any advice?

Either Mainstage doesn't really sync only recognies the tempo

 

That is correct: MainStage uses MIDI clock to extract the tempo.

The only workaround seems to have a human on the receiving end phase-nudge the sync into time. You might want to try Plogue Bidule, Torsig, the dead silence in relation to our questions on Mainstage's MIDI behavior leads me to think this is an intractable issue.

Yes, Bidule is great in many ways, I also like Numerology. But my main reason for using Mainstage is EXS24 so...

 

It strange, my TR606 which is almost 30 years old will sync to midiclock but not a top modern midi app on a top modern computer.

Either Mainstage doesn't really sync only recognies the tempo

 

That is correct: MainStage uses MIDI clock to extract the tempo.

 

But what's the action object called "Midi Beat clock" for if it doesn't sync to it?

But what's the action object called "Midi Beat clock" for if it doesn't sync to it?

 

Beat clock - as the name implies - is just a MIDI clock. By itself you can extract the tempo out of it (by measuring the timing between several incoming beat clocks), but that's it. This is supported since MainStage 1.0.

 

For full synching you actually need a timeline with bars and beats and being able to actually re-position if necessary. MainStage as a strict live application doesn't have a timeline, so there is no full-sync.

 

In most cases that is perfectly fine, but beat clock contains no information about down- or up-beats, which can be a problem in some cases. Even if MainStage would support that, the external device would have to support that, too - which is not very probable.

 

If an external device provides the tempo, it's like playing with other musicians: somebody leads and the rest follows. Which means you have to follow the external device. The exceptions where this fails are certain clock based things, which can be Loopback or Playback, because they don't know the intention of the external device. Again: you could trigger by hand, just like playing in-sync.

I know this is an old thread – but this is still one of my main issues with Mainstage.

 

I use Mainstage for live keyboard sounds, but to sync a simple arpeggio to incoming midiclock I have to run other applications like ableton live in parallel.

 

Even soft synths like N-I FM8 that will easily sync when running standalone, becomes a confused doggy when running within MS.

 

For full synching you actually need a timeline with bars and beats and being able to actually re-position if necessary. MainStage as a strict live application doesn't have a timeline, so there is no full-sync.

Full syncing with timeline is not necessary. We're not talking song position or SMPTE sync. The "intention of the external device" is not relevant imo. My intention is to have midiclock supplied by my drummer control arpeggios, tremolo effects, etc on a bar by bar basis. 

 

My Nord Lead will do it, any old synth will do it. They don't have a clue on (long) timelines, but they know that the first incoming clock message is the downbeat, 96 midi-clock events is a bar, and then they do divisions accordingly.

 

If anything MS should just gracefully pass on incoming midiclock to the plugins.

I'm interested also. Same problem. I tried to sync MS arpeggiator to our drummers midiclock, but the lack was huge...

MainStage can't sync to midi clock. If you use PlogueBidule as a plugin inside MainStage, then it can sync to midi clock but you have to use third party plugins inside it for arp or whatever, you won't be able to use MainStage built in midi effects like arp and have them sync to midi clock.

Ok, thanks! By getting the mainstage tempo from midiclock I can play the arp few bars in time if I just trigger it at right time, but having a real sync would be of course better.

Ok, thanks! By getting the mainstage tempo from midiclock I can play the arp few bars in time if I just trigger it at right time, but having a real sync would be of course better.

That is exactly right. I must say I still find it very weird that MS can't do simple midiclock sync.

I'll look at the PlogueBidule solution, seems interesting

 

Personally i've now taken all midiclock synced sounds out on hardware synths like the Artutia matrixbrute. Expensive solution…

Oh, just searched for this, and came across this unfortunate thread.

I too just found this unfortunate thread. If anyone can explain how to set up Plogue Bidule as the solution that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I don't have an easy way to test midi clock to see if this works, but its probably something along these lines...

 

 

Make sure to right click on whatever arp you're using and there is a "sync to" parameter, you can specify the midi clock to sync object...

 

 

If you right click on the midi clock to sync, there are a few different options and i didn't read into it any further to figure out how they work...but anyway, this should get you started...

I think I may have found a workaround that I am currently testing. The problem I was facing was that mainstage didn’t recognize the beat one. So what I did was instead of syncing the tempo (might also work if you synced the tempo) I just set a fixed tempo in the concert or patch. I then just had a midi cc message send from the device that I wanted to bring Midi into mainstage trigger the playback button on mainstage. When you hit the playback button on mainstage it pushes the internal clock to beat one in mainstage internally (in theory). So mainstage recognizes that when you hit playback that is the start (beat one) of your tempo.

 

So my setup is that my drummer has another instance of mainstage running on a separate laptop that runs click and other instruments/ tracks, but I wanted my laptop - that has my synths, to sync to that clock/ computer. So when my drummer hits space bar on that laptop, it starts the click and then also sends a midi cc message through a midi cable to my computer that tells my mainstage to also start playback (the play button) This in turn, starts them relatively at the same time and on beat one. Then when the song is done he hits space bar again and that sends a midi cc message to my computer to stop playback. It isn’t completely full proof, but it has seen better results than the alternatives I’ve tried. I’d be interested if someone tested this out, or used this theory to make it better.