syncing daws together

[drakepeterdrake]

Hi,

I use a convoluted system to get my work done, wherein I write and record everything in Opcode Studio Vision Pro on a G4, and use Logic as a stand-alone host for plugins on a separate Mac Pro. Apart from having to manually compensate for the latency of the signal leaving SVP going to Logic and returning, the system works fine. I can even slave Logic to SVP via MTC out of my Midi Timepiece so that I can automate plugins, with Logic receiving MTC through a very simple M-Audio UNO USB midi interface.

 

Ah, but one is never satisfied is one? I was trying to get tight enough sync with SVP as the master and Logic as the slave that I could import the audio tracks into Logic and have it automatically compensate for plugin delay, plus I'd have more outputs available. I have found that the MTC sync is just not tight enough or consistently off by one way or the other. Using a Russian Dragon, I monitored the same audio recording of a click playing in both SVP and Logic slaved to SVP. The timing is just all over the place; sometimes only a ms or two fast or slow, sometimes audibly out of sync. Stopping and starting in the middle of the song was even worse. The signals didn't really "drift" - they either started together or they were offset and retained that offset.

 

I tried the opposite, having Logic generate MTC but the MidiTimepiece absolutely refuses to "repeat" that incoming MTC into SVP. The clockworks indicator for the Midi Timepiece shows that it is in fact receiving the correct 30 fps MTC from Logic, but it won't pass it along to SVP in my other computer. I even used the Clockworks program for the Midi Timepiece and slaved SVP to the Timepiece, and sent sync to Logic. This provided the tightest most consistent sync with both programs essentially slaved to the Midi Timepiece, but it's very impractical and eventually causes SVP to crash.

 

I have a headache. (You probably do as well after reading such a long post - sorry.) Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Peter

[drakepeterdrake]

Note: I did try using another MTP connected to the Mac Pro to send/receive sync to/from the G4-MTP system, as I have a spare, and there was no improvement over the sloppiness going from SVP to Logic, and the total lack of sync going from Logic to SVP. The people at MOTU aren't telling me much I don't already know. I do recall that OS9 (in the G4) and OSX (in the Mac Pro) use different clocking; maybe they can never be resolved? Thanks again.