3 weeks ago
#1
MIDI clock - anybody ever measured how it behaves passing through MIDI routers?
Hi all.
I was reading this thread -->
Which MIDI patchbay: MAV-8, KMX-8, ME30P, ME80P, A880, MJC8, MTP AV, MX-8 or Nexus 3?
because I took part in a jam session 3 weeks ago, where we had 14 musicians, each of them with their own rig.
Of course, we wanted to have only *one* MIDI master clock (generated by an E-RM MultiClock) and to distribute it to everyone. The MultiClock was connected to an AKAI ME30P which was simply working as a distributor (1 input from the MultiClock, sent to all outputs). The ones connected directly to this ME30P were having no issues with sync on their equipment (me, for example, I was receiving the master clock into my Roland SBX-1 and from that one into my BeatStep Pro and some other device). Connected to the ME30P (cascaded) there was another AKAI (ME80P) and the guys connected to that one would fail to remain in sync!!!
We also tried a Waldorf MIDIbay in place of the ME80P - same problems. Finally we got it working with a Kawai MAV-8 (which is most probably *hardware-only*, without any CPU or similar).
To cut a long story short: after the above mentioned jam session, one of the group took it serious and offered to measure with an oscilloscope the behavior of different MIDI boxes.
I participated in this very technical session (which took some 4 hours, btw) and we measured half a dozen devices (not only MIDI patchbays/routers, but also clock generating units). We've for sure seen that the Beatstep Pro has a really poor signal: a huge bias noise and tremendous ripples on the high level of the midi clock signal. Also, it seemed that the best one was the Yamaha MCJ-8, as it probably is doing it only in hardware...
So - has anybody ever taken it this serious as well and made some measurements?
Thanks for sharing/replying/commenting.
F.
PS: I've asked if I might share the results of our tests - I'll get back to you all!
I was reading this thread -->
Which MIDI patchbay: MAV-8, KMX-8, ME30P, ME80P, A880, MJC8, MTP AV, MX-8 or Nexus 3?
because I took part in a jam session 3 weeks ago, where we had 14 musicians, each of them with their own rig.
Of course, we wanted to have only *one* MIDI master clock (generated by an E-RM MultiClock) and to distribute it to everyone. The MultiClock was connected to an AKAI ME30P which was simply working as a distributor (1 input from the MultiClock, sent to all outputs). The ones connected directly to this ME30P were having no issues with sync on their equipment (me, for example, I was receiving the master clock into my Roland SBX-1 and from that one into my BeatStep Pro and some other device). Connected to the ME30P (cascaded) there was another AKAI (ME80P) and the guys connected to that one would fail to remain in sync!!!
We also tried a Waldorf MIDIbay in place of the ME80P - same problems. Finally we got it working with a Kawai MAV-8 (which is most probably *hardware-only*, without any CPU or similar).
To cut a long story short: after the above mentioned jam session, one of the group took it serious and offered to measure with an oscilloscope the behavior of different MIDI boxes.
I participated in this very technical session (which took some 4 hours, btw) and we measured half a dozen devices (not only MIDI patchbays/routers, but also clock generating units). We've for sure seen that the Beatstep Pro has a really poor signal: a huge bias noise and tremendous ripples on the high level of the midi clock signal. Also, it seemed that the best one was the Yamaha MCJ-8, as it probably is doing it only in hardware...
So - has anybody ever taken it this serious as well and made some measurements?
Thanks for sharing/replying/commenting.
F.
PS: I've asked if I might share the results of our tests - I'll get back to you all!
