JMD clockstep anybody use the JMD music pedal clock step with the aeros beatbuddy midi
I’ve always had problems with bb as master and aeros as master but much better with 5.0.0 update and still got it bouncing around like if it’s 100 BPM it drops down to 99 then back to 101 it never has been very stable. The guy who makes these pedals has to have the most extensive aeros loop pedalboard system the world has ever seen and uses external midi clock and his syncing is rock solid was thinking about adding it to my looperboard build.*
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You probably meant to say JMK.
I use the ClockStep and like it.
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Yea probably hard to remember and slight dislexsia
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Cool it does quite a lot of things it’s not just a one trick pony I forgot the guys name he’s amazing builds complex song structures on his extensive set up just the wiring has to be insane uses the aeros and ehx 92000 I think he builds the clockstep very impressed with his set up if you inherit a few grand to build one like it!or sell a left testicle
Joe King; goes by RockDebris on this forum.
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Thank you!
Hey Fabian, CLOCKstep has its benefits for controlling multiple devices, but I don’t want to leave the impression that judging by what the BPM read-out says between synced devices is really telling of a sync problem. I’ll explain.
It goes back to why MIDI Clock is even a thing: Because no two devices run at exactly the same speed, so the calculation of time on each device will nearly always diverge. Why does that matter for the BPM read-out when each device is supposedly in sync? Because each device has to calculate what the read-out says on its own. The devices are following the pulses that are being generated by a master clock, but there’s no BPM “value” shared between them. The value shown can diverge in small ways EVEN THOUGH the devices are actually still in tight sync. It’s more indicative of the difference that the two devices WOULD have if they weren’t synced together. And considering that rounding is also occurring in the read-out, going up and down 1 BPM is somewhat typical in this scenario.
So, if you are having a problem syncing, it’s going to be pretty obvious because the devices will start to drift apart. Or other functions are problematic due to latency, such as Transport start. But if the only problem is that the read out fluctuates by 1 BPM, that’s not really a concern on its own.
That probably talks you out of CLOCKstep, but I think that’s better if it’s not really going to change the outcome you are judging by. You might look at it for other reasons though, for enhanced workflow.
Cheers,
Joe
JMK Music Pedals
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My setup is pretty simple BB,Aeros, midi Maestro Helix rack and Boss ve500 use studiolive 24 for interface. Basically heavy rock/metal intro verse bridge chorus, lead over rhythm I was using the looperboard and it would go out of sync between the BB and looperboard using MM if I did a transition part and hold for longer transition it would knock it off of sync I figured it was the looper boards midi clock sync they were working on in firmware updates but never fixed my issues I gave up on looperboard and got the aeros but seem to have the same problems if I don’t hit any fills or transitions it will stay in sync but how boaring is that? Sorry for my long winded reply and for my lack of midi knowledge and thanks for replying too.
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IDK, maybe CLOCKstep can help now that you’ve described the problem in more detail. I thought it was just the BPM read-out you were talking about.
When a device does much more than just Master Clock, it’s possible that during times of greater processor utilization the clock function receives less priority, slows down, has more jitter or is trying to merge more data through the MIDI ports than can be relied upon for a steady clock. It’s hard to know without more testing whether it’s the device that’s sending clock having the issue, or if it’s the device receiving the clock. IME, it’s more likely to be the device sending the clock, but it can be either. So that’s one way a dedicated Clock device can help.
Specifically with CLOCKstep, there are features that are meant to work around a host of possible clock issues. Some as simple as having a pre-roll to get everything locked before hitting start. Or commands that can be offset if needed. Or sending out repeated commands automatically after (n) amount of bars that can resync the devices from the beginning if they do drift. That last one I even show how you can make MIDI devices stay in sync that do not follow clock at all.. There’s even the capability to program in custom MIDI commands that work in conjunction with the clock and transports, so its a pretty open system.
The thing that matters most of all is knowing what the problem actually is. Maybe it will be as simple as using a dedicated clock to increase overall stability, that can’t hurt in any event. But when its more than that, you definitely have to troubleshoot and experiment. CLOCKstep can certainly help with that given the number or ways it can be manipulated. I kind of downplayed it in the first post, but as you pointed out, I do run a lot of synchronized gear successfully in my rig. A dedicated Clock does play a pretty big role in being able to do that. It’s hard for me to even remember all the little issues that arise when not using a dedicated Clock, because I’ve used one even long before building CLOCKstep.
Regards,
Joe
JMK Music Pedals.
Hopefully I can order one by Friday or first of the month,I have a full blown humble home studio I got lots of ideas were it will come in handy thanks man!