After many years of relying on whatever external MIDI Clock devices are available, I finally built my own to work exactly as I wanted. I thought I’d do a little show and tell using the Aeros, since that’s the looper pedal I’m using the most today. I think the demo also serves as a generic kind of introduction to why someone would want to use an external MIDI Clock. Let me know what you think of the features, and if you have any ideas to improve it I’d love to hear them. Perhaps I can make it into a firmware that other people will want to use too.
In that current form, using a painted and silkscreened hammond enclosure and PCB, it could probably be done around $90 - $100 with a small profit (I guess it really depends on how much of a bulk order I’d want to do … my current thinking is not that many. It’s kind of a niche within a niche).
Yeah, I was using the TEMPODE for a long time because it could do both clock and start/stop, plus external MIDI Control, but those are no longer made. Really though, I’ve never found a device to do exactly what I wanted. If I continue by adding some hardware to this to support my complete idea, it’ll be unlike anything out there, but then I may be the only customer! (which is okay since I’m building it because I’m a looping artist and need it)
I only had to watch the first minute. I wanted this exact thing before I got the Aeros - I was using the built-in looper on my Line 6 Helix, which was great, but had no MIDI sync capability. If this had existed at the time, I might have tried buying it instead of the Aeros (even though the Helix Looper isn’t as powerful as the Aeros, not being a dedicated product). If the MIDI commands are programmable - as in, you can choose what MIDI commands you want to queue and send, or even if it had some type of buffer to store incoming MIDI messages and output them on the next beat - then yeah, I’ll buy one.
Hey, I appreciate the input and I’m glad this is something a few other people have seen a need for! Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have really solved anything for the built-in looper on the Helix, so you made the right choice. A device like mine is predicated on the idea that the looping product will follow the MIDI Clock pulses being sent to it to keep timing in sync. That’s lacking on the Helix and can’t be put in externally. The two products timing will drift apart, which will result in the cued up commands not occurring precisely when you want them to in relation to the loop in the Helix.
Yeah. For the Helix, I’d specifically thought of trying to have an external device send a “start” MIDI command, and then send a separate command to end the recording, just for timing purposes. It’s true that the looper after that point would be running on its own internal timing, but if the loops are the correct length (as dictated by the MIDI timing commands) then it’d work. Basically, queueing up a Stop action, and then having that MIDI command transformed into a Helix Looper Play/Overdub command. Never figured out a good way to do this without resorting to Ableton, though, or at least having a computer in the mix running MIDIpipe or the like.
If the Aeros hadn’t come along, I would definitely have gone down this rabbit hole, though. My next idea was to actually build some type of MIDI buffer that could queue arbitrary commands and delay sending until the next beat, but that was a rabbit hole I desperately wanted to avoid.
Good luck with the MIDI Clock. I think there are only a few people who make these in a pedal enclosure.
I like it! I would be interested in one. Been attempting to learn MIDI programming with my MIDI master and Beat Buddy. Any suggestions? I use my BB all the time for straight beats but would like to implement song changes and eventually add a looper, Aeros or otherwise. I hardly know what I need yet!
No suggestions myself, other than I think you are in the right place to find answers. You really just have to have the pieces in front of you (MIDI Controller, BB and a Looper) and play with them some first for a bit. I don’t think this proof-of-concept pedal, which is not a product at this time, is really what you are looking for at this stage, but I thank you for liking what it does!
