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+--- Thread: MIDI Clock Sync Latency Issue with MRCC and External Hardware in Ableton Live (/showthread.php?tid=3778)
MIDI Clock Sync Latency Issue with MRCC and External Hardware in Ableton Live - raqpar - 07-02-2025
Hi,
I'm experiencing an issue when connecting my external hardware to Ableton Live via the MRCC virtual input.
I would like to use my external gear as if it were plugins inside Ableton Live—meaning, when I press the Start button in Live, I want my external hardware to start in perfect sync with the Live project. However, I can't seem to find the correct settings on the MRCC to compensate for the hardware latency within Live.
My external hardware setup includes:
- Elektron Analog Rytm MKII
- Elektron Analog Four MKII
- Roland SH-4d
- Korg Opsix MKII
- I selected Virtual Input 1 on my MRCC.
- Then I routed MIDI outputs 1, 2, 3, and 4 to Virtual Input 1.
- I connected the MRCC MIDI Out ports to the MIDI In ports of each piece of hardware.
In Ableton, I went to Preferences > Link, Tempo, and MIDI, and under the Output section, I enabled 'Track' and 'Sync' for all 4 MRCC ports. I set the MIDI Clock Type to Pattern and the Hardware Resync Mode to Stop and Start.
After that, I recorded a drum beat from my Elektron Analog Rytm to check for latency. It was 13 ms off from the grid. In the Link, Tempo and MIDI settings, I tried entering -13 ms in the MIDI Clock Sync Delay section to fix the latency, but nothing changed — the 13 ms delay was still there.
I also checked the settings on my external hardware — all of them are receiving MIDI and clock data correctly.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of issue before? If you can help me solve it, it would be greatly appreciated!
RE: MIDI Clock Sync Latency Issue with MRCC and External Hardware in Ableton Live - Jesse Johannesen - 07-02-2025
The short answer is there isn't an setting for that on the MRCC. The round trip MIDI time to send data from the computer to the MRCC and back to the computer is about 3ms at the longest by our tests. The only reason that I can imagine for more latency would be if you were absolutely flooding the buffers with data by sending something like multiple fast MIDI LFOs or something along those lines. If the delay exists it's likely to be another factor. I don't have any of the gear you're testing in the lab currently so I can't try and reproduce the issue on my end, but if you want I can set us up a video call to go through it and see if I can find any points where an issue stands out. Send me an email at Support@conductivelabs.com with your availability and time zone.
Jesse
RE: MIDI Clock Sync Latency Issue with MRCC and External Hardware in Ableton Live - RadekPilich - 07-03-2025
I don't understand this routing, why would you do that?
"Then I routed MIDI outputs 1, 2, 3, and 4 to Virtual Input 1."
If you are sending MIDI notes from Ableton to devices, then there used to be an offset setting for each track. That's how you can bring their latency differences closer together. I don't think you can send multiple clocks from Ableton that are offset. But there might be some plugin to do so. I am not fully up to date regarding Ableton though.
To send different clock to each device, you would need to use 4 virtual out ports and link each one to corresponding physical port into devices set to external /slave clocks.