Tip: sending 4 USB channels to one synth multiplies clock rate

[synthdad]

Hi,

I was testing my NDLR with the Elektron Digitone, and initially set each part to play on a separate USB MIDI channel corresponding to each of the 4 tracks on the Digitone (e.g. Pad = MIDI Ch 1 USB1, Drone = MIDI Ch2, USB2). While this worked for sequencing from the NDLR every time I added a channel the clock on the Digitone was multiplied - each USB channel was sending a clock and all the clock pulses got added together on the Digitone. I ended up with a beat of 360bpm on the Digitone which was...fun!

This was easily fixed by setting each part to the same USB port, but on different MIDI channels so only one clock pulse was sent to the Digitone. Just a tip if anyone else sees this happen...

[Darryl]

So The NDLR and the Digitone are connected to USB ports on your PC? And the Digitone is receiving clock via PC USB MIDI from The NDLR. I suppose you could also connect a 5 pin MIDI cable from The NDLR to the Digitone and skip the PC altogether.

We were talking about whether we should have an option to select which USB MIDI port clock should go out on. There are likely other cases where some VST or device can't select which port to receive clock from. However, your workaround is a reasonable fix as long as the software or device can be configured to listen on different MIDI channels. There shouldn't be any modern software that doesn't have a port and channel selector, its built into Windows MIDI Services APIs.