First off let me start by excusing myself with my lack of knowledge in this field. I have only started to learn about midi, DMX, etc. For my first few shows I used Quickshow and just beat synced manually, so that’s what is started with here too. Im not sure what it is. Maybe I’m using it wrong, but beat sync feels much slower to react on liberation. I also would love to get away from it as it’s just another thing to have to focus on. How can I go about getting the BPM synced with liberation automatically. Most of the time I’m going into a show blind. No idea what CDJ or even songs will be played. Im not even sure if there is a reliable way to do this at all, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Im talking with the event originators now to try to find out what DJ decks will be used for my upcoming show if that is any help to finding a solution. Thanks
I would suggest checking with promoters/venue managers to find out what mixer will be used and/or what is on the DJ tech rider. The mixer is where you will tap MIDI clock from, not the deck.
You can get a direct MIDI clock out if they use the following mixers:
Pioneer DJM-V10, DJM-A9, DJM-2000, DJM-2000NXS, DJM-900SRT
Denon x1800 or x1850
Xone PX5 or 4D
Each of these has a 5-pin DIN MIDI port on the back with built-in BPM detection and clock output, but it may need to be enabled in the mixer’s settings. If the DJ already uses the DIN out, a MIDI Solutions Thru or Quadra Thru can split the signal. Other splitters are available, but these have been extremely reliable for me for over 7 years. If you need more than 9m/30ft of cable length, iConnectivity makes devices that convert MIDI to Ethernet. You should be able to find an old mio4 for around $100 on Reverb.
If you are playing with live acts using Ableton Live, ask them to setup a virtual MIDI out then enable incoming connections in “MIDI Network Setup” in the “Audio MIDI Setup” program. They can enable just the sync output setting for the virtual MIDI device inside Ableton which passes clock across the network to other virtual MIDI receivers. Instructions can be found on Ableton’s site.
Hey Jacob,
I must admit that tap tempo is working well for me, although I realise I have never really explained how it works - that’s something I’ll make a video about in the future. But for now :
The three elements of tap tempo are :
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Tap Tempo button (or T on the keyboard) *
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Metronome button ( or R on the keyboard) - resets the bar. In other words it jumps back to the start of the bar. Very useful as a reset if you’re drifting.
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Tempo knob on APC40 can be used to round the tempo down or up to the nearest beat, ‘Y’ on the keyboard also rounds the nearest BPM. Good if you’re working with electronic music that is likely to be a round number BPM.
Thanks @Afturmath for your very comprehensive guide to MIDI sync options! Network MIDI (or RTP MIDI) is very powerful and I’ve used it many times with live bands, although it can be a pain to get it set up.
The other app I’ve had good results with is called WaveClock, it seems a little unloved - there have been no updates for a while - but it uses machine learning to produce a pretty good MIDI clock from any audio. And I’ve found it works well, there’s a free trial I think.
Hope this helps
Seb
- Fun fact 1 - you can have one person tapping tempo on the APC and another tapping on the keyboard and Liberation takes the average of both taps!
- Fun fact 2 - You can miss a beat or two and the system will intelligently figure it out. Every other system I’ve ever used has got confused when you do that.
I found waveclock when researching, but I unfortunately I cannot get it to open proeprly as it keeps crashing. I can get there wavetick software to run, but yet have to figure out how to make it notice any music. Im going to spend some more time messing with it when I can.
EDIT - I figired out the audio input. Im not used to Macs haha. Now I need to figure out how to get the output to liberation. I believe there is a software to do this?
The WaveClock issue rings a bell - I think I might have set it to run in rosetta mode but I can’t seem to find that option any more… or maybe it’s a permissions issue? It’s certainly working for me here on this M1 MacBook Pro.
You don’t need special software to route MIDI between apps in MacOS - it’s built in! Open Audio MIDI setup, open the MIDI Studio Window, you should be able to create an IAC driver in there. You can use that driver to route between apps.
Good luck!
Seb
Figured out about the built in midi IAC driver last night! Very convenient and I got WaveTick working with it for the time now. Hopefully I can figure out a way to get WaveClock working since WaveTick costs a decent amount more. Very impressed with the performance of the software and it changes how i use liberation for the best! Now I can’t wait for the sound reactive feature to be added in for even more automatic controls.
I just re-downloaded Waveclock and I had to right-click and select open rather than just double click the app icon. In case you’re new to Macs - it’s a Mac workaround for when you want to run software that hasn’t been properly certified. Hopefully that helps.
I’m able to get the software to start up and get to the screen asking about authentication or using it in trial mode. When I click continue it just crashes and gives me a log. Strange it works for you as i’m also on an m1 chip.
I do have a license for the software so that could be the difference.
Following because this is exactly what I want to do and haven’t found a good solution.