Elektron Musical Instruments

Exactly.  You would think that would be the case, but things are not what they always seem sometimes.

The disenchanting part is that the timing gets better when using the MD to trigger other devices over MIDI.  This suggests, as I mentioned, that the slop is not only due to some random bug in Elektron's sequencer code, but it's also due to the internal synthesis engine of the MD.  This leads me to speculate this could be an impossible situation to improve to a level where it would match devices like my MC-80 or Dave's MPC.

Here are some more interesting numbers.  Instead of looking at "maximum deviation" of samples between quarter notes, consider the average deviation:

MD triggering itself: 56.375 samples ~= 19 ms
MD triggering MC-80: 30.533 samples ~= 10.5 ms 
MD triggering Nord: 20.333 samples ~= 7 ms

Ironically enough, I recall setting my "MIDI offset" in Ableton Live to right around 19ms when I had Live synced to the MD.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Patrik Rydberg 
  To: elektron-users@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 3:37 AM
  Subject: Re: [elektron] timing




  Scott skrev:
  > 
  > 
  > MD original triggering its own internal rimshot: 97 samples / 33ms (once 
  > every 4 measures)
  > MD triggering the MC-80 rimshot: 90 samples / 31ms (once every 4 measures)
  > MD triggering the Nord pulse: 64 samples / 22ms (once every 4 measures)
  > 

  Interresting...

  > Returning to the MD, however, reexamining the numbers:
  > 
  > 33ms internal MD sound
  > 31ms external MC-80 sound
  > 22ms external Nord sound
  > 
  > It seems there could be as much as 33% of the MD's overall timing slop 
  > could be due to the synth/sample playback engine, whereas the remaining 
  > 67% could be due to the sequencing engine. This is by no means an 
  > exhaustive scientific study, however, a preliminary one whose results 
  > are a bit intriguing...

  Well, the way I see it, if the Machinedrum is running on internal clock, 
  triggering its own sample engine from its own sequencer, the timing has 
  every possibility to be very accurate, not just as good as triggering 
  external synths via midi. Using MIDI, you have all the problems with the 
  midi protocol. Internally, between the MD sequencer and synth engine, 
  why use midi? Compare the situation to a DAW. When triggering external 
  midi stuff they are sloppy, but when triggering VSTi:s the timing is 
  sample accurate.

  /Patrik
  www.cutpaste.org



   

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]