Logic Pro 9 Logic Synchronization & MIDI TimePiece/AV

[mk3]

Hello, Logicians...

I've been using Logic with the MOTU MIDI TimePiece/AV for some years now, but after a few oddities (random loss of connection to the MTP/AV with Logic giving a "MIDI TimeOut error", etc), I decided to look into the settings.

What are the optimum settings in the Project Settings: Sync for this combination? (In my case, I use the MTP/AV also as a clock master via wordclock to a Spirit 328 and then into the MOTU 2408mkII audio interface).

I had left these settings at their defaults, but now I notice that the frame rate in Logic is 25, while it's 30 on the MTP/AV. I do not sync to video devices, so perhaps that difference is irrelevant.

Any recommendations the specific settings (and also of any settings to customize on the MTP/AV itself, which also I have left mostly at the default settings, except for changing some routings years ago) would be very welcome.

Best regards,
mk3

 

[Gio]

Hi mk,
I've had my mtp/av since last century and pretty much have left it with one setting.
I did change my logic sessions to always come up as 29.97 and had the mtp set to sync at 29.97 since i do deal with video many times, and it is somewhat the standard for broadcast here in the US. try to get those two to match all the time and the problem should go away.
good luck
ciao
gio

 

[mk3]

Dear Gio,
Thank you for the reply...
It seems that the problem was with just one project. Very odd. That project had been working fine, and suddenly I began getting these constant MIDI Timeout errors, wherein Logic advises one to restart, and one cannot even quit Logic, requiring a Force Quit. Then the Midi TimePiece becomes lost entirely to the system; oven MOTU's Clockworks software does not see the device. A restart brings things back to normal.

I tried the obvious solutions: deleting MIDI drivers and reinstalling, restarts, etc. Finally I tried various other projects, and all were fine. So I ended up using Logic's handy new track import features, and importing the tracks from the problem project into a new blank project. So far so good. Unfortunately, plug-in automation did not carry over, but at least plug-ins and routings did.

One note of interest: The problem project is one of very few projects on my system with serious tempo curves. I wonder if this was somehow the source of trouble. Still, the project was working fine until yesterday, and suddenly began exhibiting this behaviour. Going back to an older version in Time Machine also did not exhibit the problems. So I suspect something got corrupted. It all began with an error about a new SMPTE frame rate being recognized....

At any rate, hopefully my MIDI Timepiece/AV is fine (I had one fail in the past, luckily while under warranty, and MOTU did a quick replacement).

ZM

 

[musiclab]

I would not use a MTPAV for word clock. It's great for midi sync but as a word clock master for other digital audio devices I suspect their own internal clocks would be better

 

[mk3]

Musiclab - Thank you for the message. Actually, I believe it was Soundcraft/Spirit's own representative who recommended using the MTP/AV word clock as master, saying that it was better than the Spirit 328's own clock (which is quite fine by itself, of course, and I can't say that I notice an audible difference, but I have not done any really critical A/B listening. Maybe a "golden ears" will hear the difference).

mk3

 

[musiclab]

I would think that the soundcraft rep was thinking about a digital time piece, and even that clock ain't so great. You're not getting any sonic benefits by using the MTPav as a word clock master, and if anything it might be degrading your audio a bit. so why bother?