Tight Sync ohne Multiclock! • Wine & Synths

Tight Sync between a DAW and analogue gear with inbuilt sequencers is a bigger deal than you might think in the first place! In this video, I will show you a cheap and effective workaround!

Better than E-RM Multiclock?

My Multiclock review from last year became one of the most discussed videos on this channel. Obviously, a lot of you guys have encountered similar problems in your setups. This is why I carefully wrote down all your questions to give you more useful tips to get a better timing in your studio! I will answer in detail later on, when there hopefully will also be more to say about the future of the Multiclock in general.

An interview with Sebastian Preller, one of the developers of the Multiclock.

In this video, I will show you how you can make use of the "Multiclock Principle" by using a cheap Behringer Drum-Machine like the RD-8 or the RD-9. The most important is that your machine has analogue trigger connections. Normally, I think you can also make this work with any other drum machine that has this feature.

Behringers RD-8/9 are specially suited for this as they also dispose of the very handy Synthtribe Tool, which makes it extremely easy to set up! And you can get them for a steal!

So here is what I tried:

First, I will quickly remind you, that the multi clock generates a very tight Midi-Clock that is generated from an audio signal, that comes from your DAW. In my case, as always, it’s Ableton Live.
If you take a closer look at this audio signal (don’t listen to them! It’s not worth it until you have a fetish for MRI machines!) and how the whole ting works, you will see that there is really no magic involved. The signal that the Multiclock app emits is nothing else than a usual middle of the road analogue audio trigger signal.
If you take a closer look at this audio signal (don’t listen to them! It’s not worth it until you have a fetish for MRI machines!) and how the whole ting works, you will see that there is really no magic involved. The signal that the Multiclock app emits is nothing else than a usual middle of the road analogue audio trigger signal.

So first get the Multiclock-Plugin or the Audio file with the trigger signal from the internet. Link in the description!
Assign it to an output of your interface and you are ready to connect your RD.

In order to make the Drum Computer work, open the Synthtribe app.
Make sure the RD is set to TRIG as clock source, and 24 PPQ should work. On the MIDI side, you can disable all the features. That’s all. If you now start Ableton, the RD should start also without any USB or MIDI connection.

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Here is a quick example with an Ableton drum rack, the RD-8s own sounds like snare and cowbell. On the analogue side I connected the TD-3-MO via trigger (here just set the TD to receive Trigger instead of MIDI-Clock) and the Arpeggiator of the Juno gets a trigger from the RD’s Cowbell channel. Check it out!

I can tell you that all this works really nicely. As these are only analogue clock signals, you will have to reset your machines to the first step before restarting the DAW. Or you leave it as it is and enjoy the fascination of randomness! :-)

But there is also a bitter pill!

But there is also a bitter pill! The RD does not convert the analogue trigger to MIDI-Clock. Otherwise, it would be the almost perfect Multiclock-Substitute. But If you just need several sources of analogue trigger and a rock solid timing in your analogue setup, consider this possibility!

I hope that this more technical video was not too boring and that I could hopefully help you to get tighter with your grooves! Also, I discovered a really handy Side of those drum machines as clock generators, processors & sequencers while I was rethinking the concept of my studio. This makes them even more attractive!

There are some Thomann and Perfect Circuit affiliate links to the gear used in this video right down in the description. That’s a great way to support this channel. Every time you buy something there, we get a share. I like!!!!

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