click midi sync

[oslpchris]

Alright, I'm a midi idiot, I have no problem admitting that. Lately, my band and I are trying to get a
click laid down (as an audio track) and sync it to midi so protools can count measures and know where the beats are. So
I've got the drum machine hooked in and midi'd up but when I go into midi - change tempo, it changes
the tempo of the click just fine but it doesn't change the tempo of the sync. So the bars and beats don't
line up. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I've gotten it to work a couple of times but don't
what I did. I know this is a pretty vague question but I don't have much more info than that. Protools is
controlling the drum machine but like I said it's not syncing the tempo to the measure/beats showing in grey
in the edit window behind the track? Does that make sense? thanks for any help you guys can offer.

chris

[MasterJ]

There are a couple of answers:

If you've already laid the click as an audio track, PTLE is not going to change the tempo on that. When you make a tempo change in PTLE, it only afftects the MIDI.

If the click is still MIDI, and the tempo is not changing, check to make sure that the conductor is highglighted in the MIDI control section of the transport window.

Hope this helps,

MasterJ

[Roy Howell]

MasterJ,
The conductor has to UNhighlighted to change bpm, or else it stays at 120bpm, doesn't it? Forgive me if I missed something...

Roy

[oslpchris]

I think I get what you're saying.. the little buttons under the shuffle/grid section right? sorry I'm a simpleton. I'm trying to lay down the audio track to sync w/ the midi beats per minute. That's what I can't get to sync. I'm not trying to change an existing audio track, I just want want PT to control the drum machine and create a click w/ the beats lining up w/ the midi tempo. I'll play w/ it somemore when I get home. Thanks for the info.

chris

[Roy Howell]

Chris,

If I understand you, here's the deal. If you're trying to get Midi drum notes to line up TO an existing Audio track, it's gonna be tough.
To set up a Midi beat and THEN lay down Audio is easy. But since your existing Audio track's tempo will waver somewhere down the line, it's hard to line up Midi notes AFTER recording the Audio.

You can try to figure out the Audio tracks bpm using the Tap feature in the Transport Window, but I've found it to be frustrating and unreliable in the end.

But, for future reference, here are a couple of things about using the PT metronome for Midi click.

First, the 'conductor' is in the Transport Window, not below the shuffle/grid section. It's the icon that looks literally like a little conductor. When it's lit, it's set at 120bpm by default. But, when you unhighlight it, you can change the speed to anything (160bpm for example).

But the main place to set up the metronome is right next to the conductor icon, and it's the 'metronome' icon (clever, eh?).

You double click on it to reveal a couple of things. One are the up and down arrows that open the Digi Midi Channel you have your drum machine set on.(say Digi Midi Ch.1). There are also 2 little boxes marked 'Accented' and 'Unaccented' where you set the actual sounds from you drum machine that you want as your metronome sounds (maybe a rimshot/accented and a closed hat/unaccented). And as you are hitting different sounds to choose on your drum machine for this, you can see the corresponding notes (like F2, G4) change within the 'accent' boxes.

That's it basically. Remember to have the Metronome icon highlighted, or you won't hear it.
And also, have 'Low Latency Monitoring' ON when you're recording.

If I read what you needed wrong, sorry. But post back if you need more help....

~Roy

[oslpchris]

Thanks Roy, you're a super nice guy. Yea, I wasn't trying to sync anything to an audio track. I know that's difficult. I'm just trying to lay down the midi click on an audio track. But you're post really helped alot. I learned alot I didn't know, in other words. Thanks for your help. I'll check out the conductor and metronome and see if I can get it all working, and I'll let you know. Thanks again.

chris
whose going to see Star Wars tonight at 11:00pm. Should be fun.

[oslpchris]

thanks guys, I got it working. Get this, in the transport I had it set to keep track of min/sec instead of bars and beats so that's why the click didn't appear to be lining up. It was working the whole time, I was just looking at it wrong. I feel like a dope. Thanks again for your help.

chris

[Sixpence]

fine but only if you agree that AOTC rocks Empire ass....

[oslpchris]

AOTC? Is that some kind of Rebellion Star Wars thing... because I can't think of anything else that would rock Empire ass. sorry for the confusion images/icons/smile.gif

chris