ZAQuencer skipping MIDI out data (?!)

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi all.
I’m on the latest firmware for the ZAQuencer, which is my master MIDI clock in my setup. I drive a couple of synths and devices, among others an Electrix Mo-FX which I sync its clock via MIDI to the ZAQuencer’s clock.
Also, I have 2 tracks in ZAQuencer running and spitting notes out: one for mononote melody, the other for drums (using actually like 5 or 6 instruments).
Now, I had to experience two different “issues” so far:
a) sometimes one or more drum notes will not get played (from the DRM-1 I’m driving);
b) more often, the Mo-FX delay unit behaves like it has lost its MIDI clock sync, trying to “catch up” with the clock and thus generating some sort of “glitches”.

Any suggestions/help here?
I thought the ZAQuencer would fit in my studio for MIDI master clock – but it might not be the case… or what are your thoughts here? What can I test/debug?

Thanks and have a nice start in 2016!
F.

[ChristianKeymaster]

Hi Flavio,
this is strange, it´s the first time I hear something like it.
I definitely want to get to the bottom of this with you.

some thoughts off the top of my head:
- can you please send me the global and preset data that you experience the error with? I can then try to reproduce it here
- what is your setup? do the two devices with hiccups connect directly to the Zaquencer or is there any other device in the middle? for testing, can you get rid of all other devices except the Zaquencer, the DRM-1 and the Mo-FX?
- can you try switching out the devices? the DRM-1 for another drummachine and the Mo-FX for another device that likes to have clock sync? First order of business would be to determine if the behaviour originates in the Zaquencer or in the devices receiving the midi data.
- can you reproduce the behaviour (like: whenever I do this and that it happens) or is it completely random?
- it would be very interesting to see in a midi monitor if a note that hasn´t been played by the DRM-1 has been sent correctly. can you hook up a computer with a midi monitor inbetween the Zaquencer and the DRM-1?

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi Christian,
thanks for your suggestions – as soon as I get back from my holidays I will test the behavior again and report back.

For now – wish you all a great 2016!
F.

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi Christian and happy 2016!
I didn’t really have much time for the studio, anyway I simply tried this setup, this time with different hardware.
I connected both MIDI OUT ports of the ZAQuencer directly to my devices: one to the Mo-FX, the other to my Doepfer MSY2 interface.
After playing around for like 10/15 minutes, I heard the delay effect from the Mo-FX “catching up” as if it had lost MIDI clock sync.
What do you suggest to do, for debugging here?

Also, my former setup involves my MacBook Pro running MIDI Patchbay software which drives the two MOTU MIDI Express 128 interfaces I have for all my devices. Sincerely I could imagine the MacBook being the culprit… This is why I have installed my other (hardware) MIDI interface: KMX-8 from Ensoniq. I could give this a try as well…

Thanks for your reply,
Flavio.

[alien_brainParticipant]

the midi patchbays can be used without being hooked up to the mac? its not your mac. but try to use another clock source as master. this can maybe help.

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi and thanks for your reply.
Those interfaces won’t work without some “intelligence” driving them (Mac or PC). Only the non-Express version would work this way.
Yes, I completely forgot to try a different clock source – might give it a try tomorrow.
Actually, as you might’ve read, I experienced two different kind of issues: one is the “catching up” of my delay unit, the other being some notes not getting played by my DRM-1

[ChristianKeymaster]

Hi Flavio,
happy 2016 to you too!

Behaviours like what you describe that only turn up sporadically are generally quite difficult to find.
I can only advise you again to switch around components, like alien suggested, and try a different clock, different combinations of devices, etc. You can also try to re-upload the Zaquencer firmware just to make sure. In theory this should work perfectly every time (it´s doing checksum tests etc), but if you experience funky behaviour I´d try anyway.

Also what I did before to find errors was to hook up a USB Midi Interface inbetween the Zaquencer and the receiving device, so that I could see the Midi data on the PC (hook up the interface input to the Zaquencer output and the interface output to the sound generator (DRM, MoFx) input). Now when you observe a misbehaviour you can check the Midi data and see if there are bytes missing etc.

I am very interested in what you find. I would really like to be able to help you more, but other than I wrote here and in my post above I can´t think of many more things to do.
Please keep us updated on your progress, maybe I can think of more things then…

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi Christian.
I’ve been in the studio yesterday a couple of hours and I used a different MIDI clock source (my iPad with Patterning App). Even with this source, the Mo-FX had a few glitches – fewer than originally heard with my “default” setup.

I’ll take some more time and also investigate/compare with some other Mo-FX user (gearslutz should hopefully help!), because I actually think that it’s an “end device issue” (Mo-FX). I did also following test: started the clock from the iPad, then after a couple of bars, disabled MIDI to the Mo-FX (disabled the corresponding MIDI OUT port of my KMX-8 interface). I seem to have noticed that there haven’t been glitches anymore, but I’m not 100% sure so I will test this again. If confirmed, it could mean that the Mo-FX doesn’t like/work well MIDI clock messages…

I’ll update you anyway, but I guess it’s not ZAQuencer’s fault here
F.

[ChristianKeymaster]

Cool, thanks already for the update!

[FlavioBParticipant]

Hi there.
Two things are open here in this thread:
1) Electrix Mo-FX “glitches”: I noticed that they won’t happen if I simply disable MIDI clock being sent to the Mo-FX. Actually it is ok for the Mo-FX to get synced “once”, but after this, I disable/deatcivate MIDI and it won’t glitch for the whole studio session (couple of hours). Instead, if I keep it fed with MIDI clock sync, it glitches like every couple of minutes, even earlier than that sometimes!
2) Vermona DRM-1 MK III skipping notes: on this I have still to give another shot, didn’t have time to. I’ll report back asap.

BR,
F.

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