Syncing a hardware synth to AM on Mac

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Winslow17
Winslow17's picture
Joined: December 29, 2010

I have an M-Audio Venom synth. I can get its audio output fed into AM no problem, via a simple USB audio interface, but I cannot figure out how to get the synth to sync up to AM's clock signal. (I am using AM on a Mac, with Lion OS.)

Does anyone have any ideas about how to make this work? I have connected the synth to the Mac via a USB cable, and AM "sees" the device enough for its name to show up in AM Preferences - in "MIDI I/O Control," and in "MIDI Sync." The synth shows up in Audio Midi Setup utility program, too, where it says "Clock Source: Default."

In AM Preferences>MIDI Sync, I have tried setting the "Chase MIDI Sync" choice to both 'Venom Synth In' and 'Venom MIDI In,' but no luck. (I am not sure what difference is between these two.)

In the Synth's editing program, called Vyzex, I have set the synth's "MIDI Receive Clock" to 'On.'

I have turned on AM's Play button. I have enabled AM's MIDI, too.
I've also tried to have AM "chase" the synth, but no luck with that, either.

Is there some special mapping I need to do? I assumed this syncing would be fairly straightforward, as so many other things are in AM.

Any advice much appreciated. Thanks.

Winslow17
Winslow17's picture
Joined: December 29, 2010

Well, after some fiddling and some more reading around here on this forum, I think I actually worked this out. I hadn't realized that one has to turn on "Generate MIDI sync" in the Control menu of AM for anything to happen; I thought it all got done in Preferences.

But I am still a bit confused as the synth's "MIDI Transmit Clock" is set to ON, and its "Receive Clock" to OFF, when in fact it seems to be taking its clock signal from AM. Perhaps the terminology is what's confusing me.

Spectro
Spectro's picture
Joined: June 23, 2009

I have been caught up by "Generate MIDI sync" not being enabled as well. Ideally the toolbar would have an indicator and/or clickable toggle to enable this visually rather than having to go to a menu. FWIW There is a setting to enable Generate MIDI sync on startup (Settings/Startup Actions).

As far as the synth receive/transmit sync terminology: I would be confused too. There's little room for interpretational errors of the meaning of 'receive and 'transmit' in that context.