I’m using Live MTC to generate and send MTC from ableton to Pro Tools and the sync is working just fine once it gets going. However, every time I press play in Ableton, it takes about 4 or 5 seconds for Pro Tools to begin playback…When I press play in Ableton, the “play” button inside pro tools will start blinking immediately, but the “stop” button will also light up for 4 or 5 seconds before playback begins. Is this just Pro Tools slowly latching onto the timecode? Or do I have something incorrectly set up?
That’s correct, it’s somewhat innate to MTC that it takes time for the slave to catch up. How long varies per client, and in some cases it is possible to adjust this time. My guess is that in the past the MTC data input timing wasn’t very steady (it still might not be), so this lead in time would prevent tools from starting when the input was not reliable.
As for the dropouts, that is something I couldn’t reproduce. Do you experience the same dropouts when sending the MTC to another tool such as the free DAW Numerology?