Sync Ableton - Pro

Sync tools
1

Hi everyone!

I was trying out Live MTC, with Video Slave and Pro Tools. First of all it’s awesome too see that this is getting doable, thanks to the developers here. Thank you!

I was bumping into a few problems, wondering if anyone had the same or was able to advise a solution. I’m using Ableton 9 with Pro Tools 2018 (also tried out with PT11)

  • Syncing Ableton with Video Slave, I’m basically Able to share only start and stop, but no scrubbing neither playhead position… So in order to see the corresponding picture to the position, I have to hit play. Is there me configuring it wrong, or that’s not something feasible?

  • Similar thing happens with Pro Tools. Start and stop working fine, but not scrubbing nor playhead position when in stop. Also for some reason it’s easier to set up a physical connection on my midi card connecting input and output and run MTC over that. But I managed to work it over virtual ports.

  • There’s always a delay between start of the playhead and syncing. I guess that is something normal due to MTC syncing timing…?

I am just looking for a way to be frame accurate with a video placed on an external player synced with my DAW. So I know exactly where to hit and cut without having to play from few bar before every time…

I hope all this make sense.

Thank you everyone, and thanks for this tool you are sharing with us!

2

Hi Fabio,

Thanks for posting your question on our forum.

Unfortunately the nature of MTC is that the slave application needs to receive a stream of time code updates before knowing if the input is valid and stable. The exact implementation varies per slave, but most wait for some time to make sure the MTC input is stable before starting or jumping.

I think that explains all three of your questions, let us know if not. Basically, easily scrubbing the timeline and quickly jumping back and forth is not really supported by MTC.

I personally found using video in the ableton arrangement view a more responsive way of dealing with video and music together but that may not be applicable for you.

3

Ow, got it. So it is a protocol limitation. That makes sense finally. Thank you so much for your help.

I don’t know if this is the place to talk about it, but what other protocols there are to properly sync different DAW’s between each others?

4

This is absolutely the right place, if anyone has better experiences with tools that link DAWs, or a workflow that overcomes the limitations in another way, I would love to know about them too.

5

I have been well impressed with how Isadora syncs with Ableton via LiveGrabber. Need to understand if you are doing the sync as a post production workflow or as a performance aesthetic?

If I want accuracy export the audio and bring together with the visual footage into either Adobe Premiere Pro, Da Vinci or After Effects.
I tend to use After Effects, as frame by frame is so straight forward.

If I have misunderstood, my apologies.