Hi,
So I'm not sure if this has been covered, but I'm currently connecting my lovely new Alesis Micron synth to my laptop's soundcard via MIDI. I can get AM to generate a midi sync fine, and the micron follows it no problem.
The problems begin if I set a rhythm going on the micron on 'latch' (a little button which means i can leave it playing with just one touch, instead of having to hold the key down). If AM is left to free run, then the rhythm plays fine, but if the automation loop is set to 'ON' and I loop, say, 8 bars, the rhythm stops everytime AM goes back to the beginning. It's as if the latch button is switched off (but it is actually still switched on).
This is a problem unique to AM, I've tried it with FruityLoops and this problem doesn't occur. Also, if I just hold down the key to play the rhythm (instead of pressing it once with latch activated) the rhythm plays fine.
I'm guessing this is a problem with an incompatibility of the 'latch' setting on the keyboard with the positional information sent via MIDI from AM? I'm not sure. I don't have any other external MIDI devices to test this with, I'm afraid -it might well be a problem with the micron and not AM.
Cheers,
berksy
Sorry about the delay in replying to this one. I've been working on various compatibility improvements with MIDI sync for the next release, but so far I don't think this one has been addressed.
I suspect that what is happening is this:
When AudioMulch has an automation loop, it has to send a MIDI Song Position Change to notify the slave device that it is looping, and in order to send SPP, it has to STOP, send SPP and then CONTINUE the slave -- this is all required by the MIDI spec. I'm guessing that when the Micron sees the STOP message it disengages the latch.
As for FL, perhaps it doesn't transmit the the song position when it loops (which would mean any slave device would not loop its sequence synchronised to FL.)
If you have access to any other MIDI sequencing software (Logic, Cubase, Sonar, etc) you could try with that -- I would expect it to send SPP like AudioMulch when it loops.
EDIT: you could also try Reaper, I hear that it's sync+looping works the same as AM.
Maybe I could look into adding a mode that works more like FL.