Midi Clock Sync to external clock (Elektron Digitakt)

Installation & Configuration Linux
#1

Hey guys!

As my Digitakt is the sequencing center of my setup (as long as I haven’t recorded its output), I want to sync Ardour to its transport.
I got it to work via Midi Clock, connecting the Digitakts Midi out with my interface’s Midi in, setting Ardour sync to Midi Clock and connecting the Midi input to the Midi Clock In. I can also see the Clock messages and transport starts and stops as soon as I start the Digitakt. So far that’s fine.

But I can’t make ardour set the playhead to start or even define a loop to play. It always plays further when I hit start again, and the playhead doesn’t jump back to beginning, even when I try to drag it. As it is logical for MTC sync to always represent the absolute position which shouldn’t be changeable, I can’t see why Ardour does this for Midi Clock sync. It should only be fixed to specific bars, but should jump back as soon as I reset the position. At least that’s how I know it from other DAWs. Is there a way to change the behaviour? I couldn’t find an option.

Thanks in advance,
Bene

EDIT:
I forgot to mention: The digitakt sends a Midi PC message once I double tap the stop button: Program Change chn 10 00. In Reaper on Win 7 (I guess it’s clear why I’m on linux now), that always reset the playhead to the start of the project. Would be there a way to configure Ardour to do the same?

#2

Maybe, with MIDI learn?

Ardour’s MIDI-Clock slave honors the song-position message (0xF2 ..) and always plays linearly. MIDI-Clock does not allows to share loop-positions with other MClk clients.

PS. depending on what you’re trying to achieve, instead of looping: select regions > Duplicate > Fill Track may be a stopgap solution.

#3

Hmmm … I also tried Midi learn, but at some point gave up and made Ardour the clock master. Though I see some changing of the received tempo in Digitakt (sometimes it jumps from 120 to 117.5 or sth), that route seems to work stable.