...sync Korg Volcas to Ardour?

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

I recently bought all three Korg Volcas. I’d like to be able to sync them to Ardour but I’m not used to using MIDI in this way and I’m obviously doing something wrong.

The problem I’m having is that when I start Ardour’s transport, the unit cycles once through its sequence (from its internal sequencer) incredibly rapidly (way faster than the tempo set in Ardour) then repeatedly retriggers (I think) the first note of the sequence, again incredibly rapidly. I was expecting it to start playing in sync with Ardour, at the bpm set there.

What I am doing wrong? How do I get this to work?

#2

I also have trouble with Ardour 3.3 the Volcas…

I currently build the latest version from source to see if it goes better then.

Do you send MIDI-clock to your Volcas? (It’s in the misc-tab of the MIDI-connections dialog)

#3

I also have trouble with Ardour 3.3 the Volcas…

I currently build the latest version from source to see if it works better then.

Do you send MIDI-clock to your Volcas? (It’s in the misc-tab of the MIDI-connections dialog)

#4

Sorry, hit the stop button to late to correct my post…

#5

Well, I didn’t expect MMC or MTC to do anything but tried them out of desperation and, as expected, they did nothing.

Yes, it’s sending MIDI clock.

I was using 3.5.14 and have just tried again with .74 and still no joy.

#6

Okay, I’ve just fired up QMidiRoute. In the space of one 4/4 beat at 80 bpm, Ardour sent 139 MIDI events. It starts with a MIDI stop followed by two MIDI Start and then there’s a stream of:

19:12:57.247 MIDI Clock
19:12:57.264 MIDI Stop (Transport)
19:12:57.264 Unknown event type (20)
19:12:57.264 MIDI Continue (Transport)
19:12:57.278 MIDI Clock
19:12:57.287 MIDI Stop (Transport)
19:12:57.287 Unknown event type (20)
19:12:57.287 MIDI Continue (Transport)
19:12:57.310 MIDI Stop (Transport)
19:12:57.311 Unknown event type (20)
19:12:57.311 MIDI Continue (Transport)
19:12:57.312 MIDI Clock
19:12:57.333 MIDI Stop (Transport)
19:12:57.334 Unknown event type (20)
19:12:57.335 MIDI Continue (Transport)
19:12:57.341 MIDI Clock
19:12:57.357 MIDI Stop (Transport)

…and so on.

#7

Definitely looks utterly wrong.

#8

Thanks Paul. Could it be something I’ve done wrong in the settings, or is it likely there’s something deeper going on? If the latter, I guess it’s going to be a question of coming on IRC to start to get to the bottom of things is it?

#9

OK, now I tested it with 3.5.74. In 3.3 the Volcas simply start at th wrong position when Ardour was started in the middle of a song. But now it is completely broken. The Volcas run at incredible speed and never reach later steps, because they are constantly being restarted.

#10

i’ll fix it and do a new release. i tested MClock the other way around (slaving), not as master.

#11

Thanks a lot!

#12

dbra, thanks for confirming the problem I was experiencing. I was beginning to suspect incompetence on my part (it’s a pretty safe assumption) :slight_smile:

paul, as always, many thanks for your tireless work and I look forward to the fix. If I can be of any assistance with testing, let me know.

#13

i’ve fixed this in git, a few other MClock improvements and some other minor fixes before i can release.

#14

This still isn’t fixed in the latest release. However, it got better. After pressing start, the volcas run at hispeed like initially, but only for a short period. After that, tempo is ok, but out of sync, due to the hispeed phase.

#15

I realise this thread is a few years old now, but I’ve been having the same issue that dbra mentioned in the last comment - I’m not able to sync my volca beats properly on start. The first beat plays immediately, but the second one always arrives early, by almost one beat.

Is anyone else running into this issue, or have any fixes/workarounds for it? I’m more than happy to help with any debugging etc. to try and track down what’s causing it…