Hello Zynthianers,
at the moment I am trying to synchronize Zynthian with Novation Circuit Tracks.
My goal is to use Novation Circuit Tracks as a sequencer and Zynthian as a sound generator and flexible midi management. Since I want to play along live with my stage piano and then don’t have my hands free to click on the play button of the Circuit Track, I would like to use a foot switch via midi on the Zynthian for this purpose.
What I have achieved so far: The play button on Circuit Tracks responds to midi transport start and stop, you can tell by the play button LED on Circuit Tracks. Unfortunately, Circuit Tracks does not start its sequencer. Only the “play marker” jumps back to the starting point of the sequence. I have already tried different variants, set clock source in Zynthian to “Internal send” and “Midi”. (Note: Circuit Tracks automatically recognizes whether it should react as a clock slave or master).
If I connect my Boss Looper RC-300 to Circuit Tracks by comparison, I can start and stop the sequencer in Circuit Tracks using the foot switches on the RC300.
How can I link Zynthian and Circuit Tracks via midi so that I can start and stop the sequencer in Circuit Tracks via Zynthian? Any help appreciated
My setup:
In Zynthian I added a simple Midi chain to route Midi messages, like clock and transport to Circuit Tracks. Zynthian and Circuit Tracks are linked via USB. Circuit Tracks USB-Midi is recognized by Zynthian plug and play
I love your SV-1 @pianissimo!! Great keyboard and really nice electric pianos!
Could you sniff the messages sent by your Boss Looper? Try connecting the BossLooper to the zynthian and using the MIDI log. It probably sends start7stop, but it would be nice to re-check.
BTW, currently zynthian doesn’t send start/stop messages, just “continue” on every “bar”.
We want to work to improve all this ASAP, but we need feedback from users using tempo sync with different devices.
Maybe this is something additionally interesting to know. Actually I reassigned the S buttons as follows:
S1 - Midi Transport Start
S2 - Midi Transport Stop
S3 - Midi Clock
When Zynthians Midi Clock is set to “internal send” and when I hit S1, the play button on Circuit Tracks lights up green. And when I then hit the S3 button (Midi Clock) again and again continuously, the play cursor on Circuit Tracks starts moving. It’s hard to try to hit the S3 “Midi Clock button” manually on Zynthian as fast, so that you reach 120 bpm
Could it be that Midi Clock is not sent to Circuit Tracks at all, only transport start/stop?
Is there somewhere an option to enable sending midi clock to connected devices?
When connecting RC300 to Zynthian and activating the midi log, you see continuous “SYS CLOCK” messages. And if you hit one of the looper play button, you see one “SYS START” message. The same happens when you hit the stop foot switch RC300. There is one single “SYS STOP” message visible in the midi log.
But maybe there is something wrong when Zynthian tries to send “SYS START” by hitting the assigned S1 button (Midi Transport Start):
As you can see, “SYS START” is send endless after I had briefly pressed the S1 (Midi Transport Start) button. No more SYS CLOCK messages are send. It seems that “SYS CLOCK” is replaced by “SYS START” after hitting S1.
Hi @jofemodo, yes now I checked the settings you proposed, midi clock is now set from “internal send” to “internal” and “enable system messages” is already set. To better isolate the problem, I deleted all chains and created only a single pure midi chain, which only sends midi to the circuit track so that Circuit track is able to receive midi. And there is only the Circuit Tracks connect to Zynthian via USB. But the behaviour is nearly the same:
SYS START is sent multiple time if you hit the S1 button (Midi Transport Start) shortly
now after hitting S1 Zynthian stops sending midi messages, there are no more clock messages
and when you hit S2 (Midi Transport Stop), SYS STOP is send and SYS CLOCK messages start running continuously again
behaviour does not change, if I connect Circuit Tracks via DIN5 instead of USB
Hello @jofemodo, now I did the update and checked midi transport start/stop again. There is no change. When I hit the S1 button (Midi transport start), Zynthian sends the start message multiple times and then stops sending SYS CLOCK messages:
Please, after updating try to start/stop using an empty pad from the zynpad.
Try with the clock set to internal/send. You could also try setting it to “internal”.
Hi @jofemodo,
I haven’t had time to devote myself to my hobby and Zynthian in the last few days, so I haven’t gotten in touch directly. But I have now assembled my ordered Zynthian V5.1 - a really great device! The product feel is much more intense with V5.1 compared to V4 . I am really convinced by the concept and what Zynthian offers. I have therefore continued my tests with V5.1 and ORAM from September 28th.
The behavior with MIDI clock and externally connected devices, in my case Novation Circuit Tracks, is exactly the same as V4. Even with V5.1 I cannot integrate my Novation Circuit Tracks if Zynthian is supposed to be the clock master.
I followed your instructions and clicked play on an empty pad. Zynthian’s clock is set to “internal”. Novation Circuit Tracks receives a play signal, but the sequencer does not run.
If you take a look at the MIDI log, Zynthian is continuously sending SYS CLOCK messages. That’s OK. If you then click play on an empty Zynpad, “SYS START” is still sent, but no more “SYS CLOCK” clock signals follow. And of course the sequencer doesn’t start.
The behavior when you click on an empty pad in Zynpad is the same as if I configure one of the F keys on the Zynthian with “Midi Transport Start” and click, i.e. after sending “SYS START” the continuous SYS CLOCK messages stop.
I think this is a bug and I hope someone can help me. At the moment I can only use Circuit Tracks as the master clock, but then I have to manually click play on the Circuit Track. However, I would like to configure Zynthian as a MIDI clock master, as I am much more flexible with Zynthian and could, for example, integrate foot switches/pedals via MIDI Learn functions and thus remotely control circuit tracks via foot pedals.
Yesterday I connected Zynthian to my PC using an old MIDI interface (Edirol UM-1 ex) to check what was happening with the real-time MIDI data and lo and behold, Zynthian was behaving correctly . Clock messages are sent as soon as the clock source is set to “internal send”. The MIDI log in Zynthian’s web UI also shows this. So the cause of the confusion must lie somewhere else. And lo and behold - I had MIDI clock set to send and receive in Novation Circuit Tracks! Novation Circuit Tracks also automatically detects whether a valid MIDI clock signal already exists and then sets itself up as a slave and stops sending clock messages. But if you hit the play button on Novation Circuit, it starts acting as a clock master again. I’m afraid that the back and forth and my tests have resulted in a mixing of the clock signal from Zynthian and Novation Circuit Tracks. Everything is fine at the moment, please excuse me. Novation Circuit Tracks needs to be setup correctly. You can decide what type of midi data you like to send or receive. And you also can setup it’s midi clock behaviour, whether you like to send and/or receive midi clock.
Is it possible to midi learn Zynpads? If so you would be able to start/stop pads with midi compatible footswitches. That would be perfect and I would be able to play piano and start/stop pads and also external midi hardware while playing piano with both of my hands.
. I am really convinced by the concept and what Zynthian offers. I have therefore continued my tests with V5.1 and ORAM from September 28th.
Novation Circuit Tracks needs to be setup correctly. You can decide what type of midi data you like to send or receive. And you also can setup it’s midi clock behaviour, whether you like to send and/or receive midi clock.