MT DAW controls ApeMatrix timeline

MisplacedDevelopment

I have been using MultiTrack DAW a lot recently as I have enjoyed playing with AUs that have their own self contained song mode e.g. DigiStix, DigiKeys to create direct to audio songs rather than drive everything by MIDI. After seeing the post by @Janosax in https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/45478/sync-cubasis-and-apematrix-via-iaa-host-sync I was curious to see what would happen if I loaded ApeMatrix inside MTD as an instrument.

I was surprised to find that if I have Atom 2 loaded into ApeMatrix then the ApeMatrix timeline, and therefore the Atom 2 timeline, is updated by moving the MTD timeline. This opens up some new possibilities for me to record audio alongside an Atom 2 sequenced song and as far as I can tell everything is in sync, even syncing on transport start.

This does not work with AUM. I don’t know what is happening under the covers to make this work with ApeMatrix so if anyone can shed any light then I’d like to understand more. It is not Ableton Link as MTD does not support this, so is it that MTD is sending MIDI clock and ApeMatrix is receiving it?

Edit: I should say that I needed to turn Ableton Link OFF in ApeMatrix for this to work.

mjcouche

Paging @wim @gregsmith does this mean Song Pointer Position?!

@MisplacedDevelopment what happens when you move the atom/ ape matrix timeline? Does mt daw move too?

rs2000

Yes, in contrast to AUM, ApeMatrix can follow MIDI clock. I guess that MTD sends MIDI clock and MIDI Status.
If the timeline follows too then MTD is apparently also sending SPP/Song Position Pointer messages like @mjcouche said.

Turning off LINK makes sense because a slave can only follow one master (although LINK and clock are not necessarily mutually exclusive 😉)

MisplacedDevelopment

@mjcouche it only seems to go one way, so changing the Atom timeline or hitting play in ApeMatrix does not change the MTD timeline or start it playing but changing the MTD timeline or hitting play in MTD does affect any Atom instances that are ready to launch.

Thanks for the explanation @rs2000, that makes sense.

Littlewoodg

@MisplacedDevelopment said:
@mjcouche it only seems to go one way, so changing the Atom timeline or hitting play in ApeMatrix does not change the MTD timeline or start it playing but changing the MTD timeline or hitting play in MTD does affect any Atom instances that are ready to launch.

Thanks for the explanation @rs2000, that makes sense.

This approach is intriguing. Are you using apematrix and atom to control what is recorded into MTD, or is it a parallel play type thing?

If it’s the former what does it look like? (forgive my ignorance)

MisplacedDevelopment

@Littlewoodg MTD controls the Atom timeline when it is hosted in ApeMatrix and ApeMatrix and the AUs it hosts react to the play button in MTD. Here are the steps for anyone interested:

First, add ApeMatrix as an IAA instrument in MTD

Here I open ApeMatrix and wire up an Atom instance to BS-16:

Here I set up Atom in launch mode, so it reacts to the host:

I hit the circled play button which starts MTD and also the ApeMatrix transport. I stop it at the start of the 4th bar:

Switching to MTD now shows that the transport matches what we see in Atom:

Now I move the timeline back in MTD to the start of the second bar:

Switching back to ApeMatrix, you need to hit play for the timeline to update itself so by the time I take the screenshot it has moved on from the start of bar 2:

Here I set punch in/out in MTD, rewind to the start and hit play/record to capture that single bar of notes from Atom. This demonstrates how nicely synced things are:

You can now record audio from guitar or whatever onto the timeline in another MTD track and have your Atom instance(s) playing at the same time, or you could pre-record the output from ApeMatrix and then duplicate/arrange regions in MTD or whatever.

I really ought to learn how to upload video...

Hope that makes sense!

Littlewoodg

@MisplacedDevelopment said:
@Littlewoodg MTD controls the Atom timeline when it is hosted in ApeMatrix and ApeMatrix and the AUs it hosts react to the play button in MTD. Here are the steps for anyone interested:

First, add ApeMatrix as an IAA instrument in MTD

Here I open ApeMatrix and wire up an Atom instance to BS-16:

Here I set up Atom in launch mode, so it reacts to the host:

I hit the circled play button which starts MTD and also the ApeMatrix transport. I stop it at the start of the 4th bar:

Switching to MTD now shows that the transport matches what we see in Atom:

Now I move the timeline back in MTD to the start of the second bar:

Switching back to ApeMatrix, you need to hit play for the timeline to update itself so by the time I take the screenshot it has moved on from the start of bar 2:

Here I set punch in/out in MTD, rewind to the start and hit play/record to capture that single bar of notes from Atom. This demonstrates how nicely synced things are:

You can now record audio from guitar or whatever onto the timeline in another MTD track and have your Atom instance(s) playing at the same time, or you could pre-record the output from ApeMatrix and then duplicate/arrange regions in MTD or whatever.

I really ought to learn how to upload video...

Hope that makes sense!

Beautiful. Concise and much appreciated.

audiblevideo

Time to reinstall

Janosax

Interesting setup, I’ll have to try it!!

Here is another cool dawless apps configuration: Multitrack Recorder Helium AUM with loops/timeline sync (audio and midi):

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/45526/dawless-demo-with-ipad-pro-m1-multitrack-recorder-helium-aum-loops-and-timeline#latest