Can external sequencers be synced to Loopy Pro? (details below) - Akai MPK Mini Plus

Airwood007

Hi guys,

I recently bought the Akai MPK Mini Plus which has a built in sequencer (live and step) that can quantize the drums you make with the drum pads (How good could this be for use with loopy?!)

However, although the MPK is picking up the BPM of loopy, when I press play on the sequencer it doesn't wait until the beginning of the loopy loop, it just begins recording the sequence immediately - meaning the sequencer is out of time with my loopy project.

So my question is:
Has anybody successfully synced an external sequencer with Loopy Pro?

If so, I can tell akai that the issue is not to do with Loopy's software being incompatible and then we can troubleshoot the issue or at least confirm that the sequencer doesn't have the ability to sync externally (which would totally suck, lol)

Thanks for any help in advance, this is my final headache before my set up is complete so I'm very _excited to crack this one and get to practicing, haha.

Cheers

Ellis

Michael

FYI, @Airwood007 emailed me the same question; my reply, so others can see:

Hehe, yep, it does - sounds like you’ve already found the MIDI Sync settings, though, which provide both tempo and phase to a compatible receiver. Assuming you’ve got the timeline running in LP, any synced hardware should stick to the provided tempo and phase. If it’s not, then that sounds like a configuration issue in the receiver.

Mind you, I don’t know how the MPK Mini Plus is designed; maybe it’s supposed to start the sequence immediately, without a quantisation delay. There’s a chance that feature just isn’t implemented. It does seem like an odd omission, though.

Assuming it’s supposed to work, you can demonstrate to Akai support that it’s not the source by trying a number of different sources. There are a range of apps that can provide a MIDI clock. If you’ve got separate hardware that can do it, support people can find that even more convincing. Often it’s just a matter of going through the motions to convince them to help you 😄

espiegel123

@Airwood007 said:
Hi guys,

I recently bought the Akai MPK Mini Plus which has a built in sequencer (live and step) that can quantize the drums you make with the drum pads (How good could this be for use with loopy?!)

However, although the MPK is picking up the BPM of loopy, when I press play on the sequencer it doesn't wait until the beginning of the loopy loop, it just begins recording the sequence immediately - meaning the sequencer is out of time with my loopy project.

So my question is:
Has anybody successfully synced an external sequencer with Loopy Pro?

If so, I can tell akai that the issue is not to do with Loopy's software being incompatible and then we can troubleshoot the issue or at least confirm that the sequencer doesn't have the ability to sync externally (which would totally suck, lol)

Thanks for any help in advance, this is my final headache before my set up is complete so I'm very _excited to crack this one and get to practicing, haha.

Cheers

Ellis

it is unlikely that this is Loopy specific. You need to find out what settings the Akai needs to set the sequencer to be synched to external MIDI Clock. Many devices that can be be synced to clock will automatically start when the host starts the clock running.

If you press play on your Akai when it it set to external seek and Loopy is not running, what happens?

When you press play in Loopy what happens on the Akai?

Have you confirmed that the sequencer is synching to Loopy? To test, set up a sequence that is just quarter notes on your Akai. In Loopy, turn on the metronome and set the tempo. Press play in Loopy. What happens?

apanebia

@Airwood007 said:
Hi guys,

I recently bought the Akai MPK Mini Plus which has a built in sequencer (live and step) that can quantize the drums you make with the drum pads (How good could this be for use with loopy?!)

However, although the MPK is picking up the BPM of loopy, when I press play on the sequencer it doesn't wait until the beginning of the loopy loop, it just begins recording the sequence immediately - meaning the sequencer is out of time with my loopy project.

So my question is:
Has anybody successfully synced an external sequencer with Loopy Pro?

If so, I can tell akai that the issue is not to do with Loopy's software being incompatible and then we can troubleshoot the issue or at least confirm that the sequencer doesn't have the ability to sync externally (which would totally suck, lol)

Thanks for any help in advance, this is my final headache before my set up is complete so I'm very _excited to crack this one and get to practicing, haha.

Cheers

Ellis

Hi,
I also own an akai mpk mini plus.
but mine does not send and receive midi clock, neither through midi (with Electribe 2), nor through usb (with aum, audiobus, korg gadget); when I press the play seq button on mpk the sequencer starts but does not send any command to Electribe via midi or to gadget or aum or audiobus set as slaves, nor vice versa if I set mpk to external sync.
I can't figure out if it's faulty, or if I'm doing something wrong in the settings (I don't think so since I've always used, for example, gadget, aum, audiobus, as a slave with arturia beatstep or the same electribe 2.
the only thing it does is get the bpm number from the electribe 2 when set to external sync, but not from the usb and related app loaded on the ipad.