I have an issue with Minitaur drifting while controlled by Hapax.
Minitaur is connected via MIDI directly to HAPAX
Minitaur is playing a simple rolling 1bar rolling bass pattern [-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx]
There is no midi compensation set anywhere.
The beats continue to move forward after being perfectly aligned initially. That causes issues with tight rhythms like techno rolling basses. After a while (about 30-60 seconds), I can hear it. It becomes really obvious after 2-3 minutes. Recordings confirm that beats are shifted (I’ve attached a picture from Ableton’s recording).
Minitaur only uses midi clock to control LFO speed, which must be explicitly enabled via the editor, MIDI clock is not used for anything else by Minitaur.
It doesn’t happen when Minitaur is sequenced by other sequencers (Ableton, Elektron, OP-XY).
It doesn’t happen to any Elektron boxes, Novation Peak or Dreadbox Typhon if sequenced by Hapax, only Minitaur
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. It makes my Minitaur unusable with HAPAX. I’ve tried everything, midi cables, different ports etc.
Ok, good and bad news.
I did some more testing and sequenced everything from Hapax.
Good, because I am sure it’s not the Minitaur causing the issue. I falsely assumed it was Minitaur because I was playing a kick pattern from Digitakt (e.g. the kick was sequenced in a pattern on Digitakt) that did not noticeably drift (ironically, it helped me to hear/notice the issue, because Minitaur drifted away from the kick pattern, the grove has changed totally after a while). Switched to sequencing Digitakt to HAPAX, and here we go, drift.
It’s bad because everything is drifting. That should be easier to diagnose.
I am still scratching my head, though. I may roll back to the previous firmware.
Done a couple of quick tests with 2.03. The issue is not there or is much less noticeable.
Everything is the same, except I downgraded to 2.03.
I am going to re-test tomorrow to confirm, I am too tired and wasted way too much time on this today instead of making music.
If someone would like to test it.
HAPAX clock set to midi INTERNAL.
Create a 1bar pattern on track 1, kick or a short blip on start of each beat, like this:
[x—x—x—x—]
Create a 1bar pattern on track 2, preferably with a different synth, 3 short notes on 2,3,4 of the beat. Like this:
[-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx]
Let it play for about 1-3 minutes.
If you have decent ears, you will notice the drift.
You can record it in Ableton to confirm.
Sync Ableton to Hapax.
Do audio setup per track to record the syths you are sequencing. Set monitoring to OFF in Ableton on each track.
Start HAPAX, let it play for 10-20 seconds to let Ableton catch up.
Hit record and record 1-3 minutes of audio.
Stop recording and zoom in to see the drift.
It should be visible/audible in 2.30, I can’t hear/see it in 2.03. I did not test with VSTs, only hardware syths, so please don’t test this with VSTs as it introduces a lot of new variables.
So far, to me it looks like HAPAX 2.30 clock is drifting over time.
i have never had drift midi clocking my polyend tracker or mpc 1000 for what its worth, or some other inconsequential bits like tr6s or dr5 or volca sample / bass. the only time i had some unknown (at the time) sync issues was when i tried to pass midi clock to my dirtywave m8 headless that was hosted by a raspberry pi, which turned out to be the rpi’s fault… i know that midi sync can be a challenge to get gear to respond to perfectly, usually improving over the firmware development period. good luck, hope you figure it out.
Thanks.
The thing is that, in this case, I don’t think it’s a midi clock synchronization issue. Minitaur doesn’t use a midi clock, except for LFO (irrelevant here). The notes come from HAPAX, and they drift. I can hear it (so no DAW is involved) and see it in Ableton recordings.
The same applies to any other synth I have if sequenced from HAPAX (e.g. not playing patterns using synth’s internal sequencer).
The issue is also virtually non-existent (at least I can’t spot it) in 2.03.
It looks like it’s HAPAX 2.30 clock drifting over time. I have a hard time believing it’s the case, though.
