Strategies for loading projects in sync when playing live/sync load issues

Hello everyone,

I am getting ready to play my first gig with the Pyramid on June 27. One of my reasons for buying it was the sync load feature, especially this nifty bit on SYNC LOAD bit from the manual (Pyramid Manual | Squarp instruments):

When loading is done, press PLAY: Pyramid and your instruments will start to play from the beggining, allowing you to keep the perfect sync. When pressing PLAY after a load, Pyramid will wait for the next bar to start the playback.

However, I cannot get that to work: Song A is playing, sending MIDI A SYNC. Song is set to SYNC LOAD: SEND CLOCK. I load Song B (also sending MIDI A SYNC). Song B begins to load and the Pyramid keeps sending the clock so that an external drum computer keeps playing. But when I press play in Song B, the Pyramid does not “wait for the next bar to start the playback.” It just starts the moment I press play, falling out of sync with the drum computer in 90% of the time. How can I keep the sync between the Pyramid and an external drum machine when loading a new project when the Pyramid is the midi master?

Also, as a minor issue, the “SYNC LOAD” setting is never saved with the project. When I set it to “SEND CLOCK”, save the project and re-open it, it goes back to “MUTE CLOCK”. I am on PyraOS 4.02. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Best greetings, Bertolt

Not sure but check the seq mode, Performance mode.

Thanks for your reply! Not quite sure what you mean though? My Pyramid is in Seq mode, performance mode set to Perform with “1 bar” when I have this issue. Or is there a setting that I overlooked?

It was a wild guess, sorry. I don’t gig.

i half remember seeing issues or at least quirks in this area when I tried it last
(but that was quite a while ago, and was on an older firmware version - so things might have changed)
I posted a little here…

honestly, I dont remember the full details - but from what I do remember
the tempo shifts immediately as the project is loaded, i cannot do this in a sychronised way…
(this probably stems from pyramid not being able to load a 2nd project whilst first is loaded)

unfortunately, I think the sync load (and description in the manual) is mainly talking about shifting the clock of external gear … iirc previously the clock stopped when the pyramid loaded a project, so (for example) your drum machine might just stop , whilst you were doing a transition.

so this is pretty limited…

as for saving, I remember you had to make sure you saved the setting in both the song you came from and were going to (so A & B) … I think there may have been a UI bug where it was showing the wrong setting but was working - but as I say it was a long time ago.

the best idea, is to have a chat with Squarp about it via the contact form , if you explain what you need, and what happens - they can tell you if this is ‘as expected’, and also whether or not this is something that could be improved in a future release.
(as users, we have no idea what technical limitations are imposed by the firmware design)

Thank you @thetechnobear (what a great nick) for the response. Thanks for the link, will try ignoring BPM with 2ND+load. However, I find this weird, because what seems to happen doesn’t make sense to me: Song A is playing, sending a clock out on Midi A Out. I’m loading song B and while the file is loading, Midi A Out continues sending the clock, which is great. But once I press Play on song B, the internal clock of Song B seems to go out of sync with the clock that is still going out of Midi A Out. I find this super-weird, because to me, it feels as if the Pyra has difficulties with synching to its own clock. But maybe I’m missing a piece of the puzzle - I sent an email via the contact form.

Regarding the SYNC LOAD setting not being saved: I saved this both in Project A and Project B, to no avail. Also asked via the contact form.

Best greetings,
Bertolt

@bertolt Shooting in the dark here, but does it change anything if you set SETTINGS > MISC > PLAY PAD to RESTART BAR?

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@fjl YES!!! OMG, thank you SO much! That did the trick! So for everybody else trying to get SYNC LOAD to work in a nutshell:

  1. SETTINGS > MIDI OUT SETTINGS > SYNC LOAD: SEND CLOCK
  2. SETTINGS > MISC > PLAY PAD: RESTART BAR
  3. SETTINGS > SAVE > SAVE SETTINGS (Duh! I did not do that and that is why it did not save the sync load setting from 1)

Make sure to send MIDI A SYNC (and/or B) on Song A and Song B. And then it works as described!

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