chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx

Hey, does anyone use this little-scale USB MIDI sync device for Nanoloop?

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2011/0 … or-16.html

I just made one last night but can't seem to actually get my Gameboy in perfect sync with my DAW (Logic). The Teensy board blinks to the proper tempo and changes with tempo changes in Logic, so that's definitely working fine. And I've rechecked that I soldered the right wires (there's only two) from the GB link cable.

I just don't really know where else the problem could be. Could anybody here help me out?

firebrandboy
Offline
UK

please clarify the following:

- are you recording or monitoring the device or are you just listening to it through it's internal speaker?
- does your daw have any audio latency correction settings?
- how many ms/seconds/minutes/hours is the sync out by?

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx

Here's some more info:

- I output the Gameboy from a prosound 1/8" jack into an interface which feeds into my laptop.
- Logic has quite a lot of latency correction settings, but I haven't been messing with them yet.
- I'm not sure

I guess my main problem right now is just the process of syncing. Teensy has been updated with the latest sync software (Happy Bleeper), I have Logic recognizing and sending MIDI beat clock signals to the Teensy, and I have to GB cable soldered with a solid connection – but then what do I do?

Is there anything I need to do in Nanoloop for it to recognize the incoming MIDI beat clock info? Will Nanoloop be in sync as soon as I plug in the link cable, or do I need to set the Nanoloop to slave mode or do something like that? My Teensy doesn't send start/stop signals, so Nanoloop can't start when I try that.

I apologize if this is a really basic question, but I'm just not very savvy when it comes to DIY and I just haven't been able to find any tutorials or info anywhere else online regarding syncing Nanoloops to MIDI. Thank you so much for the help.

nordloef
Offline
sweden

What soundcard are you using?

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx

I use a Macbook Pro from 2010, so whatever default soundcard comes installed with Macbooks, I'm using that.

dasid
Offline
Los Angeles

yes absolutely put nanoloop into slave mode. do this by selecting the '>>' icon on menu 2 (bottom - last icon on the right , hit select if you don't see it) and then press A+B - boom, slaved.
you will see an 'E' on the right side meaning nanoloop is an external mode.

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx
daSID wrote:

yes absolutely put nanoloop into slave mode. do this by selecting the '>>' icon on menu 2 (bottom - last icon on the right , hit select if you don't see it) and then press A+B - boom, slaved.
you will see an 'E' on the right side meaning nanoloop is an external mode.


Yeah, I sync it with a second GB all the time, but doesn't it need a start signal from the Master to get it going?

Whenever I put it in Slave mode when syncing to Teensy MIDI, Nanoloop freezes as it waits for the signal from the Master to begin the sync. And pressing Play in Logic does nothing to start the GB.

Do I need to add a connection to my Teensy in order to receive the Start/Stop messages from MIDI, or is that even possible? Thank you!


ultraturducken wrote:

what version of nanoloop? asking mainly because i want to know if this will work with a gba lol

I'm using Nanoloop 1.5 on a DMG.

Last edited by chalkboards (May 4, 2012 7:11 pm)

nordloef
Offline
sweden

I would really suggest getting a proper sound card even though the mac ones are fat better than the pc ala realtek etc.. ones they are not made for music production. But maybe you can get low latency with it anyway with something like asio4all?

Yes you are correct, nanoloop dont need a special start command, just the clock signal. Have you checked that logic is sending midi clock?

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx
nordloef wrote:

I would really suggest getting a proper sound card even though the mac ones are fat better than the pc ala realtek etc.. ones they are not made for music production. But maybe you can get low latency with it anyway with something like asio4all?

Yes you are correct, nanoloop dont need a special start command, just the clock signal. Have you checked that logic is sending midi clock?


Yes, I'm fairly certain that Logic is not at fault, because the Teensy is definitely receiving the MIDI clock because it blinks the tempo of my Logic session, and changes as I change the tempo in Logic. I also downloaded the application MIDI Monitor and it verifies that Logic is outputting MIDI to the Teensy.

Also, should Nanoloop respond to real time tempo changes once it is in sync?

nordloef
Offline
sweden

Yes nanoloop should respond to tempo changes. Have you tried filtering out the midi so you only send midi clock and nothing else?

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx
nordloef wrote:

Yes nanoloop should respond to tempo changes. Have you tried filtering out the midi so you only send midi clock and nothing else?

Ha, yes. I've actually tried just about every combination of filtering signals and nothing made any difference.

So what I'm considering now is a bad wiring of the GB link cable wires, or that I possibly soldered the wrong ones? But there are only two, and I've done a lot of soldering in the past few months so I'm pretty confident with soldering projects.

Are the colors of wires in GB link cables fixed across all makes and models?

I followed little-scales' instructions from here:

http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2011/0 … or-16.html

Which say I need to use the blue wire for ground and orange for SI, and the others are unneeded. And I just ordered a brand new cable from Nonfinite and it worked just fine when I tested it out before splicing it up.

I'm just really wracking my brain here thinking for the cause of the problem, and nothing seems to make sense. I'm about to re-solder the GB cable to the Teensy just to be absolutely sure, although at this point I'm thinking that just making an arduinoboy may be my best option.

nordloef
Offline
sweden

The colors are pretty much different on all cables.

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx
nordloef wrote:

The colors are pretty much different on all cables.

I just took a multimeter to the wires about 5 minutes ago and the wires were all wrong. Should've thought of that sooner!

About to eat some dinner and then will re-solder it with the proper wires and post an update when I get it working and feel dumb.


Thank you for sticking with me and all the help!

chalkboards
Offline
austin, tx

Alright, so I have fixed the sync issue and technically the GB is synced to Logic (they both play when I press play).

However, it is now severely out of tempo with Logic. It is playing about 3 beats behind Logic (7 beats in Logic = 4 beats in Nanoloop).

Any ideas on what may be causing this?

nordloef
Offline
sweden
firebrandboy wrote:

- does your daw have any audio latency correction settings?

dasid
Offline
Los Angeles

haha blaming the link cable was my first instinct -should of went with it smile  esp. since i thought it odd someone who could build a sync device wouldn't know how to slave nl.
so have you solved the logic issue? I use logic as well, and will soon enough have a nl usb sync thingee, so I would love to know your resolve in case i run into the same problem.