MF Twister Midi Clock Sync Issue

DJTT Gear & Custom Mods Midi Fighters
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MF Twister Midi Clock Sync Issue

Was playing some 100-124 bpm chilled out music while opening up a gig yesterday and decided to overlay some drums with the twister.

First I will start with a complement. With Ean’s mapping, this thing is extremely intuitive as far as controls, layout and switching between menus. Had a lot of fun with it when I could get it synced with the midi clock.

And that’s my issue. I had a heck of a time getting the clock synced. After transitioning into a new track I felt like I lost the sync. It was still close but it wasn’t perfect. I was able to press the sync button on the clock and get it back in time without too much issue. This however lost the one in the sequencer and trying to reset it with the top left side button sometimes put me back out of sync.

I was running the Twister through a usb port into the back of my Z2 so idk if that could cause an issue but the extra time getting things lined up after transitioning was rather annoying.

Could this be a firmware issue? I know this is a new product so bugs are expected. Hopefully this feedback will help future development.

Thanks
Chase

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Does this happen with all tracks that you play or just specific ones?

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It was the majority of them. I prep all my tracks and adjust beat grids so they should line up nicely.

It sounded noticeably better after pressing sync on the clock each time I changed tracks.

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Twister clock…

Same for me, I have some issues with the clock.

For the last 2 days I have made some test, trying to find what is going on with the tempo.
I have a lot of thing going on when I play but the arrival of the twister seem to be just a little bit to much for my Traktor.
I have a S4, Kontrol f1 and Akai apc40 to shape the sound. With the new setting I had to change my lantency and it is still clipping.
So I tough I was asking to much and it had some impact on the internal clock.
I re install my tsi file, big button for my S4 and small for the others, Putting in and out on the spot for each of the file.
Trying to focus on finding what’s the problem, here are my observations.

I’ve put sync to the master on my F1 ( deck C) and the Twister ( deck D ). push on the play pause in the internal click window. I start with the F1 than I put the Twister, sync is close to perfect, as soon as I put a track perfectly grid, the F1 stay’s sync but the Twister start to lag so I have to bend it some to put it back or push on sync again, sometime it change the down beat. So I have to stop it, re sync and replay it until the next track.

I’ve try a lot of track ( Master ) with the F1 ( Sync ), the sync is easy and pretty precis. I’ve try with the Internal clock, with track ( sync ) and F1 ( sync ) same result. Don’t have to put a lot of attention there.

I did the same with Track ( master ) and Twister ( sync ) and it doesn’t sync our it goes out of sync in couples of bars. I have to do-it manually or re sync it or try to reset it.
I did the same with the internal cock and it is the same.
Btw, I did the same test without the APC 40 tsi file and it make no difference.

Sometime the twister is in sync with 3 or 4 channel playing, everything is cool, but as soon a I change in the first channel, the first kick’s in Twister pack to the third sample, the Twister go off again.

Just to let you know, I usually play with and without the sync button, when I play, even when I’m using 4 decks.
I always bring my track without sync, to practice my ear.

For now, I have to say it is impossible for me to play with the twister in the team, unless I put all my time and energy on the sync, reset, stop and play button. Something is not right.
I do understand , this is gear and program, so it is a working progress and I’m on this train because the Twister is a fantastic idea! Just need more love.

All my set-up is organized and map in a way that I don’t have to use the mouse or rarely, so I’m kind of not very happy that I have to use the mouse a lot and the fact that the Internal metronome window is not mapping friendly!!!
It is like opening you sunroof in your car with your hand.

JP

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Hey Guys

To make sure both tracks are correctly in sync you need to either press the lower left side button on Twister while in sequencer mode or click SYNC in Traktor’s UI inside the MIDI Clock tab.

I’ve tried this with both older and latest firmwares and it’s tight.

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I’ve tried both methods. For me, this syncs the current track fine but after transitioning I loose the tightness of the sync. Seems to drift a bit.

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Are your beatgrids tight? I’ve have mine going for the last 15min without a hitch. Using 2.6.8

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I prep every track religiously. Max zoom while placing markers. After getting into a new track and hearing the sounds slightly off, pressing sync fixed the problem and tightened everything back up. Just seems strange.

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If you still have issues open a support ticket at support@djtechtools.com and we’ll find a way around it, be it firmware update or not.

1h running and still solid here.

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Hello Padi.
Thank you for the infos, Like Chasser, my prep, is right on the spot. I zoom in every track and I confirm with my metronome track and the internal clock to. It work very tight with my effects, my loops and the F1.
I will build another sequencer sets from one shots and make some test in the weekend. I will start again from scratch.

For the sync, like I said , I did follow the videos advice and I’ve tried the pause/play button in the internal clock and the sync on the twister. I’ve tried with the master from Traktor clock and The master from a deck.
It does keep the same bpm at the start but as son as I make a change; bring a new track, change the remix set. The Twister go off tempo.
Another strange thing, if I sync the Twister and the remix set to the master tempo clock, it goes well until I bring a track in. The remix set, keep’s the tempo and suddenly the Twister start to lag.
Short story, every time I make a change, the Twister doesn’t react well.

So, I’ve got more test to do to understand what’s happening.

Jpdretro

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I want to experiment more before I create a ticket. Thank you for the advise though. I’ll post results if I find anything else.

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Twister and latency issues

More observations.
Thursday night, I’ve try the twister on its own, sync to the master clock and I realized that the tempo was off on certain sample. For example the first kick on the first beat is off, not in time and it’s the same thing on other ones to. Not all of them but couples. Sometime it’s the first beat, some are the third, etc…
Do you think it could be a problem with the Sequencer Set or the internal timing of the Twister?

I was starting to have more sounds issues, glitch, pops, crack. Seems like latency problem starting. So I pull out the Apc40 and the F1 from the Tsi file. This setting I’ve been using over three years now and I’ve played over 8 hours gig without audio drop out. With the S4 and The twister left, I’ve tried different settings and I was still experimenting sounds issues so enough for that night.

Friday night.
I wanted to check mainly the latency problem. I’ve deleted all the Tsi file, used the install wizard, put back all my preferences settings, than bring in the Apc40, and the Twister with the small import button, check the in and out.This is on my desktop installation, It’s a computer for Traktor, basic program and internet disconnected.
My usual settings are at 44100/256/2ms, CPU very low and the latency diagram always in the green this is even when I use everything, the four decks with track, samples, loops and sometime macro effects ( up to 8 parameters per effects banks time for decks ) all this and no dropout.
So I start the test and bad news, more and more glitch and crack sound and even worst, every time I push repeatedly on buttons on my Apc 40 the tempo off the track playing slow down until I let go! So you can imagine how the rest reacts. Funny because the cpu doesn’t show sigh of stress, still very low.
Tried different latency settings and nothing is satisfying…so I pull everything back, deleted all the Tsi file. than I’ve put back the S4. result, no sounds dropout. Step two bring in the F1, great. Third steps, the Apc and oh boy… the sound is bad, it glitch almost on everything I touch.
So I decide to stop there, I was mad! My setup is unstable. My Apc 40 doesn’t work well anymore on all the 4 different tsi mapping that I have.
Seems like the Twister is in conflict with my Apc, even if I follows the advice on the importation.
I will need to restart Traktor all again! Hopping that my Apc40 and Twister will get along.

I plan to work on this next week.

Traktor set up.jpg
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JP.

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Anyone cracked this yet? I’m getting some random ‘sync drifting’ with my Twister as well even with the latest May firmware. On some tracks the beat is super tight. Others it seems like the beats are ‘offset’ by a few milliseconds, and even manually nudging the remix deck to line it up with the playing track deck won’t fix things. First I thought it was the samples I was using (mp3’s vs WAV), but all samples are WAVS and start up clean ‘on the 1’. Any help would be great - I want to set beats and forget them, not keep manually nursing the sync back into time with my track decks! :disappointed:

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Guys - may have found the cause of my sync issues. I had created a new remix deck of sounds recently but only just noticed today that the quantize setting on that deck (the little blue light) was off! All the official f1 remix deck packs have quantize turned on by default, and sync up perfectly to my track decks. So I turned this on my new remix deck and set the quantize rate to 1 for good measure. Now when firing up my twister the beats are pretty much bang on from the get go. So to me it looks like you need quantize as well as sync turned on for the twister signals to line up properly with the master clock. Maybe worth checking this setting on your remix decks if you’re still having sync issues with the twister?

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Is it possible for latency build to cause this issue? I find that whenever the sync falls off, there is a noticeable delay in response for the mft leds when I click on/off volume for example. As soon as I shift the soundcard sample rate up and then back, the led response is instant again and all my mft beats are back in sync…

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this may help

Not sure if this will help but I had a similar issue as I use multiple controllers behringer mm1, Denon sc2000, launchpad mini and then twister. When the twister was added to a working solution I started getting audio dropouts. I tried everything, mapping changes, laptop customizations etc. Then I took the latest firmware update, no3 and then, what I think was the root cause, changed the power supply for the Behringer which has the built in hub everything connects to. NOTE, keep the voltage the same as the previous power supply. I upped the maximum current the power supply could provide front 1000ma to 3500ma. Everything came to life. All the controllers had been attempting to draw more current than the original power supply could provide. May be worth looking at. BE careful with the specifications for your kit, I’m quite comfortable with this kind of stuff but if you’re not, check, check and check again is the mantra. Hope this helps

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Also experiencing some weirdness with the clock drifting slightly. I also use multiple controllers, so whether it’s symptomatic of the ridiculous number of MIDI messages flying around inside my system or not, I just can’t work out.

I really didn’t have any luck with my PC, so went out and bought a MacBook Pro and while it’s resolved most of the audio glitch issues, I still find the sync going out enough to be annoying. If only there was a way to nudge it back into sync!

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I am also having some similar problems with some drifting. it seems that it can’t seem to stay exactly on the line during a 4-8 beat loop. In ableton if I just let it loop over and over while recording I get tons of flam notes. My assumption is that this has to do with a midi delay issue, and this may just be the nature of the beast. This is my first ever hardware sequencer so it’s hard to know if this is to be expected or not.

When you just listen to it normally it sounds fine but if I want to capture a performance it makes things a little annoying. Another thing I’ve noticed in ableton live is that if I stop the session and then hit play then the timing is off again and after a little bit of a wait it seems to catch up again but the drift is still present. I’ll probably raise a ticket with their support just unless someone here can just explain to me the weird behavior that the twister is showing.

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Ok, I found a way around the sync reliability issue but I don’t really like it…I noticed that every time I fired the MFT up with a beat, the Sync Phase was automatically starting up ever so slightly in a negative position (i.e. you could see a small sliver of yellow to the left of the ‘0’ position. Clicking the actual Sync button on the player corrected this pahse, but by then the beats were ever so slightly off compared to the Master tempo. And once off, no amount of manually correcting the phase on the MFT remix deck seems to force the MFT sequencer back in time. So instead of manually adjusting the phase on my other decks to match the drifting MFT remix deck, this time I went into the preferences and activated Beat Sync instead of Tempo Sync. Now everything is working as I expected it would from the get go - all decks including the MFT remix deck lined up straight away from the get go. Great!..except now I can’t manually adjust the phase on my other decks because I am using Beat Sync not Tempo Sync. So currently either I have to beat grid EVERYTHING I play to perfection for the Beat Sync function to work well, or I switch back to Tempo Sync mode and have to accept that every now and again (randomly it seems!) I am going to have to manually adjust my main decks to fall in line with what the MFT is pushing out. This, despite the fact that Sync is already engaged on all the decks in effect, and all my tracks are already beat gridded.

I guess the question to Tech Tools is wether or not MFT ‘drift’ is expected in Tempo Sync mode or not? If not expected functionality in Tempo mode, can we expect a fix for this in a future firmware release? As a starting point, what sync mode was being used in all of Ean’s magical demonstration videos where everything was synced so super tight?

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I’ve experienced this drift too. The simple solution for short sets was to plug out the USB cable on the MIDI Fighter twister and plug it back in regularly! (every 15 minutes!)