rvooh Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 Everyone who has tried to synchronise old Roland dinsync gear with computers must have noticed you get a really sloppy synchronisation.It has driven me (and many others) crazy over the years. Even with the best software, midi hardware and dinsync converters, the results are 'sloppy' compared to hardware clock. Tests have shown it cannot work reliably, ever, with 10ms deviations measured.I've been researching pc to hardware syncronisation methods over the past few months and now I have released the first version of an Audio Unit plugin.For now you need a MOTU soundcard and a dinsync slave device, but other methods of syncronisation are being implemented.A diy electronics project is being developped and will hopefully be ready before the end of September. It will allow you to use any computer audio output and get dinsync from it, fully latency compensated by the DAW.Other sync options will be available as soon as I've written a gui for it. Think FSK tape sync (korg kms-30), pulsed tape sync (mpc electronics uk - sync track), 48pqnn korg dinsync, etc... you name it, it can probably be synced.If anyone would like to test, I uploaded Sync Unit AU version 0.5 yesterday.It doesn't have a gui and only does Roland din sync for now.Seems to work fine in Logic 8 and Ableton Live 8. Haven't tested with anything else yet. It's already very usable, and sounds very tight.----------------------------------Sync Unit AU 0.5 by rv0Download it here----------------------------------Please read the release notes before causing damage.Future features will include shuffle modes. Windows VSTi and maybe RTAS should follow when the AU is finished.See attached image for a mockup of the GUI in development:I'm really curious about user experiences with this software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 Thats a really clever idea!In the pre-computer era musicians reserved a track of their multi channel tape to playback the clock signal, with this AU you bring the same method to modern DAWs. Unbelievable, that nobody did this before! :)Do you think that a mode would be possible which sends a different clock pulse level for the Start signal?(I consider to write a MIDIbox application which generates a MIDI clock/start from the audio signal)Would higher resolutions like 192ppqn and 384ppqn be possible as well?And would it be possible to add an optional negative delay? This would allow to compensate the latency if the audio of the synched device is sampled by the DAW and forwarded to the Aux bus.Best Regards, Thorsten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvooh Posted August 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 thanks for the kind words (me , a clever idea ??? :-[ ;) )actually I was inspired by a lot of people who have done similar things the past few years, but with samples of pulses.I was amazed too that nobody did this earlier.Do you think that a mode would be possible which sends a different clock pulse level for the Start signal?(I consider to write a MIDIbox application which generates a MIDI clock/start from the audio signal)i dont know exactly what you meansomeone is designing a circuit for me using schmitt triggers, I'll make a special mode for it in my software. should work with a mono cable, it will have a high rate clock over the run signal for ac coupled start/stop detection. Is that what you mean?Would higher resolutions like 192ppqn and 384ppqn be possible as well?Yeah, am planning to implement that as soon as I figure out how the gui stuff works for Audio Units.. I'm really a n00b in Audio Unit development. All I can program so far is sliders and I dont need any :) You can already see the dropdown menu in the mockup of the gui posted above.Things like that are pretty easy to impelemnt, but right now I'm using synthesis and I wonder if it will work correctly when using a lot of cpu.Maybe I should consider wavetables, I'm not sure.It will work but I don't have anything to test the consistency with.It should be pretty easy to generate midi clock too from those pulsesAnd would it be possible to add an optional negative delay?This would allow to compensate the latency if the audio of the synched device is sampled by the DAW and forwarded to the Aux bus.possible, yes, but most DAW's support this feature somehow, eg. ableton live has seperate track delay ( + and - in ms).I delayed it a bit last time because everything sounded too tight with ableton when I check the demo yesterday.I also still have to check if the polarity of my signal is right, that could vary half a clock pulse. And I'm not sure if dinsync needs a rising edge or a falling edge, etc.. I'm just glad it appears to work fine and that you can actually hear the differenceAnyhow, this is how you hook up the cable: http://users.telenet.be/darffader/rv0/syncable.gif(hope i got it right now, I made a mistake in the release notes, just corrected it..I made my cable 3 months ago (edit: I just checked, it appears I have already tested it using samples in March) and wrote it down wrong I guess, hope nobody started soldering already lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futureman Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Cool!Din sync has 2 signals.. one is the clock (24ppq) and the other is the start / stop signal.. I think (From memory) it's high when stopped.. The whole 24ppq with computers has been a right royal pain in my arse.. while standard DIN sync has been fine(ish) 48ppq for my LinnDrum has just been unusable.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvooh Posted October 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 well good news for your linndrum i guess:a new update for those interested, has the option to select different clock-rates + minor fixes.Sync Unit DC 0.5.5downloadi'm also working on the ac version (testing stage)EDIT: just made a fancy installer:Sync Unit DC.dmg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvooh Posted April 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2010 (edited) :sorcerer: another important update, now featuring shuffle :smile: VST & AU Sync Unit DC 0.6 download: http://www.rv0.be Edited April 6, 2010 by rvooh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvooh Posted October 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 (edited) Would higher resolutions like 192ppqn and 384ppqn be possible as well? I just released Sync Unit AC which is a mono audio unit that provides Tape Sync (FSK) and a 384 ppqn mode (= Rapid Pulse) -> http://users.telenet.be/darffader/rv0/SyncUnitAC0.2.1.dmg if link dies in the future, you can find it on my website Edited November 6, 2010 by rvooh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reboot Posted November 10, 2010 Report Share Posted November 10, 2010 ...thank you a lot for this application . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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