I put a quick demo video together of Prime and the MPC Live syncing together using Ableton Link. These two are a dream team together as they have a similar form factor and both run off batteries. DJ plus Live PA.
Only question is how do get the sync to lock on the first beat?
Sync option set to beat or bar ?
Yes, I notice when I hit play on the MPC it doesn’t always start on beat 1 of the bar. How can I set the Prime to sync the playing track with whatever the Ableton link thinks is beat 1 so that both bars on the Denon and MPC start at the top of the bar?
You got to sync your prime go master deck beat counter to the Abelton Link beat counter. So far I’ve been only able to do this manually.
The Link beat counter runs continuously and shows you where in the bar it’s at.
If you just start your deck randomly, you might (for example) start it on the 3. Therefore when you hit start on your MPC, you’re actually starting it on the 3 because that’s where you started your deck, so it’ll wait until it gets to the 1 before running.
PK kinda summed it up. Think of Abelton Link as it’s own entity and is the absolute master that sends a 1234 metronome over the air that everyone can sync to. Abelton Link is sending it’s own beat counter when activated. If you’re prime deck is the master/peer then it can dictate the tempo but not the grid. That means you gotta sync any master/peer deck to the Abelton Link generated beat counter to beat sync things down the line.
Feel free to generally further discuss how it’s working out for you here.
And if you want better workflow in accessing it on the unit feel free to discuss and give a like over here.
I thought Ableton link has bpm, beat aka grid and phase support.
https://ableton.github.io/link/
I think this will depend on the implementation across the peer software/hardware
In my testing 2 sc players set to Bar Sync and linked via ableton will sync according to the Bar
Meaning if you start deck 2 it will align with the bar of deck 1
I did read.
It is not designed to orchestrate multiple instruments so that they play together in lock-step along a shared timeline.
Ableton Link is the absolute master. It accepts tempo changes a relays them. When you move the the pitch fader on your deck (when Link enabled) are you actually controlling the pitch on your deck?
Maybe your pitch fader tells Abelton Link (if you’re master/lead/peer/etc…) first so that Abelton Link can relay changes to everything at the same time including your deck. You can achieve the illusion of real-time sync only if things run in parallel to a master. Anything serial can never sync unless you offset the master.
Who knows, maybe I’m just telling a good story.
I’m sure you know more about this than me.
My own understanding of it
no “Master” in Ableton Link.
Peers more like it and Ableton is the “Link” between the peers. Peers are equal in terms that they can change tempo, join or leave at will.
because Engine OS has the latest implementation of ableton link it can join on beat, in time, by bar a link session. (No start/stop yet)
We can discuss it more here if you wish.
https://community.enginedj.com/t/how-s-abelton-link-working-out-for-y-all/35673/11
As far as I can see and played around with is that Abelton Link behaves as the absolute metronome.
Anyone can be the master/peer or whatever and change the tempo. But so far from what I’ve seen is that Ableton Link sets the grid that anyone can join to.
I’m still getting the hang of it but check this thread out also and give it a like if you agree.
@MajorTom can I ask how your’re getting the audio out of the MPC and prime go at the same time? Have you got them both connected to a separate mixer which is then wired into your audio?
I’m thinking of getting an MPC one, so you can wire or connect via Wi-fi to establish the ableton link but how to play on both with audio coming out as one is where I need some help. As far as I know mpc one doesn’t have any RCA inputs or outputs or Aux.
@SunnyJ I am not familiar with the MPC one. However the Prime has an aux in. So, both are synced via the Ableton link via wifi. MPC stereo out to the Prime aux input. Stereo out of Prime to amp or mixer or headphones.
You might not see it on your controller. I can only see it in single layer view on my sc5000m.