Hi, finally I decided to purchase two SC5000’s and a mixer Xone:PX5 (the x1800 didn’t meet my requirements). The mixer is connected via MIDI to a Synthstrom Deluge.
The two SC5000’s are connected between them using an ethernet cable, and everything is working fine between them. The PX5 sends the bpm info (midi clock) to the Deluge, so far so good.
However, the PX5 gets the bpm info from the builtin auto-bpm algorithm, which is acceptable, but it would be much better if the SC5000 could send the bpm info to the mixer. As far as I know, the protocol that sends the bpm info from the SC5000 to the x1800 is a closed protocol, but I am not 100% sure.
Is it possible to send the bpm info from the SC5000 to the PX5?
You can use Traktor with your mixer (Traktor can send the bpm info through usb connection) but since sc5000 don’t have HID with Traktor it’s not worth it (in normal midi you don’t have screens working and jogwheel is laggy for scratching).
In general buying standalone gear just to use them as overpriced controllers is nonsense.
Back on topic. I have the Midi out on the X1800 controlling the clock on my hardware. I was between purchasing the X1800 and PX5 or DB4. Clock sync between the players and the mixer is the only reason I went with the X1800 in the long run.
Currently, there is no “official” way to read the clock information from the players. However, 3rd party software has been created which can read the clock from pioneer players and translate it to MTC. I imagine it wont be long before someone does the same for the SC5000’s.
When I want to use extra midi gear with my SC5000s, I sacrifice one layer for time code. That then goes into a time code to midi clock converter box and gives out a rock solid midi clock.
Also thought about buying the X1800 just for the midi sync, but decided against that.
