Ableton Live & Yamaha SU200 & TR909 Syncing

had all this running tonight pretty sweet. TR clocking the SU200 & Ableton.

Only thing was the Beat Repeat on Ableton was a bit off.. didnt stay constant. kept changing the repeat loop length. i'm assuming this is to do with midi data as opposed to just a clock being sent out of the TR.. the SU was in 'TR Mode' btw, which ran fine.. jus like Lives stretching ability only in a lil box..

anyways, thinking of using an SR16 with an empty pattern to send a clock to all of the above via a midiman signal duplicator.. jus get a tempo sig to the 3 recipients as opposed to maybe some random data..

the SU & SR & Live i'm comfy with.. BUT.. this is the question..

are there any known 'qirks' with the TR as far as midi syncing is concerned ?




btw, never thought i'd get to play with one.. it belongs to Steve Law.. the other half of The 4th Loop.. its a pleasure to be able to play with such a legend of a drumachine :) cheers for trusting me steve :)

bump de bump..

anyone ? 909 tricks for live use ?


c'mon.. someone must know sum sh*t ;)

I couldn't sync my 909 with ableton unless it went through my Korg Electribe first. No idea why tho. Maybe its just 'old midi'??

Yeah the MIDI implimentation on the TR909 is old skool to say the least.

sorry for the hijack, but im curious who here ACTUALLY uses the tr909?

And for those who use it, do you guys send all the drums through the master out, or would you send them from their individual outs into your mixer/audio interface?

And do you guys actually use it to sequence your drums through your sequencer, or are just using it as a sound module and painting your patterns in the key editor in your sequencer?

I have to admit i have had the 909 for many months now, but have never bothered trying to sync it with cubase or ableton because it never synced properly. If i even bother using it anymore (i use alot of Drumazon now), i just paint the notes in cubase instead.

we plan to use it in 'write mode' with an empty pattern & program as we go.. it will be used as part of a live/dj set * jus use the level knobs to mix things in & out on the TR itself..

in studio mode,i reckon jus triggering it from your DAW will be the best answer.


see The 4th Loop thread in Techno Filez for more bumpf ;)

well, last night we had the 9 clocking both the SU200 & Ableton.. ran fine for the guts of three hours.. even a wind down & back up bit where everything stayed in time...

have found a 909 manual, so i'll check the implentation later today.. fair play to the 9 though.. 3 hours & didnt spit once.. still pissing up me Beat Repeat on Ableton though :(

if I were you I'd keep using the 909 as a master tempo. solid and reliable as ****.
but otherwise, why not use ableton as your master?

the 909 has 3 tempo modes, 1 to use it as a master and 2 as a slave.
of the 2 slave ones, one will hold your 909 faithfully to the master tempo, the other will mean it simply triggers at the same time as the midi master.

if I remember rightly, hold shift and tap the "tempo mode" button until a "0" is displayed in the far right of the bpm display.

like I said, if I were you, I'd keep using it as a master. it's far more reliable than any computer I've ever used.