Using the Juno Gi as a master clock (but not controller)

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poorness
Posts: 2
Joined: 17:46, 11 December 2014

Using the Juno Gi as a master clock (but not controller)

Post by poorness »

Hey all. This is my first post. I'm a long time Roland fan and I've owned many Roland products in the past.

Currently, I'm trying to do a "one man band" thing. I've got 3 synths (Roland Juno Gi, Arturia MiniBrute, DSI Mopho) and drum machine (Alesis SR18). I'm not performing this act live yet, just working up the songs in the basement. Currently, I have to set the BPM on each of the 4 devices before I start each song. I want each instrument to function independently, but I want all the clocks to sync. I have a MIDI thru box and all the cables I need, but I can't seem to make this happen.

I've tried using the Alesis as the master clock. I can get everything to sync to the clock, but it doesn't sync until you start the drum machine. So, if I have a song that starts with piano or synth (or anything other than drums), I still end up synching manually. Ugh.

The clock is the DSI is extremely accurate, so I thought of using that. However, I talked to Dave Smith support and they said there is no way to do with this with the Mopho as the master clock. It has to be a slave (because it always send the notes with the clock).

The Arturia is way too limited. It doesn't even display the BPM (just a flashing light), so it's not even a possibility.

This bring me to the Juno Gi. It seems like I should be able to do what I want using the Gi as the master clock. Well... I can get all the clock to sync... and it syncs real time. So that's all good! But when I play the keyboard on the Juno it plays notes on the other two synths (and the Alesis if the notes are low enough). This is definitely not what I want. I want to be able to send the clock signal w/o sending the notes.

I tried all the tx/rx settings under the MIDI menu. I can't see anything that controls this. Does anyone know if there's a way to do this? If not, any other ideas? It doesn't seem like this simple thing should be so complicated.
kmtaylor
Posts: 44
Joined: 02:57, 30 May 2012

Re: Using the Juno Gi as a master clock (but not controller)

Post by kmtaylor »

I think you're right. You can set the Gi as MidiClock master, but you can't disable transmission of notes. (You can disable transmission of Sysex, Programme Changes, and some other things).

So you're only option (if you are daisy chaining) is to either run the Midi stream through a filter (I use and recommend mididings) or check to see if there is a RX filter option in any of your other gear.

So the set up would look like:
Gi -> Filter -> (Some order of: DSI -> SR18 ->MiniBrute)
or
Gi -> DSI(Or somethine with RX filter) -> (Some order of: DSI -> SR18 ->MiniBrute)

Something else to think about (a more elegant solution) is to grab yourself a midi router. I use and recommend the eMagic Unitor8. These are quite old now and easy enough to find on eBay. Such a device will allow you to precisely control what midi data goes where.
poorness
Posts: 2
Joined: 17:46, 11 December 2014

Re: Using the Juno Gi as a master clock (but not controller)

Post by poorness »

Thanks for the response kmtaylor. I have never used a MIDI routers, so I'm not sure exactly what it does. However, I did some searches and you are correct about the price. They're pretty reasonable. How exactly do I use the router to synchronize the clock?
kmtaylor
Posts: 44
Joined: 02:57, 30 May 2012

Re: Using the Juno Gi as a master clock (but not controller)

Post by kmtaylor »

There are (or were) quite a few on the market, but since I have a Unitor8, I'll explain how it works.

It is a 8 in 8 out midi interface. With that many I/Os you can simply connect all of your midi devices. By programming the router, you can set up routing paths from any transmitting device to any receiving device. Input/Output filters can be assigned to each port, so that you may block any messages that you don't want to receive.

Another nice feature is that realtime messages (here realtime refers to Midi Clock, SPP, Reset and some other messages) can be routed separately. Also, the Unitor8 automatically selects which device will become the time base "master", ignoring any clock messages from other devices - eliminating problems with competing clocks.

There were a few devices on the market. The Unitor8/AMT8 both behave the same. There was also similar products from MOTU and others. The main thing to look out for is that the device can operate in 'stand alone' mode, in other words, it doesn't need to be tethered to a computer to be operational.
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