Trouble with sending Midi Beat Clock from Live > Max

Greg Finger's icon

I know this is probably a pretty beaten dead horse, but I feel like I have read everything I could read, tried everything I could try, and still there is no working solution for me.

My plan in the end is to receive a DJ's BPM over a midi cable (or maybe over an ethernet cable [ipMIDI?]), so i can manipulate visuals to the same beat he is playing with.

this seems like the thing I need to work: http://docs.monome.org/doku.php?id=dev:max:midi-clock
but it doesn't for me.

i added a "change" object for some max patch (attached) I downloaded from these forums on some thread i've already forgotten, but this does work with transmitting the beat. I just would not be sure how to rewire the DJ's Ableton Live into my computer.

I guess a step-by-step instruction is what i'm looking for, because either i'm missing one essential step or my computer is missing some system file for MIDI and is messing everything up.

4137.liveclock.maxpat
Max Patch
spectro's icon

The patch you posted will require Rewire~ which, AFAIK is not intended as a computer to computer protocol. If you want to receive MIDI from another computer and derive a BPM from that clock within Max on your computer, I suggest you try searching the forum for "Midi Beat clock" There are numerous patches and solutions posted in threads with that name.

Greg Finger's icon

But the thing is (and i mentioned this) I have searched the forums and downloaded the patches. The patch I linked to in my post (not the attachment), should work, but does not. So I was looking for some help on a foolproof instructions/setup, and if those don't work, then obviously it is pointing to something wrong deep within the system.

spectro's icon

OK. The patch linked to works here (using a midi clock from an app on the same computer to Max vai IAC bus). One catch may be that you need to have Audio enabled for this to work properly (via the toggle at the top of the patcher), so Max will need to be working with a valid audio driver (Options/Audio Status in max 6). If you need more detailed help, you really need to describe in detail how you are trying to use this patch in terms of what setup you are trying to use: Hardware MIDI from one computer to another? Sending Beatclock from Ableton on the same computer? Other? etc...

Greg Finger's icon

Most likely a beatclock out of Ableton, though a hardware interface with midi out, with a cable that runs it into USB on my computer.

However the DJ said he might not be able to use that interface while playing live, so we might try MIDI over ethernet using ipMIDI (http://nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html)

The fact that I can't get it from my own Ableton into Max is worrying.

Greg Finger's icon

Ok, I actually got this working, i guess it was the "sync" button in the midi output section of ableton that was needed.

Although now I can only get IAC bus driver 1 working, but none of the others, like ipMIDI or to MaxMSP1/2 work. I have all the MIDI inputs checked off in Max.