Timing issues on PA500

faganbi · Post by **faganbi** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:59 pm

The timing clock on the PA500 does not appear to be accurate or calibrated correctly. Here is an example ..
Recording with Cakewalk Sonar v 8, no sync involved, I set tempo in Sonar to 100 bpm, then press record, On PA500 I set it to play at 100 bpm. I then press play on PA500 at the beginning of a SONAR measure (click on) . After about 10 measures, it becomes quite clear that the downbeat of the song is drifting away from the measures displayed on SONAR.

When I try this same thing on a Yamaha Arranger, none of the drifting occurs. Even at 100 measures into the song, the downbeats match perfectly with the measures displayed on SONAR.

What gives? I'm I missing something?

kara · Post by **kara** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:22 am

No you're not missing something I think.
I observed the same thing. Recording pure audio from the PA500 at 60 BPM, then analyzing the audio in audacity. Gives a BPM of 59,95 BPM.

It looks indeed as the clock of the PA500 isn't very accurate.

k

jg:: · Post by **jg::** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:57 pm

No, that's not the case. It's always been the same - if you want two devices to sync together, then you have to... sync them together! Via MIDI in this case.

Pick any two devices with internal clocks, and most likely, they will start to drift apart after a few measures.

If you've found something that doesn't do this, well, it's a fluke.

You've gotta sync them together with MIDI.

jg::

kara · Post by **kara** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:09 pm

jg:: wrote:No, that's not the case. It's always been the same - if you want two devices to sync together, then you have to... sync them together! Via MIDI in this case.

Pick any two devices with internal clocks, and most likely, they will start to drift apart after a few measures.

If you've found something that doesn't do this, well, it's a fluke.

You've gotta sync them together with MIDI.

jg::

I understand that jg but that wasn't my test .....
I played the PA at 60 BPM and just recorded the audio using a hardware recorder (BOSS BR600), then imported the audio in Audacity and looked at the BPM. It wasn't exactly 60 BPM but a litle less.
No syncing involved here, just looking at the BPM played by the Korg

k