Want to buy Tracker and Play, but worried

General
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I want to buy Tracker and Play, but am very worried about sync between the two.
I have spent days looking online for assurances that problems are solved and software updates have resolved the well known clock/sync problems (I have tons of other Midi Din gear which I would need to run with Tracker and Play working together.
However, the same problems keep being brought up. Clock instability and jitter, midi sync drifting… etc.

I am on hold now, and considering buying a Polyend /Dreadbox Medusa this week, hoping that an integrated grid and a great synth will at least not cause me many sleepless nights/weeks of non-sync frustration having thrown over a thousand Euros down the toilet on Tracker/Play…

I recognise the amazing sonic potential of both locked together, however, can anyone reassure me that the Play/Tracker duo will work properly and tightly?

regards

rb
BG

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Hey @napravobg, welcome to Backstage! :partying_face:

I can’t speak for other peoples experience, but i personally have had no issues running the two of them (and other gear) tightly. I always either use the Tracker or the Play as the master.

As an example:

  • Tracker is the Master here
  • Play, Medusa, Eurorack and the DAW (Bitwig) are receiving clock
  • Medusa is sequenced by the Tracker
  • Eurorack is being sequenced by the Tracker
  • VSTs and a sample-rack in Bitwig are sequenced by the Tracker

I use a Blokas Midihub for all my MIDI routing. So the Tracker goes to the Blokas and from there things are routed to the individual gear.

So yeah… i think if it can do all these things, i’d consider it pretty stable :blush:

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Hi Sandroid.
Very many thanks, and great work!
I have been debating long and hard, and now think to buy a Medusa, and Tracker and Play.

I have Squarp Pyramid, Toraiz Squid, 2x expanded Proteus 2500’s, Px7, Novation Supernova, Technics WSA1r and 2 x K1000 Kurzweil racks, a K 2000 rack and 2 x Kurzweil master keyboards, K1200 and PC3. .(all midi Din) An Akai MP-X, a Blofeld, a Yamaha QY700 and RS7000.and lots of other sundry rack gear, (and a big electricity bill. :slight_smile:

I realise that a midi hub is in order. and had thought a Kenton Thru 25. ( 24 din through with Midi correction via schmitt trigger logic for signal quality restoration. One millisecond delay on all out’s.)
However, looking at Blokas Midi Hub spec, it does very very much more than correct and distribute Midi through, and seems to be configurable in a multitude of ways…

Do you ( or anyone else here in this amazing community) think that Kenton 25 through will solve my Myriad Midi problems, or are there un-forseen nightmares lurking, of which I am ignorant, and I really need something (or a lot more) else ?

Very many thanks for your help.

rb
BG

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That mention of the electricity bill made me chuckle :face_with_hand_over_mouth: :hugs:

The Blokas does indeed do a lot more (that i eventually want to dive into), but so far i purely use it for simple routing. It just allows me to load different presets so i can make other gear quickly the master of everything else. I’m lazy deep down :laughing:

I’m planning on adding one or two Kenton Thru’s to my setup as well… soonish…
… just so i can actually decide more easily what gear i want to power on and which not.

That’s because the Blokas only offers 4 Outs and i had to chain some of my gear behind other gear via their thru’s.

I’ll be honest - with MIDI it’s always a “you won’t know until you’ve tried it” kinda thing.

That being said, i don’t think you can go wrong with Kenton MIDI hardware. They are rocksolid.