Generate MIDI clock messages from PD

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Thu, 08 Oct 2015 09:21:04 GMT

happilylazy — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 09:21:04 GMT

I am trying to sync through MIDI my PD patches and some hardware equipment. The reason is that PD generates music and I jam to it with instruments connected to effects and samplers. The problem is that those samplers and effects are BMP dependent and need this information to perform.

How can I send MIDI clock messages from PD?

I can't seam to find a way of doing this with [midiout] and [noteout].
I am using Win7.

p.s. I believe I found some hints that on linux using [midiout] it is possible to do this, but is this exclusive for linux or possible on Win too?

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Thu, 08 Oct 2015 11:34:08 GMT

LucienR — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 11:34:08 GMT

I guess you have to use [ctlout]

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:13:17 GMT

NoDSP — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:13:17 GMT

[ctlout] and [noteout] generate midi controller and note messages only, not midi realtime. There is no [midireatimeout] object -- you have to build a patch and connect it to the raw [midiout] object to create these messages..

There are a number of simple pre-made patches you can download around the net to do this, though I can't vouch for their effectiveness or stability. It's one of those things where the basic message protocol is very simple but it gets messy when trying to implement it properly on the common modern software platforms, especially with Pd running on top of them as it's midi realtime functions are still underdeveloped.

Here's one I found somewhere on the net awhile ago that you can try, haven't tested it much myself as I prefer to generate clock from external hardware sources that I know are far more stable than any modern computer application would be:

midiclockout.pd

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:12:54 GMT

rjp9 — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:12:54 GMT

@happilylazy I made this a while ago http://forum.pdpatchrepo.info/topic/8784/metromidi-metronome-midi-clock-source

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Fri, 09 Oct 2015 08:28:46 GMT

happilylazy — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 08:28:46 GMT

Wow, I actually got this working perfectly, for both of your answers. My external devices are reacting as expected, no glitches or problems.

@NoDSP: That was a good demonstration of how to implement it on low level, definitely useful to implement in patches.
@rjp9: A great patch, thank you. This is a clean robust solution.

Reply to Generate MIDI clock messages from PD on Sat, 10 Oct 2015 09:54:43 GMT

NoDSP — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 09:54:43 GMT

Glad you got that to work. I did some experimenting with it since I found it again and decided to rework it for my own purposes. The patch below adds the ability to send the messages individually, (as some devices prefer a continuous clock independent of the Start/Stop state) the ability to send the Continue message, and a proper graph on parent GUI. It is fully vanilla compatible, and as a pure control patch appropriately uses NoDSP.

midisystemrealtime.pd