Midi To USB interface for sending MIDI clock to another PC (lighting sofware)

Tomray · 2022-07-14T13:14:20+00:00

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Tomray

Hello all,

I really hope you can help me with this one:

I'm looking for a reliable way to send the midi beatclock from my Audio 8 DJ to another laptop for lighting software.

I already bought a MIDI-to-USB dmx interface, but that one just won't work.

Any suggestions here? (preferring a cheap solution since it's only needed one night...)

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

PK The DJ

Ableton Link?

Tomray

Thank you for replying.

Forgot to mention, I'm running my Traktor on a (very) old yet reliable 13-year old Macbook. I doubt if there's any version of Ableton that will work on such an old Mac. But for Traktor, it does the job.

What I'm actually looking for is a thrustworthy connection cable from my Audio 8 Dj Midi Out port that can actually receive the MIDI-beatclock messages on a virtual MIDI-port on my lighting-PC (Windows 10).

I suppose the cable I bought was non WIndows 10 compliant, so I'm looking for a MIDI-to-USB cable that can actually do the job.

I'll gladly hear your recommendations :-)

PK The DJ

Live (Ableton is the company, not the software) doesn't need to run. Traktor has Ableton Link built in. It will allow you to sync Traktor to the lighting software (wirelessly or via RJ45).

That is assuming the mystery lighting software which you haven't named also has Ableton Link.

By the way, MIDI and DMX are different things. If you bought a MIDI cable it won't work for DMX.

Tomray

The lighting sofware being QLC+... so far I've read it doens't seem possible to connect those two

Tomray

QLC+ has however a possibility to capture midi notes.

If I try the whole setup on just my Win 10 laptop, Traktor sends a MIDI virtual output, which is sent back by Loopbe to QLC+. QLC than captures the midi beatclock as a trigger for the chase cues. It works quite well, but I just don't trust windows to be stable enough to run both music & lighting software at the same time.

That's why I prefer the 2 laptop setup...

PK The DJ

Ah, free software. You're probably out of luck then.

It works quite well

I'd suggest using it then. I've never had stability issues using Windows with two or more apps running.

What was the interface you bought?

Tomray

A generic midi-to-usb cable, even without a brand or manufacturer on the package. Guess that's also part of the problem. Looks the same tho as the picture below///

If you however have any of these cables to recommend (nothing top-notch, but enough to just send the beatclock), I'd prefer that solution ...

Stevan

In one of Chris Liebing's videos on Youtube he is talking about syncing via the Ethernet cable (also using MB Air). However he is using USB to Ethernet adaptors and states that that is the only way - even mention talking to Apple engineers about that issue. So yeah I trust the ethernet is a way to go.

Tomray

I'll have a try-out on one laptop for sound and light together tonight, otherwise I'll look further in the ethernet option.

Thank you both for your advice!

Tomray

Just a little feedback in case someone has the same issues:

The USB-MIDI cable I had seemed to be the problem (not supporting any windows version after 2009 👎️😡).

So with a newer cable (Fore) the connection between midi-out of audioDJ8 and my lighting laptop, the connection was made and worked perfectly.

I also tried the suggested all-in-one solution on one laptop, and it also worked perfectly except for three heavy CPU-load moments.

The ethernet way can work, but since I found my solution, I haven't looked into that 😉

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