Has anyone else experienced sync problems, running the RD-8 in midi slave mode,

I am using Ableton as a Master sequencer, which is triggering the Elektron Digitone and the RD-8, the Digitone is always in sync with Ableton, but the RD-8 sometimes will sync perfectly after pressing play in Ableton, and other times its all over the place,

I have also tired using the Digitone as the Master Sequencer, to sync RD-8 it also behaves the same, I even tried clock Sync out of my Arturia Keystep, which is recieving clock from Ableton, to the Sync in on the RD-8, it also behaves strangely, example being its plays some sometimes and other times out of sync.

i have had problems with sync with the rd slaved to other hardware. It doesnt happen all the time but seems to happen when i solo parts slaved to midi. idk, i havent had the time to sweat it much or try to figure it out.

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/ar...-Live-via-MIDI

the song setting as opposed to pattern setting probably includes a song position pointer. it might be best to have it in pattern and drop the SSP. but you will tend to have to start from the top. also don't transmit MTC. just try clock on it's own.

I tried a few different setups, the best option was to use the RD8 as the Master Clock, seems tight for now, everytime I hit play on the RD8 everything syncs up pretty good

Picture may be of use

Signal Path:
Midi out from RD8 to the Midi in Digitone
Midi Thu from the Digitone to the Audio/Midi Interface Midi In

note: make sure the Digitone can receive midi clock, you can access this in the Global setting under Mid Config on the Digitone,

Setting up Midi Keyboard

Since the Midi In is being used on the Digitone from the RD8, you can still use a midi keyboard to play sound on the Digitone if you send the Midi Out from the Midi Keyboard to the Midi in on the RD8

To set this up on the RD8, click on the Settings button, then click the 1st white trig, its got the word midi at the top, set the Midi In page to Out, to do this turn the Data dail clockwise, next click the Tap/Hold button 3 times, the page Soft Thru should appear set this to ON

Syncing Ableton as the Slave
Ableton is recieving Midi clock from the Midi Thru on Digitone to the Midi in of my Audio/Midi interface

Next In Ableton on the top left corner click on EXT
then click the Options tab, select preferences, go to link midi menu, click on the drop down arrow of your midi in of your Interface, hit play on the RD8, adjust the midi clock sync delay to sync it up by ear.

from what I gather from the big RD8 thread is that it currently has some issues syncing properly. So nothing you can do about it IF you wanna have Live as master.

Seems to be the case, I am using Ableton as slave, it syncs perfectly no issues so far, would prefer to have the option, Ableton as master. My personal opinion is, the problem seems to be a unpredictable delay when pressing play when it receives the master clock from Ableton.

Yeah bugs that have yet to be addressed by Behringer.

I have the same issue. MIDI is tight once running but is very unpredictable as to where exactly it decides to start, so its often way off the beat.

If you have some way of sending analog sync (start/stop & clock) I found it responds more reliably than midi. Hasn't really been an issue for me since using it this way, but this is def something they need to fix.

My rd8 is doing the same thing when slaved to my Mpc it starts sometimes in sync then drifts.
Sometimes it misses a beat.

its funny how there is tons of posts all over the internet about new products from behringer. one half is the announcement of new products, and the other half is some sort of problematics related to these new products.
i had three of their products, (including the RD8 with same issue as yours) and all of them had something

I just received an RD-8 and can confirm that sync is terrible.
It takes about 8 attempts to finally start the RD-8 in sync with the midi clock from my MPC3000 (master).

The MPC3k midi clock syncs my SP1200 (from 1996) perfectly every time I hit start on my MPC but the RD-8 takes loads of restarts to get it to line up alongside my MPC3k and SP1200.
Love the RD-8 sound and workflow (coming from a real 808) as a standalone machine but this is a gigantic pain when trying to make tracks with my other gear.

This sync issue also makes it unusable in a live situation for me.

Do we know if this is fixable through a future firmware update or should I return my RD-8 as faulty?

Firmware 1.3.5

guys we need to know what version of firmware you're using, I suspect there are differences. I think there are 3: 1.1.8 1.2.6 and 1.3.5

I have the same issue, crappy sync timing when RD8 is clocked to Akai Force or Pioneer SP16. It might work 1 out 5 times if I'm lucky. No similar issues syncing Elektron A4, Rytm etc.

I'm on 1.1.8.

I'll update today. I haven't been keeping track of firmware updates to be honest. My mistake.

It's not a crime! It would be interesting to know if you can find things that now work that didn't before. The mess starts when something gets "broke".

If you go to 1.3.5 I'd be interested in knowing if the RD8 now responds to zero value note off, whereas before it only knew the usual note off message. Just that my DAW sends the former not the latter so causes all sorts of problems.

I've updated to 1.3.5.

I can't say the midi sync issue is fixed but it seems better. It's probably tight 3 out of 5 times now, instead of 1 out of 5 on the old firmware.

Not sure about the note off question. I don't have it wired up to my DAW.

Cancerogene

Bought it for a few weeks ago, yet now I've got some time to investigate it deeper than how it actually sounds... and the sync is cancerogene.
This a major failure from Behringer. The drum machine wont read midi notes from the DAW. I've updated to the latest update (1.3.5) and the problem is still there.
Haven't tried to fed it with the synths, yet... but I want it to sync with my DAW.... this is ridiculous sloppy from Behringer's engineers.

Regarding the update, if you've got lack of information where and how to update...
Here you go,

1. Download the firmware from Behringer's site.

2. Turn off the unit.

3. Run the software.

4. Find a needle or similar, put it in the tiny hole beside the on/off button.

[HOLD the needle] while,

5. Turn on the unit.

6. follow the instructions in the software application.

7. update complete.

8. turn off the unit.

9. turn on the unit.

10. Ready to use (but still broken slave function... lol)

rull3: check to see exactly what midi messages are being sent from your DAW to the RD8. I had this same problem, the RD8 would just mess up so I intercepted the midi data, my DAW sends midi note-on with zero velocity, which is a valid note off according to the midi spec. But the RD8 only responds to the midi note off message so overloads on all the incoming note on with no note-off.
Bad Beh.Mcr.

Cancer, horror, nightmare level sync is the reason Im selling my unit. I bet bontempi exist with more reliable sync.

maybe just a pause/stop issue.

Insted of Stopping (and then start from the beginning) the RD-8 paused the pattern and when you hit start again it runs from where it stops before.
try hitting stop on the unit before you start it with your daw. Any difference? same behavior?

I dont know how to say this.. but no, the issue with rd-8 sloppy midi sync slave timing is not anyhow related to user ability to stop and start sequencer correctly.

Recently got an RD8 and am on the most recent firmware 1.3.5 and connected it with my rig.. I have the octatrack set as master midi clock and have definitely noticed some jittering on the midi. The analog keys is receiving clock via the RD8 Midi thru and I've been watching the tempo jump up and down 10 bpm. Aka 120 BPM displays pretty consistently 120 but occasionally drifts down to 119.7/120.7 etc...that being said the midi clock is definitely not as bad as other gear I've used. I have also noticed that when starting the sequencer it will occasionally skip/not trigger first step but from what I can tell it doesn't mess up the RD8 playing in time with the rest of the chain...

Anyway, would obviously like to see an additional update to get it to sync better and am hopeful that will happen. Just wanted to share my experiences for the thread.

Also the thing sounds awesome

my RD 8 is master clock midi'd up to TD3 most of the time on latest firmware. I've had to factory reset twice when some random madness sets in with the tempo and it doesn't reset after powerering off and on again. The first time you could clock it up to 200bpm and not even hear the difference in speed. Stick with it bugs will be ironed out. You can dump the stored files (as midi) before you delete whats in the memory, so its not all bad.

So, after reading this topic (and various other bits) can i draw the conclusion that the RD-8 does not behave 100% being slaved in a midi chain?

Also; do the trigger outs behave in the correct matter? (I've read some bits that it doesn't seem to work properly with MS-101 units.)

Or has everything recently been fixed with OS upgrades?

Apologies if my assumptions are wrong, but it's a bit hard to sift through all the available info and trigger out & ext midi-in working correctly would be vital for me to integrate RD8 into my setup.

I can't get ext midi clock in to work well at all. I've tested midi clock from an MPC 3000, SP1200, Logic, Ableton, Reaper, etc.
It's just plain terrible. First of all, midi clock start is just random so I have to keep stopping and starting until it finally starts on time, then I found that the timing doesn't remain solid.
I started to just use the RD8 as a sound module now, triggering over midi, but even then it isn't solid.
There is a fella on here who appears to have his syncing ok. He has an older RD8 than mine but is on the same OS, so there must be physically electronic differences between RD8 versions.

As for trigger outs, they are a bit pointless if I can't sync the machine correctly to my other gear.

SYNC via midi if rd8 is slave has occasional slug starts, the clock holds fine but occasionally (could be 1 time in 50 or 20 times in 50 ) the 1st step is slightly off so it is either a stop and restart or adjust by a few ms in daw if recording. PITA and needs a fix but no life ender really, the last session i did i had about 20 recordings all perfect on the marker, other times i have had an issue sooner and later in my session so go figure

3 analogue trigs are fine but a bit short - the 3 analogue trigs spit out a very sharp and short spike of 5ms @ 5v iirc, really it could have done with extending ever so slightly in length, @ Maffez figured out a little fix with a super simple circuit that costs about £3 to increase the length which then will fire many more synths to get that trig out thing happening - down the road rd8 may come with an adjusted spike i don't know, it isn't something to be achieved in FW updates i don't think but maffez could shine more light on that

if i want 100% i make it master clock, that pisses me off somewhat as my OT is my chosen clock source but whatever, i can work with it

not overly impressed they have still not sorted it but i paid 260 quid so it isn't exactly the end of the world to make it master

sounds like you really struggle with it jim

gutted for anyone who suffers, as above mine is far from being terrible, it occasionally pisses me off and i have no reason to be dishonest

not you jim before i get some moron screaming at me, anything less than 100% is bad but i think/i hope we know what i mean

I'm thinking of returning mine for another one to see if it is any better. I have the warranty so I figure why not.

my FW is 1.26 i think, i am from batch 1 hardware

i don't know if HW has any difference, seems like a cpu thing

can't believe they haven't addressed it yet and mine is closing in on a year old in a couple months or is it already a year ? it is hard for me to remember what date i got it tbh - i am not on fakebook or i would troll them hard about it and why it is still not sorted

why not? cannot hurt to try

remember to dump your patterns if you have nay you think you can't repeat