MIDI Clock Master behavior

[edemunari]

Hi to all,
don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but I'd like to discuss a little bit about Midi Clock over Copperlan.

It seems that in your setup you could only define one master clock device. I mean if I have 2 midi clock transmitters and 1 receiver I could only use one of them to connect the clock signal in the connection tab. Whenever I try to connect both only the last one is activated.

Is it true? Is it correct or is it a bug?

Well if is a feature I would prefer to have the possibility of connecting both the devices on the same receiver and the choosing who is sending the midi clock to the receiver via hardware switching on/off the midi clock on the device itself.

I know that this could lead to jamming packets if I leave 2 transmitter switched, but this is known and happened since the first midi mixer was done. Having the possibility to connect more than one clock port to a device will let me setup just one configuration choosing the master midi clock as needed from my hardware machine, Macintoshes (I have two of them connected) too, by the way.

Obviously if the clock port is done for other pursues and I don't understand how to broadcast the midi clock, or if this is a bug, don't mind all I said but help me understand how to do what I needed.



Thanks in advance, cheers, Eriberto

[Copperhead]

The restriction of MIDI clock connections is deliberate.
One reason of this choice is due to the MIDI specification itself not specifying whether the actual clock ticks must be stopped or not independently of the run/stop status of the sender.
It makes sense letting the clock flow since it can be sent to multiple targets simultaneously while the run/stop status is set separately on each target at will.

To make a long story short, it is not advised to merge two clock sources because we can't be sure that the clock ticks will be silent (stopped) when a source is stopped (run/stop status). As you may know, MIDI clock ticks would simply add up when merged, ending up in a much faster tempo on the receiver(s).

As a possible solution, you can always save different snapshots with the appropriate clock connections.

[edemunari]

Thanks CopperHead,
I know what are you talking about, is a well known "midi feature" ...

But if i should choose I would choose to let the midi clock flow without restrictions, managing the clock output availability from the hardware connected than using different setup and snapshot in Copper Manager.

Maybe you could consider a check box for each interface/node or in the general setup to choose which option should be better for each one.



Thanks, cheers, Eriberto