Hi,

Can anyone walk me through how to sync a hardware drum machine (Roland TR-707) to MC6 via MIDI, please?

I find it less tedious to write drum tracks on a hardware drum machine and would like to sync the drum machine and MC6 so that starting one starts the other and they stay in sync. I don't really mind which way round it works. I know how to set the drum machine for external MIDI sync if it runs as slave, or I could run it as master, depending on which way MC6 prefers to work. Ideally, I would also like to record the drum machine's MIDI note/velocity data into MC6, which should be feasible in the 707's Track Play mode, but failing that, it would still be useful to record the drum sounds themselves onto an audio track.

I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface (and also a Roland A-800 Pro controller keyboard connected directly to the PC via USB). The TR-707 is connected to the MIDI ports on the Focusrite interface.

I've set the drum map in MC6 to Roland MT-32 (which I think is basically the same as the TR-707 map but extended) and I have set MIDI Channel 10 in MC6 and in the TR-707. So I think I am just needing guidance about what else I have to set in MC6.

Thanks!

I don't think that external MIDI synch is available in MC6.  You may have to upgrade to Sonar to get this capability.
 
Glen

OK - thanks for letting me know. I have Sonar Artist but for some reason, it doesn't see all my plugins, so I tend to use MC6.
 
 

I think you can get it to work, just not everything at one time.  This much I know for sure, MC6 will always be the master since it has no master/slave settings.
 
MC6 can read data from a midi controller and it can transmit midi to an external sound module.  If midi echo is turned on then MC6 will receive midi and then re-transmit, or echo, whatever midi it receives.
 
First in MC6 set tempo and set up a midi track for MC6 to receive and record midi data from the TR-707.  Record the midi data.
Return MC6 and the TR-707 to the start of the song.
Set a track in MC6 to record audio next and record the TR-707 audio.
Align the two tracks.

Yep... what Jim said.
 
I've never used it in this manner, but I know a bunch of folks in this forum have used MC through the years to trigger drum synths and other midi modules so they could record the audio output back into MC an an audio track. Most of those were wanting to record the sounds in their midi keyboards back in as audio.

You can even have multiple midi channels going to various hardware midi modules if I understand this correctly. Put your drums on channel 10, the piano on channel 9 etc... and daisy chain the modules.


All that aside.... if you are still writing drum tracks on an external hardware drum machine, you should really take a look at some of the software based drum VSTi's.  They make creating drum tracks sooooo much easier. I used to write them the same way you do.... but I switched to software based synths. Some will even create the tracks for you according to the style and groove you want.  One of my early favorites was Jamstix. Select a kit from dozens of default kits or import them from other drum synths, select your drummer based on his style (modeled after real live drummers you've heard of), select a style of music, and JS will create a fully editable track for you. JS is just one of several really nice, and easy to use drum synths available. And they sound really nice too.

You should already have some synths included with MC6 that might be workable if you take the time to work with them a bit.

duplicate.....