Problems syncing Beatstep Pro and Kronos

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bjoerngiesler
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:30 pm

Problems syncing Beatstep Pro and Kronos

Post by bjoerngiesler »

Hi all,

I recently bought a BSP, for its sequencer and CV capabilities as much as for the drum pads. I have it connected to the Kronos via USB, and am trying to sync them up in terms of tempo, but also possibly control the Kronos’s sequencer with the BSP’s transport buttons. ...and it’s not working :-)

I have tried setting the Kronos to receive clock, and the BSP to send (“Auto USB” or “External USB” on the Kronos Global MIDI page, sync set to “Int” on BSP); also the other way round (“Auto USB” or “Internal” on Kronos, sync set to “USB” on the BSP). But whoever I set as the master, the slave does not follow. The two are talking, because I can trigger sounds in the Kronos from the BSP’s sequencer; but the clock sync does not work. Also, the slaved sequencer does not start together with the master sequencer.

Does anyone have this running, and can tell me what I’m doing wrong? Does the Kronos react to clock on the USB A ports at all, or only on the B port (from a PC)?
19naia
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Post by 19naia »

Try putting both devices on Auto USB.
It will automatically decide which device is clock master and this does not really matter as long as both are synced.
I was trying to have kronos be Master but the auto midi setup is automatically taking clock or tempo from whichever device sends the first signal.
I think once i had kronos start the setup and tempo came in wrong. The external song tempo was set where i wanted it, but kronos combi tempo was never set to what i wanted while i was only using external device start and tempo to start the performance.
I set foot switch on the external device and have it send start/stop message that controls kronos as well. But i use my setup in Combi mode.

I had some issues with sync at first, but putting both devices on auto midi, made everything work fine. Even sorted out the start/stop issues for me such as syncing Karma stop with the external device stop.
Could not get the external device to start Karma but at least Karma syncs clock when i manually start karma via first note pressed.
Maybe Karma run message is not the same as start message? Or maybe i have to take karma out of start on “first note” and set it up to start with start message?

Last i heard, Kronos sequencer’s Start/Stop button has issues with being useful beyond internal Sequencer start/stop. Not sure exactly what the hangups are, but i do know the start/stop midi message itself, is assignable to other controls such as the foot switch i use to send the message from external across both devices in sync.

If you cannot get the sequencer start/stop message to work right for you,
i would try assigning start/stop message as an assignable controller function.
Does not have to be assigned on kronos either. My foot switch assigned to start/stop function, is setup on my external device and lets me use Kronos foot switch to send SW1 messages. I end up getting multiple foot switches working for me, not just the single foot switch kronos offers.
Lightbringer
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Location: USA

Post by Lightbringer »

Connect it over 5 pin MIDI rather than USB. No MIDI clock is sent or received over the USB A ports. I’ve had it working this way with Kronos as master. The only quirk I remember is that I had to reset the BSP manually (press stop on the BSP) after stopping the Kronos sequencer to get it back to step 1.
bjoerngiesler
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:30 pm

Post by bjoerngiesler »

Lightbringer wrote:Connect it over 5 pin MIDI rather than USB. No MIDI clock is sent or received over the USB A ports.
Thank you. I had suspected as much. :-( Have you tried doing this with the Kronos as the slave, and using the BSP’s transport buttons?
Lightbringer
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Location: USA

Post by Lightbringer »

Yeah, there is a tiny sentence somewhere in the 2000+ page manual that confirms it. :)

I did not try it with BSP sending the clock. Figured the clock in my $3k Kronos was likely to be more stable and accurate than my $200 BSP, but that may be a bad assumption. I’d be interested to compare notes with you on anything you learn!
bjoerngiesler
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:30 pm

Post by bjoerngiesler »

Lightbringer wrote:I did not try it with BSP sending the clock. Figured the clock in my $3k Kronos was likely to be more stable and accurate than my $200 BSP, but that may be a bad assumption. I’d be interested to compare notes with you on anything you learn!
I think you might be correct. For me it’s mostly a space issue — the place that I have reserved for my BSP eventually kind of covers the right side of the Kronos, including the transport buttons :-) Also, the big friendly buttons on the BSP are much nicer than the little clicky ones on the Kronos. But it’s not a must if it doesn’t work.
Lightbringer
Senior Member
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:16 pm
Location: USA

Post by Lightbringer »

For me I guess the ideal would be to use the Kronos clock, but have the BSP's start and stop buttons sending the correct MIDI messages to control the Kronos sequencer. Might be possible? I didn't quite get that far before I got distracted by other things.

Yep, the BSP doesn't really quite fit on top of the Kronos. I ended up moving it to a table beside my keyboard stand.

It's a neat match up though. The BSP adds some step sequencing features and tactility that are missing in the Kronos.

One thing I decided would be a good move was to map the top 8 drum sequencer pads in such a way that they triggered the internal Kronos pads. That way you can re-map those pads on the fly in the Kronos to correspond to whatever drum sounds (or notes or chords in a melodic preset) that you want without having to load up the BSP MIDI control center.
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