MOTU MIDI Express XT outputs clock at 2x speed

[Danbeaulieu]

Hi, Cubase 11 Pro user here. I’m experiencing an issue with my clock coming out of my MOTU device at roughly 2x speed. If I have my BPM in Cubase at 120 the MOTU outputs 240ish to my external gear. It’s definitely the MOTU doing it because I tried pushing clock through NI Machine and the clock comes out at 120 BPM as expected.

I looked through the manual today and didn’t find anything on how to resolve this. I’m hoping this is just a setting somewhere that I am unaware of.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[monkey man]

IMHO it wouldn't be the clock speed from the MOTU, mate. AFAIK it's a constant as per the MIDI spec.

Rather, it's likely a "divisor" setting on the gear receiving the clock stream, i.e. 1/4, 1/2, 1/1, 1/2 and so on.

[Danbeaulieu]

Thanks for the reply, and what you mentioned was my first suspican. But I'm sending clock to three devices - Eurorack Eloquencer, Pulsar-23 and Octatrack, all three of them receive double speed clock from the MOTU device. When I swap out the MOTU for Native Instruments Machine to push the cubase master clock, all three devices operate at the correct speed.

Which, to me, eliminates Cubase as the culprit and my three devices. I can easily divide the clock down on each device, but that's a hacky way to resolve the issue.

The only other variable that I can think of outside of the MOTU is the MIDI cables. Any other ideas on this one?

[monkey man]

Is Cubase multiplying the clock x2 for the MOTU only?

I haven't used CueBalls since the '90s so don't know if it's possible to specify such things on a port-by-port / device basis, but that's all I can think of ATM.

You could try patching the MOTU to the hardware devices directly to confirm my suspicion here.

[tmav]

This usually happens when two devices are sending clock. I’m assuming when your using Cubase it’s sending clock as your MIDI beat clock master. Make sure the other devices are not sending clock or configure the motu unit to filter the incoming clock from the piece of hardware sending it. On the motu MIDI timepiece USB the filter is called real time MIDI messages. To test which device is sending the clock disconnect the out ports one at a time until the the 2x issue goes away.

[Danbeaulieu]

Thanks tmav and monkey man,

I'll try eliminating everything but one connection later on tonight, and try on a few different devices to see if any of them double the clock. I'll also try sending the master clock from another device, like the octotrack as well.

Either way, I'll follow up later this evening.

[Danbeaulieu]

Alright, I have this figured out. I think both of you were onto something in your responses...

So, in Cubase you have to select your clock destinations, I had a gang of destinations so I just selected them all.

Selecting All of the Express XT ports plus this option (MIDI Express All Cables) is what doubled my clock speed.




Thanks for the clues. Hope this thread helps someone else in the future.

[monkey man]

Yep, specifying to send each port as well as all ports has sent two sets of instructions to the device by the look of it:

Send MIDI clock from each individually-ticked port - 1 set
Send MIDI clock from all ports - 2nd set.

The two streams combined to give the illusion of double speed, much as they would theoretically have done if sent from separate devices simultaneously.

Great that you got it sorted and learned something at the same time, mate, unlike those gremlin cases where stuff mysteriously "fixes itself" and we're none-the-wiser, such as after reinstallation, reboots and whatnot. Good stuff.

[tmav]

If the MIDI express.XT works like the timepiece AV you only need to send to one port and it will automatically send to all the other ports.