Can MT Pro send (originate) clock messages?

Can MT Pro send (originate) clock messages?

I would like to be able to use MT to send a tempo setting to my Chaos Pad (KP3). I am NOT using a host sequencer in this case. This is for creating sonic transitions between loading Ableton Live sets.

I have been able to sync the clock to Live. But in this case I want to be able to send a tempo from MT.
Is this possible?

Thanks,
Max

Hi Max Open

If you know the MIDI signal that the KP3 is looking for then you can use timers to send the clock, but you'd need to translate it back into ms. How do you want to designate what the clock tempo should be? Would it be based on what the current clock settings on Ableton are? Or would you want to dial it in using a knob or buttons?

Thanks
J

Good questions.
I'm not sure how the timing clock is communicated in MIDI. This sentence in the Wikipedia entry on MIDI timing clock confuses me a little:

"It does not transmit any location information (bar number or time code) and so must be used in conjunction with a positional reference (such as timecode) for complete sync."

If I can base it on the current clock settings from Ableton and then modify it in MT, I could envision that, but don't know how to go from here.
I'd like to just be able to send a tempo/bpm instruction to KP3 with an outgoing message in a translator in MT (if that's possible).
How is timing clock information sent in MIDI? Is it an instruction similar to other MIDI messages?

I'm assuming since MT is not a sequencer, it might not be able to modify (or generate its own) timing clock information.

MIDI clock is primarily a series of F8 messages (called ticks). 24 ticks are sent per quarter note. There are other related messages as well such as start and continue, but those are of less importance.

Anyhow, MT can send out F8 messages via a timer, but timer delays can only be integers (whole numbers) and so it isn’t possible for MT to generate clock at any given tempo. For example, at 120 BPMs, a quarter note is 500 ms long. If you divide 500 ms by 24, the result is not an integer and so it isn’t possible for MT to generate clock at 120 BPM. The closest you could get would be 119.047…etc via a timer delay of 21 ms.