Soundbrenner Metronome via Ableton Link

TuckGTL

Hi all - how do you monitor a metronome for live performance? I have seen people play without a metronome but not sure how they do it. I do better if I have both a visual of the beat and an audible click. I have used wired headphone connection to GTL, but I really don't like the wired setup.

I have been testing out using the Soundbrenner Metronome synced to GTL via Ableton Link - trying with a couple extra phones I have laying around (both Android and iphone) and some Samsung Earbuds.

(Side note: please see my profile for my looping setup)

The Soundbrenner metronome gives a nice visual and control of the metronome, and also a separate sound source for the metronome that I can monitor via Samsung Earbuds. And it hooks up easily to GTL on my IPhone XR via Ableton Link.

Anyone else tried this or something similar? Here are some things I found:

• I have found latency to be a bit dicey with the earbuds with Soundbrenner + GTL on my Moto G6; latency seems to change from time to time?
• Using an iPhone 5c + Soundbrenner + GTL latency does not seem to be an issue with this arrangement, this works well
• Soundbrenner seems to work very solid with GTL via Ableton Link
• I start to run into real problems when I attach other devices while using Soundbrenner via Ableton Link. If I hook up my Arturia Minilab MKII with midi bindings assigned in GTL, things go south fairly quickly (note: this is a USB connection). GTL drops the midi connection to the MKII, and sometimes just hangs. I have found this to be an unstable arrangement, and on occasion have had to reboot my phone to re-establish the midi connection inside GTL. If instead I use my Airturn BT200S-4 for midi control in GTL, it also goes south at some point, but further down the road than using the MKII (note: this is a bluetooth connection).
• Finally - I tried midi control of GTL with an old midi keyboard routed to the midi in of my Presonus Audiobus 96 in combination with the Soundbrenner setup. This seems very stable. I used this for a while with no problems, but not really what I want to use hardware-wise.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

TuckGTL

Side notes:

• arturia minilab mkii works fine with GTL as long as I don't use the Soundbrenner / Ableton Link on an extra phone
• same for Airturn BT200S-4, it works fine with GTL as well as long as i am not using Soundbrenner / Ableton Link on an extra phone

TuckGTL

Sidenote #2 - was using the Airturn BT200S-4 for midi control of GTL while syncing with Soundbrenner this afternoon with the two iPhones, and did not have any problems. So maybe it is just the combination of the Arturia minilab for midi control with Soundbrenner?

Jack

Hi @TuckGTL,

Thanks for reporting, I haven't come across this issue myself. You're doing the right thing, trying different combinations until you locate the app/feature that's causing the problem. Let me know if you think this is definitly a GTL problem and I will try and fix it.

One thought, have you tried the minilab with GTL and another Ableton Link app (other than Soundbrenner)? It may help to confirm if Soundbrenner is 100% the cause of the problem.

TuckGTL

Thanks for the reply @Jack
Further on Sidenote #2, above - Over time I have found the Airturn BT200S-4 to work solidly with GTL + Soundbrenner. Not sure what problem I was seeing on the issue I initially reported with the BT200S-4. I really like this setup using Soundbrenner and have been slowly optimizing my midi and keyboard bindings to suit my needs. Destination - looping utopia.

At some point I will further pursue the issue with my Arturia Minilab MK2, and why that doesn't seem to play well with the above... and as Jack suggests - perhaps try some other Ableton Link software to narrow down the issue.