Midi Clock - what format is it, and is there an offset? Trying to sync to various points on DAW

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First, exactly what kind of clock source does Cantabile output? Pretty sure it’s not Midi Time Code, I’m guessing it’s Midi Beat Clock? Is there a way to output MTC instead?

Anyway I’m trying to sync to my DAW using Sonar Professional. Cantabile is the Master, Sonar is slave. I have a rehearsal recording that’s about 2 hours and songs use backing tracks. So when working on Song 1, for example, of course Cantabile will start at 00:00.000. But the start of Song 1 on the recording, on Sonar is, let’s say 45:00 (45 secs even). So I need an offset.

I now have it working where Sonar chases Cantabile just fine, but only using what Sonar calls “Midi Sync”, which I’m guessing is Midi Beat clock. And the problem is Sonar always starts at 0:00. Sonar also recognizes MTC or SMPTE, and has an offset option for those, but not for “Midi Sync”.

Alternatively, does Cantabile have an offset option for the Midi Clock? If so I could make Cantabile the slave.

I did jsut think of an old school option as I’m typing… I could drop a SMPTE track into Cantabile, and the same track into Sonar. Then just slide the track in sonar until I sync. I guess it could work but that’s a lot of songs to drop a SMPTE track into.

Any ideas appreciated greatly!
Tom

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FWIW in case it helps someone else I did find a plug in called Time code expert 2.0, by a company named TXL. I did get it to work and it did have an offset that worked, sort of. But after one or two songs it would kill all sound out of the PC. And it wasn’t just Cantabile, it was clearly doing something to my interface. Also, the offset wasn’t frame accurate… A one frame change would result in five or sometimes 10 frame variation, plus or minus. It converts MIDI clock to MIDI time code or SMPTE, and I’m guessing that the lower resolution of midi-clock and the conversion created those errors. I just went back to the old fashioned way, manually starting both machines at the same time. Then I would just nudge the recorded track to get it to sync. I used to edit video years ago so I’m very familiar with that crazy process! :laughing: I could usually get it to within a quarter or half second.I do wish Cantabile had an option to output midi timecode or SPMTE, or even an offset for the midi clock. But I realize this is a very specialized use case.
Tom