Syncing Sequence Playback

A sequencer is a software program or hardware unit that "plays" a musical performance complete with appropriate rhythmic and melodic inflections (ie, plays musical notes in the context of a musical beat).

Often, it's necessary to synchronize a sequencer to some other device that is controlling a timed playback, such as a drum box playing its internal rhythm patterns, so that both play at the same instant and the same tempo. Several MIDI messages are used to cue devices to start playback at a certain point in the sequence, make sure that the devices start simultaneously, and then keep the devices in sync until they are simultaneously stopped. One device, the master, sends these messages to the other device, the slave. The slave references its playback to these messages.

The message that controls the playback rate (ie, ultimately tempo) is MIDI Clock. This is sent by the master at a rate dependent upon the master's tempo. Specifically, the master sends 24 MIDI Clocks, spaced at equal intervals, during every quarter note interval.(12 MIDI Clocks are in an eighth note, 6 MIDI Clocks in a 16th, etc). Therefore, when a slave device counts down the receipt of 24 MIDI Clock messages, it knows that one quarter note has passed. When the slave counts off another 24 MIDI Clock messages, it knows that another quarter note has passed.

For example, if a master is set at a tempo of 120 BPM (ie, there are 120 quarter notes in every minute), the master sends a MIDI clock every 20833 microseconds. (ie, There are 1,000,000 microseconds in a second. Therefore, there are 60,000,000 microseconds in a minute. At a tempo of 120 BPM, there are 120 quarter notes per minute. There are 24 MIDI clocks in each quarter note. Therefore, there should be 24 * 120 MIDI Clocks per minute. So, each MIDI Clock is sent at a rate of 60,000,000/(24 * 120) microseconds).

Alternately, if a sequencer wishes to control playback independent of tempo, it can use Tick messages. These are sent at a rate of 1 message every 10 milliseconds. Of course, it is then up to the slave device to maintain and update its clock based upon these messages. The slave will be doing its own counting off of how many milliseconds are supposed to be in each "beat" at the current tempo.

The master needs to be able to start the slave precisely when the master starts. The master does this by sending a MIDI Start message. The MIDI Start message alerts the slave that, upon receipt of the very next MIDI Clock message, the slave should start the playback of its sequence. In other words, the MIDI Start puts the slave in "play mode", and the receipt of that first MIDI Clock marks the initial downbeat of the song (ie, MIDI Beat 0). What this means is that (typically) the master sends out that MIDI Clock "downbeat" immediately after the MIDI Start. (In practice, most masters allow a 1 millisecond interval inbetween the MIDI Start and subsequent MIDI Clock messages in order to give the slave an opportunity to prepare itself for playback). In essense, a MIDI Start is just a warning to let the slave know that the next MIDI Clock represents the downbeat, and playback is to start then. Of course, the slave then begins counting off subsequent MIDI Clock messages, with every 6th being a passing 16th note, every 12th being a passing eighth note, and every 24th being a passing quarter note.

A master stops the slave simultaneously by sending a MIDI Stop message. The master may then continue to send MIDI Clocks at the rate of its tempo, but the slave should ignore these, and not advance its "song position". Of course, the slave may use these continuing MIDI Clocks to ascertain what the master's tempo is at all times.

Sometimes, a musician will want to start the playback point somewhere other than at the beginning of a song (ie, he may be recording an overdub in a certain part of the song). The master needs to tell the slave what beat to cue playback to. The master does this by sending a Song Position Pointer message. The 2 data bytes in a Song Position Pointer are a 14-bit value that determines the MIDI Beat upon which to start playback. Sequences are always assumed to start on a MIDI Beat of 0 (ie, the downbeat). Each MIDI Beat spans 6 MIDI Clocks. In other words, each MIDI Beat is a 16th note (since there are 24 MIDI Clocks in a quarter note, therefore 4 MIDI Beats also fit in a quarter). So, a master can sync playback to a resolution of any particular 16th note.

For example, if a Song Position value of 8 is received, then a slave should cue playback to the third quarter note of the song. (8 MIDI beats * 6 MIDI clocks per MIDI beat = 48 MIDI Clocks. Since there are 24 MIDI Clocks in a quarter note, the first quarter occurs on a time of 0 MIDI Clocks, the second quarter note occurs upon the 24th MIDI Clock, and the third quarter note occurs on the 48th MIDI Clock).

A Song Position Pointer message should not be sent while the devices are in play. This message should only be sent while devices are stopped. Otherwise, a slave might take too long to cue its new start point and miss a MIDI Clock that it should be processing.

A MIDI Start always begins playback at MIDI Beat 0 (ie, the very beginning of the song). So, when a slave receives a MIDI Start, it automatically resets its "Song Position" to 0. If the master needs to start playback at some other point (as set by a Song Position Pointer message), then a MIDI Continue message is sent instead of MIDI Start. Like a MIDI Start, the MIDI Continue is immediately followed by a MIDI Clock "downbeat" in order to start playback then. The only difference with MIDI Continue is that this downbeat won't necessarily be the very start of the song. The downbeat will be at whichever point the playback was set via a Song Position Pointer message or at the point when a MIDI Stop message was sent (whichever message last occurred). What this implies is that a slave must always remember its "current song position" in terms of MIDI Beats. The slave should keep track of the nearest previous MIDI beat at which it stopped playback (ie, its stopped "Song Position"), in the anticipation that a MIDI Continue might be received next.

Some playback devices have the capability of containing several sequences. These are usually numbered from 0 to however many sequences there are. If 2 such devices are synced, a musician typically may set up the sequences on each to match the other. For example, if the master is a sequencer with a reggae bass line for sequence 0, then a slaved drum box might have a reggae drum beat for sequence 0. The musician can then select the same sequence number on both devices simultaneously by having the master send a Song Select message whenever the musician selects that sequence on the master. When a slave receives a Song Select message, it should cue the new song at MIDI Beat 0 (ie, reset its "song position" to 0). The master should also assume that the newly selected song will start from beat 0. Of course, the master could send a subsequent Song Position Pointer message (after the Song Select) to cue the slave to a different MIDI Beat.