Lightpad BLOCK M & MIDI Clock

1

I’ve created a script for the Lightpad BLOCK (here: GitHub - jorisroling/axyz-gems: ROLI Lightpad Block code for running as multi high-res XY surface) wich receives MIDI Clock.

It works fine when connected with USB, but when I use the device over Bluetooth, it never receives any MIDI Clock. It does receive MIDI CC and all, just the Clock pulses seems to be missing.

I see (using MIDI Monitor) the clock pulses being send to the bluetooth connection, but somehow they get lost. (image)

Could it be that the device is not handling MIDI Clock over Bluetooth because of bandwith considerations?

I’m running on macOS Mojave v10.14

Regards,
Joris

PS I contacted ROLI support, and they directed me here.

2

Bump

3

I tested MIDI clock with a minimal script (DetectMIDIClock.littlefoot.zip (389 Bytes)) and got the same results: the Block detects incoming MIDI clock when connected via USB, but doesn’t see clock over Bluetooth (macOS 10.13.6).

Seems like this is intended behaviour.

4

Is that, do you think, a limitation of Mac OSX / Windows, or is it ROLI’s doing here?

5

Apparently, this is a part of the MIDI over Bluetooth 1.0a specification:

This specification does not support multiple virtual cables, clock synchronization, or all possible and valid MIDI 1.0 data streams, which might be addressed by an update or second specification, along with improvements in timing resolution and jitter reduction.

6

Ow, that might be it then, so no-one is able to do sync over bluetooth, right?
Thanks for looking that up for me…

7

I don’t think so, unless I missed a newer specification. But it makes sense, given the bluetooth MIDI latency.

8

Can anyone confirm this is no longer working at all? I’m sure this function used to pick up midi clock messages, but now it seems not at all, USB or otherwise.

9

I tested this with the same minimal script that I used in June 2019, and my Lightpad with firmware version 1.1.0 doesn’t see MIDI clock messages via USB connection anymore. I really hope that this can be fixed/reverted. Littlefoot sequencers become even less viable without MIDI sync over USB.

10

Hello,
Same issue there. I am developing an Arpeggiator for my Lightpad as part of the Kontrol Light serie and the midi clock signals are not received by the pad over usb midi.
I hope this will be fixed in the near future.
Bertrand