One of the most common questions I get asked is how to set up two computers to sync to each other. There’s a very short answer I often give to this question, but we’ll get into that later. For now, I’m gonna take you through the steps for setting up sync.
The first thing to do is decide which computer is going to be the Master and which will be the Slave. The Master computer will set the tempo for both computers, and will also control the transport. If you’re not sure which person’s computer is best suited to being the Master, I suggest a quick round of arm wrestling.
Next, you’ll need to connect the computers together with a MIDI cable. MIDI sync can also be done over network connections, but that’s a topic for another day. That means you need a device with a MIDI port connected to both computers. Many audio interfaces, control surfaces and keyboards have MIDI ports on them, so you’ve probably already got one of these.
Plug the MIDI cable into the MIDI Output on the Master computer and into the MIDI Input on the Slave.
That’s just the start, of course. In the next tip we’ll take a look at the software side of things.
