Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[kozmik_yaque]

I got started with Jamstix on the Windows platform, then moved to using OS X for my audio work. OS X has been so much more stable at low buffer sizes that it was a worthwhile change.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to get Jamstix triggering consistently with Ableton on OS X; it doesn't consistently start when loops are triggered by MIDI. I can get it working properly in Reaper, but Ableton loops not just don't trigger consistently, but the inconsistent behavior itself keeps changing.

That's fair enough; the authors never claimed to have a production-ready OS X version available, just a kind of beta/preview. And the release of 4, and OS X production-readiness, seem to perpetually be "just a bit longer" away. I'm looking for a constructive way to get this working without complaining about release dates.

The two remaining constructive options seem to be switching entirely back to a Windows environment, or remotely triggering beats on a second Windows machine. I wish to explore the second of these options as my audio experience has been so much better on OS X that I'm hesitant to use Windows again.

I see tutorials on the Web explaining how to do MIDI over Ethernet, or using any kind of hardware MIDI, to sync the clocks on the two machines. What I'm not sure is how integrated into a standard workflow this method is.

Seems like I'd definitely have to

* do all my Jamstix work on the Windows box (a bit annoying, but not insurmountable)

* Sync the MIDI clocks of Ableton on the OS X box and the Windows box

* Use the MIDI-over-Ethernet, or hardware MIDI, to send "start loop" triggers to the other machine

Seems simple enough. What I don't know, is whether there's a way to get audio back to the original machine through Ethernet, or through other means. Managing separate audio outputs from the Windows box seems like a bit of a pain to deal with.

I love Jamstix enough that it is worth expending the effort for this. So I'm looking for comments from anyone who might have done this. I'm a bit of an Ableton newb, so I'm unfamiliar with Ableton's features in this area.