Innerclock Systems - A Report From The Front

[Phil Clevenger <phil.clevenger@gmail.com>]

Hey Loopers - 

Last year I started a thread asking if anyone was familiar with Innerclock Systems in Australia.

I had been looking for a solution to get Ableton and all of my hardware loopers and effects into rock solid MIDI clock synch, and had been pulling out my hair because every solution I tried always ended in gotchas and dead ends. I am using combinations of Ableton, EDP, LP1, Repeater, and various outboard timed effects (delays, trems etc).

Discussion was cautious as I recall, and nobody here had had direct experience with them. Their website was idiosyncratic to be sure, opaque even; that and the priciness of their products made it hard to want to jump in.

But late last year I jumped in anyway, such was my desperation for a solution. Only reporting in now because I wanted some mileage with the system before speaking up...

First I must say that Mr. David Lackey, who is Innerclocks, has been a diamond. From handling my pre-purchase hand-wringing and requests for advice, to assuring me I would not be stuck with the product in the event of a bad fit, to ensuring my post purchase questions were all answered in a fast, friendly, and (most of all) patient manner, my experience doing business with David has been nothing but pleasure. 

My experience with the product (the Synch Gen II) has also been successful. 

In the end it's fairly plug-and-play too, though I did succeed in making it harder than it needed to be for a bit :) I've been now running Ableton as master, with the Synch-Gen II plug-in generating audio pulses; these are sent out through my audio interface to the Sync Gen hardware unit (built like a tank and beautiful as well), which converts to MIDI clock and forwards on via 5 direct MIDI out ports to wherever I choose to send it. For the last weeks and months the Sync Gen has successfully kept Ableton and my LP1 in rock solid synch for the duration of any session, as well as my time-based hardware effects, and last night I had a session with another player using a second instance of Ableton which we also kept in rock solid synch with my master Ableton instance, plus the LP1 and everything else, via the Sync Gen.

So I am reporting from the front: don't let the website or Aussie post code deter you from doing business here if you are in need of a solid software/hardware synch solution. The price is high, but David sold me with this point: there is considerable value in my (often costly) gear that I am not realizing, while I let it sit unused due to synch failure. And truly, his solution has enabled me to finally put my unused gear back on the front lines. Super grateful :)

Phil