E-RM Multiclock User Manual

U S E R M A N U A L

E -R M E R F I N D U N G S B Ü R O

Copyright © 2018

e-r m e rn dun gsb üro - h ttp s:/ www.e- rm. de

E-RM Erndungsbüro Rest & Maier GbR
Wikingerufer 7
10555 Berlin
Germany

Version 1.1 - August 2018

Contents

1 The Purpose of the Multiclock 7

2 Machine Overview 8

3 Conguring the machine 10

3.1 Clock Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.2 Time Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.3 Channel Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.3.1 Shift Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.3.2 Oset Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.3.3 Channel Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.3.4 Channel Dividers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.3.5 LFO Conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.3.6 Analog Conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.3.7 Midi Controller Conguration . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.3.8 Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.4 Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.4.1 System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4 Using Audio Sync 17

4.1 Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.2 Sync Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5 Using MIDI In 19

5.1 MIDI Mapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6 Using USB MIDI 20

6.1 MIDI Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6.2 Parameter Remote Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

6.3 DAW Transport Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

7 Tips and Limitations 23

7.1 Nice to know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

7.2 Audio Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

8 Updating the System Software 25

9 Declaration of Conformity 26

10 Contact 27

Simply play together.

Introduction

Hello Stranger!

Congratulations for purchasing your multiclock. You have just
purchased an avant-garde machine: you are now able to solve sync
and timing issues in the studio and on stage once and for all.

This multi-format sync box builds a bridge between DAWs and
external MIDI, DIN/sync24 and analog modular gear. It allows tight
integration of external instruments into your digital production
workow without having to worry about timing.

Also as a standalone master clock generator for hardware-only
setups it cuts a dash. Start shifting your clocks, start shuing the
beat, we are sure you will enter unknown territories.

Please read this manual carefully and follow the advice to be re­warded from the beginning with a great and powerful tool. And be
assured, the multiclock is a game changer!

Have fun and start making music,

The team of E-RM

The Purpose of the Multiclock

The multiclock is a multi-format sync box which is built to overcome
all well known problems with tight synchronization of external
sequencers, drummachines, arpeggiators and other external gear
with each other and especially in the workow with a DAW.

The key feature of the multiclock is it’s ability to derive a variety
of sync signals from a special Audio Sync track instead of using for
example a MIDI Clock signal.

With this technique, the multiclock is able to generate MIDI 20.83 μs is the length of one sample at

an audio sampling frequency of 48 kHz

Clock, DIN/sync24 and analog modular clock signals to sync your
slaves with a jitter as low as ±20 μs. This nally ensures seamless
integration of all of your external instruments with your computer.

The second important feature of the multiclock is it’s ability to
shift all output clock channels against each other and relative to
the master clock back and forth in realtime. Up to ±300 ms of shift
range ensure easy compensation of machine delay, audio buer
latencies and leave more than enough headroom to shift just to
get the groove.

The multiclock is not built to be syncronized by a master DAW using
MIDI or USB MIDI, nor does it correct your MIDI Note timing; it
probably also can not y to the moon.

But instead you can nally start bending time, play with the
phase of your sounds and adjust microtiming of your arrange­ments. Let’s start today, it’s a lot of fun!

Machine Overview

The front panel of the multiclock can be roughly divided into a
real-time and a conguration section.

On the left half, there are four identical channel stripes for real­time control of each output channel. They consist of a shift and a
shue knob, a status led and a start/stop button.

Shift knobs feature a center detent to easily set the channel

oset to the zero position. The status leds light up in dierentStatus leds ash green for activated

and shine red for running channels.

colours to indicate running mode during playback or highlight the
current channel under conguration.

On the right half, you can nd the conguration display, a rotary
encoder with click to navigate the menus, a function key and a BPM
led. Moreover, global start/stop buttons are available for playback
control when running on the internal masterclock.

During normal operation, the display presents all signicant infor­mation on the homescreen.

multiclock front panel overview.

mac hin e o ver vi ew 9

You see the clock source, time signature and current BPM on the
right part of the screen.

On the left part is one line for each output channel to display
shift oset, shue amount or additional information like channel
mode and LFO waveform.

On the bottom of the screen is a virtual button section which
allows you to change the global machine conguration. Use the se-
lect menu button to toggle the cursor between the virtual buttons
and the upper main part of the screen.

Example Homescreen. Notice the

dierent Channel Modes shown here:
Channel 1 is congured as LFO, Channel
2+3 work in sync mode and Channel 4 is
used as a MIDI controller.

The rear panel of the multiclock provides connectivity and input
for the power supply. It can also be divided into two sections:
inputs on one side, outputs on the other. DC input and a power
switch are located on the rightmost edge.

Syncronisation inputs are available in the form of a ¼” jack for
Audio Sync and a DIN socket for MIDI, sync24 and analog modular Modular Synth connectivity is eas-

ily accomplished by using a E-RM
modular whip to convert from all DIN
sockets to 2 mini jacks for clock & run
signals.

sync. Audio Sync can be fed as a balanced or unbalanced signal but
is internally treated unbalanced in both cases.

On the left, there is one DIN socket for each output. Any of them
can provide MIDI, sync24 and analog modular sync, depending on
the channel settings in the menu.

Channel 1 additionally has a ¼” TRS output jack to provide ana­log clock or analog LFO. Tip = Clock/LFO, Ring = Start

Channel settings can be reached by holding the set channel
button and pressing the button of the respective channel.

multiclock connector overview.

Conguring the machine

Conguring the settings of your multiclock is as easy as following
the menu on the screen if you keep two things in mind:

• The screen is always divided into a main and a bottom section.
To toggle the cursor between both sections, simply push the
select menu button.

• Turn the encoder to move the cursor or change settings. Click it
to select an option or submit a change.

Clock Source

Before using the multiclock in your setup, probably the most im­portant setting is the selection of the clock source. You can reach
the conguration page from the homescreen by selecting the SRC
button.

Clock source selection. USB MIDI

channel can be chosen after selection.

Choose between several input formats or use the internal mas-

terclock generator. The recommended way to syncronize external
gear to a DAW is using Audio In and the plugin provided on our
website. Please refer to section 4 (p. 17) for further instructions.www.e-rm.de/downloads

Time Signature

To be able to start slaves always in sync with the downbeat of the
next bar, the multiclock needs to know which time signature you
are playing in. Select the T.SIG button from the homescreen to

con  gu rin g t he mac h in e 11

get to the respective conguration page. Set all machines in your
setup to the same value.

You can change the signature from 3/8 to 32/8, changes are

saved automatically.

Conguration of Time Signature.

Values are shown in reduced fraction
form beneath.

Channel Setup

All changes concerning the dierent channels are congured on
the Channel Setup pages. You can reach each channel’s setup page
by holding the set channel button and additionally pressing the
button of the respective channel.

Shift Range

Channel Setup Page. Notice the preset

name on top of the screen.

Shift Range congures the min/max value of shift amount that All knob ranges are internally divided

into 1000 steps. You should always t
the shift range to your usecase to gain
best performance.

you can reach by turning the shift knob to the limits.

You can lock and unlock the shift parameter of each channel dur­ing playback (and only during playback!) to brace yourself against
unintended knob movement. To do so, simply hold the set chan-
nel button and push the button of the channel you intend to lock.
The channel number on the homescreen is replaced by an ”L” to
indicate locking status.

Oset Calibration

To compensate audio delay of connected slaves, buer latency
of software monitoring or other sources which cause a constant
oset to a channel, you can set a constant oset as the channel’s
zero position.

12 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

Oset calibration process is initiated by selecting Offset inIt is recommended to program a

simple percussive sound on every full
note of the machines involved in the
calibration process.

the menu. You are asked to start the clock source rst. If you are
using the internal generator, please press the global play button,
otherwise start the master clock.

First, adjust the oset roughly until both sounds play at the
same instant. Afterwards you can get into microtiming by holding
the set channel button and adjust in steps of 20 μs.

Oset Calibration. Used to set the zero

position in time for each channel.

Change the value until you are happy with the result. Stop the
master clock and submit your value by clicking the encoder.

Channel Mode

Each channel can be congured under Chn Mode to emit either
MIDI Clock (MIDI), DIN Sync/sync24 (DIN) or analog modular clock
(Analog).

If MIDI is selected, a sub-menu is available to enable Song Posi­tion Pointer forwarding. In this mode, song position data received
on either the physical MIDI In or via USB MIDI is forwarded to the
selected channel. Make sure to send SPP information only to one
of the four USB MIDI ports or DIN MIDI In.

Enable MIDI Song Position Pointer
Forwarding for a MIDI output channel.

Correct osets are added to compen­sate the 1 bar count in for POS/NEG
mode.

Unused channels can further be used as a MIDI controller (Ctrl).
A special function is available on Channel 1 which features an ana­log LFO on it’s TRS output jack (LFO).

con  gu rin g t he mac h in e 13

Channel Dividers

Clock dividers are fun to create polyrhythmic patterns, thus you
can set them on all output ports.

Channel Divider Conguration.

For MIDI and DIN, you can set Chn Divider to Knob and use the
shue knob anytime to change the divider between 1,2,3 & 4.

For Analog mode, you can either set Chn Divider to Knob to Please note that due to the internal

structure of the algorithms, in analog
mode shue only sounds with a
divider of 1 and 6 like you are used to
it; but try other dividers with shue,
they return interesting results!

use the shue knob to change between 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24 & 32
on the y or set an integer value between 1-96 directly.

A change of the clock divider by turning the knob during play­back is always carried out in sync with the next bar. Shue is
automatically set to zero in all modes when Knob is selected and
the current divider is shown instead of the shue value on the
homescreen.

LFO Conguration

When Chn Mode is set to LFO on Channel 1, a syncronized analog
LFO signal is emitted on the tip of the ¼” TRS output jack.

LFO Conguration.

The waveform can be selected between Saw Up, Saw Down, Sine,

Pulse and Random and is displayed on the homescreen. The LFO The LFO is obviously also completely

shiftable in time. Try it, you will like it!

Frequency is changed during performance with the shue knob. It
is either free running (free) and reset on every new bar or quan­tized to t the current tempo (quant).

Analog Conguration

Due to an enormous variety of clock polarities, start/stop be­haviour and necessary dividers in the modular world, you can fully
congure all settings when Chn Mode is set to Analog.

14 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

START Mode can be set to emit a trigger pulse (Trig.), optionally

skip the rst clock pulse after start (Trig sk) or simply act as a gate
(Gate). Be sure to check your modular sequencers manual if you
are in doubt.

Analog Conguration. This mode can

also be used with DIN Sync instruments
to implement clock dividers.

Midi Controller Conguration

If you happen to have unused clock channels on your multiclock
and need a basic MIDI Controller for one of your synths, simply
congure the knobs to emit MIDI Control Change commands by
setting Chn Mode to Ctrl.

Midi CC Conguration. Messages can

be routed to dierent outputs.

You can congure the output port, MIDI Channel and control
change number. Knobs send values between 0 and 127, buttons
toggle between the min and max value, button state is indicated by
the channel’s status led.

con  gu rin g t he mac h in e 15

Presets

To maintain channel settings for your dierent instruments, they
can be saved as presets once they are congured. Presets are
based on a per channel basis, not as a whole machine congura­tion.

Save Presets. Numbers and characters

are accessible in an innite loop.

Simply select the virtual SAVE button on the Channel Setup
page, choose a preset number and name them. 30 preset cells are
available.

Presets are loaded by selecting the LOAD button. Choose the
preset you need and click the encoder to load it. Presets containing
LFO settings can only be loaded on Channel 1.

Load Presets. ’empty Name’ loads a

factory default preset.

Advanced Settings

By hitting the virtual CONF button on the homescreen, you can
congure some advanced settings which aect the multiclock’s
general behaviour.

Advanced Settings.

With Machine Mode you can choose between NEG/POS and POS. Please note: the Offset Parameter is

saved seperatly in the channel presets
for both machine modes!

16 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

The former allows you to shift sync signals back and forth with re­spect to the masterclock. This implies one bar forerun before all
slaves start when you initiate the master clock. The latter mode
skips this one bar and starts everything as you hit play on the mas­ter in exchange to allow only positive delays. There is a nice trick
for some cases to circumvent this behaviour, check section 7 (p. 23)
for more information.

The Free Wheel option is implemented for stage. If you set it
to On, the multiclock will automatically turn on it’s internal mas­terclock generator when the external master clock source is in­terrupted. This prevents headache when DAWs crash or cables
break during performance. All slaves continue to run and there is
plenty of time to set everything up again. To be able to stop the
multiclock on purpose when Free Wheel is activated and clock
source is set to Audio In, you can send MIDI Stop commands
over any MIDI or USB MIDI input. This way it is ensured that the
multiclock can distinguish between a missing sync signal and an
intended stop.

Remote and MIDI Mapper are treated in sections 6.2 and 5.1

respectively.

System Setup

Some fundamental system settings can be changed by entering the
sub-menu Setup. LCD brightness and contrast are self explaining.

Factory Reset restores the default conguration and purges all

presets.

Setup Screen. Be careful with ’LCD

Contrast’. The pixels may vanish on the
parameter’s limits!

Audio Threshold can be used to adjust the multiclock’s input

stage to the level of your Audio Sync signal. Under normal circum­stances, no changes are required here - the default value is 7. See
section 4 (p. 17) for further information.

Using Audio Sync

To synchronize the multiclock to a master DAW, you should always
use the Audio Input and avoid MIDI or USB MIDI under all circum­stances.

This requires in all cases the following prerequisites:

• A computer running your favourite DAW

• 1 mono audio output channel of the soundcard, exclusively Both balanced and unbalanced out-

puts work ne.

connected to the multiclock

• The ability to load our VST/AU plugin or to generate a sync track
with a special sample provided on our website

You can also use the methods described here to sync the multiclock
to hardware samplers while avoiding MIDI Clock.

Plugin

The easiest way to set everything up is to use our VST/AU plugin:

• Get the plugin for your operating system on our website and www.e-rm.de/downloads
install it according to the instructions of your DAW

• Pull it on an empty track in your DAW

• The plugin interface is simple, the only thing you can congure is
time signature. Open the plugin window and set it to the same
value that you have congured for all other machines

• Assign the track’s audio output to the soundcard channel you Please take care not to send any other

audio to this channel, this will render
everything useless.

have connected your multiclock to and set the fader initially to
0 dB

Here you go, that’s it. Set the multiclock to accept Audio In accord­ing to section 3.1 and hit play on your DAW.

The BPM led on the multiclock starts to ash and the display

shows the actual tempo.

Sync Track

Another simple method to syncronize the multiclock to DAWs and
hardware samplers is to use a sync track. All you need is one mono

18 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

audio output, a syncronization sample and a way to program a
loop.

• Get the sync sample from our website and load it onto your
desired harware sampler or DAW.

• Create a new track and assign the track’s audio output to the
audio channel you have connected your multiclock to. Set the
output level initially to 0 dB

• Now program a loop to play the sync sample on 24 notes per24 notes per beat = 24 ppq =

64th note triplets = 64T

beat

Set the multiclock to accept Audio In according to section 3.1 and
hit play on the master you have just programmed.

The BPM led on the multiclock starts to ash and the display

shows the actual tempo.

Using MIDI In

MIDI Mapper

Due to the fact that the multiclock features more than one MIDI Out,
there is a MIDI Mapper to route incoming messages on the MIDIIn
conveniently to the outputs.

MIDI In Mapper. You can both replace

MIDI Channel numbers and select
output ports.

The MIDI Mapper is organised from the left to the right: All 16
incoming MIDI Channels are available in the leftmost column. In
the column next to it, you can substitute an incoming MIDI Channel
number with another outgoing MIDI Channel number. The matrix
on the right holds items for all physical MIDI Out ports on the back
of the multiclock (1,2,3,4), as well as USB MIDI (U). Just select all
desired outputs that should receive the respective incoming MIDI
channel.

All supported MIDI messages can be found in section 6.1 (p. 20).
MIDI Sysex commands don’t contain a channel number and can
thus only be assigned to an output port.

Using USB MIDI

MIDI Forwarding

If your multiclock has a USB module installed, you are able to add
other MIDI commands from a DAW to the timing accurate MIDI
clock streams.

There is one virtual USB MIDI output for every physical channel.
MIDI data transmitted to one of them get’s merged with priority
for the clock ticks into the MIDI clock stream of the respective
channel. A complete table of supported commands can be found
below:

USB MIDI Forwarding Table. Please

note that a small n as in 0x9n species
the MIDI channel number. All 16 chan­nels are supported but might be used
by MIDI Remote or other functions as
congured.

MIDI Command Forwarded Comment

Note On 0x9n ✓
Note O 0x8n ✓
Aftertouch 0xAn ✓
Control Change 0xBn ✓
Programm Change 0xCn ✓
Channel Pressure 0xDn ✓
Pitch Bend 0xEn ✓
Sysex 0xF0 ✓
Song Select 0xF3 ✓
MIDI Time Code 0xF1 ­Song Position Pointer 0xF2 ­Tune Request 0xF6 ­MIDI Clock 0xF8 -

generated

by

multiclock

MIDI Start 0xFA ­MIDI Stop 0xFC ­MIDI Continue 0xFB ­MIDI Tick 0xF9 ­Active Sensing 0xFE ­Reset 0xFF -

As the USB module is a standard class compliant MIDI device, usual
MIDI timing applies. Transmitted data can not be shifted in any
direction in time.

usi ng usb mi di 21

Parameter Remote Control

In addition to control shift and shue amount on the respective
knobs, those parameters can also be changed and read remotely
over USB using MIDI commands. To enable this feature, switch

Remote in the advanced settings to your desired USB MIDI port.

Enable MIDI Remote Control

To send a snapshot of the current parameter settings to your DAW
you need to lock the respective channel. Channels are locked by
pressing set channel and the respective channel number during
playback. Refer to section 3.3.1 (p. 11) for

further information on channel lock.

All current channel settings are then transmitted over USB MIDI

and the channel number on the home screen changes to L.

This snapshot can be recorded and replayed to the multiclock
each time you want the same shift and shue settings again. De­tails on the snapshot structure can be found in the table below.
Please note that all controls can also be sent independently.

Remote function MIDI Command

Controlled sync channel MIDI Channel n=1-4
Shift amount Pitch Bend 0xEn 0xvv 0xuu
Shue amount Mod Wheel (CC1) 0xBn 0x01 0xww
Start channel Note #36 On 0x9n 0x24 0x7F
Stop channel Note #38 On 0x9n 0x26 0x7F

USB MIDI Remote Control Implemen­tation. Shift uses the top 12 bits of

uuvv, shue uses ww from 0-99.

When the multiclock has received a snapshot or your own automa­tions, the L on the homescreen changes to R to indicate the remote
operation.
To exit remote operation and return to the knobs, simply unlock
the channel by pressing set channel and the respective channel
number during playback again.

22 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

DAW Transport Control

To control the transport of your DAW from the multiclock buttons
even when using the audio sync solution, MIDI control change
messages are sent via USB MIDI at all times.

USB MIDI Transport Control Messages.

Map these MIDI messages to your DAW
to control the transport.

Multiclock Button MIDI Command

Start button CC 08 0xB0 0x08 0xfF
Stop button CC 09 0xB0 0x09 0xfF

Tips and Limitations

This section can be considered the FAQ part of this manual. It is
both a random compilation of tips & tricks and useful advice to
cure little ailments.

Nice to know

• If you are playing at a xed tempo and want to be able to shift a
channel by a 16th note, simply calculate the duration of a 16th
note and set the maximum shift range to this value. The formula
is:

Shift Range =

15000

BPM

• An huge number of multiclocks can be fed paralell by the same
Audio Clock source. Simply use a passive audio spitter to feed
the signal to as many clocks as you need.

• You can set machine mode on the multiclock to POS and keep
the ability to perform negative shifts using Audio Sync if you
are able to congure a negative track delay on the Plugin or
Sync Track audio output on the DAW. Example: Set the track
delay to -100 ms on the DAW and the shift range of the channels
to +200 ms. The zero position in time on the multiclock is at
+100 ms then and you can move back and forth from there.

• DIN Sync and shue at the maximum tempo of 300 BPM can
cause some old machines to stutter - they are old, please be a bit
tolerant about their quirks.

• Of course the multiclock follows a tempochange of the master­clock seamlessly under normal circumstances. Nevertheless, if
you try too jump from 30 to 300 BPM within an instant it might
react with a little hickup before getting back on track.

• Please be very careful with machines/eurorack modules which
oer a frequency multiplicator internally. Due to the internal
structure of their algorithms, unpredictable osets will occure
when you shift clocks around!

24 m ul tic loc k - us e r ma nua l

Audio Sync

• The displayed tempo on the multiclock might be subject to
roundo deviation on the last decimal place. This does not
aect syncronization at all.

• You can also use a percussive sound at 24 ppq or an analog LFO
as the master clock. Please make sure that the positive pulse
width is at least 1.5 ms, don’t exceed 300 BPM.

• If the display shows ERR instead of the actual tempo or the BPM
led ashes irregularly, please check your wiring. Ground loops
and exceptionally high noise oor might distort the sync signal
as well as excessive levels above 10 dBu.

If you have ensured proper wiring, you can adjust both the Audio
Threshold of the multiclock (p. 15) or audio level on the sound­card.

Updating the System Software

To update the system software of your multiclock, it is vital to
ensure steady power supply for at least 10 minutes.

Then follow the instructions below to update the software using
the internal MIDI Sysex bootloader:

• Make sure you have a computer and a proper way to replay MIDI There are Sysex dumpers for all oper-

ating systems available as freeware on
the internet: SysEx Librarian, MIDI-OX
or Simple Sysexxer. Set a waiting time

of 60ms between packages.

Sysex les

• Download the latest system software from our website and load
it into your sysex tool

• Hold down the leftmost (channel 1) and rightmost ( ) button
while turning on your multiclock to enter the bootloader

• Now connect your sysex tool with the multiclock:

– for the classic version, simply connect MIDI Out from your

computer to MIDI In on the machine

– for the USB version, use a USB cable to connect your com-

puter and the machine

• Congure the correct MIDI output in your sysex tool. USB ver­sions take software updates on USB Midi Output 1

• Start the transmission according to the manual of your sysex
tool. The bootloader on the multiclock will indicate the progress
and start the new software when it is fully loaded

Declaration of Conformity

It is hereby conrmed, that the multiclock meets all rules
and regulations regarding EU-directive 2004/108/EG for
electromagnetic compliance to protect humans and the
environment.

The multiclock is compliant with the RoHS directive.

If you wish to dispose your multiclock, please contact your
local dealer for recycling. Do not put it in your household
waste.

Contact

We, that is E-RM Erndungsbüro, make the multiclock to meet our
own high expectations on value and functionality of a product.

If you have any questions or suggestions, do not hesitate to con­tact us.

E-RM Erndungsbüro Rest & Maier GbR
[e-mail]
www.e-rm.de