Op-z bluetooth midi = terrible jitter

I tried bluetooth midi from op-z to drive my IOS and OSX synths, the timing is awful. Is this an IOS 13 and Catalina issue? I just want my op-z to sequence my plugins directly from it’s sequencer via bluetooth… unusable at the moment.

Interested to hear more about this. What’s the issue?

OP-Z has sequence on ch3 - midi out via Bluetooth to IOS driving an iOS instruments. The sequence is like drunk, works fine for say 3 seconds then jitters, jumps - it’s like the Bluetooth can’t deal with the continuous stream of midi and jitters. Essentially it turns the OP-Z as a sequencer driving instruments via Bluetooth useless. This happened also on OSX

Edit: The jitter seems to be much more of an issue on IOS13. I tried it on IOS 12 device also, and it’s no way near as bad… On IOS 13, the BPM can jump from 138 to 134, sometimes to 140, intermittently after which it tries to catch up, this is the jitter. On IOS 12 it doesn’t really do that - the inaccuracy range is much smaller, between 138 - 139 and 137
On OSX, I’m not sure if the jitter is only specific to Catalina. I don’t have an older OSX to test on at the moment.

Sounds bad, have you contacted TE Support?

I will ping te support later, just wanted to check if anyone here experienced the same

never had good experiences with the sequencer over bluetooth. i think for sequencing external gear, the cable is the way to go. bluetooth is fine for the app, but not much else.

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Makes sense!

I’ve had a great time with chordion from ios to op-z via midimittr, via bluetooth. Bit of latency, but the timing isn’t too crucial for chords.

I’m gonna play with the gyro lfo on the filter for more rhythmic timing :raised_hands:

@limesoft

iPhone 11 Pro. iOS 13.2
MacBook Air Catalina
iPad mini 3 iOS 12

With all of these Bluetooth midi is awful when using the OP-Z as master sequencer driving soft instruments… I don’t need to measure the jitter, I can hear it easily - it’s like the OP-Z is drunk, it slows down then tries to catch up, the beat skips, it’s just plain unusable… not even for drafting songs. Not sure if this is a general Bluetooth midi issue or specific to the OP-Z. I don’t recall this level of jitter when using my korg nanostudio arp over Bluetooth midi

Are you on the latest OP-Z firmware?

What exactly are you trying to control: which apps on iOS? If I’ve got one of them, I can copy what you’re doing. I’m on iOS 12 still and haven’t experienced big latency (certainly it’s usable). Are you using the OP-Z to send MIDI clock via bluetooth or just trying to play the iOS instrument over bluetooth?

Yes latest OP-Z firmware (I also tried the one before the latest).

I tried with numerous apps.

Korg iMonoPoly - snappy lead preset with minimal release (like a drum hihat)… 140bpm on OP-Z, sequencing the iMonoPoly, put a note on all 16 steps and play… you’ll notice how irregular it can sound. I also tried with Grooverider GR16 In midi in poly mode- most obvious when sequencing hi hats or shakers on the gr16

I tried both midi clock on and off, turning midi in to off on the OP-Z.

Plug in usb cable for midi and test - much much tighter and usable…

Here’s one example https://www.instagram.com/p/B40JEkMFTyU/?igshid=1qm3z9d3ds9s5

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haha, checked the video, instant humanizer-groove…

Shouldn’t be a difference between nanostudio and op-z since both has to comply with apple’s “midi over LE” standard. Worth investigating further though! I’ll try how it works here.

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I checked iPhone to iPad for Bluetooth midi without the OP-Z, also rather terrible, so I can’t fully put the blame on OP-Z, it’s an Apple humanizer feature :slight_smile: what a shame, it’s 2019 and we can’t get a relatively smooth midi over Bluetooth…

It’s definitely worse on the iPhone 11 pro, the iPad at least tried to keep things from falling apart completely whist the iPhone stutters like a drunk roughly every bar give or take

Did you find any workaround?
I’m having the same problem, I wanted to free the usb port in order to use a midi keyboard and send midi over bluetooth but at the moment it’s unusable.

Still a problem, I guess back to midi cables :frowning:

I have the same problem, and it goes away when the app is not in focus. Even if this makes little sense, you can route all kinds of MIDI messages from/to other apps without any jitter

@limesoft @sonorafilms @bichuelo : did the latest OP-Z update make any difference to the jitter? downloads op-z

A tiny bit but it’s still terrible - I just use it to briefly check something if I don’t have cables.

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It made it a little bit better. But still unusable while the app is on focus