What is The Missing Link?
Above image should be more of a studio view with an ML device at the center
The Missing Link is a family of modern sync solutions to help simplify keeping time between your digital audio workstation (DAW) and your music hardware. Built in to the core of The Missing Link is tight Ableton Link integration. Ableton Link allows devices to stay synced over a local network. Each Missing Link device features a 2.4 GHz WiFi antenna for communicating with the other Ableton Link devices.
Record on the Grid
The Missing Link will stay in sync with any DAW that supports Ableton Link. This means every time you hit record you can be confident that your electronic music devices will land on the grid. No more manual edits to get things lined up!
Instant Tempo Changes
The Missing Link uses Ableton Link to keep all of your devices in sync, even when you change tempo! The Missing Link shares tempo and musical grid information over WiFi with the other Ableton Link devices on the network. When one device changes tempo all the others are notified and adjust to keep aligned instantly.
Quantized Start/Stop
Press play on The Missing Link and it waits to start its clock output when its tempo-synced loop is at the beginning.
Stopping the clock does the same in reverse, waiting until the end of the loop to stop the clock.
The result is your hardware starts and stops in time and on time with the rest of the music.
Versatile Sync Options
The Missing Link can generate
- CV clock
- Reset triggers
- Run gates
- MIDI clock output
Web-Based Editor for Deeper Control
The Missing Link has a built-in web-based application for managing all the settings including:
- WiFi Setup
- Output Sync Settings
- Over-The-Air Firmware Updates
How our customers use The Missing Link
Recording Modular Synths on the Grid in Ableton Live
Matt Hodson aka MATTHS is an electronic music producer and performer in the UK. Matt produces his music with a wide array of hardware and software including drum machines, groove boxes, and a large eurorack modular system. The Missing Link 'ML:2' was an aha moment for getting his modular synthesizer to record on the Ableton Live DAW grid. Before ML:2 he had to do lots of editing and nudging of the recorded waveforms to get things to line up. After ML:2 he could just hit record in Live and ML:2 keeps his synth aligned with the DAW timeline.
Keeping Drum Machines in Time with Denon DJ Turntables
Steve Stone is a Toronto-based DJ with over 3 decades of experience. He loves to push DJing to new places by expanding the setup beyond turntables and a mixer. The Missing Link Junior was a breakthrough for connecting his Pioneer DJS-1000 sampler, Denon turntables, and drum machines such as the Roland TR-8. The Missing Link sits in the middle syncing the Denon turntables via Ableton Link and then supplying MIDI clock out to the sampler and drum machine. Now the drum machine and sampler follow the tempo coming from the DJ decks!
Wireless Sync Helps Band Members Jam Live
Michigan-based synth pop duo 'How To Live Together' feature a diverse selection of music gear on stage including modular synths, drum machines, and samplers. To keep both members' gear in sync they used to share a MIDI cable between their setups. The length of the MIDI cable limited where they could be on stage. And since everything was synced from one main clock source, the devices all started and stopped at the same time.
The Missing Link Junior gave them a new way to handle sync. Each member has a Missing Link Junior supplying sync to their own music setup. One of the Missing Link Juniors runs in Access Point Mode to create a WiFi network. The other Junior then connects to that WiFi network so they can share Ableton Link tempo and musical timeline sync.
Now each member can start and stop their synth setup independently at the press of the Play button on their Missing Link Junior. And thanks to Ableton Link, the starting and stopping of The Missing Link Junior clock is quantized to the music grid!
