That would be a pity. One last thing, I’ll ask you to check at you side. Could create a new project, just with clock and audio-16, and scope of course, reset the config (to make sure there is no custom staff) and check it again, please. If you won’t have any issue I’ll then contact support of VCV and ES. Thanks.
Checked again starting from a blank patch in standalone and still can’t reproduce. Try resetting the es9 to default config and check again maybe? I tried enabling dc blocker on the audio 16 module and it looks like what you have on your scope but without the offset.
this is what happens with DC filter on in audio-16.
Still, it’s quite interesting that Omri was able to reproduce the issue.
with some configuration experiments and attenuation I was able to get some results, but it still doesn’t seem to be correct way sending clock
I’ll see if I can reproduce the problem here this weekend. FYI, this is the video I made about the ES-9 with VCV Rack 1
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I explain the numbering in my video. The jacks numbered 1-8 on the left of the ES-9 correspond to the Audio module “To Device” jacks 9-16.
This is the result I’m getting when sending Clocked to the ES-9 and then back into Rack. Using ASIO driver 5.30, firmware 1.2.2, Rack 2.1.1 standalone. No DC blocker on the Audio module, no Input DC Blocking on Input 9 of the ES-9.
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When you get the other issue sorted, be aware that a hardware device will have particular requirements to sync. For example, Pamela’s New Workout needs a pulse that is 5V max, so you’d need to attenuate the value being sent out of Rack in that case.
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I did a test with my ES-9, in both Rack 1 and Rack 2 (v2.1.1 Pro, standalone) with the same test patch and I don’t see any problems at all. This is on macOS so no drivers needed for the ES-9. I can’t say anything about the ES-9 drivers + various versions of Windows of course.
I sent a unipolar and a bipolar square wave LFO to ES-9 and straight back from the ES-9 to Rack. Unipolar on red cable, bipolar on blue cable.
Result from Rack 1:
Result from Rack 2:
A couple of caveats:
- On the return bipolar signal in Rack 2 only there’s a few “spikes” on the sqare wave, I don’t know what those are, could simply be the updated scope is more sensitive, or something.
- I haven’t upgraded to the latest ES-9 firmware, so of course I can’t guarantee that there’s no issues with that.
Edit 1: In Rack 2 I scaled the signal to 70% amplitude and it’s now visible that there are spikes on both of the returned squares. Don’t know if it means anything or why. Will try with some different signals as well:
Edit 2:
Sines in Rack 2, looks perfect to me:
Triangles in Rack 2, looks perfect to me:
Odd edges in Rack 2, looks perfect to me:
Back to squares in Rack 2, looks perfect to me, I think it was just the scope playing tricks on me before with those spikes, or something:
Saw in Rack 2, a few spikes on the returned signal. I now think it’s simply the new scope playing tricks on me. It is definately more finicky/tricky to use than the old one:
Edit 3: Tried the exact same test patch with Rack 2 running as VST in Reaper and the results are completely identical to those of the standalone run. So no special Pro/VST problems with ES-9 + Rack 2 either.
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There is no such thing as “analog” or “digital” inputs or outputs on the ES-9 (excluding the S/PDIFF ports here). They are all just “analog audio ports” that can be used for any kind of audio (fast signals) or CV (slow signals).
Bottomline here is:
- The ES-9 is an incredibly versatile, flexible and capable device. Unfortunately as a consequence of that it is somewhat… tricky to configure right for ones specific needs. You really need to read the manual, play with the config tool and wrap your mind around how those ports and mixers work and can be configured. Yes, it’s a bit finicky but then it’s done.
- On top of that the ES-9 can be used in both “hosted” (with computer) mode or “standalone” (without computer) mode, and you need to be sharp about which one you’re configuring and how/why/when the ES-9 is running in either mode.
- DC blocking is only an issue with the 14 ES-9 input ports (gray background on the ES-9). The 8 output ports do not have a facility for DC blocking so you can always send both audio and CV to the ES-9 from the computer without thinking about it. You only need to think about it if you want to send CV from the ES-9 to the computer. Those input ports need to have DC blocking OFF.
- For the ports in the ES-9 that you want to use for audio you usually want DC blocking ON. It works with blocking off but you might get more noise and the other DC artifacts that we know from audio in Rack, so it’s best to have them on for audio use.
- For the ports in the ES-9 that you want to use for CV (triggers, gates, LFO’s, note/pitch, etc…) you NEED to have DC blocking OFF otherwise it won’t work at all, or not correctly.
- So the above clearly says that when you’re patching you need to know/remember which ports you want to use for what and stick to it. I suggest writing out your plan/config on a piece of paper to remember it. In my personal config I have the first 8 input ports configured for audio (DC block on) and the last 6 for CV (DC block off). But that’s just what suits my usage, you need to figure out your own config according to how you want to use the interface. If you mostly use it for audio, or CV, or…
Here’s what my config (not latest firmware) for hosted mode looks like:
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I should add one last thing - I don’t know but samplerate might be a factor/issue as well, and I don’t know how well re-sampling of CV to the ES-9 works. So as always my recommendation is to run the Rack engine and all audio interfaces used, including the ES-9, at the same samplerate, it of course being the one true samplerate of 48Khz (just kidding 
You probably forgot to turn off the DC blocking on the Rack audio module 
Easy to forget because it wasn’t there in Rack v1.
No no, it was off i checked it. It can be a windows thing though.
It can. Hmm… try and make the ES-9 audio module the master audio module and see if that changes anything. Have you upgraded to latest ES-9 drivers and/or firmware recently?
What do you mean by master audio? Do you mean when using multiple audio modules? That’s not possible to do on Windows with ASIO so the es9 is the only interface. I never updated the es9 but it works as expected in Bitwig so i I guess it’s not an es9 issue.
Yes, that’s what I meant. I forget how hard you have it on Windows
Good to know your ES-9 works but strange that we get different results. It used to work perfectly for you, didn’t it? Have you tried it again in Rack 1 to see if it still works as it should? Apart from that the only real difference between us is Windows vs. macOS I guess. Weird. Have you tried it both as VST and standalone?
I don’t see the problem with Windows and standalone Rack. Looks like MrMoustache is also using Windows, and has it working OK. I think we’re both on the latest firmware and driver.
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I am confused, maybe it’s a language barrier, I thought the manual was correct!
At this point I have nothing left to say…peace & love
I’m sure the manual is correct and we’re just running into the many ways of describing the same thing The main point is: The 22 ports/plugs on the ES-9, that you can stick eurorack cables into, are of course all analog, and of those the 14 inputs are the ones you can configure DC blocking for. The USB and S/PDIFF plugs are of course digital. But yeah, things get confusing with language. Seen from the ES-9 most things are analog. Seen from the computer everything is digital. Seen from one end something is an input, seen from the other end it’s an output. Ah well…
Thanks for the clarification!
Also, question out of topic. Is it ok that for output #5 has blue color for no reason? I even sent all sound to Bus16 to exclude any possible routing confusion.
the config:
If you have no open programs sending it a signal, and if it persists after being turned off/on again, that would be strange.