LinkEffekt Manual

• Status line: “Streaming to a listener” or “Waiting for a receiver”; listeners on this device count too. Online, the ONLINE badge shows the room instead. With Bypass all LinkEffekt Sends on, it stays empty and the orange note says it.
• Destination: LAN & Local / Online: where this track streams (LAN & Local includes listeners on this device). Back to LAN & Local takes only this track out of the room; the room stays open until you tap Leave (shown in the LAN & Local tab).
• Name: what receivers see. Renames reach them live, also Online, and they stay subscribed. If another channel in your network has the same name, the status line offers Rename (adds the device or the next free number); LinkEffekt never renames on its own.
• Send Audio: streaming on or off; off passes the track through locally only.
• Mute Local Output (on by default): mutes the track here after streaming, so you don’t hear it twice. It only acts while the track streams (not with Send Audio off, the plugin bypassed or Bypass all on). Turn it off to hear yourself when you can’t hear the receiver: Online, headphones on the receiver, another room. In AUM and Logic Pro the track then plays as late as everything else in the app, so it stays in time (see Live Mode). In a host with a Mix control on the effect slot, set it to 100 % for the Send; below that, the track plays quieter here.
• Bypass all LinkEffekt Sends: one switch for every Send on this device, in every host: nothing streams, every track plays here. An orange note in every Send says so; tap it to turn off. It stays on until you do, also after a restart. Example: Take the iPad to the couch.
• Gain / Pan: for the stream and the local output, click-free. Gain at the bottom is true silence; pan keeps the center at full level.
• Bypass (in your host): stops the stream and passes the track through unchanged.
• Level meter: post gain/pan; red = clipping (tap to reset).
• Live Mode (at the bottom of the Send):
  • Why it exists: in AUM and Logic Pro, the Send has the host play this track ahead by what its receivers need (in AUM their buffer plus the connection, up to 200 ms; in Logic a fixed 150 ms), so they play it on their beat (see Beat Sync). To stay in time, the host delays everything else in the app by the same amount.
  • When to turn it on: only if you play live in this app and hear that delay. Then there’s no delay here, but receivers are no longer in sync: they play behind the beat (Bar Sync puts it back on the bar, one bar late). The line under the switch turns orange.
  • Switching: listening receivers follow with a short jump. In Logic, stop and play again (see Hosts: Logic Pro).
  • Where it appears: only where the host really plays ahead (AUM while a receiver listens, Logic Pro); never Online.
• Gear: Ableton Link and Share Audio, one setting for every LinkEffekt plugin on this device (Set up once). Only other devices need them; Online and this device work without. Below:
  • Link Offset (±100 ms): shifts this channel for receivers that place it by its time stamps, above all Ableton Live with Sync to Incoming Audio: if the sending app itself sounds 6 ms after the beat, −6 ms puts it on Live’s beat. Set it before you start, Live follows a change only slowly; if Live then stutters, raise its Link Audio latency. LinkEffekt Receive needs no offset: Bar Sync puts the audio on your metronome. Apply to all channels sets it for every Send in this host.
  • Send at 48 kHz: for receivers that need 48 kHz, e.g. Ableton Live's Link input.
  • The plugin version (support asks for it).

Orange banner “Share Audio is off”: only where it blocks something (no listener on this device, destination LAN & Local). Tap it to open the settings.

Without the purchase, a second Send passes audio through but doesn’t stream (“Channel Limited”, with an unlock button).

• LAN & Local / Online: which channels the list shows. LAN & Local includes the direct paths on this device (This host / This device).
• Now Receiving: pick one channel. “(unavailable)” means the sender is gone (app closed, network lost).
• Monitor multiple channels (in-app purchase): sums several channels into one stereo output; channels from the other tab are tagged, so nothing is summed unseen. For separate faders, use one Receive per channel.
• Status: one line under the channel menu. Problems and hints appear there in orange (see Troubleshooting), e.g. “Channel 1 · iPad found: tap to listen”; while audio flows, dot, status and meter say it. The ms values are LinkEffekt’s own measurement; in our recordings they matched within about 1 ms.

• Bar Sync (next to the status; Online is always on the bar): locks the incoming downbeat to your bar, one bar late, which leaves plenty of reserve against a shaky connection. Offered where it helps: when audio plays behind the beat or dropouts keep coming, and on This device whenever the audio sits 1 ms or more from your metronome, for example when the sending app itself sounds a few ms after the beat. It stays off until you switch it on. Needs Ableton Link on in the host apps (see Set up once).
• Buffer (3 to 200 ms): audio held in reserve against gaps, like Live’s Link Audio latency.
  • Default: 100 ms over a network, none on the same device (LinkEffekt adds under 1 ms there, plus one audio buffer when iOS runs the receiving app first).
  • On the beat or behind it: a sender in AUM plays that far ahead, so you get your beat and the full reserve. A sender in Logic Pro plays a fixed 150 ms ahead, enough for the default. From any other app the audio plays behind the beat by connection plus buffer, as the status says.
  • Fixed while you play: set when you pick a channel; then nothing moves it. A gap longer than the buffer is a short dropout; the audio returns on the beat.
  • Your own value: move the slider; it applies at once and the sender follows (up at once, down after ten seconds). Default resets it.
  • Dropout count: more than two in ten minutes show as a count next to Buffer: raise it until it stays quiet. Tap the count to reset it.
  • If the connection changes while you play (a new buffer size in the sender’s host), LinkEffekt measures once more: later audio raises the value (a gap of up to two seconds), earlier audio lowers it without a dropout. Announced changes (Live Mode, Bluetooth headphones) and ordinary hiccups never trigger this.
• Advanced timing (only with Bar Sync and in Online mode, collapsed by default):
  • Nudge (±100 ms): moves where the received downbeat lands (minus = earlier). A value other than 0 shows next to “Advanced timing”. Apply to all channels in this host uses one value for every instance there, since it corrects the host’s own output delay.
• Mixer, in signal order: Received (the stream), Host track (effect only: the track’s own input, muted by default against feedback) and Output (gain, pan, mute). Received and Host track each have their own level, so you set the balance before they add up; the arrow next to a level resets it. Bypassing the Receive in your host unmutes the host track: mind a live mic near speakers.
• After loading a project, the Receive picks its saved channel again, by sender, else by name, but only if exactly one channel has that name. Otherwise it waits and says “2× Channel 1: pick the right one.”
• When the sending app restarts, its channel returns under the same name, and the Receive finds it again within seconds (same rule: only if the name is unique).
• Gear, then Settings: the same Ableton Link settings as in the Send (one setting for every LinkEffekt plugin on this device), and the plugin version.
• Diagnostics for support: each instance logs its timing on this device; nothing leaves it on its own. If something sounds wrong, keep playing a minute, then tap Share diagnostics in the LinkEffekt app. From 2.0.4 the file is encrypted for support and keeps the last seven days. Share after playing: the share sheet can unsettle the Wi-Fi (see Dropouts after AirDrop).

Receive or Receive Instrument? Same engine. Use the effect wherever you can insert it, the Instrument where the channel needs a source (AUM source slot, instrument track). Both have one stereo output.

• On the beat, no offset (AUM, Logic Pro): the Send has the host play the track ahead by what its receivers ask for (in AUM buffer plus connection, up to 200 ms; in Logic a fixed 150 ms). The receiver plays it on your beat with the full buffer in reserve; Bar Sync isn’t needed.
  • Several receivers: the sender serves the one that needs the most.
  • In a jam, where both devices send and receive, both directions stay on the beat.
  • The price: everything in the sending app sounds that much later (typically 50 to 150 ms). Playing live there? Live Mode in the Send (see LinkEffekt Send); receivers then play behind the beat.
• A fixed distance behind the beat (every other sender, or Live Mode on): the receiver places the audio on your Ableton Link beat, late by connection plus buffer (the status says how far), plus any delay your host adds after the plugin. It doesn’t drift. Fine for monitoring; for work on the beat use Bar Sync.
• Bar Sync (LAN) and Online: the delay is rounded up to whole bars; the incoming “1” lands on your “1”, usually one bar later (2 s at 120 BPM).
  • Suits sequenced material: someone playing live on the sending device would hear their part again a bar later from a receiver in the same room.
  • Online needs the transport playing and the same tempo on both sides. After play, expect about a bar of silence, then it locks.
  • If the sending app itself sounds a few ms after the beat, Bar Sync takes that out too; Nudge is for anything left.
  • Recording it? Move the recording earlier by the bars Bar Sync added, usually one.
• Free-run: no shared beat (an app without Ableton Link, such as GarageBand), lowest latency, no alignment. Fine for monitoring, speech or playing by ear.

On your network, both host apps need Ableton Link on (see Set up once). Over the internet the two metronomes are not aligned: each side hears the other on their own beat, which is what you want when each listens to their own device.