Clocks & tempo
DNA keeps three kinds of time at once — picture time, sound time, and musical time — so what you make can lock to frames, to audio, or to the beat.
Most apps run on a single clock. DNA runs on three, because frames, audio samples, and musical beats don't divide neatly into one another. Keeping them separate means your animation stays smooth, your audio stays sample-tight, and your beat-synced moves land exactly on the downbeat — no drift, no compromise.
You rarely have to think about this directly. Pick a node, and it already reads the right clock for what it does. This page is for the moments when you do care — scoring to music, locking to a live audio source, or syncing to other gear.
The three clocks
| Clock | Runs in | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Visual | Frames (24 / 30 / 60 fps) | Animation, fields, anything you see |
| Audio | Audio samples (e.g. 48,000 a second) | Synths, DSP, anything you hear |
| Musical | Beats and bars at a tempo | Sequencers, tempo-synced LFOs, beat-driven motion |
Visual time can run backwards — you can scrub or seek into negative frames. Audio time only ever moves forward. Musical time is measured in beats and bars at whatever tempo is currently set.
The three never silently bleed into each other. If a node needs to turn beats into seconds, or samples into frames, that conversion is a deliberate, exact step — so nothing ever ends up roughly in time.
If a beat-synced effect feels a hair off, check the tempo bus (below) before you start nudging keyframes. Nine times out of ten the fix is a clean tempo source, not hand-tuning.
The tempo bus — where musical time comes from
The Musical clock doesn't invent its own tempo. It listens to the tempo bus: a single switch that picks one tempo source at a time and feeds it to everything beat-aware in your project. Change the source once, and every tempo-synced node follows.
| Source | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Manual | The default. You set the BPM with a knob. Perfect for self-contained pieces and rehearsal. |
| Tap | Tap a key in time and DNA reads your tempo. Great for matching a track by ear when you don't know its exact BPM. |
| Ableton Link | Sync tempo (and phase) with Ableton Live and other Link-enabled apps on the network. The go-to for playing alongside a DJ or producer. |
| MIDI Clock | Lock to tempo coming over MIDI from a drum machine, groovebox, or DAW. |
| MTC (MIDI Time Code) | Lock to a timeline position from external gear — for show playback that has to hit fixed cues. |
Only one source is active at a time. Switching is instant, so you can rehearse on Manual, then flip to Ableton Link the moment you join a live set.
Ableton Link is a tempo source, not a node you drop into the graph. You choose it on the tempo bus and it syncs the whole project.
Choosing what to lock to
A quick way to decide:
Making a music video or a beat-reactive loop? Use the Musical clock via tempo-synced nodes, and drive the tempo bus with Manual (you know the BPM) or Tap (you're matching by ear).
Playing live with other musicians? Use Ableton Link so DNA shares one tempo and phase with the room.
Building a sound — a synth, an effect chain? That work rides the Audio clock automatically; you don't pick anything.
Animating visuals to time, not to beat? The Visual clock is already in play — keyframes and field animation use it by default.
You can mix freely. A common live setup: visuals animate on the Visual clock for buttery motion, while a few accent effects sync to the Musical clock over Ableton Link so they punch on the beat.