How much does U-SYNC 2.0 reduce your DAW’s MIDI clock jitter? The numbers.
Using U-SYNC 2.0 with your DAW through a Nome II reduces MIDI clock jitter to under 0.05 µs median RMS, around 20,000× lower than the DAW's own MIDI clock.
*Median RMS jitter measured across 15 U-SYNC tests on Mac and Windows, against the DAW's MIDI clock through a USB audio interface.
These findings were derived from Sim'n Tonic's internal measurements of U-SYNC 2.0. In each DAW, we compare a Nome II following the DAW over U-SYNC 2.0 with the DAW's own MIDI clock. The results for each DAW are published below, so you can find your own DAW and see where it lands.
What was measured?
Both clock sources were measured tick by tick in 15 DAW and OS combinations, 8 on Windows and 7 on macOS, with the same setup each time. The two numbers in each row come from the same DAW, session and settings; only the clock source changes.
- U-SYNC 2.0: the clock output of a Nome II following the DAW over U-SYNC.
- DAW clock: the DAW's own MIDI clock, sent through a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 (4th gen) USB audio interface.
- Session: empty project, MIDI clock only, 117 BPM, 48 kHz, 128-sample buffer.
- Runs: one 20-second run per DAW and per source, about 935 clock ticks each.
- Timer: dedicated hardware at 250 MHz, with 4 ns resolution.
RMS (Root Median Square) jitter is the standard deviation of the tick timing or how far a typical tick lands from where it should be.
We use median RMS value of the 15 DAW and OS combinations, rather than mean or average, to illustrate the actual value more accurately and avoid skewing the results due to extreme outliers. For scale, one audio sample at 48 kHz lasts 20.8 µs.
Results: MIDI clock jitter in 15 DAW + OS combinations
In every DAW tested, the Nome II following the DAW over U-SYNC 2.0 had lower RMS jitter than the DAW's own MIDI clock. How much lower depends on the DAW.
RMS jitter per DAW: U-SYNC 2.0 against the DAW's own MIDI clock
Log scale, in µs. Further left is steadier. Hover, tap or tab to a DAW for its numbers.
- Nome II over U-SYNC 2.0
- DAW's own MIDI clock, through a USB audio interface
† About 23 ticks per run land 33 µs late; the rest are within 1 µs. ‡ A few ticks off by up to 10 µs. * One dropped tick in the DAW's clock (a ~21 ms gap) would raise these results.
Median RMS jitter across 15 U-SYNC tests on Mac and Windows, against the DAW's MIDI clock through a USB audio interface. Sim'n Tonic measurements, September 2026: empty session, MIDI clock only, 117 BPM, 48 kHz, 128-sample buffer, one 20-second run per DAW.
Find your DAW in the table. RMS jitter in µs, two significant figures.
| System | DAW | U-SYNC 2.0 | DAW MIDI clock | Lower by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Ableton Live | 0.038 | 2,100 | 54,000× |
| Windows | Bitwig Studio | 0.039 | 830 | 21,000× |
| Windows | Cubase | 0.052 | 1,200 | 24,000× |
| Windows | Pro Tools | 0.040 | 3,700 | 92,000× |
| Windows | Studio Pro | 0.039 | 5,000 | 128,000× |
| Windows | Reaper | 0.037 | 950 | 26,000× |
| Windows | FL Studio | 0.037 | 1,600 | 42,000× |
| Windows | Reason | 5.3† | 1,700 | 330× |
| macOS | Logic Pro | 5.1† | 40 | 8× |
| macOS | Ableton Live | 0.042 | 990* | 24,000× |
| macOS | Bitwig Studio | 0.041 | 700* | 17,000× |
| macOS | Cubase | 0.054 | 42 | 780× |
| macOS | Pro Tools | 0.041 | 700* | 17,000× |
| macOS | Studio Pro | 0.044 | 990* | 23,000× |
| macOS | FL Studio | 0.53‡ | 1,100 | 2,000× |
| All 15 | Median | 0.041 | 990 | 24,000× |
† About 23 ticks per run land 33 µs late; the rest are within 1 µs.
‡ A few ticks off by up to 10 µs.
* One dropped tick in the DAW's clock (a ~21 ms gap) would raise these results. Leaving these four runs out raises the median to about 31,000×.
What do the numbers show?
Clock precision varies significantly from DAW to DAW and is also influenced by the OS. Still, using U-SYNC improved clock precision in all instances.
A few more significant findings:
Largest improvements to DAWs run on Windows.
The eight Windows DAWs sent their own MIDI clock with 830 to 5,000 µs of RMS jitter, roughly 1 to 5 ms. Over U-SYNC, seven of the eight measured between 0.037 and 0.052 µs. This means Windows users get
Clock improvements even to the most steady DAWs
On Mac, Logic Pro and Cubase already send a steady clock, about 40 µs RMS. Yet, U-SYNC improves the stability at least 8 times.
Logic Pro and Reason share one timing pattern (†). With U-SYNC, about 23 ticks per run land 33 µs late while the rest stay within 1 µs, and those few ticks are what put both DAWs at about 5 µs RMS. The pattern is the same in two DAWs on two operating systems. FL Studio on Mac (‡) is the only other U-SYNC result above 0.1 µs: a few ticks off by up to 10 µs put it at 0.53 µs, still 2,000× lower than that DAW's own clock.
Four Mac runs include one dropped tick in the DAW's own clock (*): Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Pro Tools and Studio Pro. The gap of about 21 ms raises their DAW-clock results. Leave those four runs out and the median rises to about 31,000×.
The median is the typical case, not a promise for every DAW. Per DAW, the difference runs from 8× to 128,000×, which is why the headline figure always says "median". In Logic Pro, the measured difference was 8×, not 20,000×.
Delimitations and Limitations
This test measured jitter only: latency and start offset were not measured.
Each DAW ran once through one audio interface, and other interfaces will give different DAW-clock figures. The Getting Started Guide shows how to set U-SYNC up, and the importance of jitter and latency explains what jitter does to your timing.
Audio Interfaces also affect the precision of the MIDI Clock. In order to create the same measuring conditions for all DAWs, we have only used one audio interface. During the testing of U-SYNC