metronome + hardware recording

[Cee High]

I understand that there is a metronome that will play for however many bars you set it to before recording/playback starts, but I have a slightly different question about metronome.

I have a bunch of patterns on my Sp 303, that is set up like this:

hats on pad 1
snare on pad 2
kick on pad 3, and so on...

I want to record each of these separately into Ableton (or FL Studio which i have but don't use often), for multi-tracking reasons (ie Sidechain, further EQ, etc.)

Is it possible to have either of these DAW's start the recording of the Sp 303, but starts off each recording with like a 1 bar metronome and then the audio is recorded.
So it would be like this:

arm/record-tick-tick-tick-tick-audio recorded-stop

and have the ticks included in the final waveform recording? this would allow me to record each pattern on perfect timing. this is important, because i have very specific swing and timing, and if i had to go back in after the recordings and try to manually line everything back up... it would almost be impossible to get my original vibe and swing back.

can this be achieved via MIDI at all, regarding the Sp 303 telling Ableton when to start recording or vice versa through the MIDI? The Sp 303 has MIDI In, btw.

 

[krushing]

You just need MIDI sync from Live to the 303. Do you have a MIDI interface (or an audio interface with MIDI ports)? MIDI out from the DAW ("sync" enabled from Live's MIDI preferences for that particular port) to the MIDI in of the SP303, "Auto sync" selected on the 303.

 

[Cee High]

So MIDI would do the job for me. I currently don't have a MIDI interface, but I'm guessing a regular 1x1 MIDI Interface would work? Is there solid interface that you recommend? Thank you for your answer! I appreciate it

 

[krushing]

Theoretically a basic USB-to-MIDI cable kind of interface will work, but they tend to be pretty flaky - sometimes they work just fine, sometimes they don't. I use a MOTU MicroLite, which is inexpensive for what it does, but a bit overkill for just one MIDI out.