[Ardour-Dev] SMPTE track

[John Emmas]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Florian Faber" <faber at faberman.de>
Sent: 10 July 2008 04:15
Subject: Re: [Ardour-Dev] SMPTE track
>
> Basically I want to extract the timecode and sample offset from the
> timecode track (the timecode may start anywhere within a frame, so the
> correct starting point would be the first edge after the sync word). This
> only needs to be done once since audio and video are in sync.
>
Hi Florian,

I've been editing sound and pictures for over 20 years, going right back to
the very earliest DAWs.  I don't know of any DAW where you have an actual
timecode track and I can't say I've ever felt the need for one.  However,
this statement strikes me as significant:-

>
> I cannot do this manually, since I don't know the timecode when the
> recording started.
>
Without knowing what exactly you're doing, I'd guess that it's the lack of a
'timecode stamp' (and/or the ability to retrieve it) that are really at the
root of your problem.  Are you needing to re-sync some audio *after* it's
been recorded?  Professional DAW's stamp every recording with it's original
recorded timecode (precisely to eliminate the need for a timecode track).
I've never delved deeply enough into Ardour to know whether it does this or
not but it shouldn't be a difficult feature to add.

Another feature that's common on the top-end DAW's is the ability to have a
'default' edit for a recorded clip (commonly used so that when you spot a
clip, it always starts and ends at a known place within the audio).  I'm
pretty certain this isn't yet available with Ardour but it's immensely
useful, both for music use and sound-for-picture.

The ability to select a range of timeline clips and offset them very
precisely (i.e. by typing in an offset or a new start time) is also quite
common in sound-for-picture use.

The bottom line is that I feel there must be better ways of solving your
problem, rather than implementing a timecode track.

John


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Florian Faber" <faber at faberman.de>
To: <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com>
Cc: <ardour-dev at lists.ardour.org>
Sent: 10 July 2008 04:15
Subject: Re: [Ardour-Dev] SMPTE track


> Paul,
>
>> > - If not, what would be the best way? Adding a track mode "SMPTE
>> > TC", interpreting the included data and importing it?
>> no. write a JACK client that interprets SMPTE audio data as TC and
>> takes control of JACK transport.
>
> Then I won't see the timecode in ardour while editing. Basically I want
> to extract the timecode and sample offset from the timecode track (the
> timecode may start anywhere within a frame, so the correct starting
> point would be the first edge after the sync word). This only needs to
> be done once since audio and video are in sync.
>
> I cannot do this manually, since I don't know the timecode when the
> recording started.
>
>> i have code (somewhere) to do the translation.
>
> If it's no hassle, I'd be glad if you'd send it over since there's no
> need to reinvent the wheel. But it's not that hard to look for a sync
> word and decode the first LTC.
>
>
> Flo
> -- 
> Machines can do the work, so people have time to think.
> public key 6C002249          x-hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net
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