How do I generate Audio Timecode?

[Rafael Amador]

[Steve Price] ” mono mix of the song on one side of the stereo and audio timecode on the other side of the stereo. “
I don’t understand audio timecode.
You can export from FC a QT movie ONLY AUDIO with few audio tracks. It will have incorporated an TC track. It will have a .mov extension and the audio will be PCM 48Khz 16b.
You need to set in your Sequence Settings, Dual Moo if you don’t want your audio be mixed in a Stereo Pair

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Mark Raudonis]

You don’t say where your original music track is coming from or what kind of device you’re using to playback on the set. That information is essential if you want valid suggestions, but here’s a workflow that will work.

You will need TWO record decks to do this.

Output song onto a beta (digibeta, DV, etc) tape that has matching code. Once this tape is completed, set up to make ANOTHER copy. This time, take the audio OUTPUT from original source tape and “Y” it onto channel one. Take the TIMECODE OUT from the timecode output on the back of the source deck and feed it to audio ch 2. Done.

Good luck.

Mark

[Steve Price]

Thank you both for your suggestions.

To clarify what I’m trying to achieve, and to answer your questions, I am looking to play the track back from a portable audio player such as CD, Mini Disk, DAT or even a laptop.

Audio Timecode is exactly what you might expect: a series of high pitched sounds that are converted into a visual timecode display when fed into a digislate or similar timecode reader. If you accidentally feed the audio timecode channel into a speaker it plays out as a messy stream of squeals and squeaks that hurts the ears! It sounds very similar to the noise made by a fax machine. Both sides of the stereo are output via XLR, phono or minijack leads, because both tracks are audio tracks – the audio timecode only becomes visual timecode after it has been converted by a timecode reader such as a digislate.

Most professional audio recording studios have the facility to place audio timecode in an audio track. It usually starts at around 09:59:30:00 – thus giving the user 30 seconds of lead up time to the beginning of the song which is set to start at 10:00:00:00. Then, in the edit, I set a stereo recording of the song to begin at 10:00:00:00 in my timeline, and I’m then able to sync all my transferred 16mm shots to the music by reading the timecode display captured by the camera at the beginning of each take.

So, is it possible to generate audio timecode in FCP or any of the other Final Cut Studio programmes? I posted my original message on the Soundtrack Pro forum too, but as yet I’ve had no response.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts, I hope this is possible…

Regards,

Steve.

[Will Salley]

[Steve Price] “s it possible to generate audio timecode in FCP or any of the other Final Cut Studio programmes”

No. FCP, nor Soundtrack, will output a SMPTE time code signal on it’s own. You can generate it outboard with a deck, camera, or time code generator that has a proper time code out port. That output can be connected to the audio input of your FCP interface device. The captured TC appears as a very consistent waveform and essentially becomes linear time code, which cannot be read accurately while paused. It should not be recorded any higher than -12 db. An external TC reader is necessary for playback viewing of TC and it should be connected to the appropriate audio output of the FCP interface.

A more effective – and less confusing – method for your project would be to rent a device such as the Sound Devices 744T and record your master audio track directly. The 744 will playback the audio in stereo and provide a TC signal to your slate. When shooting is done, import that time code embedded audio to your FCP system and every take will have correct reference TC and can be viewed directly in FCP.

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[Tom Matthies]

I think I have a way to do what you’d like here.
Black a tape, preferably on a professional format such as BetaSP or Digibeta. Any format will work as long as it has a dedicated time code track and output.Black the tape using the same timecode as your sequence . Now, capture this tape in the usual manner but rather than capturing the audio from the usual audio channel outputs, plug your input to FCP into the Time Code out jack on the deck. Now, rather than getting audio from the tape you will capture audio time code from the deck. The audio TC will match the time code of the tape. As added confidence that the code matches, capture the character output from the deck as well. The burned in time code will (should) match the code recorded on the time code track. Take this newly captured clip and edit the audio timecode into your sequence at the same time code location as your music reference. Now when you play the clip back it will have your music on the left (or which ever) channel and the audio time code on the other channel. Output your sequence to what ever media you are using to play back the audio on location and feed the audio Time code channel into your smart slate for your reference. Make sure you leave enough pad on the head of the clip to allow everything to lock in before the camera rolls. In the past, I’ve actually edited a click audio track to tape, recorded it on a BetaSP tape and used it to drive a slate the same as you are trying to do. If you have a good playback machine in the field (a good STABLE broadcast deck) ,I’ve also run the time code from the reference deck into the camera that I was shooting with thus jamming the code in the camera to the reference track as well. It makes matching/syncing the clips a cinch later in the edit room. Again, just make sure that you have enough on the head of the reference tape to allow everything down the line to lock up before you hit the actual location of the material you are recording. Simple and it works.
Tom

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Steve,
Simplifying:
– Can be done in FC: Yes.
– Minimum requirement: A desk where you can set properly the TC and with TC IN-OUT. Then, as Will says, striping a tape and by ETT match the TC of your sequence in tape. Dub the tape routing the TC OUT to an audio channel.
– Easier way: With a desk with RS-422, an AJA and a free AJA software. You can directly PTV with your sequence TC. When printing to video (I guess) you can route the TC OUT from the AJA to one of the audio channels of the VTR. No dubbing needed.
What you want is call AUX TC. Is used mainly for old cameras with no TC Generator. And the only ways I figure out to get it is as I wrote.
The problems that we find is that in the analog world, LTC (same than the traditional CTL) is basically a variable audio signal. In QT Audio and TC (I guess) are things absolutely different. You can deceive your VTR just changing a cable. To deceive QT you need something else.
Now FC can capture footage with AUX TC and use this for editing. You need a third part plugin call Videotoolshed. Get in touch with his developer. Is a nice guy that come often to the Cow. He knows everything about those matter and he may helps you.
https://www.videotoolshed.com/
Have a nice Sunday. Here is raining.
Cheers,
rafael

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Rafael Amador]

Steve, I’ve been reading the page of Videotoolshed, and I think you can do it using just this plugin.
Says that you can export an AUX TC from FC too.

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Bouke Vahl]

[Rafael Amador] “Says that you can export an AUX TC from FC too.”

Not really. AUX tc is a term that describes a ‘second’ Tc in your video or audio. The term does not indicate HOW that signal travels.

In this case, we’re talking about LTC (Longitudinal Time Code, the ugly sounding beeps) that functions as AuxTC.

My FCPauxTC reader only reads the LTC and adds a Quicktime Aux tc timecode track to the files that FCP is able to interpret.

I’ll try to sum the forms of TC i know.
Timecode: general term to describe an absolute time connected to any given frame in the video or audiol

Time of day TC: (aka TOD) same as above, but the guarantee that the timecode corresponds with the actual time something was recorded

Free run TC: same as TOD, but with a start point that is not set to the actual time. Thus, the starting TC of a shot is way larger than the end TC of the previous recording shot.

Aux TC: a SECOND timecode stream in the file, that corresponds with something else. Can be an external audio recorder, or another camera, playback device (like the original poster needs), TC generator. There is no relation needed with the first timecode.
So if the normal TC is recorded Rec run, you could use AuxTC for TOD TC. (ingesting is way faster without TC breaks in the tape)

Ways of storing Tc:
For cameras/VCR’s
VITC: Vertical Interval TC. Normally you don’t see it, but if you set Blanking Off on your deck, and put your monitor in HV delay, you can see moving blocks on the top of the image.
Only readable at low speeds, as (with tape) the image gets garbled.

LTC: (longitudinal Time Code), the funny beeps you hear if you connect the TC to an amplifier. This signal is an audio signal.
In the old days, the connector was a balanced XLR. Nowadays most equimpent uses a BNC connector, but, it is still an audio signal.
It is a block wave, with short and long blocks. The frequency is about 2400 Hz, so any half decent track is good enough to carry it. This is a VERY robust system. You even CANNOT overmodulate it, as you only make the blockwave more blocky.

In the digital world most of the time it is carried as metadata, as that is very easy to read/alter and of course takes almost no space.
Downside is that (afaik) no system accepts TC breaks in metadata..
An example is BWF, where the timecode is stored in a bit of extra data in a normal .wav file.

after all this, i agree with the “just record some and be done with it.” Just take a deck, set the TC generator to Free run, with a good start TC and hit the Record button. Ingest the TC signal and toy with that.

Bouke

http://www.videoToolShed.com
smart tools for video pro’s

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Bouke,
Thanks for making this clear. I wasn’t sue if your plugin would be able to do so. probably wouldn’t be very difficult (for some body with skilled enough) to do an application that translates the QT TC in an equivalent audio channel. Although I don’t see much useful today.
When I started in this business they made me learn the 80 bits of the LTC and the 90 bits of the VITC what they were for. Almost forgotten:-)
Cheers,
Rafael

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.