SMPTE, LTC and Timecode Playback

[Bouke Vahl]

Sounds easy enough. Trash the stereo.
(You don’t need that for playback)
Thus, put your music track left, TC right, feed the right channel to your cam, left to your playback system.

Be aware, use the highest quality. Use uncompressed 16 bit audio.
(.wav will play fine in QT player)
Last thing you want is TC errors. (AFAIK, Red only gives you one chance, it locks on start rec. If the lock failes, you end up without proper TC.

If you want to be hip, use AE to render a QT with the same timecode.
Sycn that / render / paste the stereo trach in, and hold your laptop before the cam as a slate. (Basicly it does the same then)

And for free.
Downside is that all your clips will have the same TC, so file management will become more important.

If you want to shoot rec run TC, or TOD and be able to sync on a soundtrack, record the LTC on one of the audio channels, and use this:
https://www.videotoolshed.com/?page=products&pID=26

It’ll give you the opportunity to get AUX TC, or swap source/aux.
Thus having the best of both worlds.

hth

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[James Henry]

Sounds great, thanks for the response.

I’ve converted my stereo to a mono track and inserted that into the left channel of my audio, how do I go about generating a 25 frame non drop time code for the right channel?

Also with regards to playing back into the camera/amp would it work to just use quicktime player?

[Bouke Vahl]

You can generate some LTC with deck, just record the LTC output into one of your audio inputs, and use the super out on video, so you know where you are.

And if the codec is simple for playback, yes, a QT player will be fine. Make sure your audio level matches the LTC input.
(audio output of a laptop is consumer at -10, and LTC should be +4)

Most of the time it’ll work though, as LTC is a very forgiving signal.

If you don’t have access to a deck, i can software generate some LTC for you, Contact me direct if you need some.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[Michael Gissing]

I would just make a QT of the music track with a big timecode display window. You can do this by dropping the music into a FCP sequence and putting a timecode window over a slug on the video track. Digital Heaven have a code display plugin (from memory) that gives a big scalable timecode window.

Use the QT file for playback and have the RED shoot the laptop screen just like a timecode slate. Don’t bother transfering LTC to the camera. Let it do its own code generating and just use the visual display as a sync reference. This is much safer than regen on an LTC signal which will not be frame synced to the camera.

Keep it simple.

[Bouke Vahl]

eer, what is unsafe about the original approach?
If all works, syncing the different takes is very easy and takes no time at all.
Your method means setting inpoints on all clips.
The proposed method only needs that if something did not work.

Now since LTC is around for about longer than the average age of users on this forum, it’s pretty proven technology.

So yes, keep it simple. Let the modern equipment do the work for you.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[Michael Gissing]

[Bouke Vahl] “eer, what is unsafe about the original approach?”

There are three problems with your idea. Firstly the timecode needs to be transfered to the camera. This means a either cable from the laptop to the camera or a radio link. A cable is cumbersome and a radio link risky.

Secondly, as you pointed out, every take has common timecode. This is a poor practice.

Thirdly timecode should be synchronous to the video frame. Using a laptop to play a QT file means that there is no way to genlock the playback to make sure the camera is getting LTC that is frame synced. Again this is poor practice and may cause the camera timecode to glitch.

[Bouke Vahl]

[Michael Gissing] “A cable is cumbersome and a radio link risky.”

Well, this goes for any BWF recorder shooting.

[Michael Gissing] “Secondly, as you pointed out, every take has common timecode. This is a poor practice.”

Yes and no. For a file based shoot, (as the original poster wanted), it does not really matter.
TC is to make your life easier no matter how you use it.
Of course i would never recommend it for a tape based shoot.

[Michael Gissing] “Thirdly timecode should be synchronous to the video frame. Using a laptop to play a QT file means that there is no way to genlock the playback to make sure the camera is getting LTC that is frame synced. Again this is poor practice and may cause the camera timecode to glitch.”

True that you don’t lock the cam. But there is no need to be afraid of a tc glitch. Red only locks on rec start. (Unlike other cameras)
Now we all know that it is very common practice for a shoot with multiple cams to lock the free run TC in the morning. That happens with just on cable for the LTC, there is no genlock involved. It only sets the internal clock and the cams do the rest.

If you shoot a music video where you want your talent to playback onto a soundtrack, the laptop (or even Ipod) method is great.
No need to shoot the entire song, just take the part you’re interested in. In post, it is very clear what goes where, or you can edit multicam style.
All without any human syncing.

Also, keep in mind that the original poster was on budget…

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s