Yes, you can work with SMPTE time code in Pro Tools LE. If you're new to the world of Digidesign's new Pro Tools LE/001 or AM III ToolBox systems, you may have heard some rumors that you can't work with SMPTE time code with Pro Tools LE. This isn't true, you can! If you're starting out, and are not sure if you need to work with SMPTE time code, let's consider what you might need to do:
1) You might want to lock up your Pro Tools LE system to a tape machine or video deck.
2) You might want to work with a video source (like a video deck or QuickTime Movie) and "spot" your effects or other audio elements to a specific location in the picture.
If you don't need to do either of these things, then locking to external time code isn't something you need to be concerned about.
While it's true that there is no SMPTE time code *ruler* or Spot dialog for time code (you'll find these in Pro Tools TDM systems, which are focused towards post professionals), Pro Tools LE works just fine for most any basic tasks when locking to external timecode with audio or video decks, or working to picture with QuickTime Movies or even spotting events to video decks. How? Let's take a look:
Locking Up
Pro Tools LE locks to incoming MIDI Time Code (MTC). This is the way most affordable digital audio applications and hardware lock to time code. This takes care of the positional (location) reference part of locking up (meaning "where do you trigger the start of playback?"). As with most affordable systems, Pro Tools LE systems do not "resolve" the audio system's clock to an external tape deck (video or audio). This means that over longer periods of time, things can run very slightly out of sync, the "speed" that one system is running at is not forced to run *exactly* with the other.
However, in real world practice, many musicians, editors and engineers deal with this every day when they work with such systems. That is, they depend on "MTC trigger" to lock to their source of timecode. When you work with a very stable source (like MDMs such as ADATs or pro video decks), you can remain locked for long periods of time (i.e., even a couple of minutes).
Note: If you really need to lock up so that the system is totally resolved (so that Pro Tools will change its *playback speed* continuously to match the source deck), then you'll want to buy a third-party option that allows you to resolve via the S/PDIF port on your Digi 001 or AM III hardware. These sync boxes are pretty expensive, so for many on a budget, this isn't really an option.
Viewing Time Code, Dealing with SMPTE Offsets and Offsetting QuickTime Movies
Pro Tools LE's Session Setup window allows you to set a time code offset for your session, and view incoming MTC in the window in real time. Consider this area your "incoming time code display." If you need to change the start time of your session to match a new SMPTE location, you can enter a new offset, and Pro Tools LE will let you choose whether you want to move all of the audio in your session to a new location, or whether you want to leave it where it is with a new offset (just like Pro Tools TDM systems).
When you work with QuickTime Movies, Pro Tools LE let you locate your Movie to start at any point in your session. You can specify the point where your Movie starts by working with the Minutes/Seconds, Bars|Beats or Samples timescales. Check out the Tutorial on using Pro Tools LE with time code for more details on this.
Working and "Spotting"
If you work with video, you'll want to be able to see where you are against the incoming time code. You can do this with the Session Setup Window's incoming timecode display, which shows you where are at all times (as long as time code is running). "Spotting a sound effect (or any audio elements) to specific locations against a picture can be done with Bars|Beats, Minutes/Seconds and Samples time scales. This lets you specify a specific numerical location for your effects, etc. relative to your work.
Want to place a sound effect at a specific point quickly and easily? Just like its TDM bigger brother, Pro Tools LE lets you place an effect directly at the current cursor location. Just hold down the Control key (the Start key on the Windows machines), and click on your region on the time line with the Grabber Tool, or hold down Control when you're dragging a region from the region list. Your region's start point is now lined up *exactly* with the flashing cursor location. This makes spotting easy... no numbers (and no dialog) necessary!
Check out the companion tutorial information about working with LE and time code below for more details.
How Do I Work With Time Code In Pro Tools LE?
If you're new to Pro Tools LE (software for Digi 001 and ToolBox), you may have questions about how to perform common tasks such as locking to video decks, working with built-in QuickTime Movies, and spotting elements to time code. Let's take a look at some frequently asked questions, and some sample workflows...
Does Pro Tools LE Work Accurately with QuickTime Movies?
Yes. Your QuickTime Movie triggers accurately to the incoming MIDI Time Code. Your Movie remains "frame locked" wherever you click on the screen (provided you followed the rules when capturing it!). Of course, as with any system that uses QuickTime, the performance of your system will vary depending on whether or not your using a dedicated capture card with a codec, a SCSI accelerator, and how much you're asking your computer to do. Faster computers with dedicated video subsystems and drives can yield great performance.
As with any host-based audio system, you'll be trading off the ability of the CPU to manage tracks, mixing and effects against what it's being asked to do with video. More expensive digital audio systems (such as Pro Tools TDM systems) use dedicated HW for most audio tasks, so they can deliver better performance with a given CPU configuration. Because system performance can vary tremendously, Digidesign has not "officially qualified" common video cards (like the Miro DC30 or Aurora Fuse) for the Macintosh for use with Pro Tools LE. These cards do work... just make sure that with your workflow, there's enough CPU horsepower for what you want to do. For more on QuickTime video and Pro Tools LE, read below...
Locking Pro Tools LE to Incoming SMPTE Time Code
Pro Tools LE lets you lock up to SMPTE Time Code at any frame rate by using MIDI Time Code (MTC). This is a common method used to trigger a DAW system to start record or playback at a specific time code location. You can use any SMPTE to MTC converter (included in many common multi-port MIDI interfaces).
Pro Tools LE and Resolving to Time Code
For most home studio recordists, running a simple "trigger to time code" system gets the job done. It's pretty expensive to supply a system that truly "resolves" the DAW to another clock source. Some cheaper DAWs perform this task in SW, but this means the system must perform real time sample rate conversion, which seriously degrades audio quality. If you care about your audio "let's not go there."
Trigger Lock? It Works Just Fine For Many Applications...
Luckily, when working with video decks and digital tape transports (like DATs or MDMs, like ADATs), you generally won't have any problem locking for relatively long periods of time even if you're not running a truly "resolved" system. You can just trigger to MTC, and things stay in sync for a pretty darn long time. Why is this so?
Modern tape transports are locked to digital crystals, and are extremely stable. As a digital audio system, your Digi 001 or ToolBox system has an extremely stable crystal oscillator. When your Pro Tools LE-equipped system triggers to the incoming time code from your tape deck, the systems will stay locked for pretty long periods of time (even minutes). For example, triggering to MTC generated by an ADAT (maybe using the BRC or a JL Cooper DataSync2), you're likely to be able to lock to a 5 minute tune with no significant drift, because of the relative stability of the transports.
What is "Resolving" to Time Code? Is it Important to Me?
Post Production Pros commonly run their systems locked to a reference signal such as "black burst" or "house sync" so that all machines in the studio (audio or video) are referenced to the same "master clock." When a system is locked in this way, and you trigger to start at a specific location, your system remains locked all devices are running at the same speed. The term "resolved" refers to this kind of lock. In a "resolved" digital audio system, the speed of the "slave" audio system is constantly and subtly adjusted to match the "master." Pro Tools LE *can* be resolved to an external clock via the S/PDIF port on the Digi 001 or AMIII, but external sync boxes that can do this (available from third-parties) are pretty expensive (as much or close to your overall system cost!). Without a resolved system, you cannot maintain lock over longer periods of time to analog tape transports (like cassettes, or even multi-track machines). The choice about how far to go with resolving your system lies with your needs and budget.
Entering Your Offset
Pro Tools LE's Session Setup Window has a SMPTE offset entry area ("Session Start"), which allows you to set the SMPTE start time for your session. (There is also an area that lets you set the frame rate for your incoming time code.) If you get a tape to work with that contains a new SMPTE start time (a change from when you started your project), you can enter a new start time. When you do this, you will be prompted to choose if you wish to maintain the absolute positions of your on-screen regions relative to the time code on your tape (most common), or whether you wish to keep the position of your regions relative to the start of the session. For example, your session might start at 01:00:00:00 and you have a region at 2:10.000 (coincides with 01:02:10:00 on your tape). You then decide to move the Session Start earlier so that you can spot something to a location before 1 hr. Setting the Session Start to 00:00:00:00 will prompt you to Maintain Time Code (your region will now be at 62:10.000 and will still line up with your tape) or Maintain Relative Position (your region will still be 2 minutes and 10 seconds from the start of the session, an hour earlier than the location on your tape).
Incoming Time Code Display
The Session Setup Window also features an incoming time code display (labelled "Current Time"). This allows you to see your incoming SMPTE. If the display is rolling, you know you've got time code and you can view where you are against incoming time code at all times.
How Do I Work To Time Code Without a Time Code Ruler Display or a Spot Dialog that "speaks" Time Code?
Unlike Pro Tools TDM systems, Pro Tools LE systems do not have a time code ruler or allow spotting to SMPTE. Still, you can easily do some basic posting with one of the following methods:
Spotting to the Insertion Point
Here's a great way to "spot" any sound's start point right where you want it... no time code ruler necessary. If you're locked to a video deck, at any point when Pro Tools is locked or playing "on line" you can drop a marker, mark an "in point" on the fly (by pressing the down arrow key), or have "Insertion Follows Playback" enabled so that when you stop, your insertion point can be located to a point that matches your picture. Once your insertion point is located where you want an effect, just hold down the Control key (Start key on the PC). Now, if you click on a region on a track with the Grabber, its start time will pop right to the cursor. Same thing goes for the Region list. Hold down Control, and drag from the list, and your region will placed directly at the cursor's location on the target track. Who says you can't do any spotting?
Spotting to incoming Time Code with the Spot Dialog
Pro Tools LE has a feature called "Spot" which allows you to precisely place any regions you've selected to line up with a specific location using Minutes/Seconds, Bars|Beats and Samples time scales. If you are in "Spot" editing mode, clicking on a region with the Grabber will bring up the Spot dialog where you can capture or enter a precise location for your audio or MIDI data. If you are working with a VTR that's generating LTC, you can use the Spot dialog to 'grab' a time location as it goes by while the tape is rolling. If your video tape has VITC (and you have a VITC to LTC/MTC converter) you can pause the VTR on the exact frame you want and use the Spot dialog to capture that location. Click OK and the region will be placed at that location.
Spotting to a QuickTime Movie
QuickTime movies are locked to your audio with subframe accuracy. If you're working with a QuickTime Movie, you can just visually locate to any frame in your Movie, place the insertion point there, then Control+Click on your region to 'snap' the region to that location.
How Do I Work With QuickTime Video if I Don't Have a Time Code Ruler? How Do I Set Up My QuickTime Movie in the Session?
You can import your QT Movie into Pro Tools LE, and move it to start on a specific Bar|Beat, Minutes/Seconds or Sample location. Pro Tools LE does not support QuickTime video capture. Instead, you must use a third-party application (such as Adobe Premiere). The Pro Tools Reference Guide contains several tips about this, but briefly, you'll want to "conform" your Movie to match the SMPTE frame rate for your session, and make sure you don't have any "dropped frames." Choose a resolution that won't overly tax your system. If the picture looks great, and you can't run many tracks, do any mixing, or add effects, you won't be happy...
Once you're set, you can import the QuickTime Movie. Make sure that when you export it from your video application that you trim the Movie start to a logical (and known) start time. This is common if you have a "window burn" that shows a time code location on the picture, or a "2 pop" or Academy leader on your video, which allows you to set up sync easily between sound and picture. Then you can have the Movie start right at a certain Bar|Beat location, or at an even minute or second boundary by using Grid or Spot.
Am I Missing Anything?
Having a SMPTE Time Code ruler is a nice convenience, but in practice, it doesn't afford greater (or any) accuracy in placing your QT movie against your audio or MIDI data. In the case of locating your QT Movie in your session, the only thing that a SMPTE ruler gives you is the ability to exactly match the location of a conformed QT movie's window against an identical SMPTE reference location in a PT session. On a practical basis, this is not necessary. Cut your QT Movie on a "normal" frame boundary (like the academy leader count down at the start, or a "two pop" [2 beeps that occur 2 seconds before picture start ]). Or, anywhere you want. Then place the Movie at the point in real time minutes/seconds or musical time (bars|beats) that you want the picture to start at. That might be at the very beginning of your session, or a little ways in. Make sure that you place your Movie using Grid or Spot (either minutes/seconds or bars/beats) so that the Movie's start time is exactly referenced to your working "time scale."
Practically, many people get QT movies delivered to them that do not contain a window burn with time code. Provided that the movie is captured at high enough quality, you can get 30/60 field performance (conformed) with a capture card like Miro or Aurora Fuse. In post work, people generally start at even time marks, so you don't have to worry about having a Movie start at a subframe location.
The Movie as "Master"
Alternatively, you can place your Movie at the head of the session, and set up a Bar|Beat "point of origin" so that Bar 1, Beat 1 lines up to the start of picture by using Edit>Identify Beat. This allows you to use the Movie as "Master," and everything before your start time is a negative "count down" bar. If your Movie is conformed, and you have it start at an even second boundary, you can easily move along the timeline of your Movie when you're in Minutes/Seconds Grid mode.
What About "Laying Back" My Audio to QuickTime Video?
Once you're done with your session, you can "lay back" to a QuickTime Movie by using the "Bounce to Movie" feature from the Movie menu. Or, you can work the your favorite video application to do more editing work in the video domain. Just bounce down your audio as a "flattened file," then import it into your video app. Make sure that there is audio from the "beginning of time" (or where ever you want to place it). You can use a "reference 2 pop" at the audio start to line up with the picture within your video editing application.
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