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    C_Chauche
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Ion - Triggering cues from SMPTE can the time code skip?

Hi,

I'm preparing to do a show with an Ion where the music is all recorded.  As such there is talk among the various teams of syncing up sound/video/lighting.  It seems like the other teams are leaning towards SMPTE which I know the Ion can do with a Show Control Gateway so no problems there.

 

What I'm worried about is going through tech linking lots of our cues to the time code then having a portion of music cut or added to a song.  So lets say they cut 15 seconds out of a track, would we then have to go through and change the time code for every cue in the events list?  Can the time code be chopped up so that it just skips those 15 seconds?  If it doe jump, will the Ion possibly lag or trip up as it tries to realign with the skipped time?

Is there any reason to consider Midi Time Code instead of SMPTE?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks 

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    SMPTE LTC is an audio track that encodes the time - it used to be the 9th track on an 8-track tape.

    If you cut both the music and LTC track the same, the time at a given bar will still be the same.
    - And if you can't do that, then I'd be more worried about the drum track going out of sync with the horn track!

    MIDI Timecode is the same information, just sent via MIDI. Software and hardware exists to convert between the two.
    MTC may be harder to keep synced with the audio during editing as it may not be stored as an audio track.

    Timecode can stop and restart at any time.

    However, you should not have any events within the first few seconds of the timecode stream, because it takes some time for the devices to 'sync' to a new timecode stream.

    This mean you always need some "preroll" before the first event - I would suggest a minimum of 5 seconds.
    (Similar to the top of a click track used to sync live musicians to prerecorded backing.)

    It's also advisable to give yourself at least 10 seconds at the start of the "tape" so you can check that your console really is receiving good timecode before anything happens - and have time to stop and restart if it isn't!

    For example, you might have the music and event sequence start at 1-hour, and start the timecode at 00:59:50:00 or similar for ten seconds of nothing before 01:00:00:00 and the show start.

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    SMPTE LTC is an audio track that encodes the time - it used to be the 9th track on an 8-track tape.

    If you cut both the music and LTC track the same, the time at a given bar will still be the same.
    - And if you can't do that, then I'd be more worried about the drum track going out of sync with the horn track!

    MIDI Timecode is the same information, just sent via MIDI. Software and hardware exists to convert between the two.
    MTC may be harder to keep synced with the audio during editing as it may not be stored as an audio track.

    Timecode can stop and restart at any time.

    However, you should not have any events within the first few seconds of the timecode stream, because it takes some time for the devices to 'sync' to a new timecode stream.

    This mean you always need some "preroll" before the first event - I would suggest a minimum of 5 seconds.
    (Similar to the top of a click track used to sync live musicians to prerecorded backing.)

    It's also advisable to give yourself at least 10 seconds at the start of the "tape" so you can check that your console really is receiving good timecode before anything happens - and have time to stop and restart if it isn't!

    For example, you might have the music and event sequence start at 1-hour, and start the timecode at 00:59:50:00 or similar for ten seconds of nothing before 01:00:00:00 and the show start.

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