negative feet.frames offset? is it even possible?

[sndgeek]

Running a timecode session starting at 00:59:30:00. Feet.frames don't start until 01:00:00:00. This leaves me with a 45+00 difference between the start of the session and start of the feet.frames burn-in on my QT picture, which corresponds to the EDL I got from the editor last week.

I'd like to put a negative offset in the 'feet.frames offset' dialog box, but it doesn't like a negative value. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I'd also like to avoid changing my session start time to 01:00:00:00. (Currently the QT movie starts before the hour mark.)

Thanks in advance!

Alex, the sound geek

TDM Mix+, PT 5.1.3 (OS 9.2.2), G4 933 quicksilver

[Dan Pinder]

You'll need Pro Tool 6.4 for that.

(I'm genuinely curious, not trying to prove a point) Why do you need that much pre-roll? If you trim your picture to the hour start, that takes care of that in a hurry. What are you trying to lock up to that needs more than 9 feet? What are you working on?

[sndgeek]

We're doing music editing and production services for a major feature film. Full orchestra recorded to three Studer 2" 24 track machines, locked up to house sync via MicroLynx. Mixed down to surround and LCR stems via SSL to ProTools HD, and will be re-recorded to MMR8's, again locked up to house sync via MicroLynx. The Lynx's are good, but I have noticed that it takes 5-8 seconds for the PT rig to lock up once we're rolling. I would rather have a safe margin of error than hold up the stage.

It's probably not as big a deal to edit the QT's to the hour marker, but it's one less thing I'd like to deal with (read: tie up computer with menial processing tasks) before heading up to the dub stage next week--400 miles away.

I see that they have indeed fixed the feet/frames offset issue in 6.4, thanks for the info. Maybe in the next upgrade cycle I'll convince our company to take the plunge into OS X.

[Dan Pinder]

3x 2-inch machines, sure, I take your point, but who is the master? Is PT chasing? This really only is a problem for the first cue of the reel, assuming it starts right away.

People get yelled at for NOT doing trimming their digital picture. 5 seconds out of your day.

[soundeziner]

Good ol microlynx. I loved those things. I've seen them for sale for only a couple hundred lately too...

[Dan Pinder]

Good ol microlynx. I loved those things. I've seen them for sale for only a couple hundred lately too...

I know this is OT, but I've got an Adams-Smith Zeta III with a couple of cables for real cheap sale.

[soundeziner]

Oh that's funny! I never had to use one but when I started here I discovered they had a microlynx unused and stashed under a bunch of stuff. When I started asking about it, they went into this whole long story about why they bought the Micro Lynx to replace the Zeta III they had been using. In the end, they had to hit it at regular intervals to keep it reading! Weird but True

Hey if yours works list it in the Buy and Sell forum. Somebody is bound to want it,

[sndgeek]

3x 2-inch machines, sure, I take your point, but who is the master? Is PT chasing? This really only is a problem for the first cue of the reel, assuming it starts right away.

People get yelled at for NOT doing trimming their digital picture. 5 seconds out of your day.

In this case the 2-inch machines (via Lynx) are master, with PT chasing during layback. There's over 86 minutes of music for a 100 minute film, and in 3 of the 6 reels cues start at the first frame of picture. Once I've edited the head of the take it's not a problem, but the audio slate is anywhere from 5-15 seconds before the start of music.

That said...You're right, I was being completely lazy about the picture. I just found the keystroke in Quicktime Pro that allows you to trim movies to frame accuracy (shift-left/right arrows set your in and out points). As for the feet.frames thing, I ended up just doing a side-by-side comparison in Quicktime with the EDL in front of me.

Todd...The MicroLynx is alive and well. Sony Scoring, Signet (now Soundelux) and Todd-AO Burbank use them daily. It's one piece of gear you never have to worry about.

Thanks for the input Dan.

Alex