free floating time counter

[frenchman]

A simple problem with no solution :
When clients comment my mix from the bounce they listened to, they will often say for example, could we raise the level of the vocals from 1'25" to 1'50", and since audio never starts at the beginning of the session, I don't have a counter that starts from my bounce start point. So I have to painstakingly select a portion from the bounce start marker to see where this part is in the song.

Seems to me this would be a very easy thing to do, tape machines in the early eighties already had a "floating counter", meaning you could hit zero anywhere and one of the time counters would start from that point. (fourty years ago...)

This has become really irritating since mixing at a distance from the client is a very comme thing nowadays ! I thought that maybe 2023.6.0 would address this, but nothing to my knowledge.
In the same department I would love selecting a part and having the length appear in both bars and time, without having constantly to toggle bar beat and time This should be very easy right ?

(by the way I know there is a sort of plugin programmed by Andrew Schepps to do this, but I don't want to install this huge software environment needed just for that)

Best regards
Mark Haliday

[EGS]

Originally Posted by frenchman

A simple problem with no solution :
When clients comment my mix from the bounce they listened to, they will often say for example, could we raise the level of the vocals from 1'25" to 1'50", and since audio never starts at the beginning of the session, I don't have a counter that starts from my bounce start point. So I have to painstakingly select a portion from the bounce start marker to see where this part is in the song.

Seems to me this would be a very easy thing to do, tape machines in the early eighties already had a "floating counter", meaning you could hit zero anywhere and one of the time counters would start from that point. (fourty years ago...)

This has become really irritating since mixing at a distance from the client is a very comme thing nowadays ! I thought that maybe 2023.6.0 would address this, but nothing to my knowledge.
In the same department I would love selecting a part and having the length appear in both bars and time, without having constantly to toggle bar beat and time This should be very easy right ?

(by the way I know there is a sort of plugin programmed by Andrew Schepps to do this, but I don't want to install this huge software environment needed just for that)

Best regards
Mark Haliday

Can you move all your tracks to perhaps 1hr 0 min 0 sec?

[moogboy100]

SoundFlow - Scheps Offset Counter

[Rich Breen]

If you're not using Timecode for anything (working to video, etc), you can just define the zero for the Timecode ruler at the start of your bounce and display that. I agree that a local zero would be *extremely* useful. Personally I'm using the Soundflow/Sheps solution and it works well if a bit kludgey.

[albee1952]

I agree with others here. I try to get the artist to "aim" their comments at places in the song instead of time. Maybe its just because I've been a musician for so long, but much prefer a note saying to turn up this line in chorus 2

[its2loud]

I'm not understanding the issue here.

If you don't care about timecode, set your cursor at the beginning of the song. Choose Setup>Current Timecode Position> Set position to 00:00:00:00.

in Main Counter window show Timecode. If you still want to see Bars and Beats just choose it for an alternate timeline. Or keep Bars and Beats in the main counter and choose Timecode as an additional timeline lane.

In addition, you can create a video track, import a random black piece of video. Choose Setup>Video Overlay Settings and turn on Timecode Overlay. This will give you a time counter in the video window. Then you can keep your bars and beats in the main counter and see time duration in the video window. Make the window as big or small as you want and reposition the overlay and size do your customization.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by its2loud

I'm not understanding the issue here.

If you don't care about timecode, set your cursor at the beginning of the song. Choose Setup>Current Timecode Position> Set position to 00:00:00:00.

in Main Counter window show Timecode. If you still want to see Bars and Beats just choose it for an alternate timeline. Or keep Bars and Beats in the main counter and choose Timecode as an additional timeline lane.

I'm going to try this with the next client as it seems like a great solution(20 years and still learning). Traditionally, I would set my main counter to Bars[Beats and the sub-counter to minutes:seconds, but switching the sub-counter to timecode looks like a totally workable solution

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by its2loud

I'm not understanding the issue here.

If you don't care about timecode, set your cursor at the beginning of the song. Choose Setup>Current Timecode Position> Set position to 00:00:00:00.

Yes, this is what I posted earlier, but sometimes changing timecode position isn't an option. A local zero would solve this.

In addition, you can create a video track, import a random black piece of video. Choose Setup>Video Overlay Settings and turn on Timecode Overlay.....

While a clever workaround, it's a lot of hoops to jump through for a simple function, plus it precludes quickly locating to a specific spot with keyboard entry.

[frenchman]

Originally Posted by moogboy100

SoundFlow - Scheps Offset Counter

Thanks, I know, but all I am asking is for Avid to provide this. This would be a extremely simple feature to implement. A simple zero start Marker, and a counter that can be displayed

I installed Soundflow and immediatly uninstalled it, not for me, a huge bloated software environment just for this very simple function

[its2loud]

While a clever workaround, it's a lot of hoops to jump through for a simple function, plus it precludes quickly locating to a specific spot with keyboard entry.

It’s literally 3 steps and you can still locate to your bars and beats in the Main Counter. It’s a viable solution to a feature you’re going to get possibly never.