How does PT chase to MTC/SMPTE?

[Chris Duncan]

Hi, folks.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm having difficulty getting PT to lock to timecode. I have a Mackie HDR recorder as my timecode master and a Mackie D8B console as well as my PC chasing to it. PC applications (Cakewalk, Cool Edit) chase & lock to timecode with no problem. However, while I can get PT to respond to the MMC start/stop commands, it doesn't lock to timecode.

In Setup/Peripherals, I have the generic MTC reader selected, and the Digi MIDI port. I also have "Enable control of PT LE via MMC" checked, id 0.

When I place PT "online" I get the flashing blue light (attention, K-Mart shoppers...). Once I start playback of the Mackie gear, PT will start, but it starts each time at 0:0:0:0 and does not follow the time. When I stop the Mackies, PT also stops and reverts to the 0:0:0:0 position. The Mackie HDR is set to generate both MTC (which the D8B wants) and SMPTE. I've tried all the combinations there as well, with no results.

I searched the manual but didn't find any info to clarify this. If anyone out there has fought this battle & could offer some insight, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks,

Chris

[DigiTechSupt]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>In Setup/Peripherals, I have the generic MTC reader selected, and the Digi MIDI port. I also have "Enable control of PT LE via MMC" checked, id 0.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

-Instead of selecting the Digi001 in the port menu, try "Any" and see if PT LE will see the incoming MTC.

-PT LE will begin playback when it receives a valid MTC position, therefore, you may disable the MMC option in this window as well.

In addition:
-When you roll timecode from your source, you should see numbers rolling in the "Current TC" field of the Session Setup Window...this is your biggest hint as to indicate whether things are working or not.

-Make sure the Session Start Time is set to a value at, or before the timecode you are sending it.

Brent

[Chris Duncan]

Hi, Brent.

Thanks for the quick reply.

>>>
-Instead of selecting the Digi001 in the port menu, try "Any" and see if PT LE will see the incoming MTC.
<<<

Tried that, no dice.

>>>
-PT LE will begin playback when it receives a valid MTC position, therefore, you may disable the MMC option in this window as well.
<<<

Tried that as well.

>>>
In addition:
-When you roll timecode from your source, you should see numbers rolling in the "Current TC" field of the Session Setup Window...this is your biggest hint as to indicate whether things are working or not.
<<<
With mmc enabled, it always starts rolling from 0, not the current time. without mmc enabled, it doesn't start.

>>>
-Make sure the Session Start Time is set to a value at, or before the timecode you are sending it.
<<<

Have session start time set to 0:0:0:0

I know the timecode is making it into the PC via the digi port as I can shutdown PT and fire up Cakewalk, point it to the digi midi port and it locks right up. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here...

Thanks,

Chris

[moe green]

no, you aren't

MTC doesn't work

[Oz-boy]

Unfortunately PTLE will not LOCK to SMPTE or MTC.
It will respond to (or send out) a MTC trigger but after it's started it's no longer resolved to code ... so Brent's comments are a bit misleading ... no offense Brent but if real chasing capabilities are what you're looking for then lets be honest PTLE just can't do it!
Check out earlier posts about this subject. Search PTLE using MTC or SMPTE as the keyword.

Stew

[Paul Curtiz]

Sorry if I'm checking the obvious but, are you connecting your MTC cable to the Digi001 or to any other midi input on your PC ? (you need to conncect to the Digi).

I'm having no problems with MTC (smpte into an old JLC Fadermaster, which outputs MTC).
I'm working on commercials (30 sec usually) so drifting due to trigger sync is not a problem.
As a sidenote, before 5.1 sync was not accurate enough but since 5.1 I'm a happy camper, it's accurate enough for lip sync.

I'm building a new studio at the moment but should be back in biz next week, I'd be happy to run down my setup for you.

Good luck in the meantime [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Chris Duncan]

First, thanks to all of you who took the time to help me with this one. Everything is working fine now. I did indeed miss a fundamental step. Being new to Pro Tools in general, I didn't realize that the session offset defaults to 1 hour (which also determined where the audio I imported landed). I set the offset to 0:0:0:0 for the song I was working on (recorded with a few seconds before the first beat to allow time for sync) and everything worked just fine. I also, of course, moved the audio to 0:0:0:0.

I typically work on rock & pop oriented things and suspect that the trigger approach will work fine for my application as I'm not dealing with any lengthy program material.

Just to see where the wall was, I ran 24 tracks of audio with 24 compressors & 14 other plugins before my PIII / 450 ran out of gas. Overall, this looks like a great addition. Thanks again for all the help.

Chris

[Chris Duncan]

And in case I didn't mention it...

Digidesign tech support rocks!