MIDI Time Code (MTC) is an offshoot spin-off of SMPTE Time Code,
which has been used for synchronisation of audio and film/video
since the mid 1960's. SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & TV
Engineers) got it from NASA, who were using it to synchronise
space probe telemetry between space and Earth. 

That's where all that HH:MM:SS:FF comes from. 
00 to 24 hours
00 to 59 minutes
00 to 59 seconds
and the FF- is for Frames per second, and that's format 
dependent- 18, 24, 25 (Euro), 30 drop & 30 non-drop (TV format).
There are also a couple other almost never used frame rates.

The companies like Southworth made SMPTE-->MIDI/ MIDI-->SMPTE
convertor boxes. I still own one of their Jam Box 4+ units,
which we got back in 1987 when I started doing film scores and
needed to synchronise my MIDI scores to picture. Also have a 
Syco Systems set-up (some 64 MIDI In/Outs with a controller).
Nowadays, we use MOTU MIDI Timepiece (SMPTE/MIDI- convertor/ 
synchroniser).

I do everything with SMPTE/MIDI Time Code. Drove my electronic
music class instructor up the wall, which is ironic when you
consider he's a staff film score composer for Disney.


I love Time Code. 
I also love Csound.
-Partev



=======================================================================




--- richardboulanger@comcast.net wrote:

From: "Dr. Richard Boulanger" 
To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
Subject: [Csnd] Re: Re: midi realtime clock
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:26:48 -0400

Many of my students as for this at Berklee.

They want to lock Csound with Ableton Live or Logic
They want to be able to synchronize LFO rates with the tempos of their  
Sequences
They want to be able to synchronize Delay Times to some subdivision of  
their Clock

It would be great if we could figure out a way and develop some model  
instruments to support this.

-dB

On Aug 20, 2009, at 8:57 AM, Andres Cabrera wrote:

> Hi,
>
> There are two types of midi synchronization. One is MIDI clock (which
> counts in BB:BB:TT) and the other is MIDI Time Code (HH:MM:SS:FF).
> Both are sysex messages, so they are harder to parse than ordinary
> MIDI messages, and contain variable number of data bytes (many times
> there are more than two data bytes), and that's probably why they are
> being ignored by midiin.
> Synchronizing Csound to an external MIDI clock or MIDI time code is
> hard and I think it's not currently supported (the sequencer engine
> would have to be able to accomodate and follow time drifts in the
> incoming signal), that's why Csound offers clock out but not clock in.
>
> However, the alsa library (and probably the portmidi as well) has ways
> of dealing with sysex, so at least receving the data is possible.
>
> Cheers,
> Andrés
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 6:29 AM, Oeyvind  
> Brandtsegg wrote:
>> Hello
>>
>> I tried to synchronize (tempo, timing) Csound to an external clock
>> today, but it seems there is no midi clock input in Csound.
>>
>> I used:
>>
>>        kstatus, kchan, kdata1, kdata2 midiin
>>        printk2 kstatus
>>        if kstatus == 248 kgoto midiclockTick
>>        kgoto end
>>
>>        midiclockTick:
>>        ; do the clock tick handling here
>>        kgoto end
>>
>>        end:
>>
>> But it seems midiin does not recevie realtime clock messages. I  
>> used a
>> midi monitor application, checking that the messages are sent.
>> I use Ableton Live to send midi clock messages, and they appear on  
>> the
>> midi monitor (Midi-Ox).
>>
>> According to the manual, midiin kstatus can be
>> 128 (note off)
>> 144 (note on)
>> 160 (polyphonic aftertouch)
>> 176 (control change)
>> 192 (program change)
>> 208 (channel aftertouch)
>> 224 (pitch bend
>> 0 if no MIDI message are pending in the MIDI IN buffer
>>
>> ... so no clock messages there.
>>
>> Is there another opcode for this ?
>> I find mrtmsg — Send system real-time messages to the MIDI OUT port,
>> but no similar opcode for input of the same signals.
>>
>> Maybe midiin should be updated to accept all types of midi messages ?
>> In my midi monitor the realtime
>> clock ticks show up as status = 248,
>> start has status = 250
>> stop has status = 252
>> (decimal notation, not hex)
>>
>>
>> best
>> Oeyvind
>>
>>
>> Send bugs reports to this list.
>> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body  
>> "unsubscribe csound"
>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
> Andrés
>
>
> Send bugs reports to this list.
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body  
> "unsubscribe csound"



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