SMPTE start time

[maceasy]

Here's a strange one. When I am working on a soundtrack, I set bar 1.1.1.1 to start at the smpte time of the film, in the preferences. Simple, always worked. Now I am on 10.3.3 when I did this the movie and its locked soundtrack audio file moved all over the place, shifting the movie to a new position, instead of merely renumbering the time ruler and counter. I never encountered this before. It took me a while to figure out why the movie was so off.

After a while I got round it by leaving it at default and enabling the offset to be the start of the movie. So it kind of works, but not in the giant SMPTE window which just reverts to 010000.

So, has something changed, and now logic is locked to bar 1 = 01:00:00:00 whatever you do?

[David Nahmani]

Here's a strange one. When I am working on a soundtrack, I set bar 1.1.1.1 to start at the smpte time of the film, in the preferences. Simple, always worked. Now I am on 10.3.3 when I did this the movie and its locked soundtrack audio file moved all over the place, shifting the movie to a new position, instead of merely renumbering the time ruler and counter. I never encountered this before. It took me a while to figure out why the movie was so off.

After a while I got round it by leaving it at default and enabling the offset to be the start of the movie. So it kind of works, but not in the giant SMPTE window which just reverts to 010000.

So, has something changed, and now logic is locked to bar 1 = 01:00:00:00 whatever you do?

What you describe is the expected behavior. If you import a movie file to 1 1 1 1 into a new Logic project, then by default the SMPTE at 1 1 1 1 will be 01:00:00:00.00 and the movie position will also be 01:00:00:00.00. When you change the SMPTE at 1 1 1 1, in order to keep its movie position at 01:00:00:00.00, the movie has to move.

 

To bring the movie back at the beginning of the project, enter whatever SMPTE is at 1 1 1 1 as the movie position.

 

Another workflow, if you know the SMPTE of your first frame before importing the movie, is to enter that SMPTE in your project settings, then import the movie at 1 1 1 1, which will automatically set the desired movie position — however I find that this workflow is typically not as precise as entering your desired movie position manually.

[maceasy]

Thanks, David. Maybe I am misremembering, but I thought changing the smpte time at 1 1 1 1 was simply relabelling 01:00:00:00 to whatever the start time of the movie is (however maybe I am confusing when I import audio tic files, set the tc to something appropriate and then spot them to their original position).

 

 So I guess you are saying once you import the movie at the default setting it becomes tied to smpte 01:00:00 and cannot be changed, and thus you have an offset function to overcome this and have the same tc as the movie. Interesting. After writing the post I did indeed think of setting it up before import, so I must remember to do that in the future, then I can have the giant TC window showing the right code. Thanks for clarifying that.

[David Nahmani]

So I guess you are saying once you import the movie at the default setting it becomes tied to smpte 01:00:00 and cannot be changed, and thus you have an offset function to overcome this and have the same tc as the movie.

No, that's not what I said. To Logic, a movie is never "tied to a SMPTE" (with the exception of the movie's BITC, if any). You can always change the SMPTE/Bar relationship, and/or the movie position, and those two settings are independent. There is no "offset function to overcome."

 

A movie position is set in SMPTE, not in bars and beats.

 

In your OP, what you describe is:

1. Your project has 1 1 1 1 = 01:00:00:00.
   
2. You import your movie to 1 1 1 1, so Logic's movie position = 01:00:00:00.
   
3. You now set 1 1 1 1 = 01:00:24:00 while keeping the movie position as 01:00:00:00, so now the movie starts 24 seconds before 1 1 1 1.

 

That behavior makes total sense, doesn't it?If you want the movie to start at 1 1 1 1, then you need to do another step: Set the movie position to 01:00:24:00.

 

OR you could use the second workflow I suggested:

1. Set your project so that 1 1 1 1 = 01:00:24:00.
   
2. Import your movie to 1 1 1 1, so Logic gives it the desired movie position right away = 01:00:24:00.

 

I hope that makes sense? If it still doesn't, I suggest you find a movie file that has a BITC and that starts at a SMPTE slightly after 01:00:00:00, making sure you can see both the bars/beats/div/ticks and SMPTE playhead positions in the LCD display. This should help you understand Logic's behavior.

[maceasy]

Thanks very much for taking the time on this. I think I've got it now - unless you set the smpte before you import, then you must move the movie to its correct smpte time, and then set that time to equal position 1 1 1 1. My movie in this instance started at 10:00:00:00, so that why it was disappearing when I changed the time field for position 1. 

I am going to rebuild the project today from scratch, so I will adopt your second suggestion of setting the tc field before I import. thus having the correct time in all the relevant fields.

Thanks so much for walking me through this. 

[David Nahmani]

Thanks very much for taking the time on this. I think I've got it now - unless you set the smpte before you import, then you must move the movie to its correct smpte time, and then set that time to equal position 1 1 1 1. My movie in this instance started at 10:00:00:00, so that why it was disappearing when I changed the time field for position 1.

Ah yes, I've experienced this, it's odd to think that your movie just "disappeared" (when it really just moved way off on the timeline).

 

I think the key point to understand is that when you import your movie, you're importing it to a specific SMPTE location, and Logic fills the movie position field with that SMPTE location. So if you import it at 01:00:00:00 then that stays your movie position, but if you import it at 01:00:24:00 then that becomes your new movie position.