Time code as audio in Xpress Pro

[Carlos_E._Martinez]

I have started this thread here, because some time ago I raised a question in the News section which didn't belong there really.

My question was whether I could record TC in a DV audio track and later resolve it as TC in Avid Xpress Pro.

At the same time I would record the same TC track in channel 2 of my DAT or MD recorder, double-system style, which would be later inputted into the same program.

From a mail on this Forum, I got an answer from MichaelP that said:

"YES. Xpress Pro will allow you to read audio timecode recorded as LTC on either of the audio channels captured over FireWire into the system. It is then decoced as metdata and added to a TC column to be used a common timecode refernce point for the AutoSync process."

Apparently the only catch is that I input everything through Firewire. I my case I could do it through my Canopus ADVC100.

But I raised the same quetion yesterday on a DMN Forum, namedly Avid Xpress DV/Xpress Pro Forum, and I got the following answer:

"No, Xpress Pro does not have Resolve Audio Timecode feature like Film Composer does.

Doing this on the field is not the best idea since it only leaves you one track for audio. 2 channel is the minimum for field recording.

If you camera has time of day and free run, you can rent a DAT deck that you can Jam Sync. Allowing you to have the exact same timecode.

However, to bring the DAT in with TC - you either need to dump it to DV or use a RS422 controlled DAT."

Even if truth is an ellusive thing, where is the real thing here?


Carlos

[MichaelP]

Xpress Pro does have the "Read Audio Timecode" feature. Once clips are captured, hilight them, select read audio timecode from the menu -indicate which track and to wich column the exracted timecode should go to (defaults to AuxTC1).

Xpress Pro does not have AES/EBU IO so if that is the issue, you need to get an external box that does and outputs DV. If you make DV dubs, then once capurted, do the above mentioned process.

Michael

[Carlos_E._Martinez]

Xpress Pro does have the "Read Audio Timecode" feature. Once clips are captured, hilight them, select read audio timecode from the menu -indicate which track and to wich column the extracted timecode should go to (defaults to AuxTC1).


Sounds quite simple.



Xpress Pro does not have AES/EBU IO so if that is the issue, you need to get an external box that does and outputs DV. If you make DV dubs, then once captured, do the above mentioned process.


Personally I don't have such an issue on outputting, when going from DAT to Avid, from the analog outputs. My guess is people can capture audio (actual audio and time code track) through devices such as Canopus ADVC100. Should I input some video signal, like color bar, when I'm doing this audio/TC transfer?


Carlos

[MichaelP]

It's always a good idea to have a video reference to the signal regardless of whetehr you are capturing video, video and audio, or just audio. In Xpress Pro, just turen of the V channel if you don't want to capture it.

My reference to a third party device was to maintain a digital audio workflow from DAT into Xpress Pro. I have used the ProMAX transcoder with great success for just this purpose.

Michael

[blackbudget]

Anyone know if Final Cut has the same capabilities? I know this is the Xpress forum, but this is the only discussion of it's kind that i can find.

[MichaelP]

I don't believe it does.