User Manual

TIME FORMATS AND DISPLAY
90
Frame time (hours:minutes:second:frames)
Figure 8-3: Specifying SMPTE time in hours, minutes, seconds and
frames.
Frame time is a visual display of SMPTE (Society of
Motion Picture and Television Engineers) time
code. It is generally used in film and video work,
but is also used for synchronization in audio
production. Unlike measure time, frame time is
used when absolute time location is necessary.
It is displayed similarly to real time, in hours,
minutes, seconds, and frames. Frames are
subdivisions of a second. The first frame number in
a second is zero.
Digital Performer supports these frame formats:
23.976 frames per second (fps), 24 fps, 25 fps,
29.97 fps, 29.97 drop-frame, and 30 fps.
Additionally, there are three “nonstandard” frame
rates available.
Nonstandard frame rates
Three nonstandard frame rates are available: 30
drop, Legacy 29.97 drop, and Legacy 29.97 non-
drop.
■ 30 drop: Use only when you must accommodate
this frame rate. You’ll nearly always want to use one
of the more common frame rates, such as 29.97
drop or 30 non-drop.
■ Legacy 29.97 drop and Legacy 29.97 non-drop:
Use these only with old projects which open
assigned to these frame rates. For new projects,
always use the standard 29.97 drop and 29.97 non-
drop frame rates.
Use these frame rates only in the cases described
above; otherwise, use one of the standard frame
rates.
SMPTE is useful as a standardized location scheme
when synchronizing to production devices such as
a tape deck or video deck. When synchronizing to
an external time code source, the counter will
always display the same frame time that is being
received from the external source. You may specify
the SMPTE location at which the first measure of
the sequence or song starts. with the Set Chunk
Start Time command described on page 193.
See chapter 86, “Receive Sync” (page 951) for a
more detailed explanation of syncing to external
timecode.
Samples
Figure 8-4: Specifying time in samples.
The Samples time format displays the number of
digital audio samples since the beginning of the
project. Digital Performer places digital audio in
audio tracks with sample-accurate precision. MIDI
data is stored with even greater precision.
TIME FORMATS WINDOW
The Time Formats window (Setup menu) lets you
specify the time format to be displayed throughout
Digital Performer in event lists, time rulers,
dialogs, windows and any place where time is
displayed.
Figure 8-5: Time Formats window.