Importing a tempo/meter map

[jimchik]

Thanks in advance for going through this and offering suggestions. I hope that this is the proper forum for this post.

I'm working with a client that supplies a .mid file, with tempo and meter info embedded. A good thing. But, starting with a fresh DP file, I assume that I just drag the .mid file onto ms 1 of the conductor track and hope for the best? These files are full .mid files, with both the MIDI tracks and tempo and meter information. I'm really only interested in the tempo and meter info, so as to sync with the composer's score. I'm also always supplied with a few audio tracks and a story-board movie that need to be imported into the track.

What I need are suggestions to help this process along. It is more often than not a real slog to get things imported and lined up so that I can start to build the track, with frustrations both on my part and from the client. And too often, the client complains that the bounced track I built doesn't properly line up with their audio as it should.

Thanks in advance for any advice to help this process along.

All the best

[stubbsonic]

It's been a minute, but what I recall doing is dragging the .mid file onto the chunks window. It makes a new chunk (sequence). I then copy & paste the conductor track into the destination chunk. Depending on what is already in that chunk/sequence, it may require some planning as the meter changes might move things that are already in the chunk.

If there's audio that doesn't start at the top, I might record a brief silence at the top of that track, then select and merge audio so all audio starts at measure 1, beat 1.

[jimchik]

Ok, dragging the file into the chunks window is a good tip. Thanks. I’ll start there.

Now, how best to bring the audio in and sync the movie with it. There’s always the hit-or-miss/trial-and-error method, but it seems that I should simply be able to get the right info from the client and be done with it.

Tried moving the audio to the original time stamp resulted in their being pushed to measure 2600 or something. But it seems like, me somehow first setting the the correct chunk start times is the solution to that issue…?

[stubbsonic]

Now, how best to bring the audio in and sync the movie with it. There’s always the hit-or-miss/trial-and-error method, but it seems that I should simply be able to get the right info from the client and be done with it.

As long as the audio is not chopped up into lots of regions that could be affected by changing the tempo & meter, it should be ok.

Tried moving the audio to the original time stamp resulted in their being pushed to measure 2600 or something. But it seems like, me somehow first setting the the correct chunk start times is the solution to that issue…?

Yes, if the audio is time-stamped in a way that is compatible with DP, then yes, you just need to set the proper Chunk Start Time-- and that's where you can also nudge things to lock to picture or slate.

[jimchik]

As long as the audio is not chopped up into lots of regions that could be affected by changing the tempo & meter, it should be ok.

It’s not, thankfully. And they all start at the same point, whatever that point may be…

Yes, if the audio is time-stamped in a way that is compatible with DP, then yes, you just need to set the proper Chunk Start Time-- and that's where you can also nudge things to lock to picture or slate.

Right, but that’s where I go back to the fact that when I tried it, it moved the start point to measure 2600 or something insane.

The client starts the projects in ProTools… is it straightforward enough to import that session into DP (OMF or AAF) and get to work on it?

Thanks again

[stubbsonic]

Right, but that’s where I go back to the fact that when I tried it, it moved the start point to measure 2600 or something insane.

The client starts the projects in ProTools… is it straightforward enough to import that session into DP (OMF or AAF) and get to work on it?

There's a long-standing tradition of setting the SMPTE start time to 1:00:00.00 (one hour). It has to do with not wrapping around to the previous day, when you rewind and have some pre-roll. i.e., it wraps from -23:59:59:29 right to 00:00:00.00.

So you could just try setting the Chunk Start to one hour, and see if that puts the action closer to bar 1.

But if the audio is contiguous and all starts at time zero, you should be able to just place it ("throw it") to the top of the sequence after all the tempo & meter info is pasted in. It should work.

[jimchik]

Awesome. Thank you again for the info.

[CharlzS]

There's a long-standing tradition of setting the SMPTE start time to 1:00:00.00 (one hour). It has to do with not wrapping around to the previous day, when you rewind and have some pre-roll. i.e., it wraps from -23:59:59:29 right to 00:00:00.00.

Thanks. Always knew of the practice, but not why. I don't work in video so never gave it much thought. The start time issue gets brought up regularly in the PT forums.