Midi Timecode Receiving Problem

Bugs
1

Hi
First sorry, but English is not my first language.

I’ve been trying to receive MIDI timecode from external programs like QLab, Reaper, and Horae, but I’ve run into some issues. Here’s my setup:

  1. MIDI In CHOP → Timecode CHOP → Audio File In CHOP
  2. I set the mode to Timecode Object. Initially, everything looks fine.

However, when I start the timecode from the external program, the audio starts lagging, even though the timecode appears to be functioning correctly.

Interestingly, when I generate timecode internally using the Timecode CHOP and connect this to the audio, everything works flawlessly.

To investigate further, I attached a Trail CHOP to monitor the issue. It turns out the externally received timecode appears intermittent, whereas the internal generator remains consistent.
So my setup looks like this:

midiinsetup
midiinsetup2366×962 236 KB

And here is a bigger picture from the trails I got:
trail
trail1560×1086 33.6 KB

So the question is how can I manage this to work audio from Touchdesigner, or as I already made the QLab plays audio and TD is muted, but i have many components that uses audio for visualisation.

3

The complete SMPTE time is sent over two frames when streaming MIDI quarter-frame messages, so we only update the MIDI timecode at that point, which is I believe the behavior you’re experiencing here.

I think we’ll need to add some inter-frame interpolation to smooth out the MIDI timecode values.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the answer!
Until it is done i use LTC.

6

I’ve added some inter-frame interpolation to the MIDI timecode values generated from a stream of quarter frame messages. This change will be available in the next official build we release: 2023.11990+.