OPCODE STUDIO 4 Instruction page 14

PART 1: Overview and Installation
• 29.97 Drop Frame—NTSC (North
American) color television frame rate.
This format runs at 30 Frames/sec-
ond, but has the first two frames
dropped every minute, except at min-
utes 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50.
• 29.97 Frames/second (Non-Drop)—
Used to sync to NTSC color television
without dropping frames. SMPTE
time does not match real-time, but
playback pitch is unaffected.
• 30 Frames/second (Non-Drop)—
Original NTSC black and white televi-
sion standard. Often used in audio-
only situations since there are no
dropped frames and the SMPTE time
is equal to real time.
MIDI Time Code and Direct Time
Lock
MIDI computer software cannot read
SMPTE Time Code directly off a tape, so
the code must be converted into a format
that the computer can understand. This
format is called MIDI Time Code (MTC).
The converter then sends MTC (which
retains SMPTE's hour/minute/second/
frame timing information) to the com-
puter to control the playback of MIDI
sequencers. You use MIDI Time Code to
synchronize your computer sequence to a
master SMPTE timing source.
Direct Time Lock (DTL) and Enhanced
Direct Time Lock (DTLe) are alternate
MIDI synchronization formats developed
by Mark of the Unicorn for their Per-
former sequencer. Very old versions of
Performer require DTL to sync to tape.
Newer versions of Performer use
6
Enhanced Direct Time Lock (DTLe),
which provides synchronization accuracy
equal to MIDI Time Code.
The Studio 4 will convert SMPTE time-
code (recorded at one of the five
supported frame rates) to either MIDI
Time Code or one of the Direct Time
Lock formats.
Figure 1.1: this will not print - it's in white color
Opcode Systems, Inc.