Grandma on PC receive time code

[viktor92]

Hi everyone,<div><br><div>I am looking for a unit which can receive time code and can control moving heads, fog machines and other units through DMX. I would like to ask for the simplest solution what you can suggest. I need something similar to Avolites Titan One dongle, but to be able to receive time code.<br><br>Can you please advise any product which can works for me and also software which can send time code and play analog stereo, but also compatible with the controller for the light?</div><div>Do I have to use DMX node, or there is a simpler solution?</div><div>Is dot2 a good solution? Can I connect dot2 directly to a PC and use Grandma on PC, or requires more equipment (Network switch, DMX node)?</div><div><br>Many thanks in advance and kind regards,</div><div>Viktor.</div></div>

[timmeh2]

Hi

 

You cannot use onPC without MA hardware, you will need a 2-port node as a minimum which will give you 1024 parameters / channels.

 

You can use a Titan One with a plugin or two which can read timecode in, there's a whole load of stuff on youtube about how to go about it.

 

As for sending timecode, you have two options really. You can either use a music sequencer or pro audio package like Cubase, Acid Pro, Logic or Vegas to play the audio file and also send Midi Time Code (MTC) to a MIDI device. I have used a cheap USB one-in one-out dongle and connected the two ends together to create a loopback device so MTC gets played back through the computer, which the lighting desk software can pick up on.

 

The other way to do it is to have an audio file that has your program on one channel and SMPTE on the other, recorded as Linear Time Code (LTC) which sounds like a load of noise if you play it through your speakers. You can send one side to the PA and the other into the back of your lighting desk which would give you the sync.

 

There are a million ways to do this, in the olden days I used specially-prepared minidisks with Program on L and striped LTC on R, it worked really well providing you had an old-school MD recorder that used ATRAC1 (later versions wouldn't work due to the way it compressed the audio). Nowadays I use multi-track HD recorders with LTC on a particular channel.

 

All the best

Timmeh