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Setting the downbeat to a certain frame.


Zipfunk

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I'm doing a score where the shot has to be on a certain frame and I'm trying to make my downbeat start on it.

 

I saw a video of Christian Henson do this but for the life of me it doesn't work when I try it.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated as always.

 

I looked at this and couldn't make it work for me either.

viewtopic.php?t=106547

Clearly I'm missing something simple

 

Drew

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There's a lot of differing opinions on here, but generally I do one project per cue as well.

 

Go to

File > Project Settings > Synchronization…

and there you can specify which bar/beat you want to be synced at a given SMPTE location. For instance, for a bit of headroom before the start of the cue, you might set bar 3 1 1 1 to start at 01:03:02:00.

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I'm sorry but I'm still not getting it.

This is my Display

466981272_ScreenShot2021-06-24at12_19_00AM.thumb.png.1930b275466580a9822bc38e6e708464.png

I want the Start of a bar right where the display says my playhead is.

 

Which Bar Position/SMPTE do I fill in? 1 or 2?

 

Also when i try to change the values in Bar Position the numbers jump around and sometimes don't let me select the numbers I think I want (?)

For some reason I cant select a Bar Position higher than 113 1 1 1

Again, I apologize for what be a frustrating time trying to get me to understand this.

 

Drew

1334546624_ScreenShot2021-06-24at12_19_11AM.png.0bf9baf99e2dfca37ee543f41251c118.png

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The second line is grayed out because that's for enabling the offset. As far as we know thus far, you don't need it, so don't worry about that for now. (It's disabled until you check the box to enable the offset, anyway.)

 

Shortcut answer: the time in the upper left corner of your Display is what you'll put in [1]'s SMPTE field. Starting bar number is up to you; most of the time, people will start it at bar 1, 3, or 5. To type it in, be sure to type the numbers with spaces between them, so for example to sync the timecode to the downbeat of bar 3, type "3_1_1_1", where the underscores represent the space bar.

 

Better answer: before or after you do the above, go into Logic Pro > Preferences > Display… and change your time display to SMPTE instead of time with milliseconds. Much better practice for working with video.

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The second line is grayed out because that's for enabling the offset. As far as we know thus far, you don't need it, so don't worry about that for now. (It's disabled until you check the box to enable the offset, anyway.)

 

Shortcut answer: the time in the upper left corner of your Display is what you'll put in [1]'s SMPTE field. Starting bar number is up to you; most of the time, people will start it at bar 1, 3, or 5. To type it in, be sure to type the numbers with spaces between them, so for example to sync the timecode to the downbeat of bar 3, type "3_1_1_1", where the underscores represent the space bar.

 

Better answer: before or after you do the above, go into Logic Pro > Preferences > Display… and change your time display to SMPTE instead of time with milliseconds. Much better practice for working with video.

 

Hi lookatthisguy

 

I think I've got it now. It was screwing me up when it would take the video previous to bar 3 and basically chop it off (or put it before zero if that makes sense)

and of course I found myself having to zoom out to find my cursor again.

 

I just have to get used to it but I'm now putting my downbeat exactly where I want it.

Thank you for that.

 

Your tip for displaying SMPTE instead of time is great too.

 

If theres any other tips to make it easy (or make my workflow smoother) I'm all ears.

 

Drew

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It was screwing me up when it would take the video previous to bar 3 and basically chop it off (or put it before zero if that makes sense)

and of course I found myself having to zoom out to find my cursor again.

 

Ahhh got it. Yeah, Logic makes the changes in real time (as opposed to Pro Tools, which I think asks for confirmation before moving anything around) so things slide around while working on it. For best practice, you'll want to set all this before you start writing anything, lest you have to deal with doing the math to get everything to sync up again. Recommended workflow:

 

1. If your film has a timecode burn, enter that in Logic before importing the video so that right from the start, Logic and film are in agreement on SMPTE position. (You can always use the offset for this later on, but I have yet to come across a situation where I felt like that was the better option.)

2. If you haven't yet spotted the film (at least for the cue), decide which frame you want to be your downbeat.

3. Set that SMPTE value as the sync point, replacing the timecode from the start of the reel.

4. Set your starting bar, giving yourself however much lead-in you want. (Once, I even synced a cue start to bar 9 because I knew I wanted pads to build in, but I wasn't sure how long I wanted them; just knew that melody was going to start at x frame. But other than that, I always go for 3 or 5.)

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