Re: [LAD] interesting blog post about syncing blender and ardour

Locating (while stopped) is a remote control function, which is not the same as syncing. SMPTE in itself does not support anything similar to a locate command, it's not a remote control protocol but just an audio signal that can be decoded to time. SMPTE was developed as a way to sync audio (on magnetic tape) to optical film, and later to video. It was also used to sync audio tape machines, e.g. two 24-tracks recorders, to each other. In all cases the essential trick was to record it on tape as an audio track, thereby creating a time reference that was physically bound to the real audio tracks on the same tape. Sort of 'soft' sprocket holes, with the extra that each such hole also was also labeled with its number. Most machines supporting SMPTE sync would also support locating, by combining conventional mechanical tape motion sensing with the timecode system, and in the sense that when the master started rolling the slaves would chase to approximately the same location, then start rolling, then sync accurately. This latter could take some seconds, but once sync was established it could be very accurate, actually better than a sample at 48 Khz. Ciao,