Set up timecode and sync
Send timecode to a lighting desk, follow a house system, run alongside a DAW.
BarBeatCue is usually the timeline master: it plays, and a desk, a video server or a light show follows its timecode. It can also follow — locking to a house system's LTC or MTC, or to a DAW on the same Mac. Everything here is in the show's settings: Setlist ▸ Show Settings…, the Timecode & Sync page (and Song ▸ Song Settings… for one song).
What the desk sees: the three modes
The show's Timecode decides the code every song sends, and the code an incoming system has to hit. Tell the lighting or video operator which one you run.
| Mode | What the desk sees | Cue it by |
|---|---|---|
| Each song's own (the default) | Every song runs from its own origin — most at 01:00:00:00, so two songs look the same. The code stops with the transport. | Song by song, by hand. The preflight warns when songs share code and one sends or follows it. |
| Unique starts | Song 1 at the Start, song 2 an hour later (or every 30, 20, 15 or 10 minutes), and so on — each song at its own hour. A stop stops the code; a gapless chain jumps the code to the next song's hour at the switch. | The hour names the song — the lighting world's convention. A song longer than the spacing is a preflight problem. |
| Continuous | One running code over the whole show: each song starts where the one before ended, plus its count-in; a chained set is one unbroken code. A stop between songs stops it, and Play goes on from there. A vamp or a jump runs the code past the plan; the next song still starts where planned. | One timeline for the whole set. |
Under Unique starts and Continuous, the show's Rate replaces the songs' own: the preflight lists the songs whose rate differs. Start is the code of song 1's first sample (HH:MM:SS:FF — double-click to type it).
A single song's rate, Origin and First bar are on Song Settings › Timecode & Sync.
Sending timecode
In Song Settings › Timecode & Sync, under Sync Out, a song can send:
- MTC and MIDI Clock to the MIDI port chosen as Sends in the show's settings (MIDI setup).
- LTC as audio on an output of the device (LTC channel — 1–2 ride with the stems, 3 and up are the code's own, so give it a channel of its own — and LTC level).
Each has an offset in milliseconds: positive means the outside world runs ahead of the song.
Timecode as audio files
For gear that wants the code ahead of the show, File ▸ Export ▸ LTC Audio… writes the same code as WAV files: one song, every song, or the whole setlist as one.
Following timecode
Under Sync In — in the show's settings, so every song follows the same master the same way — Follows is Off, LTC, or MTC:
- LTC arrives on an input of the audio device (LTC input); it arrives with the audio itself, so it is the more exact of the two.
- MTC arrives from the MIDI source set as MTC from.
The rest are for a cable that wiggles or a master that drifts. Freewheel is how many frames to keep playing after the code drops out before stopping. A jump larger than the Locate threshold means the master moved, and the song re-locates at once; a smaller error that grows is drift, corrected on the line you choose in Correct on — a bar line hides it best. BarBeatCue does not stretch the audio to track a master; it locks at the start and corrects at a line.
If the song has to be found from the code, the show's mode matters: under Unique starts or Continuous every song has its own place on the code, so an incoming code can start the right one. Under Each song's own, songs that share code cannot be told apart — the preflight says so.
A DAW on the same Mac
A DAW — Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools… — can be the master while BarBeatCue plays the stems. It needs BlackHole 2ch (a free virtual audio device) installed.
- Install BlackHole 2ch.
- Choose DAW on this Mac… (Show Settings › Timecode & Sync › Preset). BarBeatCue asks first, then makes an audio device called BarBeatCue Rig — your interface (it keeps the clock) plus BlackHole 2ch — and plays through it. Every song follows LTC on BlackHole's first input. If songs share their code, it puts them on Unique starts so each has a place of its own.
- It lists what it did and offers Export LTC for the DAW…: one clip per song, with the count-in as pre-roll code. Put each clip on an audio track in the DAW, routed to the BlackHole outputs, with Warp off.
- Each clip starts its song, in any order — Session view too.
If the interface changes later (a different one plugged in), the aggregate goes stale; the preflight says so, and the preset remakes it.
Check it
File ▸ Preflight… checks the plan: songs that share code, a song longer than its spacing, code past midnight, the MIDI ports, the aggregate. Each finding is explained in Troubleshooting.