Tool Idea: Show More Time

I’m wondering if anyone has made a tool that can show smaller units of time than what is currently already shown, i.e h:m:s. I’m working on a score for a commercial right now and it would be very handy to show the fractions of a second so that I can sync up audio cues that are perfectly in time with what’s happening on screen. Obviously, I could use another sequencer for this, but I’d prefer not to.

Thanks in advance.
ASC

Maybe there is a vst plugin that can help you in the meantime?

I’ve yet to come across something, but for now I’ve found a solution via Ableton, since it allows video.

I made a small tool for this. It’s not really prime-time ready yet, but it seemed to work, and has not thrown any weird errors lately. I call this one TimeHelper. It’s got three main functions so far.

  1. Show current line start time in min:sec -format.
  2. Jump to a time in min:sec -format.
  3. Place a delay (“marker”) at a time in min:sec -format.

The current line start time is shown by pressing a key shortcut, you can find it by name “TimeHelper”, or browsing under Global:Tools. (Not sure if this is the right place, so you might have to rebind later…). The time is shown in a small GUI, in format of [minutes]:[seconds].[hundreths of a second].

You can jump to a specific time by selecting from Tools-menu -> TimeHelper -> Jump to a time… This will bring up an automated GUI to enter in first minutes, then seconds, then hundreths of a second. In keypresses this would be as an example:
32116
This would jump into time 3 minutes, 21 seconds, 16 hundreths of a second, after the last enter pressed. Actually the jump will be placed at the closest line possible before the actual target time, given the bpm/lpb restrictions. A note about the offset will be displayed in the status bar.

You can pin point a more accurate point in time by placing a delay marker, which gives an additional resolution of 256 sublines(?) in one line. To place a delay marker, select the track and note column you want to place the marker in and then select of from Tools-menu -> TimeHelper -> Place a delay marker at time… This will jump to the closest line possible as in the Jump to time… function, and place a delay marker that will represent the closest possible time before the target time using this method. The marker seemed to constantly hit with an offset of under one hundredth of a second, even if the bpm was lowest possible and lpb was 1.

Going to push this some further, GUIwise at least. Now is like this, a pre-release at most.

3807 com.kmaki.TimeHelper_Rns280_V0.21.xrnx

1 Like

Thanks for the tool. I haven’t found an exact use for it yet, but its staying in Renoise.

I was actually searching for an easier way to experiment with sub fractions. I use darell.barell’s simple slicer, it works, but not as fast as dblue’s fractional notes tool.

Another tool: Give me more time.

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

Most efficient way to do this:

The “Make Song” Button.