Dorico, MTC/MMC and Decklink Output

Dorico
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Hello everybody…

I’m coming from Finale after 30 years and I’m still looking around for options for video sync and playback within a notation program. Finale has an okay way of outputting MTC and MMC. It’s not perfect, but I can count on it being in sync. I use an external program called Video Sync 6. This allows me to do a couple of things: 1) it can output via Blackmagic Ultrastudio or Decklink to a dedicated monitor and 2) create Streamers and Punches in a separate time line locked to Finale’s playback. VS6 can then print a new video file with those Streamers and Punches overlayed in h264 or Prores for live performance. One of the drawbacks of Finale is that the transport is very basic and I can’t advance via TC but only by measures. Dorico can output TC through a TXL Timecode Plugin. A couple of problems here is that the plug in can’t do 23.98fps and Dorico seems to change TC after you stop playback. It never syncs when you press stop. So it defeats the purpose in being able to scrub timeline and picture at the same time. In talking to TXL about it, they said it has to do with Dorico’s handling of the IAC driver. I do like that Dorico can load a video and lock it to its TC internally, but you can’t output to Decklink like Cubase and all the other Steinberg products.

Ultimately, I guess what I’m looking for is a notation program that can function as a DAW. Dorico somewhat fills the bill and Sibelius can’t output MTC at all.

Is it in the plans to have better control of the MTC/MMC settings in Dorico?

If not, are there plans to add BMD Decklink/Ultrastudio or AJA Kona capabilities to Dorico to output to a dedicated monitor?

Is there a way to enter TC to advance the playhead or is it only measure by measure?

Thanks

1 Like
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We don’t have any current plans to add BMD Decklink/Ultrastudio or AJA Kona, but we certainly don’t rule it out for the future. Making Dorico work successfully in these kinds of media music workflows is absolutely a part of where we see the product going in the future, but these sorts of features will require us to collaborate with the Cubase team to bring them to fruition, and aligning our project plans can be challenging, as both sets of developers have so much to do.

You can advance the playhead frame by frame – in Key Commands in Preferences, look for Play > Next Frame and Previous Frame.

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Thanks for the reply. Are there any plans for better MMC and MTC control? It seems to lock, but the changing of the TC when you press stop is a real problem. If I can get that to work, then I can use other video programs to output through Decklink. I was using the internal video player along with the MTC to see where the stop points are. That video sync is solid.

Thanks for the info on the frame advance, that is a big help. Is there anyway to just type in a TC to advance the pointer to that part in the measure?

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No way at the moment to type in a timecode directly, no, though we know that would be useful.

We’ll need some time to look into the issue you describe with the timecode changing when you stop playback. This isn’t something that I recall being described by other users. Unfortunately, in the heat of everything else that is going on right now, it’s not something we will be able to dedicate any time to right away.