An hour of SMPTE linear timecode at every common frame rate, ready to drop on a track. Free, no sign-up.
Each file starts at 00:00:00:00 and runs one hour of timecode. Mono, 16-bit WAV, peaking at −18 dBFS, zipped. Not sure which rate? See which frame rate.
Need a different start time, length, sample rate or level? Time Code Tool renders any of them on your Mac or PC, and its free trial does it too.
Timecode only works if everything reading it agrees on the frame rate, so ask the lighting, video or show-control department before you choose. If nobody has decided yet, the usual choices are below.
The default for live shows and video in 50 Hz countries.
Common when there is no video to match. Most lighting consoles and media servers take it.
Matches 29.97 fps video and keeps the timecode in step with the clock on the wall. Non-drop 29.97 counts every frame instead, so an hour of it takes 3.6 seconds longer than an hour.
When the show is cut to footage shot at those rates.
Double-click the zip. The WAV inside is mono, 16-bit, and about 350 MB for the hour.
Take the 48 kHz file for a 48 kHz session and the 44.1 kHz file for a 44.1 kHz one, so nothing resamples the timecode on the way out.
No effects, no fades, no time-stretch — in Ableton Live, switch Warp off for the clip. Line up 00:00:00:00 with the start of the show, or wherever the timecode should begin.
A dedicated interface output, at unity, not summed with anything else. The file peaks at −18 dBFS, about 0 dBu on most interfaces — a level timecode readers are happy with.
Yes. No sign-up, no email, no watermark. Use them in any show, paid or not.
An hour of WAV is about 350 MB. Timecode is a very regular signal, so it zips to a few MB; double-click to get the WAV back.
Each file holds one hour of timecode, 00:00:00:00 up to 01:00:00:00. At those rates every frame is counted but the frames are slightly longer than the rate’s name suggests, so an hour of timecode takes an hour and 3.6 seconds. Drop-frame 29.97 skips frame numbers to stay on the clock instead.
They come from the encoder inside Time Code Tool, and every file is read back and decoded frame by frame before it goes up here: all frames present, in order, with the right drop-frame flag.
Time Code Tool renders LTC WAVs with any start, length, frame rate, sample rate, bit depth and level. Its free trial does it too.
Check the frame rate matches, the track isn’t time-stretched or processed, and the output isn’t summed with anything else. If it still drops frames, Time Code Tool shows exactly what is arriving: the detected rate, and every missed, misread or jumped frame.
SMPTE timecode generator, monitor and converter — on your Mac or PC. Read incoming LTC or MTC and see how healthy it is, convert between them at any frame rate, or be the timecode master. For Apple Silicon and Intel Macs; a full-featured 20-minute trial is free.
Dylan