Time Code Tool — SMPTE timecode generator & monitor for Mac

// What it does

Generate, monitor and convert SMPTE timecode — LTC and MTC — with an app that does the job of a rack timecode clock and shows you what your timecode is actually doing. Read incoming LTC or MTC and see exactly how healthy it is; send it on clean as LTC, MTC or both, at the same frame rate or a different one; or run it as the timecode master and render sample-accurate LTC to a WAV. A far steadier endpoint than piping LTC straight into a DAW. Works with any console or application that needs timecode.

Read + monitor LTC or MTC — lock, frame rate, freewheel, missed / misread / jumped frames
Convert in any direction — LTC → MTC, MTC → LTC, LTC → LTC, MTC → MTC — or both outputs at once
Frame-rate conversion on either output (23.976 / 24 / 25 / 29.97 DF / NDF / 30)
Generate mode — LTC and MTC from one clock; render sample-accurate LTC to a WAV
Virtual audio and MIDI ports, in and out — timecode between apps on one Mac
Works with any console or application that needs timecode — audio, lighting, video, playback, pyro
Full-featured 20-minute trial

// At a glance

Price$69

PlatformmacOS 11+

ChipApple Silicon

Trial20-min sessions

Makerdylanmaudio

LTC → MTCMTC → LTCframe-rate converttimecode monitorLTC→WAVuniversal

// Why I built it

I was sending LTC into my DAW over an audio network driver and it kept dropping the odd frame. I fixed it the usual way: a hardware timecode clock in the rack, which would freewheel, convert frame rates and turn LTC into MTC. It was rock solid. It was also about $1,000 for something that mostly sat there looking nice, and when a tour came along where I needed a smaller rack, I wrote the software version. It turned out to be better at the part the box couldn’t do — telling me what was wrong with the timecode.

// In detail

Reads LTC or MTC, and tells you how healthy it is.

Linear timecode (LTC, the SMPTE audio signal) from any audio input, or MIDI Time Code (MTC) from any MIDI port. A large readout, lock and freewheel state, the detected frame rate, and separate counts of missed, misread and jumped frames — so you can tell a bad source from a bad path.

Converts in any direction.

LTC to MTC, MTC to LTC, LTC to LTC, MTC to MTC. Run both outputs together and one incoming feed leaves as LTC for video and MTC for lighting.

Converts frame rates.

Each output follows the input or converts to the rate you set: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 drop-frame and non-drop, 30.

Cleans up what it’s given.

A single misread frame is ridden through instead of sending everything downstream to the wrong place and back. A dropout is freewheeled. A real relocate still follows, one frame later, and is written to the log with the reason.

Generates timecode.

With no input, it free-runs as the timecode master — LTC and MTC from one clock, at the start time, frame rate and level you choose.

Renders LTC to a WAV.

Sample-accurate LTC files with your choice of start, length, frame rate, sample rate, bit depth and level. Drop it on a track in your playback session.

Passes timecode between apps on one Mac.

An optional virtual audio device carries LTC in and out, and virtual MIDI ports carry MTC in and out. No loopback cables, no separate routing utility. (The virtual audio device needs macOS 13 or later.)

Stream Deck control.

Transport, mode, inputs and outputs and the generator on Bitfocus Companion keys, and a four-key HH MM SS FF readout — green while locked, amber in freewheel. With the free dylanmaudio Companion module.

// Who uses it

Anyone who sends or chases timecode from a Mac: playback engineers running Ableton Live or Reaper; lighting programmers whose software wants MTC when the show sends LTC; video and media-server operators; theatre sound with QLab; pyro and show control; FOH and monitor engineers running timecode-driven console automation. It doesn’t care what console, desk or application is on the other end.

// Questions

My DAW drops or misreads LTC frames arriving over an audio network driver. Will this help?

That’s the problem it was built for. Read the LTC in Time Code Tool instead and give the DAW clean MTC on the virtual port, or regenerated LTC. The frame counters will also show you whether frames are being lost on the way in.

Can it convert LTC to MTC for lighting software that only takes MIDI timecode?

Yes — to a virtual MIDI port for software on the same Mac, or to any MIDI interface for a console or another computer.

Is it a replacement for a hardware timecode clock such as a Rosendahl MIF4 or a CB Electronics TC-5?

For reading, converting LTC and MTC, frame-rate conversion, freewheeling and regenerating clean timecode, on a Mac that’s already in your rig — that’s what I use it for. Those boxes are excellent, and they do two things this doesn’t: word clock and video reference. Time Code Tool is LTC and MTC only. If you need those, or timecode with no computer involved, buy the box.

I used Lockstep. Is this a replacement?

It does what Lockstep did — LTC in, MTC out — and the other directions, natively on Apple Silicon, and it’s maintained.

Can I just make an LTC WAV file?

Yes, offline, at any frame rate including drop-frame. Or download a ready-made hour from the free LTC WAV files.

Windows? Intel Macs?

Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 11 or later, today. Intel Macs are next, then a Windows version — register your interest and you’ll hear first.

Does it phone home?

No analytics, no telemetry. Activating the licence is the only network call, and a licence covers two Macs — the show machine and the spare.

// What’s new

Time Code Tool 1.3.0

Now runs on macOS 11 Big Sur or later, as the store page has always said. Earlier versions needed macOS 13.3 or later — on macOS 11 to 13.2 the app failed to open, with no message.
The app's two virtual MIDI ports are now named "Time Code Tool MTC Out" and "Time Code Tool MTC In", matching the "Time Code Tool LTC" audio device (they were "TCT MTC Out" and "TCT MTC In"). Nothing about how they work has changed. If your DAW or another app was set to the old name, select the new one once: apps that remember a MIDI port by name will show the old one as missing; apps that remember it by its ID carry on without you doing anything.
Generate: a drop-frame start time that doesn't exist is now moved forward instead of refused. In 29.97 DF, frames 00 and 01 are skipped at the top of every minute not divisible by 10, so 00:17:00:00 was being rejected — the app now starts at 00:17:00;02 and says so. The same applies to the WAV generator's start and end times and to the Companion "Generate from" button. Truly impossible times (hour 24, frame 30) are still refused with the legal range shown.
Generate: the start time and frame rate can no longer be changed while the generator is running — they only ever applied at the next Start, so the panel could show 30 fps while 25 fps was going out. Stop first, as for the mode and input source; Companion gets the same refusal.
Fixed: in Generate mode, pressing Start with both outputs off seemed to do nothing. The app was refusing — "Nothing to generate — turn on LTC or MTC output" — but showed the message in the Input section, which Generate mode hides. Messages about Start now appear directly under the Start button in both modes, and clear when you switch mode or turn an output on.
Fixed: the Audio Input channel could not be set above 64, so channels on a larger interface (Dante, MADI) were out of reach. The Channel box now goes up to the last channel of the device you have selected — a channel you saved earlier for a bigger interface is left alone, not quietly reduced, so it is still there when you plug that interface back in — and if you pick one the device hasn't got, the message says so plainly, without assuming you use Dante.

All 14 changes in 1.3.0

Fixed: the MTC input list was not being re-read when the panel opened, so a MIDI port that appeared after launch could stay missing from it until the app was relaunched.
New: Options — Start at login, Show in Dock and Check for updates live together behind one disclosure at the bottom of the panel. Show in Dock puts Time Code Tool in the Dock and in Cmd-Tab for easier switching; it is off by default. Check for updates tells you whether a newer version is on the store, with a link to get it. It only checks when you press it, never on its own and never while Time Code Tool is running, and it sends nothing about you or your Mac.
The Quick Reference guide is now installed with the app, so the footer's Quick Reference link opens it even with no internet — and it always matches the version you are running. The app's title and version stay in view while you scroll, and the panel sizes itself to the screen it is on instead of clipping its footer on shorter displays.
Error messages in the panel are now red, so a refused Start or a device that isn't available stands out from the notes; a stale error no longer survives a Rescan. The Licensed badge now matches the other dylanmaudio apps.
On macOS 11 and 12, the panel now shows all its colours — the Start button showed as bare text there, and the trial banner and blue accents were gone, because those Macs' web engine didn't understand how they were written — and the first click after opening the panel works: before, it only brought the app forward, and a right-click showed a bare "Reload" menu. Nothing changes on macOS 13 or later.
Fixed: macOS was mistaking the dylanmaudio apps for one another when deciding Local Network permission, which is why Time Code Tool could appear under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network without using the network itself. Each app now has its own identity.
Export log now saves a diagnostics zip to your Desktop and shows it in Finder — this session's log, the previous session's, and your settings (licence details removed) — so one attachment covers a bug report. The session log itself now records your settings and where the app is running from at launch (a copy still running from the DMG is called out, since settings don't stick there), the audio and MIDI devices present and any change to that list, each setting you change, every Start with the mode, source, devices and rates in force and every Stop with why, a Start that fails and why, your licence or trial state, and a final line when you quit.
Fixed: a damaged settings file was silently replaced with the defaults on the next save. It is now set aside under a dated name, the log says so, and the app runs on defaults until you set things again.

Time Code ToolTCT