PTS v0.1 (Pseudo Timecode Synthesizer for Traktor) released...

[DiscoNova]

Just thought to mention this here (also ... been spreading the word around a bit). I had a bit of extra time in my hands yesterday (while I was "babysitting" a systems upgrade) so I did a little coding that someone with seriously crooked mind might find slightly useful.

So... if you've lost your timecode CDs/vinyls and your players, but happen to be in possession of a couple of spare netbooks with Windows XP, you can use those instead! (!?!)

Just visit http://www.disconova.com/utu/traktor-pts/, download the software, unzip the package, plug your netbook's audio output to Audio8's input, start the software and rock away. Comments appreciated...

What? It's not like I said it would be anything overly useful, did I?

[DiscoNova]

Oh... the lazy sundays...

I made some modifications to the application; now you can set the pitch range to your liking, and - in theory - control any timecode driven software (like Serato, Torq, etc.) by messing with the settings of base frequency and channel phase difference. I must say that I haven't had the possibility to actually test the application with any other software, but ... it's not supposed to be "a real application" by any standards.

[charo]

that's pretty darn sweet.

back when i had my cortex hdc1000 I would occasionally mess around with using a mp3 of the timecode, worked good.

that might be easier then getting the right freq settings for the particular dvs, just be able to load a wav or mp3 or the timecode?

[DiscoNova]

that might be easier then getting the right freq settings for the particular dvs, just be able to load a wav or mp3 or the timecode?

I don't think that would be easier, quite the opposite in fact... To be able to do that, I would need to be able to decode (in case of mp3) and playback the audio data instead of generating it (generating the data "on the fly" actually requires only two lines of code; one line for each channel ... we're talking simple sinewave generation). Also, in order to achieve the speed changes, I would also need to be able to modify the playback rate (now all I need to do is change the frequency of the generated waveform). Of course, it should not be forgotten that the actual timecodes are intellectual property of the companies that created them, which means that including them with the application would - in most countries of the world - mean a copyright violation.

As for the frequency/phase; there are not too many possibilities. Traktor uses 2kHz, Serato 1.3kHz, some others use 1kHz. The phase difference is usually either 90 or 270 degrees (though I included a possibility to set it to anything between 0-359 degrees just in case) because detecting anything else is pretty difficult.