Problems getting the TXLTimecode plugin to work with Sonar

[norfolkmastering]

I've been looking for a long long time to find an LTC timecode generator which can generate LTC to an ASIO audio output but locked to Sonar's clock.

I thought I had found one!

A company called TXL have a VST plugin called TXLTimecode which installs as an instrument within the DAW and allows LTC to be sent to any audio output which Sonar can access.

So I bought a license for the plugin and tried it out.

It operates but there is some issue with how it is locking to Sonar's clock.  So when I use the LTC audio output to sync my tape machines, the tape machines get close to locking up to Sonar, then drift away again.

TXL also offer an LTC clock generator which can be output to an ASIO output.  It works fine and my tape machines sync to it with no problems.  But of course I need to sync my tape machines to Sonar!

I downloaded the free version of Tracktion and it doesn't have this problem.  I inserted an instance of TXLTimecode with a Tracktion project and my tape machines lock to Tracktion just fine.

I'd be really grateful for any ideas you have for a fix.

[msmcleod]

Have you made certain there are zero effects (e.g. Pro Channel etc) or other processing (e.g. in the hardware path) on the output of the track hosting the TXLTimecode plugin?   It could even be something as simple as the signal being too quiet or too loud.

 

[Bass Guitar]

23 hours ago, norfolkmastering said:

But of course I need to sync my tape machines to Sonar!

I downloaded the free version of Tracktion and it doesn't have this problem.

Seems like you found the solution. 

[norfolkmastering]

I tried a new project with just one blank audio track and one instrument track (for the LTC plugin) and it just won't sync to my tape machines.

Today I tried using a digital LTC audio wav file from https://elteesee.pehrhovey.net/

When I pop this into the audio track and use that as the LTC output, then my tape machines sync perfectly to Sonar but only after I re-striped the tape from that .wav

I think there is some kind of small drift happening between the timecode being 'captured' by the plugin and the Sonar clock (which is referenced to one of my ASIO outputs).  They look the same on the two screen displays (the plugin display and the Sonar time display) but that is only showing to the nearest frame.

I'll try to get more information from the plugin designers and suggest they try the plugin with Sonar.  I don't think they have done that before.

Any other ideas would be welcome.

[norfolkmastering]

I checked the LTC signal level at the ASIO output and it was fine.

The generated LTC audio is being recognised by my tape synchronisers and when I try to sync you can see the time difference (between the plugin generated LTC and the off-tape LTC) reducing towards zero.  But it never quite gets there.  If it was a fixed time difference (offset) between the two LTCs, it would still sync okay, so it is looking like some kind of jitter or drift in the plug-in’s ability to lock to the Sonar clock.

As I said before, it works with Tracktion (which I think the develops used for testing) but so far not with Sonar.