Guide Timecode and frame rates
Timecode and frame rates
The TIMECODE readout shows the playhead as hours, minutes, seconds and frames (HH:MM:SS:FF), counted from the start of bar 1 at the song's tempo. Use it to line music up with video or a game.
Choosing a frame rate
Click the frame rate next to TIMECODE (it starts at 30 FPS) and pick one:
| Rate | Typical use |
|---|---|
| 23.976 fps | Film shot for NTSC video ("24p" on most cameras) |
| 24 fps | Film and animation at a true 24 fps |
| 25 fps | PAL video (Europe, Australia) |
| 29.97 fps | NTSC video, non-drop-frame |
| 29.97 DF | NTSC broadcast video, drop-frame |
| 30 fps | Games, screen recordings and web video at a true 30 fps |
| 60 fps | Games and high-frame-rate video |
The frame rate is saved with the project. Projects from before this setting open at 30 fps. New keeps the frame rate you're using.
- 23.976 and 29.97 count 24 or 30 frames a second, but each frame lasts 1001/1000 as long, matching camera and broadcast footage. Non-drop 29.97 runs 3.6 seconds an hour behind the clock, as in video editors.
- 29.97 DF (drop-frame) is written with a
;before the frames (00:01:00;02). It stays in step with the clock by skipping the frame numbers;00and;01at the start of every minute except every tenth. Typing a skipped label goes to the next real frame.
Typing a timecode
Click the timecode, type, and press Enter:
00:01:12:10is 1 minute, 12 seconds, frame 10. Fields fill in from the right (frames, then seconds, minutes, hours), so you can leave off leading zeros:1:12:10is the same place, and12:10is 12 seconds, frame 10. Colons, semicolons, dots or spaces all separate fields.- Digits on their own fill in from the frames, like in video editors:
1500is 15 seconds,10215is 1 minute 2 seconds and 15 frames, and12is frame 12. - Fields can overflow:
90:00is 90 seconds. - In drop-frame,
;before the frames is optional.
A red box means the entry couldn't be read, or is past the end of the timeline.
A timecode ruler
The Bars | Time switch above the track names changes what the ruler counts. Time labels it as M:SS:FF (minutes, seconds, frames), so any label can be typed straight into the timecode box. Labels come every few seconds when zoomed out, and every few frames when zoomed in, with smaller ticks in between. In drop-frame, minute labels read like 1:00;02.
Snapping to frames
Set SNAP to Frame to make clip moves, clip edges, razor cuts, the playhead, the loop brackets and markers land exactly on video frames at the current frame rate. (A clip made by double-clicking a lane still starts on a beat; drag it to put it on a frame.) The Export dialog also shows the loop's start timecode, so you know where a loop export sits against the picture.
Frame snap applies to the timeline. Notes you write in the piano roll sit on its own grid (1/16, 1/8 or 1/4), counted from the clip's start. A pad dropped into a clip with Frame snap on lands on a frame instead; the piano roll shows it at the nearest 16th, and moving or nudging it puts it back on the grid.