More Audio goodness

I've just added extra functionality to the Audio handlers in Red9 that hopefully you'll all find useful. 

Firstly I've expanded on the conversion tools to handling timecode, we now have the full complement:

milliseconds_to_Timecode(milliseconds, smpte=True, framerate=None)
milliseconds_to_frame(milliseconds, framerate=None)
timecode_to_milliseconds(timecode, smpte=True, framerate=None)
timecode_to_frame(timecode, smpte=True, framerate=None)
frame_to_timecode(frame, smpte=True, framerate=None)
frame_to_milliseconds(frame, framerate=None)

We're using these internally to process timecode around our MoCap deliveries, converting time to the relevant units as and when required.

I've also added a new function to the Red9_Sound menu in the Trax Editor, 'Sync_BWavs' which is designed to automatically sync multiple BWav files to their internal timecode. BWav's are Braodcast Wav's used when recording audio with timecode as it embeds the data into the wav's header, very useful in production.

The new function processes either the selected audio nodes in Trax, or ALL wavs in the scene, depending on selection. It then inspects the internal BWav's timecode, and if found and valid it will shift the audio nodes in Maya to match their original timecode's, re-syncing them to the original shoots timelines. 

I've also done a few fixes to the AudioNode class, adding the setters that were missing in some of the properties.

cheers

Mark

Red9 Sound and Audio handler updates

Finally got round to doing a quick demo of the new AudioNode handler in the Red9 StudioPack. This one shows how you can use the 'compile' function in the sound menu to pre-compile multiple sound nodes in Maya so that you get a complete soundtrack to any playblasts. Anybody who's ever tried animating to multiple sound nodes in Maya, particularly when animating dialog will know how frustrating it is when you then try and playbladt that scene, and only get 1 sound track included!!

I also go through the new inspect code, capable of extracting metaData info from wav files including full support for Broadcast wav's. This is really useful to gain access to thiongs like internal timecode data. There's also extensions capable of extracting metaData from any media format, Mov, avi etc but for that you have to download ffmeg which I use in the inspect call.

I'm really keen to hear from those running MacOs or Linux, does the compiler work for you?

thanks (don't forget the donate button...cough...)

Mark

Broadcast Wav support

New Sound file inspector:

Anybody who's dealt with moCap sessions where you're recording audio will have probably run into the broadcast wav format, an extension of the standard wav but containing a whole extra chunk of metaData specifically aimed at syncing data around studio's. The key is that it includes an internal timecode for the wav, usually pumped into it from the studio's timecode generator so that video, audio and moCap all has the same reference and can be kept in sync.

In order to use this at work, and because we use the Red9_AudioNode as a basis for all Maya audio functions, I've added in full BWav support to the Red9.AudioNode this is both at a simple inspect level (Wav Inspector - launched from the Red9_Sound menu in the Trax Editor seen below) and full support from the code side, so you can cast any sound node to a Red9_AudioNode and just run the .bwav_getHeader(). This builds up an internal dict with all the header data bound to it.

If the wav isn't a Bwav then you still get the main header data, it just omits the BroadcastWav block from the UI.

This has been an absolute pain in the arse to extract as I've had to get deep into binary chunks to fine where in the file stream the Bwav header data block exists!

Anyway, this will be in the next release, unless you want to give it a whirl in which case drop me a mail

cheers

Mark

Red9 v1.31 - new Sound Menu

Just a really quick one to show you something that's gone in in the latest build (which I'll push out over the weekend). I've added Sound support to the TraxMenu as below. Nothing too special just a lot of useful small functions when dealing with audio in Maya.

I've been in Trax a lot recently purely because I'm getting facial lipSync setups sorted at work so am always messing around with audio. I was getting really frustrated, not just because in Maya2013 you CAN'T DELETE bloody audio from there any more! Features on this:

• Delete selected - obvious one, delete selected audio nodes - gets over the bug in 2013 where tyou can't delete them unless you do it in the Outliner
• Activate Selected Audio - pushes the selected audio node onto the timeline and turns it to be the active one, frustrating there isn't something like this already!
• Set Timeline to Selected: works on multiple audio's, sets the timeline to the boundaries of the selected AUDIO nodes
• Mute/unMute - obvious
• Open Audio Path - open up the selected wav file source folder in explorer (linux/MacOS supported too)

Anyway, if anybody has any suggestions let me know, otherwise I'll ship this build as it is

cheers

Mark