SMPTE is a frame based timing protocol. So it can tell the playhead where to be down to 1/25th of a second.
For audio playback, you would need a lot higher precision though (1/44.100th per second). You can imagine how stuttery audio would sound when synced directly to SMPTE.
It's possible to interpolate between the frames for audio playback, and we have a low priority ticket to implement support for this.
I am wondering about the other request. Would it be possible to add the ability to select a single channel (left or right) for the Audio FFT? This would allow SMPTE to be on one channel and Audio information to be on the other for FFT.
The current use case for SMPTE in Resolume is to allow exact syncing of a specific pre-rendered video to a specific audio track playing on another source.
What you're describing is a mixture of that use case with realtime influences. It's not unthinkable that this will be possible in the future, but it will most likely be implemented in a broader perspective (ie, SMPTE control of a timeline in Resolume that can contain multiple clips, effects and animated parameters).
For now, I'm afraid the use case you describe is too specific to warrant a lot of development time spent on it.
Thanks for your response. I understand your use case. Not to beat a dead horse, but I wanted to make sure that I am articulating my interest clearly as I am not sure I have done a very good job of this.
My interest would be in syncing clips to an external SMPTE source AND allowing me to modulate Resolume parameters based on an external audio source that is tied (externally) to the SMPTE.
For example, I would like to be able us your Audio FFT Analysis to modulate scale or blur on pre rendered animations or lip synced videos. These video clips would be frame synced to SMPTE and the Audio FFT would use the accompanying external Audio.
This is a "mixed use" in the sense that it would combine pre-rendered or otherwise synced video along with the live performance capabilities of resolume.
This use is not much different, though, than being able to modulate parameters based on the embedded audio of a clip within resolume. It would just allow many many many pre-rendered clips to become a part of wicked cool synced performance in which you could do live tweaking.
I recognize that this is likely a technical complex issue, but being able to mute an FFT input track or specify what track Audio FFT analysis listens to with a pan control would allow this to be done.
