LTCsync: a desktop utility for syncing media files

LTCsync is a post-production tool for dual-system sound and multi-camera workflows. Productions use Tentacle Sync, Lockit, and similar devices to embed timecode (LTC) in audio tracks of cameras and audio recorders. LTCsync extracts this timecode and exports files that NLEs can import directly, with your media all in sync.

LTCsync runs on MacOS, Windows and Linux.

Current status: LTCsync reads media files in many different formats and correctly identifies relative start times. File -> Generate Padding Files builds blank files you can use to position your sources on an NLE timeline. For example, if B.MOV starts 2.5 seconds after A.WAV, LTCsync generates B-LTCsyncPAD.MOV that is 2.5 seconds of black. Frame rate, audio sample rate, dimensions, etc. in B-LTCsyncPAD.MOV follow as closely as possible the format of B.MOV.

If you're looking for background on Linear Timecode (LTC), this Wikipedia article may be a useful starting point. The technical specification is available from the International Telecommunications Union.

System Requirements

macOS 10.10 or higher; Windows 7 or higher; any reasonably modern Linux. We provide pre-built binaries for 64-bit OSs. 32-bit x86 targets for Windows and Linux are available in the Makefile and we can provide binaries on demand. We'd be curious to hear about your setup if you need those.

Running the git version: After you clone the repository, run make in the working directory. This downloads and unpacks binary dependencies and checks their consistency. Unless you perform this step, you're likely to see errors like this, complaining about missing binaries:

Error: spawn /home/user/ltcsync/libSync/linux-x64-bin/ltcdump ENOENT