Time Code Format
The MIDI time code is 32 bits long, of which 24 are used, while 8 bits are unused and always zero. Because the full-time code messages requires that the most significant bits of each byte are zero (valid MIDI data bytes), there are really only 28 available bits and 4 spare bits.
Like most audiovisual timecodes such as SMPTE time code, it encodes only time of day, repeating each 24 hours. Time is given in units of hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. There may be 24, 25, or 30 frames per second.
Each component is assigned one byte:
- Byte 0
0rrhhhhh: Rate (0–3) and hour (0–23).rr = 00: 24 frames/srr = 01: 25 frames/srr = 10: 29.97 frames/s (SMPTE drop-frame timecode)rr = 11: 30 frames/s
- Byte 1
00mmmmmm: Minute (0–59)- Byte 2
00ssssss: Second (0–59)- Byte 3
000fffff: Frame (0–29, or less at lower frame rates)
Read more about this topic: MIDI Timecode
Famous quotes containing the words time and/or code:
“Harvey: About this Voltaire.
Helene: What about him?
Harvey: How’d he ever get time to do all he did?
Helene: He lived to be old.
Harvey: Even so, how many letters did he write?
Helene: Oh, I don’t know exactly. Thousands.
Harvey: I can’t remember when I even wrote one.
Helene: You should try.
Harvey: It’s too late. I wouldn’t know where to send it.”
—Tom Waldman (d. 1985)
“Wise Draco comes, deep in the midnight roll
Of black artillery; he comes, though late;
In code corroborating Calvin’s creed
And cynic tyrannies of honest kings;
He comes, nor parlies; and the Town, redeemed,
Gives thanks devout; nor, being thankful, heeds
The grimy slur on the Republic’s faith implied,
Which holds that Man is naturally good,
And—more—is Nature’s Roman, never to be
scourged.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)