How does el.time node work?

[satelllte]

So far I haven't found any examples on how to use the el.time node and how it works. So I hope I can get more information on it here 🙏🏻

Thanks!

[nick-thompson]

Yes of course! The time node (only available in the web-renderer and offline-renderer) outputs a signal that is very literally a monotonically increasing count of elapsed samples that the Elementary engine has processed. This allows you to coordinate various signals i.e. "time sync" or "host sync."

It's quite a simple utility; but you can derive useful data out of it. For example, if you know that the current time is T (based on el.time) then you can use your own BPM and time signature information (if you have it; or if it applies to your application) to calculate a ppqn or ppq signal like you might find in a DAW or in a MIDI file. That signal could tell you where you are within the current beat or bar of the song, from which you could derive a quarter-note-synced LFO that runs perfectly in time with a half-note-synced LFO, etc. Does that help?

[satelllte]

Yes, I guess I'm getting now how it works. Thanks!

So just to clarify, for example in a web enviroment, it increases by AudioContext.sampleRate value each second, is it correct?

[nick-thompson]

Yes exactly