Time Calculation Links and Instructions

P Tagg home page
Philip Tagg, Faculté de musique, Université de Montréal

Some useful time calculators

How to do Music and Moving Image calculations using the routines listed in this table

Picture
Name
Description
Download
Cost
B-
Time Math Calculator (1) Simple + and –
online
0
A-
Time Math Calculator (2) + and edit up to 12 durations. Shows total, subtotals, averages, maximum and minimum durations, etc. Very useful
online
0
B
OnlineConversion.com (1) +, —; shows also hours in decimal values
online
0
B+
OnlineConversion.com (2) Convert multiples of 1 single time unit (incuding decimals) to any other (>=days - <=ms) (e.g. 125.1 mins = 7,506 seconds)
online
0
B+
TimeCalc.exe
Free to have on your computer,
thanks to Marcio Luis Teixeira
Simple +, —, x, ÷. No hours. Very neat and useful even if a bit restricted. Definitely worth downloading.
36k
0
A
Time Calculator Pro v2 2.20 + - x ÷. fractions, decimals, conversions to hhmmss, but no %; by far the most advanced but costs a little money!
1276k
$11.95
(US)

* A = excellent; B = good, C = OK, D = average, E = poor, F = complete failure

How to calculate Music and Moving Image durations


Length of each cue

Use any of the routines, except OnlineConversion (2), listed in the table above and subtract the cue’s start time from its end time. For example, using TimeCalc.exe, enter first the end timing of the cue ( e.g. 61:20 for 01:01:20), then hit the subtract button, then the cue’s start timing (e.g. 58:55) and make note of the answer (the cue lasts 2:25).

Hint: keep TimeCalc running while you call up other time calculation routines.


Add up durations of all cues

Use Time Math Calculator (2) to enter each duration (see previous step) as you go. When you’ve entered your durations correctly (you can edit all twelve before you go on to the next twelve or before you finish), you’ll need to note down the result so that, assuming your film contains more than 12 cues, you can add up all those sets of twelve to the final total of music durations in the whole movie.


Percentage of film containing music

Divide the total amount of music in the movie (see previous two steps) by the total duration of the whole film (easy to find by playing your DVD with its time display [OSD] on and running right to the and of the disc). Then you multiply the result of that division by 100. How do you do all that?

Let’s say your film’s total running time is 02:04:55 (124m 55s) and that you’ve calculated the total duration of all music cues as 0:55:01 (55m 01s). You'll first need to convert both timings into seconds.

[1] Using any normal calculator, multiply the number of minutes, as an integer, by 60. The 124 minutes of 02:04:55 = 7440 seconds. Add the remaining seconds, in this case 55, and you will know that the film is 7495 seconds long.

[2] Do exactly the same sort of calculatioin for the total length of all music cues. In our case, 55 minutes x 60 = 3300 seconds, plus one (the music cues totalled 55:01), i.e. the film contained 3301 seconds of music.

[3] Divide the number of seconds occupied by music (3301) by the number of seconds in the entire film (7495). The result is 0.4402935. Multiply that amount by 100 (0.4402935. x 100) and you will know that music is heard during 44% of the film.