I’ve been working on my smoke mine effects to make them look as real as possible, trying out different techniques and materials.     https://youtu.be/QAH1eNLptAc?si=cDS9o4Bb25mMpsQ9

Hi TN Pyro, welcome to the Finale 3D community! Here’s a post that addresses the MP3 issue: https://finale3d.com/groups/english/forum/topic/mp3-audio-issues-popping-clicking-static-when-importing-songs-into-finale-3d/

was wondering if there was a suitable way to create an effect with rising shells. i cannot figure out the command, and i cant cue them into a single chain. the shells are weird i have included their descriptions and links below. any help would be appreciated. 5” Union Display Shells with 2 rising effects per shell (2 of each) Four color peony, red & white rising flowers; Silver glittering willow with blue pistil, silver & blue rising; Multi-salute, salute & salute rising; Gold bowtie in red & silver double rings, gold & red rising; Side color ring, crackle reports rising; Coco & thousands of thunder lightning, silver & gold rising; Dancing dragons, silver & blue rising; Ring with bowtie with crackling pistil, gold & gold rising; Tri-ti salute, salute & salute rising; Wave to lemon with blue pistil, lemon & blue rising; Silver spider strobe, silvers rising; Red flowers with green leaves, red & green rising   6” Union Display Shells with Three Rising Effects per shell (1 of each) 3 Rising brocades to brocade rising; 3 salutes to 5 times Salute; Rising flower red, white, blue to red gamboge to blue to silver; Silver, gold, blue rising flowers to silver Dragon w/blue; 3 rising silver brocades to silver Thundering Dragon; 3 dragon eggs rising flowers to green willow flower time rain; White, blue, gold rising flowers to blue & golden w/reports; 3 Rising brocades thousands brocade crown w/blue tail; Red, white, blue rising flowers to Thousands Flashing Salute; Red, white, blue rising flowers to Silver Brocade

I am new to Finale 3D and have question.  I have the Lite version; when I upload my soundtrack, edited in Audacity, there is a little split-second ‘blip’ in the music when it goes from one track to the next.  It sounds like a little, split-second record scratch.  I am not able to edit this since I don’t have Hobbyist version.  Anybody else run into this too?  I tried searching the Help center but could not find what I was looking for.  Thanks!

There isn’t currently any online repository for sharing effects, but you’re not alone in wanting something like that. I hope we can eventually have a place where we can share our effects like that, but for now, one way to share effects is just to copy/paste the full VDL text. Alternatively, you can export your My Effects or Per-Show Effects list to send to others, but admittedly, neither of those options offers much in terms of organization or convenience.

Excellent, that was exactly what I was looking for. We may need to reach out closer to the 4th for some assistance.   Thanks, Derrick  

Yes, absolutely! Finale 3D has features made specifically for this purpose. In the Hobbyist or Pro versions, a show can have any number of firing systems of the same type or different types. Check out Multiple firing systems (i.e., Universes) in the same show.

Thank you, Neil.  Your example is very helpful.  Between your info and Finale’s manual, I think I’ll be able to make my own library, albeit mostly just placeholders.   Is there any repository of consumer effects where I can put these after I’m done?   Regarding which consumer effects you should target, there are very few large consumer distributors in the Northwest.  Victory Fireworks in WI has a NW warehouse in WA.   They sell primarily Brothers and Pyro King.   Download the ‘Victory Fireworks West’ stock list, and you’ll get a list of which Brothers and Pyro King fireworks to focus on.   Thanks again, Roger

Hello.  I’m wondering if anyone can tell me if its possible to use multiple firing systems in the same show.  What I need to do is run a line of fronts consisting of 12 firing positions with an address scheme that looks like 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D.  2A, 2B,2C, 2D, 3A,3B,3C,3D  each with cues 1-64.  then on the back field we will be using cobra to run the main guns with three 36M’s and 5 72M’s.   Right now we use the first system with around 20 firing modules but we are slowly building up the Cobra system.  We don’t have enough cues in the current system for what we want to do but we also can’t afford 1600 cues worth of Cobra mods right away either.   Please let me know if there’s a convenient way to multi address a single show.   Derrick  

Hi Roger. I’m glad you found the pro line effects you were looking for! Though as you’ve seen, the current selection of consumer-focused cakes is much smaller than the pro line and generic effects and doesn’t include most of what you’re looking for. We recognize the growing demand for consumer cake catalogs, and adding a larger selection of product sims (including consumer items) is something we’re actively working to accomplish.   Are there specific consumer cakes that are highest priority for you, that you’d really like to see included in the Finale 3D library? I can’t say when or if any specific items will be added to included supplier catalogs, but as someone with an interest in this area, I like to know which items people need the most.   There isn’t currently a way to directly import your WikiFireworks library into Finale 3D, but you can create your own custom effects in Finale 3D to represent the cakes you have. This will allow you to build your shows using the consumer cakes you have in your inventory, but it does take a little time to create each effect within Finale 3D. You can make new effect sims as simple or detailed as you want, but to give you an idea of what I mean, here’s an example of a very basic placeholder cake, created using Finale 3D’s “Visual Descriptive Language” (VDL), that can be made in just a few seconds in Finale 3D:   20mm 49 shot 60s placeholder cake   This example could be seen as the most basic form of a placeholder cake, designed after the ‘High Falutin’ cake from Brothers (using the tube size, shot count, and timing, but ignoring the actual firework effects to save time now). With more time, you could define the effects used in the cake, the tube arrangements, and even the firing patterns to more accurately represent the cakes you have in your inventory, but even these simple placeholders can allow you to build your shows using effects in the timeline that represent accurate shot counts and durations you’ve specified, with very little time investment.   To create a cake like that, open Finale 3D, log in, and then once you’re in the main window, click “Effect” in the top menu, then “Create Effect”. From there, you can type your firework effect or cake description into the “Visual Description (full VDL)” field, give the item a name in the “Name for effect” field, then click “Enter” to save your newly created effect to your “My Effects” list (which appears in the catalogs dropdown like any other effects catalog). From there, you can select the effect from your “My Effects” list and drop it into your show timeline, just like any other effect from the Finale 3D catalogs. See this great Help Center article for more details on creating simple placeholder cakes in Finale 3D.   Hopefully this helps! Neil