Concert soundtracks may contain multiple songs back to back, with each song having its own SMPTE timecode range.  The SMPTE timecode of each song typically begins on a SMPTE hour, e.g., 01:00:00:00, or 02:00:00:00, etc., but in the concert soundtrack the songs are back to back or with a small gap in between them, i.e, not at hourly offsets within the soundtrack file, not even close. Take a look at the soundtrack shown in an audio editor in Figure 1.  This soundtrack file is about 30 minutes long, containing eight songs approximately back to back.  The audio of the songs is on the left (top) channel.  The timecode of the songs is on the right (bottom) channel.  Although you can’t tell by looking at the soundtrack file, the timecode sections begin with SMPTE 01:00:00:00, 02:00:00:00, etc.   Figure 1 – A 35 minute WAV file containing eight songs that have their own SMPTE time ranges.   When you import a soundtrack like this into Finale 3D with “Music > Add song or soundtrack…”, Finale 3D automatically reads and decodes data in the channels to evaluate if they contain any form of SMPTE or FSK timecode.  If so, the function presents a dialog telling you how many timecode sections the file contains or telling you the proper timecode alignment for entire file if it contains just a single timecode section.  The dialog is shown in Figure 2.     Figure 2 – When you add the soundtrack, Finale 3D offers to split it into its separate timecode sections.   If you click YES to align the song with its timecode, Finale 3D will split the soundtrack up into its separate timecode sections and add each section on the timeline properly aligned with its timecode.  The result of importing the file of Figure 1, with sections beginning on the SMPTE hours, is shown in Figure 3.  Each narrow vertical slice is a 3-4 minute song.  The duration of the timeline is about eight hours.     Figure 3 – A soundtrack with eight songs beginning on SMPTE hours 1-8 is eight hours long!   Navigation within long duration timelines requires zooming in and out to the individual songs you are working with.  To zoom into a song, just click its dotted line control bar above the song.   When the songs are not locked (confirm that “Music > Lock songs in place” is not checked), the dotted line acts as a button to zoom into the song.  Clicking the teal blue song at 03:00:00:00 results in Figure 4.     Figure 4 – Clicking the dotted line above the song zooms the timeline into to the song’s time range.   To zoom back out to the full duration of the show, click the yellow magnifying glass icon in the upper right of the timeline.  If no effects are selected when you click, the timeline will zoom out to the full duration, back to looking like Figure 3.  Thus, you can zoom out and in to any song with just two clicks. If a concert soundtrack has more than 24 songs, the SMPTE ranges can’t all start on the hours.  It is still common for them to be spaced out with gaps, though.  Figure 5 is an example concert soundtrack with a large number of songs with gaps that all fit withing four hours of SMPTE time.   Figure 5 – A concert soundtrack with more than 20 individual songs spaced out with gaps between their SMPTE ranges.   SMPTE frame rates When Finale 3D positions timecode sections on the timeline, it positions them based on the “wall clock” interpretation of the SMPTE HHMMSSFF frames at the start of the timecode sections, no matter what the internal frame rate of the SMPTE timecode sections are.  Even if the SMPTE frame rate of a timecode section is SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF, a timecode section with a start time of 20:00:00:00 will be positioned at exactly 20 hours on the timeline (not 19:58:48:00, which is the SMPTE 29.97 NDF frame that corresponds to 20 hours in wall clock time.). Since the songs are positioned at the wall clock interpretation of the SMPTE start times, the only effect time formats in Finale 3D that will match the placement of the songs are: “ms” and 24 fps and 25 fps and 30 fps (not 29.97 DF and not 29.97 NDF).  If the songs in your concert soundtrack use SMPTE 29.97 DF or 29.97 NDF timecode, you should probably just choose the “ms” effect time format in Finale 3D since the frame numbers in the other formats would not be accurate and might be misleading. For further explanation, see  SMPTE 29.97 NDF (non-drop frame) and SMPTE timecode frame rates and drop frame.   SMPTE song list report The menu item “File > Reports > Special reports > SMPTE Song List” produces the report of the imported songs in chronological order, including their SMPTE times and SMPTE formats.  If you are ever wondering what a soundtrack WAV or MP3 contains or if you want to confirm that it contains what you were told, just launch Finale 3D, do “Songs > Add song or soundtrack…” and click “yes” to split it up by timecode sections, and then do “Reports > Special reports > SMPTE Song List”.  You’ll get the summary like the one shown in Figure 6.   Figure 6 – “File > Reports > Special reports > SMPTE Song List” lists the imported songs and their SMPTE times.   In the example of Figure 6, the SMPTE Format column shows that not all the songs in the soundtrack have same SMPTE Format.  The first eight songs are 29.97 NDF; the next five are 29.97 DF.  The difference in the rate of time progression between NDF and DF SMPTE is material for long duration songs (0.6 seconds for every 10 minutes), so the information in this report can have bearing on how you configure your firing system. When you print this report for the first time, the names of the individual songs will be missing because that information isn’t in the imported soundtrack.   You can enter the names manually in the Name/Notes field of the songs window.

The “Print batch…” function creates PDFs for a set of report, diagram, chart, and labels blueprints associated with a batch tag.  The function presents a dialog as shown in Figure 1, in which you select the batch tag that identifies the blueprints to be printed.   Figure 1 – The “Print batch…” function prints all the blueprints associated with a batch tag.   A batch tag is any lowercase word.  A blueprint can be associated with multiple batch tags.  To set or edit a blueprint’s batch tags, edit the blueprint by choosing the “Edit report template…” or “Create or edit diagram template…” or “Create or edit labels template…” or “Create or edit chart template…” from the blue gear menu in the upper right of the Script window or other table windows.  Enter the tags in the “Batch Tags” field, as shown in Figure 2.     Figure 2 – Set the Batch Tags of a blueprint by way of “Edit report template…” from the blue gear menu.   The filenames for the PDFs created by “Print batch…” come from the Default Pathname field of the respective blueprints, or from the blueprints’ Title field if the Default Pathname field is blank.   The default pathname can specify the filename or directory name or both.  If any of the default pathnames are blank or are relative pathnames or filenames, then the “Print batch…” function will present a dialog asking you to select a directory after showing the dialog of Figure 1.  If all the default pathnames are full paths, then you won’t be asked to select a directory because it is not needed.   Subdirectories The default pathnames can include variables anywhere in their text that refer to the show being saved, such as the show name or location, which enables blueprints in batches to be reused for multiple shows without modifying the blueprints.  Please see Default pathnames for the list of variables and syntax examples. Since the default pathnames can include subdirectories, and since the variables can occur anywhere in the text as the name or part of the name of a subdirectory or filename, you can organize your printed documents for a show to be in a parent directory whose name is the show name; or you can just as easily organize your documents in separate directories for each type of document, for which the filenames within those directories are the name of the show.   Table 1 – Example organizations of files Specification Default Pathname In parent directory for each show {show_name}/Wiring Script.pdf In parent directory for each type of document Wiring scripts/{show_name} In time stamped directory for every batch printed {show_name}/{time_stamp_utc}/Wiring Script.pdf The {date_time_local} and {date_time_utc} variables (see Default pathnames) are timestamps, which you can use to put all your printed documents in a new folder every time you print them, with the folder name being the timestamp of that moment in time.  The print batch function will automatically create any missing directories in your directory structure.      

The “Default Pathname” field of blueprints is a gift to users who print a lot of documents.  When you print a report, diagram, chart, or labels and the system dialog appears for you to select a file, it can save time if the dialog appears with the right directory and the desired filename pre-filled in.  The Default Pathname field offers this convenience.  The Default Pathname field also facilitates the “Print batch…” function (see Print batch), as the way of specifying the pathnames of the files in the batch.   Figure 1 – The Default Pathname field can set the directory and/or filename.   The Default Pathname feature can be used to specify the filename, directory, or both when generating reports, labels, and diagrams.  Syntax examples are shown in Table 1. If you include a directory in your Default Pathname, such as C:\Shows\2025\, note that the directory structure must already exist beforehand (if you are printing an individual report). Otherwise, the save location will revert to the last used directory. In other words, if your desired save location is C:\Shows\2025\, you will need to create a directory named “Shows”, and a sub-directory named “2025”, before generating the report. By contrast, if you use the Print batch feature, you don’t need to create the directories beforehand — any missing directories will be created automatically.   Table 1 – Syntax examples Specification Syntax example Works For System Dialog Works For Print Batch Absolute directory and filename C:\Users\MYNAME\Documents\NYE2023.pdf YES YES Absolute directory (ends in backslash) C:\Users\MYNAME\Documents\My shows\ YES YES Relative directory and filename My shows\NYE2023.pdf YES Filename NYE2023.pdf YES YES   To support using the same blueprint for multiple shows, the Default Pathname text can include variables that refer to the show being printed, such as the show’s name, date, or filename or directory.  The full list of variables is shown in Table 2.     Table 2 – Variables Variable Meaning Comes From Works For Print Batch {show_name} The name of the show being printed “Show > Set show information…” YES {show_date} The date of the show being printed “Show > Set show information…” YES {show_location} The location of the show being printed “Show > Set show information…” YES {show_optional1} Optional field #1 of the show being printed “Show > Set show information…” YES {show_optional2} Optional field #2 of the show being printed “Show > Set show information…” YES {show_filename} The filename of the show being printed (just the filename) Saving the show file YES {show_directory} The full path of the directory in which the show being printed was most recently saved Saving the show file YES {date_time_utc} UTC timestamp (example: 2023-12-15T13.45.30Z) System clock YES {date_time_local} Local timestamp (example: 2023-12-15T13.45.30) System clock YES   You can insert the variables from Table 2 anywhere in the text of a Default Pathname.  For example, if you want the filename “MYSHOW-FIXTURES.pdf” where the word MYSHOW is the show name, you can use the Default Pathname, “{show_name}-FIXTURES.pdf”.  If you want the filename “FIXTURES.pdf” in a directory that goes by the name of the show, you can use the Default Pathname, “\\Mac\Home\Downloads\{show_name}\FIXTURES.pdf”, substituting in your directory structure.  If you want the filename, “FIXTURES.pdf” in the same directory as the show’s .fin file, you can use the Default Pathname, “{show_directory}\FIXTURES.pdf”.  Of course, many other variations are possible.   Figure 2 – Set the Default Pathname of a blueprint by way of “Edit report template…” from the blue gear menu.   The Default Pathname is a field of the blueprint that represents your report, label template or diagram.  When you print the report, labels, or diagram, the Default Pathname applies to the Windows system dialog that is used for selecting the save location and filename.  If you print a batch of reports, labels, and diagrams using “File > Print batch…”, the Default Pathnames of the blueprints in the batch are used for the respective files.  To add or edit a Default Pathname, edit the blueprint by choosing the “Edit report template…” or “Create or edit diagram template…” or “Create or edit labels template…” or “Create or edit chart template…” from the blue gear menu in the upper right of the Script window or other applicable windows.