Is there a way in Finale to fade lights vs a simple on/off. I’m trying to do a gradual fade-to-black and not have the lights suddenly shut off. I searched the forum and someone asked the same question back in 2018. It wasn’t possible back then, but I’m hoping that functionality is available now. Thanks.

  Here’s an overview of the steps to produce a show using a COBRA firing system and SMPTE timecode.   courtesy: COBRA   Step 1: Design your show Import music into Finale 3D, design you show, and choose COBRA when addressing.   Step 2: Export your script Go to File > Export > Export firing system script file. In the Export Options dialog, select your COBRA firmware version and adjust other settings as needed. Be sure to set ‘Use Cobra Audiobox’ to ‘No’ and select ‘Timecode 1’ or ‘Timecode 2’ for the ‘SMPTE Timecode’ setting. If you choose Timecode 1, the 18R2 will continue to fire even if the timecode is lost or the quality is too poor. If you choose Timecode 2, the 18R2 will stop firing if the timecode is lost or the quality is too poor. If the timecode stops, fast forwards, or is rewound, the 18R2 will keep in sync with the timing. After exporting your script, follow standard procedures from COBRA to load the script into your 18R2 remote.   Step 3: Export your soundtrack with SMPTE timecode Go to File > Export > Export Soundtrack. In the export soundtrack dialog, set the left channel to ‘Music mono’ and the right channel to ‘SMPTE 30 fps’.     Step 4: Select an audio player Finale 3D exports your soundtrack as a WAV file with music on one channel and SMPTE timecode on the other. To play the soundtrack at your show, you can use any device that plays WAV files and has a headphone jack. The following steps are for playing the soundtrack using a computer.   Finale 3D is NOT needed during the firing of your show, and it is NOT recommended to use Finale 3D as your audio player.   Step 5: Connect the COBRA provided USB sound card and audio cable  Some computers have excellent internal sounds cards, others do not. To avoid having to worry about internal sound card issues, best practice is to use the USB sound card that comes with the COBRA SMPTE kit.   Connect the USB sound card to USB port on your computer and connect the 1/8″ (3.5mm) Stereo to RCA splitter cable to output jack on the USB sound card.   courtesy: COBRA   Step 6: Connect the audio cable to your 18R2 remote and sound system Connect the right (red) RCA to your 18R2 and the left (white) RCA to your sound system.   courtesy: COBRA   Step 7: Test timecode and music With your audio cable connected, your sound system on, and your COBRA 18R2 remote on in test mode, play the soundtrack. You are now sending timecode to the COBRA 18R2 remote and simultaneously sending music to your sound system. When the 18R2 receives SMPTE timecode, it will display a value of tc0 to tc9, where tc9 is the highest quality timecode and tc0 is the poorest quality timecode.   Step 8: Shoot your show To start your show, press the trigger button and trigger channel that you selected in the Export Options dialog when exporting your script in Finale 3D. Once you start the show on the 18R2, “PAU” will appear on the 7-segment display to indicate the 18R2 is paused and waiting for timecode. With your audio cable still properly connected to your computer, 18R2, and sound system, play the soundtrack to fire your show.

What are you playing the .wav file from? If your audio output is a 1/8″ stero plug, you’ll need an adapter that breaks it out into L/R cables, RCA would be the most common.   EX:https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Adapter-Splitter-Connects-Smartphone/dp/B09GW6JHY6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TMM85M5NDONZ&keywords=1%2F8+to+rca+stereo+cable&qid=1685645718&sprefix=1%2F8+to+rca%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 . You’ll need to send only the left channel to sound system and right to the SMPTE input on your 18R2. It sounds like your sending L and R to the sound system and muting R cleans up the audio

At the end of your video (https://finale3d.com/video/adding-smpte-time-code-to-your-soundtrack/)  you say “i have my soundtrack (.wav file has smpte code with the sound on left and smpte on the right) and i can export my firing script from Finale, when I shoot my show, I’ll play this file from anything that can play a wave file. I will feed the left channel to my speakers and my sound system and i will feed the right channel to my Cobra 18R2 remote that supports smpte and everything will synch up and work as expected” (please forgive errors in transcription). I followed along and produced a .wav file but it does not play without a horrible background sound (suspect smpte code).  If you send the file to play to a sound system, are you doing the 123 sound and show method? If you send the right channel to Cobra (what cobra product?) I tested and if you mute the right channel, the left plays perfectly well.  In short, I am not sure how we are getting to where you intend.  Please advise.

  DrewFinale wrote:   Have you checked out VDL Colors? Are any of the existing colors a good match?     Yes, I have found keeping that color ‘half’ wheel page open is super helpful. Turquoise is at least in the right family, it’s not all that close.

Thanks!

Hi DB, check out the “Multi-hit pins” section of Table 2 in our Cobra documentation. Here’s an excerpt:   The standard pyro addressing functions in Finale 3D assign pins sequentially, so it may be easiest to address multi-hit pins in Finale 3D by editing the script table by hand and then locking the edited rows so the show can be re-addressed for pyro without affecting them.   In other words, yes, you do need to assign pin numbers manually for your flame hits, but you only have to do it once. After addressing lines of script that are for flames, select the lines, then go to ‘Addressing > Lock addresses’. Once the addresses for your flames are locked, they will not be changed or used for anything else when you readdress your show.

Thanks Drew.   The video clarified my approach and partially answered another question. Based on the video, it appears there is no automated way to assign non-DMX flames to a single pin and it will have to be done manually. In the video example that’s easy. But in a real show it would be painful to assign everything manually, defeating one of the main benefits of the software. If I address my show with the non-DMX flames, each time I use a flame a different pin will be assigned (just like in the video). Then I would have to go back and manually re-assign the effect to the same pin and also re-assign all the effects after the non-DMX flame effects to different pins. For example, if I have a show with two flame machines that fire 10 times each, they would take up 20 pins in addition to my regular effects that also take up 20 pins (40 pins total). But I would go back and reassign the flame machines to 2 pins as well as the regular effects so I don’t have unused pins on a module since I now only need 22 pins vs 40. Is doing this manually the only way? Thanks!

Hi DB, check out this video: https://finale3d.com/video/designing-non-dmx-flames-for-cobra/

I got it to work. I don’t know if how I did it was the best way, but I created a new effect in Finale and called it G-Flame and added it to a pyro position. I then fired that position like a normal event vs a DMX event. I couldn’t use the built in Galaxis flame effects because they require a DMX position. Seems to work fine, but my timing is off (0.0 and 0.2 prefire didn’t help) so I’ll need to play around with that.