The sound level calculations for sound level charts and sound meter elements in site layout diagrams are based on sound specifications of the individual effects, which come from real world measurements.  This article presents guidelines for taking measurements and recording them in the sound specifications of effects in Finale 3D's supplier catalogs or personal effect collections or the Per-Show Effects of individual shows. The sound specifications in Finale 3D provide a framework for recording the measurements as "decibels at distance".  Sound specification decibels are only meaningful in conjunction with the distance between the sound source and the measurement location.  An aerial salute from a distance of 100 meters is not as loud as a firecracker at your feet.   The firecracker at your feet won't cause permanent hearing damage.  A salute at your feet might leave you deaf.  Their respective sound specifications could be measured and represented as,   Table 1 – Decibels AND distance are required for sound specifications  Effect Decibels Distance Aerial Salute 115 dB 100.0 meters Firecracker 120 dB 2.0 meters It is not required for the sound specification distances to be the same for all effects.  The attenuation of sound intensity over distance is easily calculated, so Finale 3D can create sound level charts and diagrams based on whatever distances the effects' sound specifications use.   Representing firework sound levels as impulses The fireworks sounds that have the most impact on sound levels of fireworks shows are the concussive impulses from launches and breaks.  In order to make sound specifications practical for fireworks professionals to measure and record, Finale 3D adopts the model that effect sound characteristics are only the launch and break impulses, as measured from a recorded distance.  This model ignores continuous sounds such as from gerbs, whistles, and crackle, which are not insignificant but which are generally secondary to the launches and breaks. For a simple shell, the model boils down to three numbers: launch decibels, break decibels, and the distance of the measurement.  A comet or mine boils down to just two numbers, since they don't have breaks.  A cake requires the distance of measurement and then launch and/or break decibels for each shot of the cake.   Setting the sound specifications of effects in Finale 3D To set the sound specifications of an effect in Finale 3D, right-click on the row in the effect window and select "Set physical specifications...", which brings up the dialog shown in Figure 1.   Figure 1 – Three fields -- launch, break, and distance -- are all that is required for an effect.   The launch, break, and distance fields in the dialog are the complete sound specifications of the effect.  The launch and break fields can contain either a single number, indicating the decibels at distance of the effect, or a list of numbers representing the sound levels of all the shots of the cake.   Sound level meter settings The numbers are measurements that you take with a sound level meter and at known distance from the effect.  Since the effect specifications include the break height or provide enough information for a reasonable break height to be calculated, it suffices to use a single distance -- the distance on the ground -- for the entire sound specifications rather than entering separate distances for the breaks and launches (Finale 3D will make the adjustment for the break height). The break and launch sound level measurements themselves are the maximum sound level of the impulses.  Using a consumer or industrial sound level meter, the number you need to record is the sound pressure level (SPL), which may also be called the Lmax. Sound level meters have two or three choices for frequency weighting (A, C, Z).  In keeping with the requirements of most purposes for sound level charts, Finale 3D adopts the "A" frequency weighting as the convention, so please choose "A" on your sound level meter if you want your measurements to use the same standard as the defaults and supplier catalogs. Sound level meters have two or three choices for time weighting (Fast, Slow, or Impulse).  Finale 3D adopts the fast, or 125ms time weighting as the convention, so please choose "F" on your sound level meter for consistency with supplier catalogs. With the "A" and "F" setting choices, as summarized in Table 2, the sound levels recorded by the sound level meter may be indicated as LAFmax, or LAmax, or Lmax, or just SPL, all meaning the same thing.  Lpeak is a different measurement, which would not be consistent with the measurements of other supplier catalogs.   Table 2 – Sound level meter settings  Setting Options Selected option Frequency weighting "A" or "C" or "Z" "A" Time weighting "F" or "S" or "I" "F"   Procedure for taking measurements A procedure for taking sound measurements for a set of effects is: Create test show with one or two each effect in a sequence, one after another separated by a few seconds. Choose a measurement location, and measure the distance on the ground from the measurement location to the launch positions of the effects.  If all the effects are in approximately the same position, then there's only one distance to measure.  If effects are at different positions for different sizes, measure the distance to each position. Turn on the sound level meter at the measurement location and configure the sound level meter to log samples at a frequency of 1 Hz. Start sound level meter logging, and fire the show. After the show finishes, return to the office and match up the sound level measurements log with the show script.  Record the launch and break decibel levels of each effect and their respective launch position distance in the physical specifications dialog shown above (Figure 1).  See instructions below for cakes, which are a little more complicated to record than individual effects.   Guidance for choosing a sound level meter Most consumer and industrial sound level meters costing from USD $100 to USD $2000 will include options for "A" and "F" frequency and time weightings.  However not all sound level meters, even expensive ones, are logging sound level meters, which is an important feature if you want to take measurements of all your effects organized in a test show.  Make sure to choose a logging sound level meter. One feature you do not need is an "integrating" or "averaging" sound level meter.  Since the sound specifications of the effects are just impulses, you have no need for average sound levels. One inexpensive sound level meter that includes logging is the EnnoLogic Decibel Meter and Recorder eS528L, available from Amazon or https://ennologic.com/product/decibel-meter-and-recorder-es528l/   Setting the sound specifications for cakes The launch and break fields of the dialog of Figure 1 can hold single numbers for individual effects or lists of numbers for cakes with multiple shots.  For cakes, the syntax of the list of numbers is: [timeOffsetMs_0 decibels_0 timeOffsetMs_1 decibels_1 timeOffsetMs_2 decibels_2 ... ] The millisecond time offsets in the launch field are relative to the ignition of the cake.  Thus if a cake had 10 shots over a total firing duration of 4.5 seconds, the time offsets would be 0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500.  If the shots were all 100 decibels, the full specification in the launch field would be, [0 100.0 500 100.0 1000 100.0 1500 100.0 2000 100.0 2500 100.0 3000 100.0 3500 100.0 4000 100.0 4500 100.0] Unlike for cakes, the sound specifications for chains should represent only the first shell, and therefore generally do not require a list of sound impulses.  When chains are inserted into a show from an effects collection, the chains are expanded to multiple events in the script, which are then grouped together into a single row to give the appearance in the script that the chain is a single item.  Notwithstanding, the chain shells are each individual rows in the script, each with its own sound impulses for launch and break. For cakes with dozens or hundreds of shots, it would not be practical to match up a the log data from the sound level meter with the individual shots of the cake; it would just be too much work.  What you can do is identify the launch and break sound levels of the first shot of the cake, and then build out lists of time offsets paired with those numbers for the break and launch field, like the example above. Even building the list of time offsets, though, is a lot of work.   As a trick to save time, you can use Finale 3D's function "Effects > Sound levels > Set effect sound levels to defaults..." for individual selected rows in the effects window.  That function will generate the lists of time offsets for you based on the VDL of the cake.  You can then edit the list in the physical specifications dialog of Figure 1 to replace the default decibel levels with decibel levels you measured. For accurate sound level charts, all-at-once cakes require that you adjust the time offsets of the shots to make them not all-at-once, i.e., not at the same time.  The reason is, in the real world the shots are separated in time by the fraction of a second it its the fuse between them to burn, plus whatever random variation there is in the ignition time of the composition.  Thus in the real world the sounds aren't precisely at the same time, and they therefore to not combine intensities as simultaneous sounds would.  To match the real world, just make sure your time offsets are separated by a small amount of time, such as 10 milliseconds.

Based on your show design and with barely any incremental effort required on your part, Finale 3D provides pro-forma sound level charts showing the expected sound levels over the course of the show, and site layout diagrams showing the maximum sound levels expected to be reached at designated locations of interest, such as nearby residences or audience locations.  You can use these tools to manage sound levels in your designs and communicate options with your clients or authorities having jurisdiction: Design a show to fit within the sound level restrictions of the venue. Provide clients with options. Be able to manage sound levels for environmental impact. An example sound level chart is shown in Figure 1, along with a matching site layout diagram in Figure 2.  The sound level chart is generated for a designated measurement location of a residential barn near the shoot site, which you can see in the upper left of the site layout diagram.  The site layout diagram contains three sound meter elements, which show the maximum expected sound levels at the barn and two other locations.  You can see from this diagram that the maximum sound level at the barn is a little over 100 dB, which corresponds to the highest peak in the sound level chart.   Figure 1 – Example sound level chart   Adding sound meter elements to a site layout diagram is just like adding an audience icon: choose "Sound meters" from the "Draw mode" link in the upper left of the site layout view, and then click-and-drag the sound meters to your locations of interest.  The only difference between a sound meter element and an icon is that the sound meter elements include a dynamic label showing the maximum sound level in decibels at that location. The sound level calculations in the site layout diagram are based on sound specifications of the effects used in the show design, the same specifications that sound charts are based on.  These specifications do require some setup.  For instructions to make site layout diagrams, see Site layout diagrams basic instructions.  For instructions to set up the effect sound specifications, the paragraphs below include everything you need to know.   Figure 2 – Site layout diagram with sound level meter elements showing maximum sound levels at their locations   Sound specifications of effects Just as the visual simulation of the show is based on simulations of the individual effects, the sound level simulation of the show is based on sound level specifications of the individual effects.  The sound level specifications can come from three places: Specifications in supplier catalogs, from measurements conducted by the suppliers or manufacturers of the effects Default specifications from Finale 3D, based on measurements of effects of various types Specifications that you enter yourself, based on your own measurements The supplier catalog sound level specifications will be great when they become available, but at the time of this writing (early 2024) the Finale 3D sound level features have just been released in the software beta versions and no supplier catalogs with sound levels are available yet.  Look for upcoming announcements from suppliers, and for some suppliers offering "low decibel" effects that can be used in sound sensitive environments, analogous to "low debris" effects used in debris sensitive environments. Default specifications from Finale 3D are easy to generate and adequate for many purposes.  After designing your show, select the Per-Show Effects collection in the effects window and then choose the main menu item, "Effects > Sound levels > Set effect sound levels to defaults..." and choose "All" in the dialog that pops up.  That function will generate and apply default sound level specifications to all the effects used in the show, based on their VDL and Type and Size.  The sound specifications are based on whether the effects are hard breaking, soft breaking, salutes, comets, or mines.  Default cake sound specifications come from the VDL firing patterns and the effect components used in the cake. If you can acquire your own measurements, you can add them to your effect definitions in any of the effect collections: the Per-Show Effects, My Effects, or network inventories.  Right-click on an effect in the effects window and select the context menu item, "Set physical specifications..."  Enter the decibel level of the launch and/or break impulse and the distance (on the ground) at which the measurement was taken.  Comets and mines generally have only launch sounds; breaking shells have both launch and break sounds.   Sound specifications of cakes and chains Cake sound specifications are represented with a pair of numbers for each shot of the cake.  In the dialog from "Set physical specifications..." (see Figure 3), the launch and break fields can contain either a single number, indicating the decibels at distance of the effect, or a list of numbers representing the sound levels of all the shots of the cake.  The syntax of the list of numbers is: [timeOffsetMs_0 decibels_0 timeOffsetMs_1 decibels_1 timeOffsetMs_2 decibels_2 ... ] The millisecond time offsets in the launch field are relative to the ignition of the cake.  Thus if a cake had 10 shots over a total firing duration of 4.5 seconds, the time offsets would be 0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500.  If the shots were all 100 decibels, the full specification in the launch field would be, [0 100.0 500 100.0 1000 100.0 1500 100.0 2000 100.0 2500 100.0 3000 100.0 3500 100.0 4000 100.0 4500 100.0]   Figure 3 – Cakes have sound impulses for the shots, each represented as a time offset and decibel level.   The syntax for specifying multiple sound impulses can be employed for any effects.  A stutata shell, for example, could have multiple sound impulses in the break field to represent the subshell salutes.  The time offsets in the sound specifications in the launch field are relative to the launch of the effect or ignition of the cake; the time offsets in the break field are relative to the time of the initial break, which is the launch time plus the lift time. Unlike for cakes, the sound specifications for chains should represent only the first shell, and therefore generally do not require a list of sound impulses.  When chains are inserted into a show from an effects collection, the chains are expanded to multiple events in the script, which are then grouped together into a single row to give the appearance in the script that the chain is a single item.  Notwithstanding, the chain shells are each individual rows in the script, each with its own sound impulses for launch and break.   Creating a sound level chart The steps to create a sound level chart are, Add sound specifications for the effects in the show.  See the instructions above or just select the Per-Show Effects collection in the effects window and do, "Effects > Sound levels > Set effect sound levels to defaults..." Choose the location represented by sound level chart by right-clicking on the terrain in the design view and selecting the context menu item, "Coordinates for this point...." and then doing, "Show > Show settings > Set sound level chart measurement location..." Customize the information in the panels on the right side of the diagram by doing, "Show > Set side panel text... > For printed charts". Print the chart with the menu item, "File > Charts > Sound Level".   Customizing the sound level chart Like reports and diagrams, the charts are based on template blueprints.  You can choose the chart settings for a particular chart by editing the chart template.  From the blue gear menu in the upper right of the script window, choose "Create or edit chart template", which will pop up the dialog shown in Figure 4.   Figure 4 – The blueprint for sound level charts includes a few sound customizations in addition to generic chart customizations.   All printed documents have an option to specify the Default pathname for Print batch (along with the batch tags) or just to make the save dialog pop up with the convenient directory or filename.  The Position name filter provides the capability to create a chart based on sound levels of effects at a subset of the positions.  The chart tag is analogous to Diagram tags. The ambient sound level default value of 45 dB is the sound level of a quiet room.  As context, a sound level of 65 dB is the level of a normal conversation across the dinner table.  A sound level of 100 dB is the sound level of raucous applause from within the audience.  A sound level of 110 dB is the sound level of a rock concert from the front row.  Fireworks get even higher than that, sometimes 120 dB at viewing distance or higher yet for fireworks crew that are igniting shells by hand. The optional impulse falloff time applies a "time weighting" window to the impulses in the effect's sound level specifications.  The impulses from fireworks are of extremely short duration, measured in microseconds or single-digit milliseconds, yet physical and perceptual factors can make the impulses appear wider.  The impulse falloff time adjusts the simulation to make the impulses appear as wider spikes in the chart. The warning line is simply a horizontal dotted red line drawn across the chart at a decibel level you designate.  The line has no meaning other than the meaning you give to it.  Depending on your purpose for the sound level chart, you might for example use the warning line to indicate the threshold your show design strives to stay under.  You can change the label of the warning line in the legend to be any explanation you want. The sound level chart can display two curves, which by default are the instantaneous sound level, and the average continuous sound level equivalent over a 10 second averaging window.  The instantaneous sound level is called the sound pressure level or SPL or LAmax (fireworks measurements are usually presented with the "A" frequency weighting).  The average sound level is called the LAeq.  The chart can display one or both of these curves.   Where the information displayed in the chart comes from The information that goes into the curves and side panels of the sound level chart shown in Figure 1 comes from a variety of places.  Table 1 provides a reference.   Table 1 – Where the sound level chart information comes from Information source How the information is incorporated in the sound level charts "Show > Set show information..." main menu item Show name, location, company logo, and other information automatically included in the information panel "Show > Show settings > Set sound level chart measurement location..." main menu item Choose the XYZ location on the shoot site that the chart will represent (right-click on the ground in the design view and select "Coordinates of this point..." to see the XYZ coordinates of any point in the shoot site) "Set physical specifications..." context menu for effects in the Per-Show Effects collection in the effects window Decibel at distance sound specifications of the effects, which go into the calculation of the curves in the chart "Show > Set side panel text... > For printed charts" main menu item Text that goes into the information panel boxes, and formatting of the text Sound level chart blueprints (from blue gear menu in upper right of script window, "Create or edit chart template") Formatting template with various chart options      

If you are trying to determine the number of racks that fit on a rooftop or barge, you can draw and measure the available area in the rack layout view and then arrange your racks in that area to see if they fit.  That only works if the racks in the rack layout view have the same physical dimensions as they do in the real world.  While the default physical dimensions of racks in Finale 3D are usually close since they are based on the size and number of tubes, they likely aren't exactly right.  In some cases, like the cake racks shown in Figure 1, they may be way off.  The "Edit physical specifications..." context menu item for racks provides a solution.   Figure 1 – Slice cake racks and 2x2 cake racks that have the same footprint dimensions but fit very different size cakes.   The "Edit physical specifications..." dialog, shown in Figure 2, has fields for the footprint width and length of the rack in millimeters.  Both types of racks in Figure 1 have the same overall width and length, but the slice cake racks have a single row of 10 cake slots, whereas the 2x2 cake racks have two rows of two cake slots, resulting in the different appearance.   Figure 2 – Specify the physical dimensions of racks, and the distance between them when snapped together, in millimeters.   The "Gap between racks (mm)" field sets the spacing for snapping and for the default rack layout in the rack layout view.   Rack colors The "Rack color (6-digit hex number RRGGBB)" field sets the color of the rack, expressed as a hexadecimal number like FF0000 for full intensity red or FFFF00 for full intensity yellow.  Full intensity rack colors contrast poorly with the colors of the pin numbers in the circles.  For a better result, washed out colors that have all three color components in the range 90 to E0 tend to look better.  For example, you could try A0D0A0 for green, which has hexadecimal D0 for the green component and the lower hexadecimal number A0 for the red and blue components.  

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.   For the purpose of setting the directory and/or the filename of the system dialog for selecting a file, the Default Pathname field can specify the filename, or the directory, or both the filename and the directory.  Syntax examples are shown in Table 1.     Table 1 – Syntax examples Specification Syntax example Works For System Dialog Works For Print Batch Absolute directory and filename C:UsersMYNAMEDocumentsNYE2023.pdf YES YES Absolute directory (ends in backslash) C:UsersMYNAMEDocumentsMy shows YES YES Relative directory and filename My showsNYE2023.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, "\MacHomeDownloads{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 blueprints.  When you print the blueprint, the Default Pathname applies to the system dialog for selecting the filename of the saved file.  If you print a batch of blueprints using "File > Print batch...", the Default Pathnames of the blueprints in the batch are used for the respective files.  To set 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 table windows.  

Since firing system controllers need to receive a few frames of timecode to "lock on" to the timecode, it is common practice to export soundtracks with timecode that begins at least a few seconds before the show begins.  Thus, playing or broadcasting the soundtrack to the controller will give the controller a few seconds to lock on before the first events in the show.  10 seconds is a common amount of leading timecode, but some companies use one or two minutes, or in some circumstances even hours of leading timecode before the show. If you need to begin the timecode before the show and you are exporting a soundtrack with timecode from Finale 3D, the easiest solution that works for all firing systems is simply to begin the show at ten seconds or a minute or whatever leading timecode you need on the timeline; and slide the imported songs on the timeline to begin at that offset rather than beginning at zero.  That solves the problem but is slightly awkward because, psychologically, it is just nice to have the show begin at zero instead of at an offset. Several firing systems -- FireOne and StarFire -- offer a nice solution: negative timecode. The concept of negative timecode matches the workflow you probably would find most natural.  You script your show beginning at zero, and then when it comes time to export your soundtrack from Finale 3D or create a timecode soundtrack with the firing system's software, you just tack onto the front of the soundtrack a period of negative timecode on the timecode channel and silence on the music channel.  Voila!   Export soundtrack from Finale 3D The "File > Export > Export soundtrack..." function in Finale 3D gives you the option to choose what goes on each channel of the exported soundtrack file, choosing among all firing system versions of FSK timecode, and the SMPTE timecode options, and of course mono or stereo music, as shown in Figure 1.     Figure 1 – The export soundtrack function includes all FSK and SMPTE timecode options.   If the show's firing system is FireOne or StarFire, the "Negative timecode" field on the export soundtrack dialog becomes enabled.  You can type into this field however much leading timecode you want to tack onto the front of the file.  If you tack 10 seconds of timecode onto the front of a soundtrack that is 20 minutes long, the exported file will be 20 minutes and 10 seconds long, as shown in Figure 2.     Figure 2 – The length of the exported file is the soundtrack length plus the negative timecode length.   Importing soundtrack with negative timecode as a song Imagine what would happen if you create and export your soundtrack file with negative timecode using Finale 3D, and then subsequently import your soundtrack file into Finale 3D as a song.  What would it look like on the timeline? When you import a song, Finale 3D examines the file to determine if it contains timecode of any kind -- FSK or SMPTE.  If it does, Finale 3D shows a dialog offering to silence the timecode channel and align the song to its timecode, as shown in Figure 3.  FireOne FSK timecode is aligned 0.1 seconds early (see FSK alignment), which is why the dialog shows -9.9 seconds instead of -10 seconds.     Figure 3 – Importing a song with timecode includes the option to align it on the timeline automatically.   If the soundtrack contained 10 seconds of negative timecode, aligning the song such that its "timecode time = 0" aligns with the beginning of the timeline means importing the song to begin 10 seconds earlier than the start of the timeline.  Finale 3D does that, and automatically crops the beginning of the song so that it begins flush at the start of the timeline.    

The Pyrodigital, Pyromate, FireOne, and StarFire firing systems support, in addition to SMPTE, another form of timecode called "FSK", which is short for the encoding scheme used by the protocol.  Unlike SMPTE, FSK protocols are generally different for every firing system.  If you have a Pyrodigital firing system, you need to use Pyrodigital FSK; if you have a FireOne firing system, you need to use FireOne FSK. Finale 3D reads and writes all the firing system FSK protocols, as shown in Table 1.   Table 1 – FSK timecode formats supported by Finale 3D Timecode format Frame rate Finale 3D writes it Finale 3D reads it Pyrodigital FSK 10 fps YES YES Pyromate FSK 10 fps YES YES FireOne FSK 1 fps YES YES StarFire FSK 4 fps YES YES   To write FSK for your firing system, simply do the command "File > Export > Export soundtrack..." and select the version of timecode you want to export in one of the channels of your soundtrack, as shown in Figure 1.  The export function combines the music and the timecode in the exported WAV file.  No manual alignment is required. Figure 1 – Choose whatever version of SMPTE or FSK timecode you want to add to the exported WAV file.   Frame rates The firing system FSK protocols encode regularly spaced data packets in the WAV file.  The data packets contain what is essentially a frame count, counting in the frame rate of the FSK protocol.  FireOne FSK, for example, has exactly one data packet per second; its data packets thus count seconds: 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, etc.  Pyrodigital FSK has ten data packets per second, so frame 1 corresponds to 0.1s; frame 2 corresponds to 0.2s, and so on, with frame 10 corresponding to 1s. The frame rate of the FSK is unrelated to the frame rate of the firing system script.  For example, you might script a Pyrodigital show with event times expressed as 30 fps SMPTE frames, each frame representing 1/30th of a second.  If you shoot that show using Pyrodigital FSK timecode, the FSK will contain data packets at 10 fps, not 30 fps.  The FSK timecode drives an internal clock in the controller, which then processes the script events in whatever their frame rate is.   Notation Similar to SMPTE, the times represented by FSK data packets can be notated as HH:MM:SS:FF, except the frame count FF only goes from 0 to the frame rate of the FSK protocol, minus one.  In this notation, Pyrodigital and Pyromate frames go from 00 to 09; StarFire frames go from 00 to 03; FireOne frames are always 00.   Table 2 – FSK frames notation HH MM SS FF Hours 0-23 Minutes 0-59 Seconds 0-59 Frames 0-N (depends on frame rate)   Alignment of data packet in the frame FSK timecode data packets carried in a signal or stored in a WAV file are encoded as a string of audio samples representing a waveform.  The standard for SMPTE and the convention for FSK timecode is that the time represented by the data packet corresponds to the position of the last sample of the data packet in the signal or WAV file.  For example, the frame rate for StarFire FSK is 4 fps, so the first four frames represent 0.25s, 0.5s, 0.75s, and 1.0s.  According to the alignment convention, the last sample of the data packet for the first frame would be at 0.25s in the file.   Figure 2 – The end of the data packet aligns with the time represented by data packet -- approximately.     If you happen to know the details of the StarFire FSK protocol and are able to discern FSK frequencies from the waveform, then you can see in Figure 2 that the last sample of the data packet for the first frame is actually at 0.2497 in the file.  Thus it doesn't follow the alignment convention exactly.  The other firing system FSK protocols are also off by a little bit.    Each FSK protocol has a de facto convention for how the data packet is aligned in the frame that its time represents.  The conventions were established by the reference FSK files that the firing system manufacturers distributed and that fireworks display companies have used for years or decades.  Whatever the data packet alignment is in the reference FSK files, that's the de facto convention. Finale 3D exports FSK timecode in keeping with the de facto alignment conventions of the FSK reference files.  The data packet of frame number 1 for each of the FSK protocols is shown in Table 3.  Table 3 does not contain any information that you generally need to know to use FSK, except that if you use Finale 3D's "File > Tools > Analyze timecode in soundtrack file" function you will see in the summary dialog and the optional log the exact data packet end times in the file, and you may wonder why they don't seem to be exactly aligned with the represented times.   Figure 3 – The "File > Tools > Analyze timecode in soundtrack file..." shows the alignment of every FSK frame.   Figure 3 shows the timecode analysis of a Pyrodigital reference FSK file.  The first frame (00:00:04:05, representing 4.5 seconds) is frame number 45 since there are 10 frames per second in Pyrodigital FSK files and the first frame is frame #1.  In this reference file, the last sample of the frame's data packet reads at time 4.492 seconds in the file.  By the convention that data packets end at the time they represent, this data packet is thus 4.5 seconds - 4.492 seconds = 0.008 seconds early (8 ms), which is very close to exact.  In actuality, the last sample of the data packet is at 4.4925 seconds, and the dialog is rounding down to 4.492 seconds.  The Pyrodigital earliness shown in Table 3 (8 ms) is from the FSK file exported from Finale 3D.  As you can see in this example, the alignment of Finale 3D exported soundtracks matches the reference file within a fraction of a millisecond.   Table 3 – FSK first data packet alignment Timecode format Frame rate Time represented by first frame Position of last sample of first data packet in signal or WAV file Earliness Pyrodigital FSK 10 fps 0.10 seconds 0.093 seconds 7 ms Pyromate FSK 10 fps 0.10 seconds 0.093 seconds 7 ms FireOne FSK 1 fps 1.00 seconds 0.967 seconds 33 ms StarFire FSK 4 fps 0.25 seconds 0.249 seconds 1 ms   You may be wondering why in Figure 3 the first frame of the Pyrodigital reference FSK file is at 4.5 seconds in the file, instead of at the beginning of the file, ending at 0.1 seconds.  The answer: no good reason.  The provenance of the Pyrodigital reference FSK files that have been used for decades is a mystery lost in time, and no one seems to know why there is 4.5 seconds of empty time with no data packets at the beginning of the file.  The Pyrodigital controller derives no benefit from the empty time since it cannot lock onto an empty signal, so the 4.5 seconds is just wasted.   Figure 4 – Pyrodigital FSK files exported from Finale 3D begin with frame 1 at 0.093s, not frame #45 at 4.492s.   The Pyrodigital FSK files exported from Finale 3D start right at the beginning of the file as shown in Figure 4, with the first frame ending at 0.093 seconds.  Since controllers can lock onto the data packets as quickly as they arrive, you will find that Pyrodigital controllers lock onto FSK files exported from Finale 3D about 4.5 seconds quicker than they do with reference FSK files.  

It is not uncommon to want multiple versions of site layout diagrams or rack layout diagrams for different purposes, such as one version for the fire marshal or AHJ, and a different version for the setup crew.  The position name filters and diagram tag filters provide a way for you to hide positions or drawings like text annotations, shapes, and icons selectively in different diagram versions. To create a diagram template for a new version of a site layout or rack layout diagram, go to the blue gear menu in the upper right corner of the racks window, and select "Create or edit diagram template...".  The dialog, shown in Figure 1, presents a set of configuration options for your version of the diagram.  You can set the options as you like, and then save the diagram template (blueprint) under whatever name and title you choose.  After saving the diagram, you can print it from the "File > Diagrams" menu.   Figure 1 – Dialog for creating a new version of a site layout or rack layout diagram   Position name filter For site layouts, the "Position name filter" determines what positions are included in the diagram.  Since the site layout diagram is automatically centered and magnified to include all visible positions, the position name filter can be used to remove positions from the diagram, which will then be centered and magnified around the remaining positions. For rack layouts, each position containing racks will produce a separate page of the generated pdf.  The "Position name filter" removes pages of positions that don't match the filter. If the "Position name filter" is blank, then it doesn't filter out anything.  If it contains a non-empty string, the pdf will include only the positions that have that string as a substring in the position name (case-insensitive substring search).  For example, if the positions are named shells-01, shells-02, shells-03, ..., and front-01, front-02, front-03, then a filter value of just "s" will include all the shell positions and not the front positions.  The syntax of the position name filter allows multiple elements, separated by commas.  You could set the filter to "01, 02" to filter out the positions that contain neither "01" nor "02" in their names. If the positions are already in position groups in the 3D view (the little yellow flowers on the left edge of the screen), then you can refer to those position groups in the position name filter by adding an at sign in front of the group name.  For example, if you have a position group named "Front", then the position name filter value of "@front" would filter to just those positions.   Diagram tag filter Diagram tag filters apply to drawings like text boxes, lines, shapes, icons, etc., which you can draw in rack layouts or site layouts by clicking the "Draw mode" link in the upper left of the window.  The diagram tag filters are properties of the drawings themselves, as shown in Figure 2.  They refer to the diagram tags of the diagram templates, as shown in Figure 1.   Figure 2 – Diagram tag filters are properties of the drawings, referring to the diagram tags of the diagram templates.   Drawings with blank diagram tag filters are visible in all diagrams.  If their diagram tag filters are not blank, then they are only visible in diagrams having diagram tags that are non-blank substrings of the diagram tag filters.  For example, imagine you want two versions of site layout diagrams, one for the fire marshal and one for the setup crew.  The two diagrams are to have different titles, drawn as text boxes, and they are to have different subsets of drawings.  Let's imagine that the fire marshal version has icons of firetrucks in various places on the site layout, and the setup crew version has lines representing firing system cables, which are obviously not relevant information for the fire marshal. To create this example, you would create two site layout templates with different diagram tags specified in the dialog of Figure 1., such as "firemarshal" and "setupcrew".  The drawn firetruck icons would contain a diagram tag filter of "firemarshal".  The drawn firing system cables would contain a diagram tag filter of "setupcrew".  The remaining icons and text boxes and drawings and such that are expected to appear in both versions of the diagram have blank diagram tag filters.  The result is that each version contains the drawings that are intended for it.  

Fan row racks like the AVM SFX-20 racks, or the CraigCo MinCom racks, or the PyroDigiT PLS30E/45P+ racks can be configured in Finale 3D with pre-defined tube holder angles of your choice, or with adjustable tube holder angles that accommodate effects at any angle (see Fan row racks).  In the real world, though, many fan row racks have physical constraints that restrict the tube holders to angle ranges.   Figure 1 – Tube holders on the row ends may be able to lean more than tube holders in the middle of rows.   Often the angle ranges are different depending on whether the tube holders are on the ends of the rows or in the interiors, as shown in Figure 1.  To accommodate these physical constraints, Finale 3D supports angle range specifications in the rack definitions like "-90..50" to indicate a range from minus 90 degrees to positive 50 degrees.   Figure 2 – Tube holder angle and angle ranges are written as comma separated lists.   Tube angle range constraints are only supported for one rack structure, as chosen in the rack definition dialog: Single-shot rack, adjustable fan angles of tubes in each row; or more colloquially, "Fan row racks".   The tube holder angle range specifications go into the "Tube fan angles" fields for each row, as shown in Figure 2.     Figure 3 – The comma separated lists are held in the "Tube fan angle" fields for the rows.   Figure 3 shows a definition for the CraigCo MinCom X7 35 Shot Rack.  When defining racks in Finale 3D, it is imperative that the rows of the rack definition match the rows of the physical rack.  Looking carefully at the rack in Figure 1, you can see seven rotation rods with clamps.  The square tube holders rotate around the rotation rods.   In rack definitions, the "rows" are perpendicular to the rotation rods.  Thus this rack has five rows.  Just count the number of tube holders on a rod -- five! The language used in rack definitions, such as the pre-wired pin order "By rows, left to right", refers to rows vertically, aiming toward the audience.  In shows, most single-shot racks need to be rotated 90° counter-clockwise from this orientation to accommodate left/right angles, which is typically how you would see them in the rack layout view in Finale 3D.  To avoid making you read the rack's name and pin numbers as sideways text, the rack definition has the option of defining the "standard orientation" to be rotated 90° counter-clockwise.  Finale 3D also draws the clamps on the ends of the rods, so you can always tell which ways the tube holders can rotate.  Please see Rack “row” and standard orientation for more information. The specifications of Figure 1 indicate the tube holders on the ends of the rows can aim outward horizontally at 90 degrees.  The tube holders in the interiors of the rows are restricted to 50 or 53 degrees, depending on the end tube holders.  Angle ranges in Finale 3D can't have dependencies, so the conservative definition of allowable angles for these rows is: -90..50,-50..50,-50..50,-50..50,-50..90.   Syntax for angles in the "Tube fan angles" field The "Tube fan angles" field can be blank, meaning no restrictions on the angle, or it can contain a comma-separated list of specific angles or angle ranges.   Angle ranges are in the syntax "X..Y" as in the previous examples.  Specific angles are just numbers ("X"), and are equivalent to "X..X".  Since it is inconvenient to write -180..180 to mean no restriction for a particular tube holder, the syntax also supports leaving elements in the comma-separate list blank.  A blank element is equivalent to -180..180.  Thus "-180..180,-180..180,-180..180,-180..180,-180..180" has the same meaning as ",,,,"   Sorting by "Most Horizontal Tilt -- Single-Shot" Racks with angle ranges require some accommodations when addressing the show.  When the tube holders don't all have the same angle ranges, which is usually the case if you are using angle ranges, then the addressing algorithm that assigns tube holders to effects can make bad decisions about which effects to put in which tube holders. The decisions won't technically be wrong, because they will always satisfy the angle constraints you specify, but the decisions may not use the tube holders that have the best fitting angle ranges for the effects assigned to them.  A simple example is this: imagine a show that contains just ten effects, five aiming horizontally to the left and five aiming vertically straight up; the show will use one or more adjustable fan angle racks like that shown in Figure 1, with five fan rows.  If the addressing function first assigns the straight up effects to the tube holders on the left ends of the rows (the only tube holders capable of aiming fully to the left), then none of the other tube holders could accommodate the remaining five effects.  The addressing function would need add extra racks to accommodate the remaining effects, even though a single rack could accommodate the eight effects if they were placed in the right tube holders. The addressing sort criterion "Most Horizontal Tilt -- Single-Shot" offers a solution for misallocating tube holders at the ends of rack rows.  Sorting by "Most Horizontal Tilt -- Single-Shot" first, the addressing function will seek first to find tube holders for the effects with the most extreme angles, those fitting only in the end tube holders.  Returning to the example of ten effects with five aiming horizontally and five vertically, the horizontally aiming effects will be assigned first while the tube holders on the left ends of the rack rows are still available.  The remaining five effects fill easily into any tube holders.   Thus the ten effects require only a single rack. The "Most Horizontal Tilt -- Single-Shot" sorting criterion applies equivalently to left leaning and right leaning effects, causing the rack rows to fill from the ends toward the center if the end tube holders are configured with the extreme angle ranges.  For the common physical specifications of racks like the one shown in Figure 1, filling from the ends results in a balanced and efficient use of the tube holders.   A really good addressing dialog configuration for racks with angle range constraints If a launch position contains single-shot racks of different kinds, and if some of the racks can hold larger effects than others, then the addressing algorithm needs to consider both the angle and the size of the effect.  The sort criteria must prioritize both considerations: large effects that can only fit in the large tube holder racks, and effects tilted more than 50° that can only fit in the end tube holders.  The addressing dialog configuration of Figure 5 works in almost all circumstances.  The terms are explained in detail in Table 2 and Table 3 of Racks with pre-wired pins.   Figure 5 – Combining "Tilt > 50° -- Single-Shot" with  "Size >= 50MM -- Single-Shot" optimizes for both size and angle.   Combining "Tilt > 50° -- Single-Shot" with  "Size >= 50MM -- Single-Shot" optimizes for both size and angle.  The "Tilt > 50°" term prioritizes the effects that can only fit in the end tube holders, and the "Size >= 50MM" term ensures that of those prioritized effects, the large ones that need the end tube holders of the large tube holder racks are allocated first.  The "Most Horizontal Tilt -- Single-Shot" term is included in the addressing dialog configuration as a lower priority just to cause racks to fill with a balanced set of left and right leaning effects. Since the sort criterion intermingle left and right leaning effects, the addressing algorithm tends to allocate interior tube holders aiming toward each other on colliding paths.  The "Re-arrange effects in adjustable angle racks to avoid collisions" option at the bottom of Figure 5 fixes the colliding angles by re-arranging the tube holder assignments at the end of the addressing function after their initial assignments (see Re-arrange effects in adjustable angle racks to avoid collisions).  This function is guaranteed to resolve all collisions as long as the most extreme angle ranges in the rack definitions are at the ends of the rows.   Using "fake" pre-wired pins to achieve a nice ordering of pins in the rack  You may not care about the pin order within the rack, but if you do care, the addressing dialog configuration of Figure 5 doesn't achieve high marks by itself.  Since the effects are assigned to tube holders on the ends first, and then the tube holder assignments are rearranged, the end result is anything but a natural counting sequence of pin numbers along the rack rows.  If that is what you want, you can use the "Pre-wired pins" option for racks as described in Racks with pre-wired pins to achieve an excellent result.