Apogee SESSION TOOLS User Manual

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THE STUDIO MANAGEMENT

SOFTWARE SOLUTION

Bob Clearmountain

and

R yan Freeland

FOR MACINTOSH & WINDOWS COMPUTERS

ST AND-ALONE AND IPX/SPX OR TCP/IP NETWORK OPERATION

SessionTools

THE STUDIO MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SOLUTION

Bob Clearmountain

and

Ryan Freeland

APOGEESESSIONTOOLSis a complete networkable, cross-platform database management system, speciﬁcally designed to aid in commercial recording studio management – from individual project facilities to extensive multi-room recording complexes.

Designed for use in his own studio by award-winning mixer/producer Bob Clearmountainand his assistant Ryan Freeland, Database, a Project Database, daily Session Work Orders, an automatically generated Invoice,a Tape Library Log, a Media Labeling Systemfor all common media, Track Sheetsfor common studio formats, and a set of stunning templates for many popular pieces of outboard gear, used for noting and recalling settings.

SessionTools

ware, but because of the unique nature of the recording studio business,

SessionTool

generating an invoice that summarizes

SessionTools

is not bookkeeping soft-

s addresses the problem of

consists of a Client

multiple session work orders from a given project.

Besides calculating session hours with five different possible rate categories plus overtime, of billable supplies, equipment rentals and shipping costs, plus the Invoice includes a list of titles worked on during each session.

Taxes are calculated according to local tax regulations deﬁned by the user. Once the daily work orders have been ﬁlled in correctly, a perfect invoice is created in seconds by merely entering a single project code number.

The J-card and labeling templates give your tapes, CDs and disks a professional look that will instill in your clients a high level of conﬁdence in your facility.

The Tape Library Log makes keeping track of master tapes simple and will give you the conﬁdence that nothing gets lost – at least at your place!

SessionTools

keeps track

Apogee SessionT ools is supplied on a hybrid Macintosh/Windows CD-ROM. SessionTools requires a 486 or better PC running Windows 3.x, 95, 98 or NT 4.0, or a Macintosh running System 7.1 or later. At least 8

MB of memory is recommended. IPX/SPX and TCP/IP networking are supported for server/client operation, enabling the same data ﬁles to be accessed from anywhere in the facility, with either a Windows or

Macintosh computer. For network use, you can purchase additional serial numbers for use with the same CD.

APOGEE ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

3145 Donald Douglas Loop South, Santa Monica, CA90405-3210, USA.

Tel: +1 310/915-1000. Fax:+1 310/391-6262. Email:info@apogeedigital.com. Web:www.apogeedigital.com

VERSION 2.0

USER GUIDE

For Macintosh, Windows 9x, NT

POGEE ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

3145 Donald Douglas Loop South

Santa Monica, CA 90405-3210

Tel: +1 310/915-1000 Fax: +1 310/391-6262

http://www.apogeedigital.com/

Database programming, layout design and user guide contents by

Bob Clearmountain with Ryan Freeland and David Boucher.

SessionTools Manual

Table Of Contents

Page

Credits .................................................................................................iv

Licensing Agreement ..........................................................................v

Other Licenses ..................................................................................viii

Introduction......................................................................................... 1

A word from Bob Clearmountain......................................................3

Installation

Macintosh................................................................................4

Windows .................................................................................6

SessionTools Rules ...............................................................................8

Modifying SessionTools ......................................................................9

Running SessionTools .......................................................................10

The Client File ....................................................................................10

Preferences ..........................................................................................12

Logo & Address ...................................................................12

Rates.......................................................................................12

Console Speciﬁcations.........................................................13

The Project File...................................................................................13

Project Order Worksheet.....................................................13

The Project Code..................................................................14

Rates, Taxes & Lockout Hours...........................................15

Project List.............................................................................16

Session Setup........................................................................16

Reel Number Generators....................................................18

Studio Supplies ..................................................................................18

Session Work Orders .........................................................................19

Work Order Numbers .........................................................20

Session Log ...........................................................................20

Supplies Log .........................................................................20

Studio Invoice.....................................................................................21

Alternate Invoice..................................................................23

Flat Rate Invoice...................................................................24

“Miscellaneous” Field ........................................................24

Work Order Request Box....................................................24

Terms & Notes Fields ..........................................................24

Invoicing Tips.....................................................................................25

Recall Sheets .......................................................................................26

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SessionTools Manual

Table of Contents

Upgrading Recall Drawings.............................................................27

The Label Log.....................................................................................28

Studio File Numbers ...........................................................29

Project Reel Numbers........................................................................30

Updating the Tape Log .......................................................31

Special Labels .......................................................................31

Using the MultiReel Label..................................................33

Cutting Out J-cards & Labels.............................................33

The Tape Log ......................................................................................34

Generating File Numbers in the Tape Log ......................34

Listing Logged Items...........................................................35

Track Sheets ........................................................................................37

Instrument Lists ...................................................................37

Stereo Track Boxes ...............................................................37

Gear Log..............................................................................................38

TIme Sheet...........................................................................................40

Quirks and Annoyances ...................................................................42

Different Printers .................................................................42

Font Handling under Macintosh and Windows.............42

New Additions in SessionTools v2.0...............................................43

Additional Information.....................................................................52

Upgrading from SessionTools 1.x —IMPORTANT .......................54

Credits

Layouts & manual .........Bob Clearmountain, Ryan Freeland & David Boucher

Installation graphics and icons .....................................................Julio Alvarez

Installer Programming.................................................................David Boucher

Manual design, editing & production..........................................Richard Elen

Beta Testing......................................................................................James P. Saez

Patience, and then more patience................................................Betty Bennett

License Agreement

PLEASE READ THIS LICENSE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SOFTWARE. BY USING THIS SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE TO BECOME BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT USE THIS SOFTWARE AND PROMPTLY RETURN IT TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU OBTAINED IT FOR A FULL REFUND.

The enclosed “SessionTools

™

” electronic studio management program (“Software”) is licensed, not sold, to you by Apogee Electronics for use only under the terms of this License, and Apogee Electronics reserves any rights not expressly granted to you. You own the media on which the Software is recorded or ﬁxed, but Apogee Electronics and its licensors retain ownership of the Software itself.

1. License. This License allows you to:

(a) Use one copy of the Software on each computer on a single local network at a time. To “use” the Software means that the Software is either loaded in the temporary memory (i.e., RAM) of a computer or installed on the permanent memory of a computer (i.e., hard disk, etc.).

(b) Make one copy of the Software in machine readable form solely for backup purposes. As an express condition of this License, you must reproduce on each copy any copyright notice or other proprietary notice that is on the original copy supplied by Apogee Electronics.

(c) Permanently transfer all your rights under this License to another party by providing to such party all copies of the Software licensed under this License together with a copy of this License and the accompanying written materials, provided that the other party reads and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this License.

2. Restrictions. The Software contains trade secrets in its human perceivable form and, to protect them, you may not REVERSE ENGINEER, DECOMPILE, DISASSEMBLE OR OTHERWISE REDUCE THE SOFTWARE TO ANY HUMAN PERCEIVABLE FORM. YOU MAY NOT MODIFY, ADAPT, TRANSLATE, RENT, LEASE, LOAN OR CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS BASED UPON THE SOFTWARE OR ANY PART THEREOF. If The Software is

SessionTools Manual

modiﬁed in any way,, for example by adding or changing layouts, Apogee and its dealers and distributors will no longer be responsible for its performance, and technical support will no longer be available.

3. Termination. This License is effective until terminated. This License will terminate immediately without notice from Apogee Electronics or judicial resolution if you fail to comply with any provision of this License. Upon such termination you must destroy the Software, all accompanying written materials and all copies thereof. Sections 6, 7 and 8 will survive any termination.

4. Passwords. The Software licensed to you may contain features which are protected by certain passwords. You are not authorized to enter, remove or change such passwords, and only Apogee Electronics is authorized to enter, remove or change such passwords.

5. Export Law Assurances. You agree that neither the Software nor any direct product thereof is being or will be shipped, transferred or re-exported, directly or indirectly, into any country prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act and the regulations thereunder or will be used for any purpose prohibited by the Act.

6. Limited Warranty. Apogee Electronics warrants for a period of ninety (90) days from your date of purchase that (i) the media on which the Software is recorded will be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use, and (ii) the Software as provided by Apogee Electronics will substantially conform to Apogee’s published speciﬁcations for the Software. Apogee Electronics’ entire liability and your sole and exclusive remedy for any breach of the foregoing limited warranty will be, at Apogee Electronics’ option, replacement of the media, refund of the purchase price or repair or replacement of the Software.

THIS LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE ONLY WARRANTY PROVIDED BY APOGEE ELECTRONICS AND ITS LICENSORS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE WITH REGARD TO THE SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

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SessionTools Manual

7. Limitation of Remedies and Damages. In no event will Apogee Electronics, its parent or subsidiaries or any of the licensors, directors, ofﬁcers, employees or afﬁliates of any of the foregoing be liable to you for any consequential, incidental, indirect or special damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business proﬁts, business interruption, loss of business information and the like), whether foreseeable or unforeseeable, arising out of the use of or inability to use the Software or accompanying written materials, regardless of the basis of the claim and even if Apogee Electronics or a Apogee Electronics representative has been advised of the possibility of such damage. Apogee Electronics’ liability to you for direct damages for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action, will be limited to the money paid for the Software that caused the damages.

THIS LIMITATION WILL NOT APPLY IN CASE OF PERSONAL INJURY ONLY WHERE AND TO THE EXTENT THAT APPLICABLE LAW REQUIRES SUCH LIABILITY. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

8. General. This License will be construed under the laws of the State of California, except for that body of law dealing with conﬂicts of law. If any provision of this License shall be held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be contrary to law, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining provisions of this License will remain in full force and effect. If the Software is supplied to the United States Government, the Software is classiﬁed as “restricted computer software” as deﬁned in clause 52.227-19 of the FAR. The United States Government’s rights to the Software are as provided in clause 52.227-19 of the FAR.

SessionTools Manual

Other Licenses

Mindvision Software

viii

SessionTools Manual

Introduction

Apogee SessionTools is a complete networkable, cross-platform database management system, based on Filemaker Corporation’s reliable FileMaker Pro Runtime Solutions system. It is speciﬁcally designed to aid in the management of small to large recording studios. SessionTools consists of a Client Database, a Project Database, daily Session Work Orders, an automatically generated Invoice, an Studio Supplies ﬁle that’s linked to the Work Order for automatic tape & disk inventory control, a Tape Library Log, a Studio Equipment Maintenance Log, a Tape & Disc Labeling System for all common formats, Track Sheets for common studio formats, and a set of stunning templates for many popular pieces of outboard gear, used for noting and recalling settings. Twelve or more outboard gear templates can be easily and selectively printed on a single piece of letter sized paper. We’ve even thrown in an Employee Time Sheet that acts like a networked punch clock.

SessionTools is not bookkeeping software, but because of the unique nature of the recording studio business, SessionTools addresses the problem of generating an invoice that summarizes multiple session work orders from a given project. Besides calculating session hours with ﬁve different possible rate categories plus overtime, SessionTools keeps track of billable supplies, equipment rentals and shipping costs, plus the Invoice includes a list of titles worked on during each session. Taxes are calculated according to local tax regulations deﬁned by the user. Once the daily work orders have been ﬁlled in correctly, a perfect invoice is created in seconds by merely entering a single project code number.

The J-card and labeling templates give your tapes, CDs and disks a professional look that will instill in your clients a high level of conﬁdence in your facility. The Tape Library Log makes keeping track of master tapes simple and will give you the conﬁdence that nothing gets lost – at least at your place!

Although SessionTools consists of databases developed within FileMaker Pro, they run as a stand-alone program utilizing the FileMaker Pro Runtime Solutions Distribution System. This means that you don’t need to have FileMaker Pro to run the software, but you must keep the SessionTools database ﬁles with the SessionTools application. FileMaker’s “Layout” mode, along with other functions for creating and altering layouts, don’t exist in SessionTools.

SessionTools Manual

We believe you’ll ﬁnd SessionTools can save you hours keeping track of your day-to-day studio operations, while preventing valuable income from “falling through the cracks” and giving all your paperwork a refreshingly professional look.

The version of SessionTools you are holding is Version 2.0. This has a number of additional features and modiﬁcations over the original Version 1.0. The new features are described in the section immediately after the Installation section so that you can go straight there if you already have the original version and you are going to update your system.

Note that there is a special procedure for updating SessionTools without losing all your existing data – see Page 54!

SessionTools Manual

A Word on Software Piracy from Bob Clearmountain

It is quite possible some people have obtained copies of SessionTools by means other than purchasing them from Apogee or their distributors. They may or may not realize that this is illegal. Now, I’m fully aware that this fact may mean little, if anything to many people. If you happen to be one of those unfortunate pinheads that feels stealing software is OK, I feel sorry for you. I think you should be aware that if everyone did it, very soon there would be no software to steal.

I’d also like to ask a question of those hackers out there that feel quite proud of themselves for cracking copy-protection codes so someone else’s software can be pirated or freely distributed on the Internet: How would you feel if you had used your talents productively (for a change) and spent months, or possibly years developing software that ended up being stolen from you so you got next to nothing for all your work – or are you simply not good enough to actually write software?

SessionTools was developed by myself and my second engineers, Ryan Freeland and David Boucher, in an attempt to organize and keep track of important data in my personal mixing studio, “Mix This!”. Over the last few years we have been enhancing the program and have been asked by some of our clients to make this custom software available. After giving it some thought, we decided it would be helpful to other small studios or project studios. (We would have bought the package if someone else had developed it.) Therefore, Ryan, and more recently David and I spent an incredible amount of our time expanding the program so that it would beneﬁt a wider range of applications.

If you feel you really need SessionTools and can’t afford to pay for it, please get in touch with me through Apogee. If you can convince me why you can’t part with three hundred or so dollars, while you’re running a recording studio and obviously billing for its services (otherwise you wouldn’t need SessionTools) I’ll send you a copy for free.

—Bob Clearmountain

SessionTools Manual

Installing SessionTools

If you’re going to use SessionTools over a network, before doing the installation you must ﬁrst determine what network protocol you want to use. All the necessary software for both Mac IPX and TCP/IP protocols will be installed into your computer no matter which option you choose, (including the single computer option) so you can change your mind later, but you must choose one or the other to get the program running now. They both work equally well, but if you’re using a Mac with a G3 processor, you should probably choose TCP/IP because of compatibility issues with IPX.

Although it is conceivable that you could use Appletalk, we don’t advise it because not only would it be quite difﬁcult to network to a Windows machine, the performance would be too slow for any productive efﬁciency using that selection.

Important note: For a networked setup, the Server, or Host installation must be done ﬁrst!

If you’re not using it over a network, you need not think about the above issues.

MACINTOSH:

Server or Non-Networked Installation

0. Insert the SessionTools Installation CD ROM into your Mac.

1. Click on the Installer.

2. When asked for the password, enter the serial number supplied by Apogee for SessionTools for Macintosh. This is printed on the inside cover of the manual.

3. After clicking through the obligatory logo and copyright screens, you’ll be faced with the installation options box.

4. Check “IPX Server”, “TCP/IP Server” or “Single Computer”. For an explanation of each option, click on the “I” icon to the right of each one. Note: Ignore the memory requirement numbers. This installation actually requires approximately 12,000 bytes of hard disk space.

5. Click “Install”.

6. Select the appropriate Date format for your region. North America should be “Month/Day/Year” while most other regions use “Day/Month/Year”.

SessionTools Manual

7. Select the appropriate currency symbol for your region. If your country

uses a currency other than Pounds (£) or Dollars ($), select “User Deﬁnable”.

8. Next, if you had checked one of the network options, you’ll be asked if

your facility currently uses FileMaker Pro over your network. Clicking “No” renames your old FileMaker prefs ﬁle (if any) “Filemaker Prefs.old” and replaces it with a new one with your new network preference. (If a Filemaker Prefs ﬁle from a previous Session Tools installation was found, you will be asked if you want to replace it. Click “Replace”.) Clicking “Yes” leaves your Filemaker Prefs intact, letting SessionTools use whatever network preference you had previously set for Filemaker Pro. Click “Continue”.

9. Next you’ll be asked where you would like an alias for Session Tools.

Clicking “Apple Menu” makes SessionTools easier to get at while other windows are open. Clicking “Desktop” puts an alias on your desktop.

That’s it! To run the program, double-click on the SessionTools alias. Use the buttons at the bottom of the Welcome screen to open the group of ﬁles you’ll need to use. If you’re going to do a Satellite installation on another computer, click on “Open All Files” ﬁrst.

Satellite Installation

Before doing this installation, you must have done the Server installation on another computer on your Ethernet network ﬁrst.

0. Insert the SessionTools Installation CD ROM into your Mac.

1. Click on the Installer.

2. When asked for the password, enter the serial number supplied by

Apogee for SessionTools for Macintosh. This is printed on the inside cover of the manual.

3. After clicking through the obligatory logo and copyright screens, you’ll

be faced with the installation options box.

4. Click on “IPX Satellite” or “TCP/IP Satellite”. Your network selection

must match the selection made on the Server (Mac or Windows) computer. For an explanation of each option, click on the “I” icon to the right of each one. Note: Ignore the memory requirement numbers. This installation actually requires approximately 3,000 bytes of hard disk space.

5. Click “Install”.

6. Next you’ll be asked if your facility currently uses FileMaker Pro over

your network. Clicking “No” renames your old FileMaker prefs ﬁle (if

SessionTools Manual

any) “Filemaker Prefs.old” and replaces it with a new one with your new network preference. (If a previous Filemaker Prefs ﬁle was found, you will be asked if you want to replace it. Click “Replace”.) Clicking “Yes” leaves your Filemaker Prefs intact, letting SessionTools use whatever network preference you had previously set for Filemaker Pro. Click “Continue”.

7. Next you’ll be asked where you would like an alias for SessionTools. Clicking “Apple Menu” makes SessionTools easier to get at while other windows are open. Clicking “Desktop” puts an alias on your desktop.

That’s it! To run the program, double-click on the SessionTools alias. Use the buttons at the bottom of the Welcome screen to open the group of ﬁles you’ll need to use.

Note: If, at a later date you need to change your network preference on a satellite computer or lose your “Filemaker Prefs” ﬁle and you can’t get SessionTools open because it can’t ﬁnd the ﬁle “Welcome.STT”, click on the ﬁle “Setpref.STT” in the SessionTools folder. This will open the Preferences menu selection and let you reset the network preference. Once done, quit SessionTools and click on the SessionTools Icon (or alias) to restart the program.

WINDOWS:

0. Insert the SessionTools Installation CD ROM into your PC.

1. From the Start Menu select “Run.”

2. In the dialog box that follows, select “Browse.”

3. You will be taken to a ﬁle system window wherein you should navigate to your CD- ROM drive. Select “Setup” and press “OK.”

4. You will now see the same dialog box from Step 3. Choose “Run.”

5. The next few screens will include a conﬁrmation that SessionTools’ installer is starting and a licensing agreement.

6. You will be prompted for Name and Company information, and for a registration number. Enter the number printed on the inside cover of the manual.

7. You will now be offered a default directory, “Program Files,” where SessionTools will be installed. You can change the destination for SessionTools if you like.

8. Select the appropriate Date format for your region. North America should be “Month/Day/Year” while most other regions use “Day/Month/Year”.

SessionTools Manual

9. Select the appropriate currency symbol for your region. If your country

uses a currency other than Pounds (£) or Dollars ($), select “User Deﬁnable”.

10. Next you will be given ﬁve options for installation. Select one which ﬁts

your networking needs. There are descriptions for each if you are not sure.

11. Session Tools’ installer will let you know that it has enough information

to ﬁnish the installation. Click “Finish.” If you picked the Single Computer Installation, skip to step 13.

12. If you have selected either the Server or Satellite installations, at some

point you will see the message: “The next screen will include a dialog box of preferences. Please select the appropriate networking protocol for your system.” Click “Continue.”

13. The dialog box appears and you can set your preferences for Session

Tools Networking. NOTE: You may receive an error message that “Setpref.STT” cannot be opened because it cannot be associated with an application. This is not fatal. Simply click “OK” and when the installation is ﬁnished, double-click on “Setpref.STT” in the “Session Tools 2.0” folder in the destination directory to set your networking preferences.

14. Session Tools will let you know that it is ﬁnished. Click “Close.

That’s it! To run the program, click on the Start Menu and from the Program Group “Session Tools 2.0” select “Session Tools 2.0.” There will appear a screen that includes buttons to open the group of ﬁles that you need.

NOTE: When networking, the ﬁles must be open on the Server Computer to be accessed from any of the Satellites.

SessionTools Rules

OK, we know what you’re thinking; “What’s gonna happen if I don’t follow the rules?Are the Apogee police gonna come by and put me in ‘Session Jail’ or something?” Well, if we could… no, not really! But you’re going to want to pay attention here because if you don’t, you’ll be very unhappy when this software just won’t do what you want it to do!

1. The “Print” Button

It is extremely important that you always use the Print button to print your layouts – especially the Studio Invoice, and for Labels and J-cards. Never use Command-P (Mac), Ctrl-P (Windows) or print from the File menu.

The Invoice Print button performs a series of commands that deletes the Project Code in the Project File, and keeps track of which Invoice format was used. If you don’t use it, you run the risk of double-billing work orders, because a new Project Code must be created for a continuing project after an Invoice has been generated.

The Labels Print button ﬁlls in the “Format” box that helps you keep track of what format J-card or label was used to print each record. This information is also carried over to the Tape Log.

2. Navigation Buttons

It’s almost always a good idea to use the navigation buttons because some of them automatically take you to the record that relates to the record you’re coming from, and the proper layout. For example, the “Work Order” button on the P. O. Worksheet layout takes you to the Work Orders and also does a search for that particular project. In some cases no navigation button exists, so once the ﬁle you need is open, select it from the “Window” menu. In the Label Log, some layouts can only be accessed via the Layout Menu Button on the upper left corner of the FileMaker screen.

SessionTools Manual

3. Server Files

As stated in the Installation section, the master ﬁles, “Client”, “Invoice”, “Label” etc. must only exist on one computer on your entire network. In other words, you must only do the “Server” installation once on one computer on your network. All other installations must be done using the “Terminal” installation. If you don’t do it this way, your ﬁles and SessionTools will be hopelessly confused.

4. Don’t Ever Delete...

...record number 1 from the Tape Log ﬁle. It contains the File Number Generator. ...record number 1 from the Gear Log ﬁle. It contains the Trouble Alert indicator image. If you do accidentally delete it and the Trouble Alert indicator won’t work, open the ﬁle from FileMaker Pro (see below), get into Layout mode, switch to the Trouble layout, copy the red Trouble Alert image, switch to Browse mode, go to record no. 1 (or create a new one if there are no records) and paste the image into the Trouble On ﬁeld. Do the same for the Trouble Off image. …record number 1 from the “Prefs” ﬁle (other “sample” records can be deleted).

5. No Whining

Once again, we won’t send the Apogee Police – for this we get Kenneth Starr to open an investigation: his most signiﬁcant one to date.

Modifying SessionTools

A few SessionTools users have asked if there was a way to modify the layouts to suit their individual needs. Until now, they were out of luck. Although Apogee doesn’t recommend this, and will not repair or support a copy of SessionTools that has been modiﬁed, this version is completely modiﬁable. Here’s how:

1 If you don’t already own it, buy a copy of FileMaker Pro (version 3.x or

later) from your favorite authorized software dealer.

2 Study the “Layout” section of the FileMaker manual carefully. If you don’t

have the manual, throw out your pirated copy of FileMaker Pro and go back to Step 1.

3 Quit the SessionTools application, if it is open. 4 Start the FileMaker Pro application.

SessionTools Manual

5 Open the SessionTools ﬁle you wish to modify from the FileMaker start-

up dialog box, or with the “Open” command in the ﬁle menu if FileMaker is already running. You won’t be able to open the individual SessionTools ﬁles in FileMaker by clicking on their icons.

You can now enter Layout mode and modify to your heart’s content at your own risk! And now a few words of advice:

Make a backup copy of the ﬁle you’re modifying ﬁrst, in case you accidentally mess things up beyond repair. Remember that there’s no “Save” command in FileMaker changes to the layout overwrite the ﬁle as you make them - there’s no going back!

REALLY IMPORTANT!: Don’t even think about modifying the scripts or ﬁeld deﬁnitions! Most of them are extremely complex so if they’re changed, SessionTools will most certainly fail. Apogee can not, and will not, be responsible for any modiﬁed copy of SessionTools – particularly one that has modiﬁed scripts or ﬁeld deﬁnitions!

Running SessionTools

To start SessionTools on the server, double-click on the SessionTools application icon. The Welcome screen will appear.

To open the other SessionTools ﬁles, select an appropriate group of ﬁles with the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Once you have the Client ﬁle open, you may select other groups of ﬁles from the Clinet File’s “Scripts” menu.

Client File

The Client File is simply a database that contains basic client/contact information and is fairly self explanatory. It also includes fax cover sheet and letterhead layouts, accessible with the buttons at the top of the screen. Additionally there are print layouts for printing envelopes, client lists or mailing labels. Always use the buttons to switch to and from the Envelope layout (available from the Letterhead layout) because it adjusts the Page Setup for edge-fed envelopes. The Project File (see below) uses the Client ﬁeld as a match ﬁeld for ﬁnding client information. During such a search, SessionTools stops at the ﬁrst occurrence of a name, so you will not be permitted to enter a name that is not unique. For a company that has ofﬁces in

SessionTools Manual

different cities, enter this information as part of the client name, like “Columbia, NY” or “Warner Bros, LA”.

The Sort Code ﬁeld is simply a convenience for any speciﬁc type of sort you may need to do. For example, you might go through the ﬁle and put an “X” in the Sort Code ﬁeld on each record with a client that you wish to send a Christmas card to. A subsequent search in that ﬁeld for “X” will bring up all such records.

The Client File has buttons that will take you to its Fax and Letterhead layouts. For convenience, the From ﬁeld in the Fax layout displays a pop-up list of every name that has been entered in all the other records in the ﬁle, with duplications eliminated.

Navigation

The Client File can also act as a master menu page for SessionTools, because it’s the only one that has navigation buttons to all the ﬁles, except Drawings that can be gotten to via the Recall ﬁle. Keep in mind that once all the ﬁles are open, they will all show up in the “Window” menu, although navigating that

SessionTools Manual

way precludes automatic search/ﬁnd functions attached to some of those buttons. As mentioned above, the Client ﬁle also contains scripts that open speciﬁc groups of ﬁles.

Preferences (Prefs)

Logo

The Apogee SessionTools Logo and address are not part of the layouts. They have actually been pasted into ﬁelds that appear at the top of each layout. This means that you can easily replace it with your facility’s logo and/or address. Simply open the Prefs ﬁle, click on the “Logo”

button and paste your logo (that’s been saved as a PICT ﬁle,) address and phone numbers and your return address (for envelopes) into the boxes— they will appear at the top of all the ﬁle layouts, including the fax, letterhead and the return address on the envelope in the Client and Project Files.

Rates

If your studio has standard rates, open the Preferences file and enter them here. The Project File pulls the rate information from this ﬁle using the Lockout Rate as a match ﬁeld. You can have as many different default rate schedules as you want, each based on a different Lockout Rate. For example, you may have a C. O. D. lockout rate of $700 per day, with hourly recording, mixing and editing rates of $90, dubbing & transfer rates of $40 and minimum & maximum lockout

hours of 8 and 12 hours respectively. Then, in another record you may have your normal major record company lockout rate of $1500 with a recording, etc. rate of $190, a dubbing rate of $80 and lockout hours of 10 & 14. If, in the P. O. Worksheet (Project File) you enter $700 in the Lockout Rate ﬁeld, the ﬁrst set of hourly rates and lockout hours will be ﬁlled in. If $1,500 is entered, the second set will come up. You can modify any of these rates in the P. O. Worksheet at any time.

Console Speciﬁcations

If you enter your particular console type, channel number, EQ version, computer type and software version in this layout, this information will appear on the ﬂoppy disk labels. Use a different record for each room, putting the name of the studio (A, B, Z, or whatever) in the “Studio” ﬁeld.

Project File (Project)

Project Order Worksheet

When a client calls to book a session, you would ﬁrst go to the Project Order Worksheet layout in the Project File and enter the project name in the Project ﬁeld. When you enter the client name in the Client ﬁeld, SessionTools searches the Client File for an exact match and copies over the address, phone, fax, contact etc. information of the record company, or whomever is being billed for the session. Now you can enter basic details about the session, like the Producer, Engineer, 2nd Engineer, billing contacts, start date & time, billing rates, etc. The date must be entered as “dd/mm/yy” or as “mm/dd/yy” in North America.

The Project File is what the Work Order and Invoice ﬁles look for to retrieve project & client information, so enter it accurately, and uniquely.

As you click on some ﬁelds you’ll ﬁnd pop-up lists that contain names from other records. In this example, there’s a list of names of all the producers that have been entered in this ﬁeld in all the other records, excluding redundancies.

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The Project Code

The Project Code ﬁeld is used by the Studio Invoice ﬁle to ﬁnd the range of work orders from the project to be invoiced. You can make up your own project code, but we’ve found that using the initials, or the ﬁrst two letters of the Project name and the date of the ﬁrst session to be invoiced works quite well. Example: for a Rolling Stones project that starts on April 1st, 1999, the project

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code might be RS990401. Note: SessionTools will do this automatically for you if you click on the words “Project Code”, providing you’ve entered the Project Name, and the date of the ﬁrst session in the Start Date ﬁeld. When you enter this code number into a new record in the Invoice ﬁle, a perfect invoice is generated from the Work Order and Project information almost instantly, but more on that later. When the project gets invoiced, the Project Code is automatically deleted from the

Project File when the “Print” button is clicked. This avoids unintentionally

invoicing the same work orders twice. So for a project that continues after an invoice has been sent, be sure to enter a new Start Date and Project Code, which would correspond to the next billable session date.

Rates, Tax & Lockout Hours

Studio time charges are calculated by the Invoice File using the rate information entered in the P. O. Worksheet. The Daily Lockout Rate applies to sessions as long or longer than what you enter into the Minimum Lockout Hours field. The Recording, Mixing, Copy, Edit, and Transfer Rates apply only to sessions shorter than what is entered in the Minimum Lockout Hours ﬁeld. Overtime Rate applies to hours in excess of the Maximum Lockout Hours for one session

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and is added to the Daily Lockout Rate for a session. Also, the Tax Rate ﬁeld is used to calculate tax, so enter the tax rate for your state or country as a decimal number here. Example: a tax rate of 8.25% would be entered as “.0825”. Entries in the Paid Up Front and Discount ﬁelds are subtracted from the Invoice total, so be sure to delete these amounts when the invoice is created and sent. The Overall Budget ﬁeld is used by the Flat Rate Invoice layout, so it’s not important unless you’re billing according to a ﬂat rate, and even then, you can always enter it, or any of the rates directly into the Invoice layouts.

If you had selected “User Deﬁned” currency while installing SessionTools, you must enter the correct currency symbol or abbreviation for your region in the ﬁeld at the bottom of this window. Once done, it will appear with all the currency totals in the work orders and invoices, and with all the currency ﬁelds in Supplies, Project and Prefs.

Project List

If you would like to view all the projects in the Project File, click the “List Project” button. You will be presented with a list of all the projects, one on each line. This page is especially handy for seeing what projects have yet to be invoiced - they’d be the ones that still have project codes in their Project Code ﬁelds. To list only the uninvoiced projects, click the “Find Outstanding” button. To return to the Project Order Worksheet page for a particular project, click on the “Worksheet” button to the left of the project of choice.

Session Setup

The Session Setup layout in the Project File (see opposite) is for the Second Engineer and the techs to refer to when they are setting up the session. It carries over some basic information from the P. O. Worksheet, like the contact and phone number in case there are any questions about what’s going on; the Producer, Engineer; Second Engineer and who will be attending the session. It has ﬁelds for the current date and the session start time. There’s a section for Multitrack and Mix tape specs. that feature ﬁelds with editable pop-up lists that contain common specs. for convenience.

If you need to change or add to a list, scroll to the bottom of the list and click on the word “Edit…”.

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Edit the list in the dialog box that appears, adding a carriage return after each entry. Other ﬁelds include expected Producer’s and Engineer’s equipment and the cartage companies expected to deliver it, and rental gear and company. There’s also a ﬁeld (common to the P. O. Worksheet) for special requests like… I don’t know, ﬂowers… soda… dancing gorillas, or whatever.

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Reel Number Generators

Reel numbers that can be included on the tape and disk labels and J-cards (see “Labels”) are generated in the Reel# Generator layout in the Project File. There is a different set of reel numbers for each project, that start at “0” when a new project record is created. (The ﬁrst log number will be “1”) If a project comes back for, say, their second album, you can use the same project record and easily reset the generators in the layout by clicking on the red “Reset #s” button. You can also click on each ﬁeld and reset them to the last reel number used, if you want to continue a series of reel numbers already in use.

Studio Supplies (Supplies)

Before using the Session Work Orders ﬁle, you’ll want to open the Studio Supplies ﬁle and enter prices for tape & disks, etc. The Work Order uses these prices to calculate tape and disk costs. The ﬁle consists of one record for each media format in your stock, presented as a list of records. Each record consists of Quantity (Qty.), Item, and Price ﬁelds. There is also a line that indicates how many items were last added to your stock and the date they were added. We’ve already created a number of common media format records for you to get you started. You can add or delete records in this ﬁle at any time.

When you ﬁrst use this layout, the Quantity and Price ﬁelds are set to “0”. Enter what you are currently charging for each item in the Price ﬁeld. You should go through your media supplies stock and enter the current number of each item in your stock by clicking on the

“Add Stock” button in each item’s record. You will see a dialog box: simply type in the number of items and press the Continue button on the left of the screen. You’ll notice each record to which you’ve added stock indicates how many pieces are now in stock (Qty.), the current date and how many pieces you’ve added, which at this point should be the same as the Quantity. Adding additional stock is done exactly the same way, except the dialog box displays how many pieces were added the last time, so if you’re adding the same amount this time, just click Continue. If different, type the

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new amount. When media items are indicated as being used in the Work Order ﬁle, they are automatically subtracted from the supplies ﬁle.

If you use a media item not listed here, you can either change an existing record that you’re not using, or click the “New” button to create a new record for the item - it will be added to the end of the list.

Note: If, for some reason only one record is showing, select “View as List” from the “Select” menu, and respond to the dialog box by clicking “Yes”.

Session Work Orders (Wrkordrs)

During each session, the second engineer opens the Session Work Orders file, clicks the New Record Button and enters the Project Name in the Project field. You can select from a pop-up list of all the projects in the Project File. If you’re in the middle of a project, and you know that the previous work order is from the same project, you can click on the word “Project” to the left of the project ﬁeld and the project name from the previous work order will be copied in. Then either press the Enter (Mac) or Tab keys (not the return key) or click anywhere there’s no ﬁeld. If an exact match is found in the Project File, all pertinent info and the Project Code is copied in. The proper (current) Date and Work Order number are automatically entered. If no Project Code comes up and it’s the ﬁrst session, it can be entered here by clicking on the “Project Code” label. This will also update the Project File’s Project Code and Start Date (the current date) to match.

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Work Order Numbers

The ﬁrst time the Work Order ﬁle is used, “1” is automatically entered in the Work Order No. ﬁeld. If you already have a series of work order numbers in use, click the Reset # button and select “Reset Work Order No.”, Select “Replace with serial numbers” and enter your current work order number in the “initial value” box.

Session Log

Next, the second engineer selects the Session Type (from the pop-up list) and enters the actual Start Time of the session on the right side of the Session Log.

The column of times on the far left are all derived from the start and stop times on the right, so they needn’t ever be touched (and can’t be altered.) We advise rounding time segments to the nearest 1⁄4 hour. When the ﬁrst title is entered in the Title/Description ﬁeld, it is also transferred to the Titles window above, which is where the Invoice gets the song title information from. If other titles are worked on, they must be manually added in the Titles window. Titles in the Title window must be entered one after another, preferably separated by commas with no carriage returns. This is because they must all ﬁt on a single line in the Session Invoice. As the session progresses, the Session Type, song Title/Description and Start & Stop times for each different service/title are entered by the second engineer.

Note: When you’re ﬁnished ﬁlling in the Work Order, be sure the Titles ﬁeld (at the top of the Work Order) contains all the titles worked on during the session, or any notes that should show up on the Invoice, like “recall” or “copies”. IMPORTANT: There must be no carriage returns in the Titles ﬁeld.

Supplies Log

In the Supplies ﬁeld you’ll ﬁnd a pop up list containing most common studio supplies. When a supply is chosen, the Supplies ﬁle is opened and the price of the item is automatically copied over to the Item ﬁeld. If you ﬁnd there’s anything missing, open the Supplies ﬁle and add it as a new record with the price you wish to charge. The pop-up list in the Work Order will be automatically updated.

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The Destination ﬁeld also has a pop-up list where you can add common destinations, like producers you often work with or mastering rooms. This is not a critical ﬁeld, but it’s a good idea to ﬁll it in so you have a record of who-gotwhat.

You’ll notice you can’t actually click into the Qty, (or Quantity) ﬁeld. Clicking the green “+” button next to the ﬁeld increases the item count by one, and subtracts one from the Supplies ﬁle. If you change your mind (or the producer decides the label needn’t get a rough mix yet) click the red “-” button, and the count will decrease by one. The Quantity ﬁeld multiplies the Cost of the item by how many you used, and enters the result in the Total ﬁeld. The totals get summed to ﬁnd the Total Supply Cost.

The next two sections, Outside Equipment Rentals and Shipping/Couriers also have ﬁelds with editable pop-up lists and are self-explanatory. We suggest the invoice, or rental contract number get recorded along with the outside equipment rental, and that the airbill or courier I. D. number get recorded along with the courier company name for shipments.

The last section, Miscellaneous is for – you guessed it – anything else that gets charged for: like ISDN charges, or fruit, if your facility happens to be The Hit Factory.

Studio Invoice

And now the fun part! Once you’ve done a number of sessions (and would like to get paid for them,) and have checked that the Work Orders have been correctly inputted, open the Invoice ﬁle, press the “New Inv.” button, enter the Project Code, (this can be copied from a Work Order by going to any one of the Work Orders to be billed and clicking the “Copy P. Code” button and pasting it into the Project Code ﬁeld in the Invoice) press the “Enter” key (“Tab” on a PC) and... voila! you have a completed invoice with all totals, (pulling the Rates from the Project File) hours, tax, song titles, session dates

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and work order numbers ready to mail or fax! The only possible hitch here can be the way the song titles are displayed. The “portal” that contains the Titles can only accommodate one line for each Work Order. If one or more of the title lines is over written, click on the line above the one that is over written and modify its contents to ﬁt in one line. This can be done by abbreviating, or selecting the text by clicking in the ﬁeld and choosing “Condense” from the Format/Style menu. If it still doesn’t ﬁt, try making the font size smaller (from the same format menu.)

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If titles from the last Work Order in the list overrun, it’s not a problem. If you need to look at a particular work order, click once on either the date, number or title ﬁeld of the work order you need to view, then click the WORK ORDER button and that work order will be displayed. To get back to the Invoice ﬁle, click the INVOICE button.

Check to make sure all the rates are correct. You can change them if you need to. (The Hours can’t be changed from here, and the Totals are calculations, so they can only be changed by altering the Rates.)

Alternate Invoice

If you don’t want to bother with ﬁve different rate categories, or just feel it’s too much to look at, you can use the Alternate Invoice layout by clicking the Alt. Inv. button. This layout combines the Recording, Mixing, Editing and Transfer Hours into one Hourly Rate. (The Hourly Rate on this layout is actually the same ﬁeld as the Recording Rate from the Main Invoice layout and gets its looked-up data from the Recording rate in the Project File accordingly.) If you choose to use this layout for your invoice, when you press the Print button the Mixing, Editing and Transfer rates on the Main Invoice will all be changed to match the Recording Rate so both invoice layouts will reﬂect the same totals. However, if you use the Main Invoice Layout with different rates, the Alt. Invoice will show different totals because it’s based on only one Hourly rate. There is a non-printing ﬁeld that keeps track of which layout was used for the invoice (activated by the Print button.) We suggest keeping a ﬁle of hard copies of all invoices for your bookkeeper so this never becomes a confusing issue.

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Flat Rate Invoice

If you prefer to invoice at a ﬂat rate, you can use the Flat Rate Layout. The rate is initially pulled from the “Overall Budget” ﬁeld in the Project File but can, as with all the rates, be modiﬁed here.

Miscellaneous Field

The Miscellaneous ﬁeld pulls a total of the Miscellaneous ﬁelds from the Work Orders. If you would like this ﬁeld label to be more specific, clicking on the ﬁeld label brings up a pop-up list of alternate labels, as shown above. Clicking on “Edit...” allows you to modify this list.

Work Order Request Box

If you decide to send copies of the Work Orders with the Invoice, clicking on the “Work Orders available on request” ﬁeld (on all three Invoice layouts) brings up a pop-up list with an alternate message that

states “Copies of Work Orders included.”, or you can type in your own message.

Terms & Notes

At the bottom of the form you’ll ﬁnd a ﬁeld (three dotted lines) for any additional notes, like where the tapes went, or whatever.

There’s also a “Terms” ﬁeld for entering payment terms, as well as a ﬁeld for entering payment or wire information, or anything else. Because these ﬁelds are global, whatever you enter here will be common to all invoices, past and future, but the change must be done on the Server computer to affect all future

invoices.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As mentioned earlier, it is extremely important that you always use the PRINT button to print the invoice. Do not print from the File menu or by using “Command-P”, or “Ctrl-P” in Windows (unless you want to print a draft copy of the invoice)! If you do, you will override many of the automatic features of SessionTools, and the whole thing could go a bit screwy!

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Another important note: As mentioned earlier, one of the automatic functions linked to the print button includes deleting the project start date from the Project File, to prevent double billing any work orders. If the project will be continuing after you create and send an invoice, make sure you go to the Project File, enter a new start date that is the date of the ﬁrst session that will be billed on the project’s next invoice, and create a new Project Code (manually, or by clicking the blue Project Code ﬁeld label.) If you forget to do this, the assistant engineer should click on the blue, underlined Project Code ﬁeld label if he creates a new Work Order that has no Project Code. You can also do the same thing later by ﬁnding the ﬁrst Work Order without a Project Code, and pressing the button. If you do, don’t forget to copy the same Project Code into all Work Orders from the same project that occurred after that one.

Invoicing Tips

Before sending an Invoice to a client, you’ll probably want to make sure it’s correct. SessionTools makes reviewing work orders simple. Here’s how:

Find the project’s record in the Project ﬁle. This can be done by using the “Find” button, or click the “List Project” button and then click the “Worksheet” button next to the Project’s name. If the Project list is to massive to look through, clicking the “Find Outstanding” button will list only the projects with active Project Codes. Click the “Work Order” navigation button.

If there is a project code in the Project Code ﬁeld, (which there should be if you haven’t yet printed an Invoice) The Work Order navigation button switches you to the Work Order ﬁle and does a search for all the work orders containing that project code. If there’s no project code in the Project ﬁle record, all the work orders with the same project name will be found.

Look through the work orders carefully, making sure all the pertinent ﬁelds are ﬁlled in. Check that all titles in the Titles/Description ﬁeld in the Session Log are duplicated (once for each title) in the Titles ﬁeld in the upper right corner of the page, with no carriage returns. Make sure there is a ﬁnal “Stop Time” in the Session Log, and check that all the hours make sense. Check that all rental and shipping information makes sense and that rates are ﬁlled in. You may want to reconcile the shipping and rental rates with their invoices at this point, and enter the proper amounts.

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Once you’re sure everything is correct:

• Click the “Copy P. Code” button. This copies the Project Code onto the

computer’s clipboard.

• Click on the “Invoice” navigation button. You will be taken to the Invoice

ﬁle.

• Click the “New” button. A new, empty invoice is created, leaving the cur-

sor in the Project Code ﬁeld.

• Paste the project code into the Project Code ﬁeld by selecting “Paste”

from the Edit menu, or press <Command-V> on the Mac, <Ctrl-V> in Windows, and press <Return>.

If all the information in the project’s Project File and Work Orders records is correct, a perfect invoice will appear in a few seconds. You can change any of the Rates, Discount, Phone and Credit ﬁelds from here if you need to. The Hours are calculations so they can’t be altered from here - they would have to be changed in the Work Orders, as would amounts in the Supplies, Rentals, Shipping and Misc. ﬁelds.

As mentioned earlier, you may ﬁnd a problem with the way the song titles are displayed. The “portal” that contains the Titles can only accommodate one line for each Work Order. If one or more of the title lines is over written, click on the line above the one that is over written and modify its contents to ﬁt in one line. This can be done by abbreviating, or selecting the text by clicking in the ﬁeld and choosing “Condense” from the Format/Style menu. If it still doesn’t ﬁt, try making the font size smaller (from the same format menu.) Also, make sure there are no carriage returns.

Recall

SessionTools can print templates of virtually any piece of outboard gear to be ﬁlled in manually (you know… like with a pencil – remember those?) by the second engineer. Up to six pieces of outboard gear can be entered on a single page and printed. Twelve, if both sides of the paper are used. Clicking in the ﬁeld just below DEVICE: brings up a menu of the currently available outboard gear templates. Choosing a device will pull its picture from the Drawings ﬁle and place it in the open ﬁeld to the right.

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Upgrading the Drawings File & Default Settings

If your studio has a default setup for any pieces of outboard gear, you can enter that information into the Drawings ﬁle. The easiest way to do this is to copy the device into a drawing program (FreeHand, Visio, Canvas, etc.) and add the necessary defaults. For example if your input gain is always unity, you can draw in an input unity gain. You can then copy your updated image into a new record in the drawings ﬁle. Be sure the device name is different

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from the non-default image. For example, a default SPX990 image could be called SPX990 DEF. Then when you enter “SPX990 DEF” in the device ﬁeld of the Recall layout it will bring up the default settings picture you have updated. It will also copy the patching information if you have entered that as well. We hope to make more outboard gear drawings available from Apogee in the future. Please let us know what devices you would like to see for future updates. Or you can create your own outboard gear drawings and paste them in the Drawings ﬁle. Why not send copies of the original drawing ﬁles to us?

Label Log (Label)

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This layout contains most common label formats. Switching between formats is done by choosing the desired format by clicking a button, clicking on the Layout menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, or in the scripts pulldown menu. Some label layouts don’t contain buttons because of space limitations, so you’ll have to use the Layout or Scripts menu from those layouts. The upper group of buttons are dual function – clicking on the left side takes you to the J-cards and the right side to the sticky label layouts.

After you press the “New” button to create a new label record, (which we advise doing for every tape or disc), you will be taken to the Description ﬁeld, with its pop-up list. The Format ﬁeld gets ﬁlled in automatically when you print a J- card or large format label using the “Print” button. Although these ﬁelds are not actually part of the label, they are important because they get carried over into the Tape Log ﬁle. Also, because there are many different label format layouts that all share the same information, this will help if you need to look up an older tape and forget which format a particular record was used for. The yellow ﬁeld on the spine of the label is a title ﬁeld for the entire tape, like “Sequence #1” or “Rough Mixes 11/3”. If you use one tape per song when you mix, you may want to put the song’s title here.

When you get to the Project ﬁeld, (by clicking on it or using the TAB button) you’ll see a pop-up list of all the projects in the Project File. Either scroll down and click on the one you want, or press the DELETE button (to get rid of the list) and type in the project name. If the spelling matches a project entered in the Project File, pressing Tab (or pressing the Enter key on a Mac, the number pad Enter key on a PC) copies in all the pertinent header information that had been entered in the Project File.

Studio File Numbers

The green ﬁeld on each label contains the date, the reel number (Master 1, Ref 3, etc.), and the studio ﬁle number. Each tape should have a different ﬁle number. File numbers can be entered manually, or automatically by clicking on the yellow “File#” button. Doing so increments the File number generator that exists in the Tape Log, then enters the number in the J-card File number ﬁeld. In the “x2” layouts, the ﬁle number generator increments twice, and the corresponding two numbers are entered into each J-Card sequentially. If you manually enter in a duplicate ﬁle number, SessionTools will alert you of the repetition, but will allow you to leave it if you choose. The ﬁle number is the

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match ﬁeld for the Tape Log, so it is important to enter the Label information ﬁrst, with a unique ﬁle number so the Tape Log can ﬁnd the Label information.

Project Reel Numbers

The reel numbers keep track of tapes (or disks) within a given Project. They are optional, but may help the Producer, Engineer or Assistant keep track of things. There are seven categories: Multitrack, Master Mix, Safety Mix, Reference Copy, Sequenced Master, Hi-Res Master and Hi-Res Safety. The Reel Numbers are stored and generated in the “Reel #s” layout in the related record in the Project File, where they can be reset to “0” or manually updated, if need be. (See “Project File: Reel Number Generators”) Pressing the green M # button increments the Master Reel Number and enters “Master X” into the Reel # ﬁeld. Likewise with the S # (“Safety x”), Ref # (“Ref x”), Seq # (“Seq x”), and the Multi # (“Multi x”) buttons. The Hi-Res buttons and numbers are for 20 or 24 bit masters. In the case of the ”x2” layouts, the Master #/Safety # button enters “Master X” in the left J-Card and Safety X” in the right J-Card. (The same goes for the purple HR # button.) The Ref # and Seq # buttons enter “Ref x” and Ref x(+1)” or “Seq x” and “Seq x(+1)”. You can manually enter ﬁle & reel numbers, but good luck keeping track of them! We think you’ll ﬁnd the automatic method much easier, once you get used to it.

The rest of the ﬁelds should be self explanatory. The MIX ﬁeld in yellow by the titles should be used to identify one version of a song or mix from another. A good technique is to use the identiﬁer number the mix computer uses (if applicable) so you’ll know which mix to recall later. Also it helps to put an R for recalls and an E for edits. So a recalled ﬁfteenth computer mix that’s printed to tape and edited could be noted 15RE in the mix ﬁeld. It’s good to develop a system that works for your studio. There’s nothing worse than a client that wants to recall a particular mix and you don’t know which of the ﬁftyseven versions they liked. “It’s the sixteenth version on this reference copy you made for me”. Unique mix numbers will help eliminate a lot of confusion.

From the Label Log, you have ability to automatically add tape (and disk) information to the Tape Log without leaving the Label Log and without hav-

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ing to re-enter a ﬁle number into the Tape Log. At the top of each J-card/label layout you’ll ﬁnd a Log In, a Log Out and a Find Unlogged button, along with the word “Unlogged”. Once the J-card/label is complete with its Description, Format, Titles, all the header information, and a ﬁle number has been entered into the File Number ﬁeld either manually or by clicking the Next File # button, clicking Log In automatically copies all that information into a new record in the Tape Log ﬁle. It then changes the “Unlogged” indication to “Logged”, indicating that the label information has been entered into the Tape Log.

The Log Out button is for logging a tape that is either being taken by a client, or being sent out the same day. It does essentially the same thing, except it takes you to the Tape Log, enters the current date in the Date Out ﬁeld. Once there, you may make entries into the “Ordered By” and Destnation/Shipping Information. Click on the “Continue” button (on the left) and you will be returned to the Label Log.

Updating the Tape Log

If you’ve altered a tape or disk J-card or label that had previously been logged in (indicated by the “Logged” sign) because you’ve added takes to it or any other reason, just click the Log In button. The proper record in the tape ﬁle will be found and updated with the new information from the Label. If you need to update the Tape Log and enter shipping information because the tape is gong out, click the Log Out button, enter the Ordered By and Destination/Shipper/Courier information on the top line of those ﬁelds, then click the “Continue” button which takes you back to the Label Log.

If you don’t have time to log an item out, or you’d prefer to let the tape librarian do it, unlogged items can be found later by clicking the “Find Unlogged” button. Tapes and disks can then be leisurely be scanned and logged the same way as described above.

Special Labels

There are a few special label layouts that are designed speciﬁcally for Apogee Media Accessories. These layouts are designed to show J-card information for all the dats contained in these cases, without having to manually reenter anything but the ﬁle numbers. They are:

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Producer Pak (holds ten dats, or three dats and three Hi-8 tapes) Master Pak (holds two dats) Project Pak (holds ten dats) The Producer Pak cards ﬁt the soft Apogee Producer Pak cases that come with every box of Apogee DATs. When a large number of DATs leave the studio or need to be archived, these Producer Paks are a perfect way to keep the DATs together. We recommend keeping the DATs in the original cardboard carton inside of the soft Producer Pak case for extra protection.

The Master Pak holds two DATs and the Project Pak holds ten DATs. Both are designed for conveniently ﬁling DAT tapes on standard shelves with other larger tape formats. Both cases are available wherever Apogee Media Products are sold.

To use these layouts, press the tab key. This will bring you to the ﬁrst ﬁle number ﬁeld. (In the Producer Pak layout, you’re taken to the top left card.) Enter the ﬁle number of the ﬁrst DAT. The other information on the card is automatically looked up in the Tape Log. Press the tab key and enter the ﬁle number of the next DAT… and so on.

On the Producer Pak layout you will notice that there are three different card formats plus a duplicate for each totaling six. Each of the three formats displays a different combination of information. Use the card format that best suits your needs, depending on what information you need to be displayed. Because there are two window slots on the Producer Paks, you can mix and match these cards based on the current application, or use the same card for each window slot so that the information is easily accessible on a shelf or in a box. Be sure to print this layout with your printer set to portrait!

The bottom two cards on the Producer Pak layout displays the Tape/Disk Title, and these layouts get their information through a lookup in the Tape Log ﬁle. So for it to work, the Tape Title ﬁeld in the Tape Log ﬁle must be ﬁlled in for each tape. This is done automatically if the J-card for the DATs were originally made in the Label Log, the File Number ﬁeld and yellow spine Tape Title ﬁelds are ﬁlled in and the “Log In” or “Log Out” button in the DAT layout is clicked, automatically logging the tape.

SessionTools Manual

Using the MultiReel Label

This layout is handy when a number of large reels (1/4”, 1/2”, 1”, and 2”) come into the studio. Once the tapes are logged into the Tape Log, you can use the reel labels to keep the actual reels matched to their respective boxes. The labels also make the assistant’s life easier because the titles and absolute start times are right there on the label. When he or she has to change reels or songs, there is no confusion.

Press the Tab key. This will take you to the ﬁrst ﬁle number ﬁeld. Once you enter the ﬁle number, Session Tools will automatically enter the reel number and titles from the Tape Log. Hitting the tab key again will bring you to the ﬁeld just to the left of where the titles have appeared. Enter the corresponding absolute start times in this ﬁeld. If it’s an analog tape, rewind the reel to the top and reset the tape counter, then ﬁnd the start of the ﬁrst song and enter the counter time. (You may also want to make a note of the runout time after you wind the tape off.) Hitting the tab key again will bring you to the next ﬁle number ﬁeld, starting the cycle over again. You can make twelve reel labels on one sheet of the label paper, reducing print time and waste that would result from using the single reel label layout twelve times. Be sure to print this layout with your printer set to portrait!

Note: There’s no button for this layout: select it from the layout menu.

No matter how you slice it...

The best way to handle the J-cards and sticky labels is to cut them out by hand, with an X-acto knife, a razor blade or scissors, lightly scoring the fold lines. We know it’s a pain, but it’s a lot easier than copying the information over and over again. Another choice is to print on perforated card stock available from a few different companies. For us this has proven to be more frustrating as we have yet to ﬁnd a printer that is accurate enough to consistently print in the right spots.

Also, this part of the program is designed for a facility that makes two to six labels in a day in each room. It is not designed for mass production of labels which would eliminate the possibility of hand doing anything, unless there’s some lowly runner who wouldn’t mind cutting out 1000 DAT J-Cards.

For the sticky labels on the DATs & Cassettes you can buy Avery 5165 full sheet sticky labels. These work great because you can use the portion you

SessionTools Manual

need and save the rest for later. And as with the J-Cards, we’ve found it is easier just to cut the labels out with an X-acto knife, a paper cutter or scissors.

While the Label Log was intended to be printed on a color printer it works well printed in grayscale.

Tape Log

The Tape Log is the main catalog of what tapes (& disks) have come into the studio, what tapes have gone out, who ordered them, where they have gone to and when. In the Tape Log, each item has its own record. The main layout, Speciﬁcs, clearly displays all pertinent information plus all titles/notes for each item. There is also a History section that keeps track of every time the item left or came back to your library, keeping the most recent occurrence at the top of the list.

File Number Generator

It is a good idea to give every tape a log number and enter all its information into the Tape Log. This way, any questions about a particular tape can be searched for by ﬁle number and answered in a matter of seconds. This can be done manually, in which case you’ll have to keep track of the last ﬁle number used, or you can do it automatically, letting SessionTools do the work by using the File Number Generator, as described below.

SessionTools Manual

using the SessionTools File Number Generator, click on the New File # button - the next ﬁle number is entered into the File # ﬁeld and the generator is advanced. (Previous SessionTools users: this feature has been updated.) To reset the generator, click the Reset File # button and follow the instructions in the dialog box. Remember to enter the last ﬁle number used, not the next one!

We recommend that you always ﬁll in the Tape Title ﬁeld. This is for a general name of the tape or disk. Examples would be things like: “Go Away” (the title of the song if it’s the only title on a mix tape), “Go Away vocal slave” (multitrack slave), “Rough Mixes” (rough mix compilation), “Clearmountain Mixes” (compilation of mixes by a particular mixer), “Ocean Way basics” (tracking multitrack takes from a particular studio), etc. It serves as a quick reference as to what is on the tape. If the Producer Pak layout in the Labels ﬁle is used, this ﬁeld must be ﬁlled in.

You’ll notice the Date In and Date Out ﬁeld headings in the History section are also buttons. To enter the current date in the Date In ﬁeld, click the button. Same for the Date Out ﬁeld, if you’re shipping an item out. If an item that was previously logged in and had gone out returns, clicking the “Date In” button moves all the previous entries in the History section down one line and enters the current date on the top line. (You can edit the Date In/Out ﬁelds if the tape actually came in or went out on a previous day.) This keeps the latest entries at the top of the list, and makes them visible on the List layout (see below).

If you’re sending an item out for the second time, click the “Date Out” button, then enter the Ordered By and Destination/Shipper/Courier information on the top line of those columns.

Note: The date ﬁelds can be entered or edited manually.

Listing Logged Items

To list items for a particular project, click the “Search” button. After a few seconds you will see a dialog box with a pop-up list of all the projects in the Log. Scroll through them, or type the ﬁrst few letters of the project name and select the one you want to list. Alternatively, press the delete button (on your keyboard) and type the name in. If you choose the latter, you must type the name of the project exactly as it appears in the log or your search will be unsuccessful. You can now click the “All Formats” button to list, well… all the for-

SessionTools Manual

mats, or click the “Choose Format” button to list only one format. Doing the latter brings up another dialog box from which you can choose the format you would like to list - say, just all “1/2” analog” tapes - for the selected project. At this point, if you change your mind, you can still list all the formats by clicking the “All” button. If not, click “List”.

After a few seconds you’ll see the list of items you have requested, displaying a record on each line. From here you can list a different format for the same project by clicking “New Format”; list all formats for the project by clicking “All Formats”; or list everything in the Tape Log by clicking “Find All”. You can also do a search for a new project by clicking “Search”. From the List page you can quickly return to the Details page of any record in the displayed list by clicking its “Details” button. From the Details layout you can quickly return to the same list by clicking the “List Current” button.

The header information is not modiﬁable from the List page and pertains to the current record, which is indicated by a black marker just to the left of the “Details” button. You can select a different record by clicking the “Select” button for any ﬁeld in that record. Clicking the “Details” button does this but, of course, also switches you to the Details layout.

The List page displays only the top line of each of the Origin, Dates, Ordered By, Shipping and Titles ﬁelds. Clicking in these ﬁelds reveals all the information contained within, one ﬁeld at a time. Clicking the “Details” button moves you to the Details page which displays all the information in the record.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t ever delete record number 1 from this ﬁle. It contains the File Number Generator.

SessionTools Manual

Track Sheets (Track)

There are a few different layouts for track sheets. The main ones are a 48-track sheet and a 24-track sheet. The variations from there are to accommodate various modular 8-track formats. Look at each layout and see what will work for your particular setup.

Instrument Lists

As you click on each track box or tab across, you’ll be presented with a popup list of most instruments we could think of, to keep typing to a minimum. If you’d rather type, click on the box again to hide the list.

Stereo Track Boxes

The arrows pointing up, just below each bank of eight tracks, allow entrance into the “in between” tracks, for ﬁlling in “stereo” tracks without having to enter the same information twice. Clicking on the red arrow will get you into a ﬁeld that goes

SessionTools Manual

across the ﬁrst two tracks in that line. Pressing Tab at that point will move you into the second & third ﬁelds, and so on. There’s a lot of tabbing to get to the last two tracks in that row, but it’s a lot less confusing than having the same information repeated on two separate track boxes.

In the lower half of each track box, there is a separate ﬁeld formatted in a smaller font for entering extra information, like mic, EQ, engineer, etc. At the bottom of each box, you’ll ﬁnd a really small ﬁeld for entering the date of recording.

Note: To make these track sheets as versatile as they are, we had to include a lot of ﬁelds. In order to do stereo tracks, there had to be an additional layer of ﬁelds, under the single track box ﬁelds. Because of this, when you’re entering something in one box, other boxes may be covered up. To see the other boxes, press the Enter key on the Mac, or the numeric pad Enter key on a PC.

Gear Log

The main layout of the ﬁle contains ﬁelds for category, item, manufacturer, location, vendor, your facility’s equipment log number, serial number, the date purchased, and description. We recommend entering these ﬁelds as accurately as possible, choosing items from the pop-up lists whenever you can.

SessionTools Manual

There’s also a picture ﬁeld in the upper right-hand corner of the page, if you would like to paste a PICT of the gear there. We recommend only using this if necessary because doing so can slow down database operations drastically, depending on the speed of your processor and if you’re using SessionTools over a network. Clicking the “Big Picture” button takes you to the Big Picture page, in case you need to see more detail.

The Maintenance History section is used when an engineer or assistant ﬁnds a problem with a piece of gear. Just press the “Find” button, then enter the Item and probably the location of the item into their respective ﬁelds before clicking “Find” or pressing the enter key, and then scan through the records to ﬁnd the exact piece of gear, using the record scan gadget in the upper left corner of the screen. Alternatively, the serial number ﬁeld can be searched, which will probably yield a single, exact match. Once found, enter a clear description of the problem into the Problem Description ﬁeld, then put the engineer’s initials into the Eng. ﬁeld. Clicking on the “Date” ﬁeld heading button automatically enters the current date into the Date ﬁeld and displays the Trouble Alert indicator.

When the maintenance department ﬁnally ﬁnds time to ﬁx stuff, the tech simply clicks on the “Find Trouble” button and then scans through the records to ﬁnd the one they’d like to start with. If you just want to see the problems in, say, Studio C, you would ﬁrst click on the “List/Loc.” (List Location) button, and select Studio C to list the gear in that studio. A little red “T” appears next to any pieces of gear in need of service. To list only gear with problems, click the “Find Trouble” button. Clicking the “History” button next to a piece of gear gets you back to its Maintenance History page to see what the problem is.

Sorting/listing is pretty self-explanatory. Simply click the appropriate button, e.g. “List/Cat.” to choose a category to list, List/Loc. to choose a location, etc. After selecting criteria to list by from the pop-up menu, click Continue (on the left) or press the Enter key. From each list, you can quickly view a piece of gear’s details by clicking its “History” button.

SessionTools Manual

You should note that the pop-up lists of categories, locations, vendors and manufacturers that you will be selecting from for your sorts are created when you enter the information into each record, e.g. once you have one or more records for a microphone, (with the word “Microphone” entered into the Category ﬁeld) the word “microphone” will appear in a pop-up list when you click on the List/Cat. button, besides appearing in the Category ﬁeld pop-up of subsequent new records. The same goes for Location, Manufacturer and Vendor.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t ever delete record number 1 from this ﬁle. It contains the Trouble Alert indicator image. If you do accidentally delete it and the Trouble Alert indicator won’t work, open the ﬁle from FileMaker Pro, get into Layout mode, switch to the Trouble layout, copy the red Trouble Alert image, switch to Browse mode, go to record no. 1 (or create a new one if there are no records) and paste the image into the Trouble On ﬁeld. Do the same for the Trouble Off image.

Time Sheet

SessionTools Manual

This ﬁle basically works just like a punch clock except it will work over a computer network. It keeps running totals of employee hours worked which can be listed and printed, and your bookkeeper doesn’t have to read little time stamps on a pile of cards each week.

To create a new sheet, ﬁrst click “New Sheet”, select your name from the Employee pop-up or click on the ﬁeld and type it in if it doesn’t yet exist in the pop-up, select or enter your department and press the Enter key (not Return). The default start of the week is Monday, so no matter what day of the week it currently is, the “Week Of” ﬁeld will reﬂect Monday’s date of your current week, and Mon. will be indicated on the top line of the sheet. If your work week starts on a different day, say Wednesday, enter Wednesday’s date in the “Week Of” ﬁeld. Doing this makes Wednesday and it’s date the top line of the grid.

Using it is as simple as punching a time clock: when you start work, click the “Punch In” button. Just before you go home, click the “Punch Out” button. We’re sure you can ﬁgure out lunch/dinner out and in. SessionTools ﬁnds the appropriate day row and box and enters the current time. The total hours you’ve worked is immediately calculated for the day and week when you punch out.

You can list employee hour totals by clicking on the appropriate list parameter button, i.e. click “Week” to list all employees’ totals for a particular week, or “Name” to list all totals for a particular employee. From any list you can display any listed employee’s individual Time Sheet by clicking on the record’s “Time Sheet” button.

You’ll ﬁnd two versions of Time Sheet: they are Time Sheet and Time Sheet Locked. In Time Sheet Locked the time ﬁelds cannot be entered manually: only the current time can be entered by pressing the punch buttons. In Time Sheet, times can be entered manually by clicking on the appropriate ﬁeld and typing in the time – the advantage being that if you forget to punch in or out, the time can be entered later. Which one you use depends on how accurately you feel your employees will enter the times if they have the option of doing it manually.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to use Time Sheet Locked, once it’s installed, you must remove the word “Locked” from the ﬁlename. Also, you may want to remove the “Date & Time” control panel from your computer so Time Sheet can’t be fooled.

SessionTools Manual

Quirks and Annoyances

While creating SessionTools, a few problems came up to which we were not able to ﬁnd reasonable programming solutions, because of what appear to be limitations of the computer or FileMaker Pro. Instead of letting you eventually stumble on them yourselves and be annoyed at us, we ﬁgured we’d tell you now so you can get being annoyed at us out of the way. Listed here are a couple of problems we’ve come across, and some possible ways around them.

If you ﬁnd any more (undoubtedly someone will), please let us know and we will either try to ﬁx them in a future version, or just add them to this list.

Thanks — Bob, Ryan & David

1. Various Printers

As you know, there are lots of different printers out there, with many different page setup specs. We set up the layouts for two different printers – an Apple LaserWriter (16/600 PS) and the Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 870 Cse color inkjet – both excellent choices, by the way. The layouts in the Client File, Project File, Work Order and Invoice ﬁles are setup for the Apple LaserWriter. The layouts in the Label Log, Tape Log, Track Sheet and Recall ﬁles are set up for the HP. The others don’t matter because they don’t need to be printed.

Problem:

Unfortunately we’re unable to release a different version of SessionTools for every possible page setup and printer spec. If you’re using a different printer, the margins may be off or the layout could be running onto another page.

Work-around:

Regrettably there are no simple solutions to this problem. If you own a copy of FileMaker Pro 3.x or 4.x you can get into Layout Mode and adjust the layouts to work with the Page Setup for your speciﬁc printer. (See “Modifying SessionTools”) This is also handy for changing the look of your layouts, like the colors or fonts – but be careful! Always ﬁrst make a backup copy of the ﬁle you want to change, in case you screw up.

2. Fonts under Windows and Macintosh

We wrote SessionTools on Macintosh computers. Although it works well on both Macintosh and Windows platforms, we’ve noticed some quirkiness in the way some layouts display and print, in particular the large format tape

SessionTools Manual

labels. These problems are largely due to the fact that font handling under Windows is not nearly as sophisticated as on the Macintosh, and there are signiﬁcant but unpredictable differences between character shapes and spacings on what is apparently the same font on the two platforms. We chose TrueType Arial (the original Windows default font) for the majority of SessionTools lay- outs, because it is standard on Windows machines and Macintosh users have many more font options and easier font installation than Windows users. Arial is not standard on the Mac, so a TrueType version is installed in your Fonts folder automatically along with SessionTools. If you have a different ver- sion of Arial installed on a Macintosh (eg a PostScript version), it may give dif- ferent character spacings: if you notice problems, check you’re using the version we supplied.

Problem:

You may ﬁnd that line spacings get a bit weird on the large format labels, especially if you reformat any text, like making a choice take bold or changing the font or size. Sometimes it’s totally unpredictable.

Workarounds:

a. Don’t reformat text. b. On a Macintosh, check that you’re using the version of Arial supplied.

New Additions in Version 2.0

Thanks to feedback from owners of existing versions of SessionTools, and from our need to expand the program for our own applications at Mix This!, we are pleased to tell you that Version 2.0 of SessionTools has several additional functions, and many existing features have been improved or updated. Please let us know your own “wish list” for SessionTools, and we’ll see what we can do for future versions.

Gear Log

We’ve added this ﬁle by popular request. It will efﬁciently log pertinent information along with a maintenance history of every piece of equipment in your facility. Gear can be quickly sorted and listed by category, (microphones, tape machines, etc.) location, (studio A, 2, Z, etc.) manufacturer or vendor (where you got it). The main layout of the ﬁle contains ﬁelds for category, item, manufacturer, location, vendor, your facility’s equipment log number, serial number, date purchased and description.

SessionTools Manual

We recommend entering these ﬁelds as accurately as possible, choosing items from the pop-up lists whenever you can.

There’s also a picture ﬁeld in the upper right-hand corner of the page, if you would like to paste an image of the gear there. We recommend only using this if necessary because doing so can slow down database operations drastically, depending on the speed of your processor and if you’re using SessionTools over a network. Clicking the “Big Picture” button takes you to the Big Picture page, in case you need to see more detail.

The Maintenance History section is used when an engineer or assistant ﬁnds a problem with a piece of gear. Just press the “Find” button, then enter the Item and probably the location of the item into their respective ﬁelds before clicking “Find” or pressing the enter key, and then scan through the records to ﬁnd the exact piece of gear, using the record scan gadget in the upper left corner of the screen. Alternatively, the serial number ﬁeld can be searched, which will probably yield a single, exact match. Once found, enter a clear description of the problem into the Problem Description ﬁeld, then put the engineer’s initials into the Eng. ﬁeld. Clicking on the Date ﬁeld heading button automatically enters the current date into the Date ﬁeld and displays the Trouble Alert indicator.

Once you complete the repair, enter the repair action, enter your initials and click on the “Repair Date” ﬁeld heading/button, you should then turn the Trouble Alert sign off. It doesn’t go off automatically in case you weren’t able to complete the repair. Sorting/listing is pretty self-explanatory. Simply click the appropriate button, eg. “List/Cat.” to choose a category to list, List/Loc. to choose a location, etc. After selecting criteria to list by from the pop-up menu, click Continue (on the

SessionTools Manual

left) or press the Enter key. From each list, you can quickly view a piece of gear’s details by clicking its “History” button.

You should note that the pop-up lists of categories, locations, vendors and manufacturers that you will be selecting from for your sorts are created when you enter the information into each record, eg. once you have one or more records for a microphone, (with the word “Microphone” entered into the Category ﬁeld) the word “microphone” will appear in a pop-up list when you click on the List/Cat. button, besides appearing in the Category ﬁeld pop-up of subsequent new records. The same goes for Location, Manufacturer and Vendor.

Time Sheet

No one asked for this, but we thought it might come in handy anyway. This ﬁle basically works just like a punch clock except it will work over a computer network. It keeps running totals of employee hours worked which can be listed and printed, and your bookkeeper doesn’t have to read little time stamps on a pile of cards each week.

To create a new sheet, ﬁrst click “New Sheet”, select your name from the Employee pop-up or click on the ﬁeld and type it in if it doesn’t yet exist in the pop-up, select or enter your department and press the Enter key (not Return). The default start of the week is Monday, so no matter what day of the week it currently is, the “Week Of” ﬁeld will reﬂect Monday’s date of your current week, and Mon will be indicated on the top line of the sheet. If your work week starts on a different day, say Wednesday, enter Wednesday’s date in the “Week Of” ﬁeld. Doing this makes Wednesday and it’s date the top line of the grid.

You can list employee hour totals by clicking on the appropriate list parameter button, ie. click “Week” to list all employees’ totals for a particular week, or “Name” to list all totals for a particular employee. From any list you can

SessionTools Manual

display any listed employee’s individual Time Sheet by clicking on the record’s “Time Sheet” button.

Supplies

New version!

Each item record in the Supplies layout now consists of a Quantity ﬁeld, an “Add Stock” button and an indication that notes when and how many pieces of stock were last added to your inventory. When an item is entered into the Work Order as being used, one item count is automatically subtracted from the Quantity ﬁeld of the item’s corresponding record in the Supplies ﬁle, thereby automatically keeping an accurate record of the supplies used.

When you ﬁrst use this layout, the Quantity ﬁelds are empty. Enter what you are currently charging for each item in the Price ﬁeld. You should go through your current stock and enter the current number of each item in your stock by clicking on the Add Stock button in each item’s record. You will see a dialog box: simply type the number and press the Continue button on the left of the screen. You’ll notice each record to which you’ve added stock indicates how many pieces are now in stock (Qty.), the current date and how many pieces you’ve added, which at this point should be the same as the Quantity. Adding additional stock is done exactly the same way, except the dialog box displays how many pieces were added the last time, so if you’re adding the same amount this time, just click Continue. If different, type the new amount.

SessionTools Manual

The Work Order

New Version!

The supplies section of the Work Order layout now has + and - buttons on either side of the Quantity (QTY) ﬁelds. Clicking on the + button adds one item count to the quantity ﬁeld next to it, and also subtracts one count of the selected item from the Supplies ﬁle. Clicking the - button subtracts one count from the work order and adds one back to the supplies ﬁle, in case your clients change their mind about how many copies they want. You cannot enter a value into the Quantity ﬁeld by typing it in manually: you must use the buttons.

Tape Log

New version!

In the Tape Log, each item now has its own record. The main layout, Details, clearly displays all pertinent information plus all titles/notes for each item. There is also a History section that keeps track of every time the item left or came back to your library, keeping the most recent occurrence at the top of the list.

When you log a tape in, simply tab through the ﬁelds entering the pertinent information as you go. If the project already exists in the Project File, much of this will be entered automatically upon entering the Project name. If you’re using the SessionTools File Number Generator, click on the New File # button - the next ﬁle number is entered into the File # ﬁeld and the generator is advanced. (Previous SessionTools users: this feature has been updated.) To reset the generator, click the Reset File # button and follow the instructions in the dialog box. Remember to enter the last ﬁle number used, not the next one!

You’ll notice the Date In and Date Out ﬁeld headings in the History section are also buttons.

SessionTools Manual

To enter the current date in the Date In ﬁeld, click the button. Same for the Date Out ﬁeld, if you’re shipping an item out. If an item that was previously logged in and had gone out returns, clicking the “Date In” button moves all the previous entries in the History section down one line and enters the current date on the top line. (You can edit the Date In/Out ﬁelds if the tape actually came in or went out on a previous day.) This keeps the latest entries at the top of the list, and makes them visible on the List layout (see below).

If you’re sending an item out for the second time, click the “Date Out” button, then enter the Ordered By and Destination/Shipper/Courier information on the top line of those columns.

Note: The date ﬁelds can be entered or edited manually.

Listing Logged Items

To list items for a particular project, click the “Search” button. After a few seconds you will see a dialog box with a pop-up list of all the projects in the Log. Scroll through them and select the one you want to list, or press the delete button (on your keyboard) and type it in. If you choose the latter, you must type the name of the project exactly as it appears in the log or your search will be unsuccessful. You can now click the “All Formats” button to list, well… all the formats, or click the “Choose Format” button to list only one format - say, just all 1/2” analog tapes for the selected project. Doing the latter brings up another dialog box from which you can choose the format you would like to list. At this point, if you change your mind, you can still list all the formats by clicking the “All” button. If not, click “List”.

After a few seconds you’ll see the list of items you requested. From here you can list a different format for the same project by clicking “New Format”; list all formats for the project by clicking “All Formats”; or list everything in the Tape Log by clicking “Find All”. You can also do a search for a new project by clicking “Search”. From the List page you can quickly return to the Details page of any record in the displayed list by clicking its Details button. From the Details layout you can quickly return to the same list by clicking the List Current button.

The header information is not modiﬁable from the List page and pertains to the current record, which is indicated by a black marker just to the left of the

SessionTools Manual

“Details” button. You can select a different record by clicking any ﬁeld in that record. Clicking the “Details” button does this but, of course, also switches you to the Details layout.

Label Log

From the Label Log, you now have ability to automatically add tape (and disk) information to the Tape Log without leaving the Label Log and without having to re-enter a ﬁle number into the Tape Log. At the top of each Jcard/label layout you’ll ﬁnd a “Log In”, a “Log Out” and a “Find Unlogged” button, along with the word “Unlogged”. Once the J-card/label is complete with its Description, Format, Titles, all the header information, and a ﬁle number has been entered into the File Number ﬁeld either manually or by clicking the Next File # button, clicking “Log In” automatically copies all that information into a new record in the Tape Log ﬁle. It then changes the “Unlogged” indication to “Logged”, indicating that the label information has been entered into the Tape Log.

The “Log Out” button is for logging a tape that is either being taken by a client, or being sent out the same day. It does essentially the same thing, except it takes you to the Tape Log, enters the current date in the “Date Out” ﬁeld and places the cursor in the Ordered By ﬁeld, anticipating your entering who is getting the tape or disk, its destination and courier/shipping information. Once this is done, click on the “Continue” button (on the left) and you will be returned to the Label Log.

Updating the Tape Log

If you’ve altered tape or disk J-card or label that had previously been logged in (indicated by the “Logged” sign) because you’ve added takes to it or any other reason, just click the “Log In” button. The proper record in the tape ﬁle will be found and updated with the new information from the Label. If you need to update the Tape Log and enter shipping information because the tape is gong out, click the “Log Out” button, enter the Ordered By and Destination/Shipper/Courier information on the top line of those ﬁelds, then click the “Continue” button which takes you back to the Label Log.

SessionTools Manual

Special Labels

Producer Pak (holds ten DATs or three DATs and three Hi-8 tapes Master Pak (holds two DATs) Project Pak (holds ten DATs)

The Producer Pak cards ﬁt the soft Apogee Producer Pak cases that come with every box of Apogee DATs. When a large number of DATs leave the studio or need to be archived, these Producer Paks are a perfect way to keep the DATs together. We recommend keeping the DATs in the original cardboard carton inside of the soft Producer Pak case for extra protection.

The Master Pak holds two dats and the Project Pak holds ten DATs. Both are designed for conveniently ﬁling dat tapes on standard shelves with other larger tape formats. Both cases are available wherever Apogee Media Products are sold.

SessionTools Manual

in for each tape. This is done automatically if the J-card for the DATs were originally made in the Label Log, the File Number ﬁeld and yellow spine Tape Title ﬁelds are ﬁlled in and the “Log In” or “Log Out” button in the DAT layout is clicked, automatically logging the tape.

Using the MultiReel Label

Press the tab key. This will take you to the ﬁrst ﬁle number ﬁeld. Once you enter the ﬁle number, Session Tools will automatically enter the reel number and titles from the Tape Log. Hitting the tab key again will bring you to the ﬁeld just to the left of where the titles have appeared. Enter the corresponding absolute start times in this ﬁeld. If it’s an analog tape, rewind the reel to the top and reset the tape counter, then ﬁnd the start of the ﬁrst song and enter the counter time. (You may also want to make a note of the runout time after you wind the tape off.) Hitting the tab key again will bring you to the next ﬁle number ﬁeld, starting the cycle over again. You can make twelve reel labels on one sheet of the label paper, reducing print time and waste that would result from using the single reel label layout twelve times. Be sure to print this layout with your printer set to portrait!

Note: There’s no button for this layout so you’ll have to select it from the layout menu.

SessionTools Manual

Additional Information

Here’s some additional SessionTools features and information not covered elsewhere in the manual.

A word about Files, Layouts Records and Fields:

Some SessionTools users unaccustomed to using database programs can be confused by the distinction between Files, Layouts, Records and Fields.

A File consists of Fields, Layouts, and – once you start using it – will contain Records. A SessionTools ﬁle exists as a separate entity on your hard disk, and opens under the SessionTools Runtime program, much as a word processor document opens under a word processor program.

A Field can contain a single piece of information that is generally entered by you: like a project name or a client name. Field contents can be text (like notes or a letter); a date; a number; or a picture. A Field can even contain the result of a calculation.

A Record is a group of these ﬁelds containing information. Records don’t exist until you create one by clicking the NEW button; then you can enter speciﬁc information into each ﬁeld. (But note that some of the ﬁles, like the Supplies and Client ﬁles, already have a number of records entered for your convenience.)

Layouts are different ways of displaying and printing the information you’ve entered in a Record. This is where it can get a little confusing, so pay attention! Depending on the particular ﬁle, the information in a given Record can be displayed or printed using different Layouts. The Label Log is a good example of this: create a new record in the Label Log by clicking the NEW button, click on the DAT J-Card button and enter header and titles information into the ﬁelds. You’ll notice that if you now click on the Cassette J-Card button (to switch to the Cassette Layout), the same information is displayed, only using the Cassette J-Card Layout.

This is one reason the Format ﬁeld exists: if you wanted to go back through the Label Log to see what tapes had been made for a project, this ﬁeld keeps track of what layout was used to print a given record – without it you wouldn’t know if it had been a DAT, cassette, CD or whatever.

SessionTools Manual

In the case of the sticky label layouts, the Titles and many of the other ﬁelds are left out, leaving only the pertinent Project, Client and Description information needed for the labels.

SessionTools Manual

Upgrading from SessionTools 1.x

Upgrading your SessionTools software is a bit trickier than upgrading other types of programs because SessionTools consists of actual database ﬁles containing information that you’ve entered, which means that you need to get all the information from your old ﬁles into the new ones – or not, if you simply wish to start from scratch! If you wish to save what you’ve entered so far, read on…

Because the ﬁlenames have changed from the ﬁlenames found in version 1.x, all ﬁles that have information you would like to save must be updated.

1. Install the new SessionTools from the CD-ROM, following the installation

instructions in this manual.

2. Using the old version of SessionTools, get into each of the ﬁles and select

“Find All” from the “Select” menu. This is necessary to make sure all information is transferred.

3. If you’re not already there, click the “CLIENT” navigation button to get

to the Client File layout.

4. From the FILE menu, select “Import/Export”, then “Export Records”.

5. In the next dialog box, click on the “Desktop” button.

6. Click the “New Folder” button at the right of the dialog box. (The button

actually has the word “New” and a folder icon next to it.)

7. Name the new folder “Temp ST Export Files”.

8. In the “Save As” box, type “Temp Client Export”.

9. In the “Type” pull-down menu, select “FileMaker Pro”.

10. Click SAVE.

11. In the next dialog box, click MOVE ALL.

12. Select “Don’t format output”.

13. Click EXPORT. A new FileMaker Pro “CLIENT” data ﬁle will be created

in the new temporary folder.

14. Now repeat steps 3 through 13 for all the ﬁles that contain information

you wish to save, (using the same “Temp Export ST Files” folder) substituting each subsequent ﬁlename for “CLIENT”. (Don’t bother with the DRAWINGS ﬁle unless you’ve added drawings of your own.) You can now close SessionTools 1.x.

15. Launch SessionTools 2.0 by double-clicking its application icon, or its

alias.

SessionTools Manual

16. Click the “CLIENT” navigation button to get to the Client.STT ﬁle, if you’re not already there.

17. From the File menu, select “Import/Export” then “Import Records”.

18. From the dialog box, navigate to the “Temp ST Export Files” folder on the desktop and open the ﬁle named “Temp Client Export”.

19. In the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box you’ll ﬁnd a ﬁeld named “ View By”. Change it to “Matching Names” if it’s not already selected.

20. For the Client File only, select “Replace data in current found set”. All others, leave “Add new records” selected.

21. Click the “Import” button.

22. In the next dialog box, do not select “Perform auto-enter options while importing”, do select “Import values in repeating ﬁelds by keeping them in the original records”.

23. Click OK.

24. Now repeat steps 16 through 23 for all the other ﬁles that you had created export ﬁles for, except TapeLog/TapeLog.STT

25. Repeat steps 16 through 21 for the Tape Log but at step 22, select “Import values in repeating ﬁelds by splitting them into separate records”.

IMPORTANT: Once the Tape Log is imported, from the Script menu, select “Fill in missing titles”. It is necessary to run this script only if you’ve made any entries directly into the “Titles” ﬁeld of the Tape Log, otherwise those entries will not appear in the Details layout of the Tape Log, but will appear in the List layout. If they had all been automatically transferred from the Label Log by entering a ﬁle number, this will not be necessary, but won’t hurt if you’re not sure. Depending on the speed of your computer, it should take about 5 to 10 minutes per thousand records in the ﬁle to run the script.

When you’re done, you can keep the old ﬁles as backup. The Temporary export ﬁles can be trashed.

Apogee SESSION TOOLS User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual