Empty songs
An empty song is a placeholder in the setlist with no audio file and a length you set. It runs its own clock, so the timecode display, the countdown, markers, cues and MIDI / OSC triggers all work as they do for a real song. But an empty song sends no sound and no timecode: while one is the active song, LTC audio, MTC, Art-Net and OSC timecode are all muted. The OSC /transport and /song messages and any triggers you attached still go out.
Adding an empty song
Click the ∅ button next to + in the setlist header (tooltip: Add Empty Song). The new card, named Empty Song 1, Empty Song 2 and so on, appears at the end of the setlist. Drag it by its six-dot handle to the position you need. The button is disabled while Chase is locked to an external signal.
Setting the duration
A new empty song runs 60 seconds. Click the duration under the song's name and enter how long it should run: seconds (90), minutes and seconds (1:30), or hours (1:30:00). The length can be from 0.5 seconds up to 24 hours. 0 is not accepted — there is no unlimited length — and an invalid entry shows Invalid duration — try 1:30 or 90.
Common use cases
- Placeholder for a non-musical moment — a speech, a set change or an intermission, so it has its own place in the setlist like any other item
- Cue-only block — attach markers, cues and MIDI or OSC triggers to a timed block with no audio, for example to fire a lighting or video cue at a set time
- Rehearsing cues — because an empty song sends no timecode, you can build and test a cue structure without feeding timecode to the show network
Behavior during playback
Empty songs participate in auto-advance. When the configured duration ends, LTCast follows the after-finish destination set for that song. With no destination set, it moves on to the next song only when the global Auto-advance checkbox is on; otherwise it stops. Markers, cues, and triggers can all be attached to empty songs the same as any other song.
00:00:00:00 unless you set one in the TC Generator controls. It does not continue from the previous song.Song card appearance
The card for an empty song has a ∅ marker before its name; cards never show a waveform. Its duration under the name is clickable so you can change it, and there is no start-timecode chip. Empty songs are not LTC-scanned, so they show no scan badge, and the missing-file check does not apply to them.
Empty songs and per-song settings
Song offset, downbeat, time signature and after-finish all work on empty songs. Trim and fades have no effect, because there is no audio.