Scheduling
From mAirListWiki
Many stations use music scheduling software to create playlist files in M3U format. This page describes how to output a mAirList-compatible playlist file from a number of popular music scheduling software applications. Although some basics of music scheduling are included within each article, we assume throughout that you:
- have a working knowledge of the basics of music scheduling,
- already use a scheduling application, and
- know how to use your scheduling application to create playlists (or 'logs').
Contents |
Commands and Break Notes
mAirList can display "break note" (aka: DUMMY) items that show basic text information to presenters. These can be an Hour Marker, Ad Break reminder or even a Voicetrack point. A DUMMY item can also have a duration, allowing it to be included within the Backtiming calculation of the total Playlist.
#mAirList DUMMY x title
x is the duration (in seconds) and title is your text. Use a zero duration if you wish.
Playlist Commands such as BREAK, AUTOMATION START and RPC IP events can also be defined. To have the Playlist wait at a specific point until user intervention (or a resume command), use the following:
#mAirList BREAK title
title is a reference to the presenter, it could say "Take live News feed" for example. To resume automation, the other Playlist (or mAirList machine) will need to send the command AUTOMATION x NEXT, where x is the Playlist number (the first playlist is 1).
All these features can be called using Break Notes (Creator) or Clock Text (Natural Music), full details are below.
Natural Music
Natural Music is a music/jingle scheduling application which can create full playout logs for use in playout applications. Much of Natural Music's power lies within the data contained in the Music Library, Clocks, and Rules screens.
Importing Audio
Natural Music can import songs from a folder, but this is a very basic import which only stores Artist, Title, and Length details. If you want to use more complex scheduling data such as Opener, End Type, Year, Intro and so forth, you will have to export that data from another database or another playout system.
For example, AudioEnhanceDPS is a playout system with an excellent audio library management system which can export CSV text files; and MP3Tag is a simple and free program which can export standard ID3V2 tag data to text files.
The following is an example export file for MP3Tag: (note that the spaces are actually tabs)
$filename("csv")
$loop(%_filename_ext%)%artist% %title% %_length% %genre% %year% %track% %_path%
$loopend()
In the configuration screen of MP3Tag, simply navigate to the Export page and create a new export preset (or you can edit one of the existing ones). Just double-click the preset - that will open Notepad and enable you to paste the above code into the export file. You may include other ID3V2 tags such as Album, Comment - See the MP3Tag Help for details on valid export %tokens%. On the MP3Tag website, you will find an excellent Export Archive with all sorts of presets for exporting your music files.
This is how a tab-delimited text file (generated by AudioEnhanceDPS) is imported into Natural Music:
As you can see, it's simply a case of telling Natural Music which columns contain which data. It's entirely up to you which fields you use in Natural Music for your data. It's worth duplicating the Song Path/Filename in the "WebAudioSource" field because that allows you to listen to songs directly from Natural Music (it opens your default audio player). Beware that the EndType and Opener fields do not like a * or "True/False" properties. Therefore, you'll need to import those fields into "Other" and "LinerNote" respectively. In order to move them into their correct fields after import, simply use the Sort Function for "Other", tag all those songs that have a * in them, then Mass Change those files so that the Opener field has * in it. Do the same for EndType. One thing to be aware of is if you import duplicate songs into Natural Music, they'll only be ignored if all the import settings are the same - ie: If you've added other properties to the existing song via the Scheduler (such as Gender, Opener etc) then the import wizard will regard it as a different song. If you're only adding a few songs here and there, use the WebAudioSource "browse" button to find your song, then paste the song path into the "Source" field and fill out the Song Card manually.
Commands and Text Info
Non-audio items such as break-notes, commands, and silence markers can be inserted into your log by preceding a mAirList command with a & character. For example:
&#mAirList DUMMY 0 TOP OF HOUR
Text-notes without a leading & character will not be exported to the main playout log, and will only be shown in the Clock and Log views.
To schedule a voice-track, type the full path and file name in the text field:
&d:\voicetracks\vt001.mp3
If you prefer to schedule voice-tracks based upon the current hour, use the DDMMHH date/time format:
&d:\voicetracks\vt [Day] [hhmm].mp3
This would output, for example, a filename called d:\voicetracks\vt Mon 0730.mp3 for a voicetrack designed to play on a Monday morning at 07:30 hours.
Clock Screen
The screenshot below shows a typical hourly 'clock,' including text-notes, ad. breaks, jingles, music, and mAirList commands:
Note that the first two songs of the hour—plus the songs out of ad. breaks—are marked as Openers, meaning that they have a strong or memorable intro. The last two songs have Option ticked, meaning they are 'droppable' to allow for backtiming to the top of the hour - this is for the scheduler, NOT the automation software. Natural Music will "best fit" your schedule hour to the amount of music you have selected it to schedule. Allowing it to drop the last few songs simply gives it some room to move the songs around when it tries to schedule your hours.
Sample Compiled Schedule
A fully-compiled playlist schedule will look something like this:
Exporting Log To M3U
Depending on the version of Natural Music you are using, use the M3U or Raduga automation output. Both output options produce a basic file/path playlist file.
Here's how the start of the output file from the example compiled schedule above looks in a text editor:
#mAirList DUMMY 0 START OF HOUR #mAirList DUMMY 0 TOH LINK INTO BED D:\GALAXY\TOP OF HOUR BEDS\Galaxy Bed - Top Of Hour Talkup 4.mp3 D:\GENERIC ADVERTS\AD 30s\AD Food - Bud Mr Bad Toupee Wearer.mp3 D:\GENERIC ADVERTS\AD 30s\AD Car - RAC 1.mp3 D:\GENERIC ADVERTS\AD 30s\AD Lifestyle - Playstation 2.mp3 D:\GALAXY\TOP OF HOUR\Galaxy - TOH 4.mp3 D:\AUDIO TO IMPORT\Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger.mp3 …
to be continued...
StationPlaylist Creator
This section will explain how to schedule mAirList using StationPlaylist Creator. Audio files are loaded via as a complete folder, or as individual items. Creator is biased towards internet radio stations and LPAM/FM set-ups. It supports M3U format and will create simple music logs, or complex music/jingle/advert/voicetrack logs for full automation - including mAirList Commands.
A tutorial video by Charlie Davy has been created which takes you through the setting-up of Creator in order to output mAirList M3U playlists. Creator Tutorial, WMV format.
Options
This is where you need to set the playlist template so that mAirList can read it. Select M3U from the Playlist Format dropdown menu. So that it reads %p\%f%e. You may create Hourly or Daily playlists, whichever you prefer. A benefit of creating Hourly playlists is that staff can edit their own hour's schedule without disrupting the current playlist onair. mAirList scripts can load playlists based on your current system time - See Things You Can Do with Scripts for suitable scripts.
If you'd like a TOP OF HOUR marker for each hour (in the case of a 24hour playlist, this is essential so that mAirList can jump to the next hour to remain on-time), simply enter the following into the Hour Header box:
#mAirList DUMMY 0 START OF HOUR %h
%h is a token that tells Creator to insert the current hour into each marker.
As mAirList commands MUST have #mAirList before them, we'll put that into the Break Note Format box. Include the %t token so that the actual Break Notes you enter within the rotations actually feed through to the playlist.
Break Notes
When you insert a Break Note into a Rotation, this is the format to use:
Any of mAirList's commands/events will work, such as BREAK, COMMAND, DUMMY etc.
StationPlaylist Creator Tips and Tricks
This section will hopefully assist you with scheduling various aspect of your station's output.
Specifying Explicit Files/Playlists
In order to reference another playlist (or file), simply enter the full path and filename to the file/playlist within a Break Note, eg: C:\Playlist\My Playlist.m3u. This technique can also be used to save putting a single file into a Spot Group - A news jingle that you wish to play every hour, for example. Rather than wasting it inside a Spot Group, just specify the file directly.
Modes - Container or Flat
If you wish to expand all M3U playlists within your main playlist, add the following line to the top of your playlist:
#mAirList MODE FLAT
This will "expand" all M3U files (and Regional Containers) by default. If you'd rather keep an M3U as a single Container item, use the following:
#mAirList MODE CONTAINER
These can be placed throughout a playlist if you need to change modes.
Rotating Regional Containers
If you regularly wish to play split adverts or jingles to your regional devices, you can create them within a Rotation (see Regional Container for details) or create individual M3U files for each jingle. In order to rotate these sequentially or randomly, place these M3U files inside a Spot Group and place it wherever you wish to play a Regional Container. Ensure that the #mAirList MODE FLAT is placed in your playlist to ensure that the Regional Container appears correctly. This technique ensures that your main music/jingle Rotations do not become bloated with excess Container definitions.
