I can’t believe that no-one (myself included) has not asked for this already …
In the PFL/mAirListTag dialog, there is no visual indication that there are two or more non-zero values stored for a single cue point type.
For example: if you have two (or more) Outro points stored for a song, there is nothing you can see in the main PFL/Tag dialog box to indicate this. The only way to find this out at present is to click each ‘big button’ which has a value set, then look in its mini-dialog list box: not very convenient, and easy to accidentally select the ‘wrong’ cue point value while the mini-dialog is open.
(You have probably guessed that I have some songs which have multiple values set and now I can’t remember which ones!)
My suggestion would be to simply add an asterisk * to the end of the cue point label when multiple values exist, so in this example, Outro would display as Outro* when two or more values exist for it, something like this:
Cue
Ramp
Outro*
Fade Out*
Cue Out
Note that any stored zero values (00:00:00) should be ignored when counting how many values exist for (say) Outro.
This would make life a LOT easier for both presenters and library maintenance staff IMHO; and if possible, Torben, can you please change the stable version to do this as well (pretty please!)?
That sounds like a good idea, Cad… Although I’ve resisted adding extra In/Out Cues (for Hooks) as it’s currently (in my eyes) a right pain to do so… Would you not prefer a dedicated set of HookCues visible and accessable via a PLAYER 1 HOOK START/STOP command ?
That sounds like a good idea, Cad... Although I've resisted adding extra In/Out Cues (for Hooks) as it's currently (in my eyes) a right pain to do so... Would you not prefer a dedicated set of HookCues visible and accessable via a PLAYER 1 HOOK START/STOP command ?
DEFINITELY [b]NOT![/b] This is [b]NOTHING TO DO WITH HOOKS![/b]
(Have you guessed that I don’t use hooks and never will? )
There are several types of tracks which NEED multiple cue points for reasons which have nothing to do with hooks. Off the top of my head:
—live tracks (to cut or shorten the rambling spoken intro)
—tracks with effects etc. at start which are not normally played (e.g. Wannabe by The Spice Girls)
—tracks with Really Long Intros which are not normally played, or normally ‘cut short’ (e.g. I Don’t Want A Lover by Texas)
—Really Long Tracks, so you can pick a sensible length to suit your show (e.g. Wordy Rappinghood by Tom Tom Club or O Superman by Laurie Anderson)
All of these use different multiple cue points (Cue, Ramp, Fade Out) but my point is that once you’ve set these, there is no way to ‘see’ that you have (say) three Cue points other than by opening the Cue mini-dialog or examining the .MMD file in Notepad.
While we’re here, I am STRONGLY against the implied idea of adding specific ‘hook in/out’ commands and cue points: for me, they would just clutter up the PFL/tagging dialog because I would never use them. The five existing cue point types (plus the Start Next point added in V2.1.x) are more than enough for anything I can think of (including specifying ‘hooks’).
I know that Charlie is addicted to hooks ;), but I honestly don’t know any stations which use hooks on-air. In fact, I genuinely can’t think of any time I have ever heard a ‘hook’ broadcast on air … oh! wait a minute, YES! It was on BBC Radio 1, sometime in the 1980s. There was a minor vogue for them at that time. Dunno about commercial stations because I don’t listen to them on principle (the principle that they use rubbish presenters with faux Transadlandic-Scottish accents).
So, you’re not a fan of hooks, then ? They are useful, not just for “coming up in the next 3-in-a-row” but handy for quiz clips and so forth.
As we’re promoting the idea of flexibility, perhaps if/when something like this were added - it would be easily “turn off and on’able” (showing me age, there!).
DEFINITELY [b]NOT![/b] This is [b]NOTHING TO DO WITH HOOKS![/b]
I don’t see what your problem is with hooks - I know that we’d use them all the time if the feature was there. It’s a useful way to encourage listeners to stick around - but, as with everything in mAirList that’s been added, I’m sure there’d be the option to disable it if you wanted!
My only ‘problem’ with all this talk of hooks is that it’s hijacked this thread!
My problem remains: there is no way at present to ‘see’ whether any cue point has any ‘alternative’ values stored (the ones you see in the mini-dialog with the TEST/ADD/DELETE buttons).
The reason this is important is that I have several tracks tagged with ‘multiple’ values for (say) Cue and Ramp, BUT I have no way to ‘see’ that those ‘alternative’ points exist when a PFL dialog is open. The only way I can check is to laboriously click each ‘big’ cue point button and then see whether each ‘mini-dialog’ contains any values or not. Tedious beyond belief!
I know that in theory (!), I could write a VBScript or similar which could examine all the MMD files and list those which have the nodes, but again this doesn’t really help when using mAirList on air.
If there were some ‘indicator’ character added to the cue point text label (such as a * like I suggested in my original post in this thread), everyone would be immediately be able to see that alternative points exist, and which ones.
At the moment, it’s difficult to explain these ‘alternative’ cue points to my presenters:
ME: For long songs, there may be alternative points you can select.
PRESENTER: Great! So how will I know that a song has ‘alternative’ points set up? What should I be looking for?
ME: Er… (?!!)
PS to Torben: Please note that I would very much like this change made in the V2.0.x version if at all possible. Thanks in advance.
A very nice idea. I have added it to v2.1.26 as well as v2.0.10. The latter will be uploaded later this day. (Any more bugs in the v2.0 release that need to be fixed shortly?)
One minor problem with the new multiple cue point ‘indicator’ (in v 2.0.10 at least):
The ‘selector’ mini-dialog’s title bar is blank; in previous versions, that title bar contained the cue point name, like Ramp, Outro, etc (example in Wiki ‘Tagging’ page http://wiki.mairlist.com/index.php/Tagging).
I know it doesn’t make any difference, and I love being able to ‘see’ multiple cue points in the main PFL/tagging dialog box, but I wonder if it is possible to display the cue point name in the mini-dialog title bar again? Or is that not possible now? If it is a ‘one or the other’ choice, then I MUCH prefer the ‘visible multi cue points’ (and I can live with the blank title bar if need be).
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