Hi, Just wondering why when i set an item to backtime from a dummy at the end of the hour songs end up being cut off by the back timed track. Surely the point of back timing is to stop songs from getting cut off. All that seems to have happened is that the item that gets cut off has moved.
I have attached a screen grab of the bottom of the playlist currently (whilst i am writing) as you can see there is no way that the Gotye track can play all 4mins before the Junior Senior track kicks in. This is a bugbear as it sounds bad whilst our student station is automated over the summer break.
Obviously there is not enough time to play both the Gotye and the Junior Senior track at full length.
By giving the dummy a hard fixed time at 23:59:59, and setting Junior Senior to “Backtimed”, you told the automation to play Junior Senior at full length, and also start it so that it will end at 23:59:59 (the fixed time of the dummy).
Without the “backtimed” option, Gotye would be played until the very end, but Junior Senior would be cut off.
So the point of “backtimed” is not to prevent songs from being cut off, but rather to promote a fixed time up the playlist, so you get a sequence of items that are played at full lengh and end at a certain time. (Some stations use this to have their ad break end exactly at the top of the hour).
mAirList cannot automatically “level” the amount of time that is cut off from the songs, that is, cut off 1.5 minutes from either song rather than 3 minutes from one of them. Here’s a few suggestions to make your station sound better:
Use the Mix Editor to post-process the playlists manually. Much work, but best results.
Use a special folder/rotation with instrumental tracks that is used as the last song in the playlist.
Use soft fixed times instead of hard ones. This will prevent any song from being cut off, but, of course, the next hour playlist will not start exactly at the top of the hour. (Note that you may have to modify your hourly event in the Event Scheduler when using this mehtod, from Load and Play Database Playlist to Append Database Playlist).
