I have not found much DRS2006 support in english and the German topics, even with google translate, are mostly difficult to make sense of.
We are currently running DRS2006 professional 2.2 and I have been experimenting with trying to get the audio library imported into the mAirlist database. The process works and the audio files get imported but it does not keep any of the timings (cue, intro, fade, or segue etc). I really want to move to a different system and I like mAirlist a lot in what I have experienced so far. I am hoping that there is a mostly seamless process and without having to edit the whole library again. I have also been experimenting with Charlie’s My Library. He just added the HRDat.txt import feature and so far it seems to work great! I have made pretty good progress with it but still need to export all of the mmd data out to be able to see if mAirlist will import them all. I guess Im wondering what the DRS2006 import function built into the mAirlist actually does and if there is a way to customize the way it pulls in each field.
I also want to be able to import the drs playlists which are in the same .dbf format. I can turn those into .csv files easily. If only there was a way to import those into the mAirlist playlist editor. I have been using SPL Creator to convert them to m3u but it does not transfer over any of the timings. Well, it is able to do the intro timings but drs stores it in the full time format, not millseconds, which is what Creator is looking for and trying to convert that in excel has proved quite brain-wracking.
I have also been searching for this what seems like a hidden mAirlist documentation webpage but I can not find it. The wiki does not have any information about importing that I could find.
DRS2006 metadata can be imported into mAirListDB with very little effort. Basically, you let mAirListDB scan the audio folder first, and then import the .csv file from DRS2006 in order to copy over the cue points etc. All essential metadata can be imported this way, except for the rotation/category assignment.
I have only tested it with DRS2006 v3 export files though. The v2.2 .csv structure might be slightly different. You should check the columns first and rearrange them if necessary.
So it does work great…for the most part. I am now finding issues with cue out timings. I notice its only pulling the fade out time from the import according to the other thread you linked. The way mAirlist database stores and plays it is from the start of the fade and ends at the cue out, right? DRS does the same thing except stores the fade out as total seconds it takes to fade instead of the point of time in reference to the full duration of the audio file. It seems on some short sweepers that I have found so far, the fade and cue out get backwards and cues out before the fade. Is this supposed to happen? Would you be able to add the cue out field, in the HRDat.csv import? I am pretty sure 2.2 and 3.0 use the same fields. The wierd part is that it doesn’t mix them up every time.
Sure thing. It wouldn’t let me post a .csv so I change the extension to .txt
Each field is:
ARTIST, TITLE, TIME, TYPE, MP3 FileNAME, ALBUM, YEAR, COMMENT, ENDTYPE, INTRO/Ramp, CUE IN POSition, FADE IN SPeed, Cue Out, FADE OUT SPeed, INFORMAT
Thanks for checking this out.
I just realized I might be a bit confused on the way I was explaining this. The way the database takes in the fade out is right with taking field 13 which is the drs cue out. It still doesn’t make sense why the mAirlist database would translate and put the cue out before the fade point on some audio.
I think I got it. Does “Cue Out” mean in DRS2006 that the track is actually starting to fade at that point, and not stopped completely?
Because in mAirList, “Fade Out” is where it starts to fade, and “Cue Out” is where it stops.
I think what happens here is that DRS2006’s Cue Out is imported as mAirList’s Cue Out (that should rather be Fade Out), and that mAirList’s Fade Out is still set to what it was by Auto Cue when you imported the file into mAirListDB in the first place.
I will try to confirm this assumption later, need to leave the office for a while now.
Ok, so in your example, 00:00:26 is where the track should start to fade (aka Fade Out in mAirList). What’s the “1” (Fade Out Speed) then? Does it mean that the fading time should be one second?
True, Cad, but in the sense of how it will translate field to field, mAirlist, as far as I can tell, stores the timings relative to the duration of whole audio file, not just the duration of the fade.
Yes, Paul, but my point is that mAirList uses the global default fade duration unless you tell it otherwise.
So IMHO DRS2006 FadeSpeed matches better to mAirList FadeDuration than to Cue Out, because that is what FadeSpeed is specifying: the length of the fade out, right? And since this might be different for different tracks in DRS2006 (correct?), setting the item’s Fade duration to that value in mAirList would seem to be a better plan overall.
Cue Out in mAirList would kind of equal the item’s total duration in DRS2006, since IIRC DRS2006 doesn’t have an ‘EOF’ cue point that is the equivalent of mAirList’s CueOut. You don’t need to specify a CueOut in mAirList. If no CueOut exists, the item will play to EOF if there is no FadeOut specified.
AH! Interesting! Are you saying it would be better and even easier to just take the Cue Out field for the Fade Out and let the global EOF set the cue out times?
I’m saying use DRS CueOut as mAirList FadeOut, as you say.
Then use DRS FadeSpeed as mAirList Fade Duration, because that IS what ‘fade speed’ is. You then do not need a specific CueOut, because it’s taken care of.
Personally, I don’t use CueOut cue points at all, because all my tracks are properly trimmed. So FadeOut, plus my global fade duration, does everything I need. I have some tracks which don’t have a FadeOut point either, because they just ‘stop.’