Hi torben
I just playing with the mAirlist playlist scheduler recieved the following error. I checked it but seems to be allrght . Maybe you have an idea.
Folder 8 is empty
Can you tell me what is causing this falure
Regards
Goos
Hi torben
I just playing with the mAirlist playlist scheduler recieved the following error. I checked it but seems to be allrght . Maybe you have an idea.
Folder 8 is empty
Can you tell me what is causing this falure
Regards
Goos
You specified a folder in your template that doesn’t contain any items. Check your template and/our folders.
(Unfortunately, the routine that raises the error does only know the internal ID of the folder and not its name.)
Talking of the scheduler - It’s nice to see time separation in there But what is the meaning of “Penalty” ? It doesn’t appear to be a “throw item down the stack” option as it lets me put a number in over 100(%).
Thanks
It helped. It is working. But what i want to know is how can i automaticly load the playlist by example each hour in to the player 1 is there a schript availible can mAirList do it automaticly.
Or need i do this by the event scheduler and where can i find the playlist made by minischelure
Regards
Goos
Add a “load and play database playlist” action in the event scheduler.
When there’s no item that satisfies both artist separation and item separation at the same time, the scheduler will calculate a “weight” to check which item fits best. The weight is calculated by the penalty multiplied by the number of hours the item is scheduled “too early”.
In case I add further selection criteria later (e.g. based on attributes), and penalties for them as well, you will be able to fine-tune the behavior of the scheduler in case of conflicts, e.g. choose whether it should rather violate the artist separation than omitting the attribute requirement etc.
Thanks a lott this helps searching
Regards
Goos
[quote=“Torben, post:6, topic:6516”]When there’s no item that satisfies both artist separation and item separation at the same time, the scheduler will calculate a “weight” to check which item fits best. The weight is calculated by the penalty multiplied by the number of hours the item is scheduled “too early”.[/quote]OK, it can be a breakable rule ? I’m just trying to translate your ideas into something which I’m used to: FlexPoints, which start at 0 (ignore the rule) and 1000 (don’t break it) - so if you’ve got a rule that you don’t mind breaking, like a 24hr Artist limit but the scheduler is comes across an Artist that is 10sec shy of the limit, it can intelligently decide whether to schedule that artist (or not). Of course, a 10s violation on a 24hr rule is do-able but if the timings were a lot less, you would obviously want the rule to be adhered to.
I think I make sense!
By the way, have you ever seen “How to Schedule Music by Hand” ? It’s a brilliant document and gives you an idea of how it can be done using index cards which is what most of the scheduling algorithms are based on. Attached is the PDF.
HowToScheduleMusicByHand.pdf (95.2 KB)
The Mini Scheduler will never leave any slot empty, so sometimes it has to break a rule - the penalty parameters control which rules are broken first etc.
By the way, the scheduling is only on a per-hour basis. That means that the scheduler will never look at the minute a song was played, only at the hour. A separation of 0 means that the item may occur multiple times within the same hour. A separation of 1 means that the item may occurs in two subsequent hours (note that it can still be the last item of the first hour and the first item of the second hour!), and separation 2 means that there must be one hour in between. That’s why a value of two or higher makes sense.
I haven’t heard of that document, but I have done manual scheduling at eldoradio for a couple of times (the playlist for the two-hour morning show is still picked by hand there, as some sort of training for the future music journalists who work there), and I know that it’s an awful lot of work.
The scheduling algorithm built into mAirList is pretty much like the index card thing, but still, there must be some variation (the songs from a particular rotation should not be played in the same order all the time). When there’s more than one “perfectly matching” (doesn’t break any rule) song, the scheduler randomly picks one of them. Well, almost randomly: The first one is picked with a probability of 50%, the second one with a probability of 25%, and so on.
By the way, I still don’t plan to build a full-featured scheduler into mAirList. For professional purposes, please use a 3rd-party software - mAirList 3.1 can now batch-import M3U lists from other software. But the new algorithm is much better in terms of extendability (adding more rules), so I might improve it over time.
Thanks, Torben - that makes sense. So does the scheduling actually use a virtual list whereby a scheduled song is placed at the bottom and works its way up as the schedules are compiled ? In my own tests (and in other progs), this is the way it’s done - the main issue is how far down the list to throw a song that violates a particular rule. Most schedulers have an option for this, eg: throw randonly, throw to bottom etc. The bottom isn’t so good as there is a chance of the song hardly ever appearing even if it breaks simple rules.
The better the criteria you enter for your songs and the better you set your rotation rules, the better the station
But good work so far!
Ah! Charlie another user of the scheduler Music 1, at least you should be reading that particular document which contains corrections around the mathematics from myself.
I really must update to version 3 to see what’s going on.
I sent Torben a suggested database algorithm some months ago which basically ‘does that.’ I don’t know whether he adopted any of those ideas or concepts in the ‘new and improved’ Mini Scheduler in mAirList 3.1 preview.
BFN
CAD
Is it an ideea to make an option to made in a clock and rotations as well , and also an anti repeat option. This is what i did not find in the programme. For the moment i have enough mp3’s to solve this issue…
Thanks
Goos
In mAirListDB:
clock = Hourly Template
rotations = Folders
In other words:
Create some Folders (like Current, Oldies, etc.) and COPY the MP3s you want into those Folders. Then create hourly templates containing those folders. Finally, you can use those hourly templates in the ‘big grid’ and then Generate schedules from them. Does that help?
BFN
CAD
Hé Cad
Thanks for the tip have also station playlist creator . Do you know the settings for creating a mpl file by the way?
Goos
I’ve been looking at the mini-scheduler and I like it so far. I will def make use of it.
Now I have my main database as a mAirlist db. I have used a system similar to what Cad mentioned. So I have one folder for all music by artist, one for unsigned artists, etc, etc.
My question is: can the same file be available in two different folders in the same database? So I’d have the file under the header of All Music and also under the header of Classic Rock so when creating the hour template I can specify whether I want it taken from one folder or from the other.
Does that make sense?
Yes, you can put a virtual copy of an item into any folder by holding down the Ctrl key while moving it with the mouse. Unfortunately there is no visual feedback at this time.
Ok, that worked. So when setting up the hour template I can select either one folder or the other?
Many thanks.
Yes. Just note that with mAirList 3.0 it can happen that the song is scheduled twice within the same hour (once picked from folder #1, one from folder #2). With the new algorithm in mAirList 3.1 that can’t happen anymore (item separation).
Thank you.
Now when I generate a playlist and change the penalty points in the config it appears to be picking the same songs in the same order. It makes no difference if I alter the penalty points. The result is the same whether the penalties are 3 or 30. It also seems to be picking songs in an almost alphabetical order from the tail end of the alphabet (Q,S,T,W).