I’m now using a copy of MusicGen Lite for radio music scheduling. Can anyone provide me with the steps necessary to configure the program so it generates logs that can be used for playback with mAirList?
There is an M3U output option so it will create mAirList-friendly playlists - Tony I think is the expert on this as he has used it more than myself and should be able to offer some pointers. I did have a play a while back but couldn’t really get to grips with it - Perhaps it’s due for another go!
Hi Keystone and Charlie, I too will have to take another look at musicgen lite. Not used this in a long time.
Kind Regards Tony
Umm … looks like Prophet Systems have been swallowed up by RCS! All the old links to MusicGen now take you to the RCS home page.
Ditto I’ve seen posts stating that Prophet withdrew MusicGen even before that :-, so with my professional hat on, I would have to caution anyone using MusicGen that ‘you’re on your own’ because there is now zero support for it.
And if you’re planning to ‘look at it again,’ I hope you still have your unlock code handy, because I suspect that getting a fresh code would be difficult if not impossible.
All of which seems a shame, since MusicGen Lite seems to have had quite a following, and been pretty well regarded.
BFN
CAD
Hi Cad, just re-installed. Code safely locked away but email if you need it.
First thing don’t accept an update when prompted, better still run on a PC without a net connection!
A quick answer to Keystones original question before I head for home.
The format options are found in Config. Click on station or a profile you have created. Put a tick in the box Create M3U Playlist and then complete the details in the format name to suit your tastes hh dd mm yy etc. Remember to save.
Hopefully you have already created the clocks rotations and rules. i did have somewhere the full manual for this but its a matter of some more digging.
While searching earlier I also found an old dos scheduler (doubt if it will not run on XP or later) called K Music its good for scheduling Cd’s but just change the Cd number for a file location.
Kind Regards Tony
Found the manual, download from here (pdf):
http://tinyurl.com/5wc54d
Cad you may need this I think the link I gave you was wrong.
I’m having trouble with musicgen exporting the log. I have the export options set to a .m3u file, but all I get in mAirList is a playlist of five songs!!
Any help?
thanks,
lil’ Matt
Hi Matt, its been several years since I used MusicGen so will have to try and figure it out again.
Charlie also had problems with MusicGen and gave up. Cad has also just took
MusicGen to try so ask how he is getting on. A much easier scheduler is Music 1, the web edition is a good price.
Sorry I cannot be more help at this time.
Kind Regards Tony
Matt:
I have MusicGen set up to create working playlists for mAirList. Can you describe how you have MusicGen configured or post some screenshots?
Did you fill the entire clock with about 60 minutes or more of music categories and appoint clocks to fill the entire grid? Are there are rules or policies set? Do the five songs successfully play in mAirList? How much music are you working with?
I would be glad to help if I had more information. If I have the time, I will post details about my MusicGen configuration soon.
Hi Matt, I think keystone may have hit your problem straight away.
Firstly ensure you have enough audio in the library and enough in each category you use as scheduling is a black art. Not enough audio in a category and audio repeats too often, too much and its barely rotated.
In each category you can create packets (useful for grouping together an individual artist so that all their songs in a packet are rotated within the category they appear).
Next create clocks (assign a clock to each each of the day) from the categories. Individaul items can also be assigned tempos/sound codes and themes. With this you can assign that Country does not play against rock etc or tempo 1 (fast) does not play next to tempo 5 (slow)
Create some rule sets, again to prevent audio playing too often. With so much to consider remember to download the full manual:
I have also uploaded a document that details more about scheduling. It actually come from Steve Warren in the US of Music 1 (scheduler). Steve himself a long standing music programmer of repute. You can also find the document at Steves website :
Kind Regards Tony
btw:removed link
Time for bed after a long weekend!
Tony: Once again, many thanks for a terrific resource! That ‘how to schedule’ manual looks absolutely brilliant! Just the job for a complete scheduling ‘virgin’ :-[ like yours truly.
I presume that the Full Manual ‘bible’ he plugs on the Music 1 site is not the same thing as the ‘scheduling’ one you posted? (Actually, I hope it isn’t, cos’ that would likely be a copyright breach, now I come to think of it…). If I manage to plough through and fully understand the one you posted, I may well purchase his ‘bible’ as well.
PS: I haven’t installed MusicGen yet. Still getting my head around the manual: there are several points where the manual seems to assume you are an experienced Music Programmer (not unreasonable, really!), and uses a jargon term or two which has me temporarily baffled. But I’m getting there!
BFN
CAD
Hi Cad, the document I posted Steve freely gives away and I have his permission to distribute it to my radio classes (it actually contains some corrections from me about the maths).
Its actually just selected extracts from the full version at the music 1 website, not seen the full version myself but its supposed to be the business.
Kind Regards Tony
btw:no chance for sleep as we have builders working downstairs.
MusicGenLite is being a real pain now - it’s giving me the “Can’t start database” error message. I’ve installed the sample one and even tried creating a new one but still the same thing. I’ve cleared the Registry setting for it so it asks me what one I want to open but it still errors when I select the pre-made sample one. I’ve re-installed and cleared the Registry numerous times and am stumped and never had this problem before (on XP) - I’m now running Vista Ultimate, FWIW.
Tony was kind enough to let me have a copy last year and whilst I did give it a go, I couldn’t “get on” with it in the same way I do with Natural Music 
If I could get MusicGen to work, I’d have another go!
I’ve read on a forum elsewhere that if you change certain things, you need to re-select ‘pass orders’ to force MG to actually export a log. Don’t know if that helps or just confuses you more?
(I really must install MGLite sometime soon… ;))
BFN
CAD
Thanks for all the replies, the screen shot of what I get in mAirList is attached. It actually just gives me a list of most of my songs (they are categorized by a cart number ie. 00-201 is from the year 2000) I have 00-201 up to 06-233. And then it stops.
Also in Music Gen some songs are listed as having a two hour runtime when they’re only 3 minutes long.
I guess I should add that my music is all .WAV files, some compressed some uncompressed.
thanks
lil matt
Hi Matt, first problem spotted in the players - is mAirList is not locating your songs. You will need to import the songs at least once into a playlist. mAirList should remember this for another time. I’m sure there is a script for this somewhere in the forums.
To MusicGen, you should be able to correct the duration errors in Musicgen itself. Library song properties. manual work because you will need to know the actual song length.
The scheduling problem: Are you scheduling as individual hours or for 24 hours as a single playlist?
if you are creating 24 1 hour playlists, mAirList has correctly loaded an hours playlist. If you have created a single playlist you should be able to scroll down the playlist in mAirList, the list should be about 312 songs long (13 songs per hour).
Night all.
Kind Regards Tony
edit
Looking again at your image, mAirList has loaded 398 items (next to the E above the players) - yet it shows the playlist as being just under the hour?
btw:The image shows audio located on the F drive, was this attached to the PC when loading the playlist?
If not this could also explain why the players could not find it.
Not necessarily manual work.
If you have a list of your audio in (for example) a spreadsheet, my understanding is that you can export the relevant columns into a text file and import that into MusicGen. So, if you have MMD files for each of your audio files; then use my MMD importer (apologies to Torben and others using non-MS spreadsheets ;)); THEN tweak a copy of the generated file to contain the columns MusicGen can import; THEN export that to a text file … you can import that into MusicGen.
There’s rather a good section about all this in the MG manual.
I can’t remember (I’m at work right now) whether it will import CSV or whether you HAVE to use a fixed-format file. What I do remember is that there doesn’t seem to be a way of importing any time values other than Duration, which means you can’t import Ramps even though MusicGen will allow you to manually type them in (grrrr! >:().
BFN
CAD
I had it schedule for 24 hrs.
The “F” Drive is plugged into the computer and is also where the playlist is stored.
Thanks all!
Sorry to bring up an old topic.
Can anybody point me to a location where i can get a copy of musicgen?
I know there was one on here recently, having done a forum search, i can’t seem to find it.
I know it is no longer, but i know i recently managed to download it elsewhere from a link on the forum.
Many Thanks
Hi Lackster, I will PM the link once I find it.
thanks tony.