I know this has been discussed before and it was held off until the release of Version 2.
V2 is now with us, and I was wondering if it was likely that you’d be interested in talking about integrating a segue editor/voice track recorder any time soon?
As far as I can see, it would be easiest to:
allow the user to define their own audio editor in the config (MS sound recorder, adobe audition, etc…)
have an optional section with a segue editor in it, with the ability to drag audio items into the position you want them in, which will perhaps ‘save local’ the tags so they dont get overwritten?
allow recording end editing of files, which will launch the pre-defined audio editor.
I can visualise the sort of thing you mean, Ant: a bit like Myriad or SAM2, yes?
If your station/show uses voice tracking then yes, that would be a useful addition (much more useful than display of videos IMHO ); but I’m afraid we only have full live-assist shows or fully pre-recorded ones.
So yes, it would be a good idea for the future, once the rest of the bugs/annoyances have been nailed.
I agree that this would be nice to have. The segue editor is probably the hardest part. I’m afraid there are a few other things which have priority (mAirListDB, finishing my PhD thesis, …) until I find the time for such a complex thing. But I keep it in mind. Don’t hesitate to remember me in case I announce myself being bored some day
not exactly understanding what the DB will do, I am assuming this will allow you to import music and create a schedule/list internally so mairlist can play cuts at random? some other programs have this now, but I prefer mairlist’s GUI, so that would be a welcome addition.
very good…this is in my mind far from of a priority then Vting…in addition to an End of song detector. The 3 players at the bottom reminder me of the old DOS based ITC digicenter automation program from the early 1990s…never lasted long…you load a cutset wrong and would reboot the PC, but the GUI was well designed…so is mairlist, and far better then digicenter…
“End of song detector” - do you mean audio or hardware? We have both already: FadeOut points can be determined based upon a dB threshold to ensure segues are smooth (I find -13dB works for me). EOF (end of file) is like the flashing Play button on a Denon CD unit - there’s a script with the main program download that allows you to specify a hardware event (to drive a studio light).
As for playing in random - load an M3U playlist of songs and run this script either: a) at the end of the playlist, or b) every x hours
[code]// Playlist Randomizer
var i : Integer;
ziel: Integer;
begin
CurrentPlaylist.BeginUpdate;
try
for i:=0 to CurrentPlaylist.GetCount-1 do begin
if CurrentPlaybackControl.GetPlayerOfItem(CurrentPlaylist.GetItem(i)) = -1 then begin
ziel := random(CurrentPlaylist.GetCount-1);
if CurrentPlaybackControl.GetPlayerOfItem(CurrentPlaylist.GetItem(ziel)) = -1 then
CurrentPlaylist.Move(i,ziel);
end;
end;
finally
CurrentPlaylist.EndUpdate;
end;
end.[/code]
It’s not perfect, but handy if you want to automate a block of songs but do not have a scheduler…
I’m talking software. I know what you mean about denon’s, I have 2 CD cart players…I use zararadio right now as the main automation program for my stream, I don’t like it’s interface, which is why i’m watching mairlist…it has a built in interface, so I don’t have to mess with scripts…just go into the settings and adjust accordingly. set it to how many second before the end you want to to trigger the next song and what db level you want, but if mairlist has a script, perhaps I have missed it…
for scheduling, I have a number of different playlists for zara…which is very easy without a script to program…load the list and tell it what hours to play it in…I don’t have time to schedule music on a daily basis, it should be able to run itself, and I have tried freeware schedulers out of curiousity with no luck. That’s why I’m hopeful of mairlist being able to (1) create a list (2) programming it for any hour 24/7 all within the mairlist program. ideally, playlist creators should be a separate program so you can network on another machine.
yeah, I suppose I want to combine the scheduling features and end of song detection of zara, and the GUI of mairlist would be my ideal automation program…
mAirList does have a setting like this - but it has do be done individually for each song by settings its Fade Out and/or Start Next markers in the PFL dialog. Just because there is no global value which fits every song. Five seconds is far too early for a song with a “cutting” end, but far too late for a song with a long fade. After all, we’re doing radio, and the result should sound as perfect as it gets and attract our listeners. You see what I mean?
Ideally, you would invest the time to examine and “tag” each of your file, setting the Cue, Ramp and Fade Out markers as appropriate, and saving the result to either the file tag or MMD file. The next time you load that file into mAirList, all markers are ready for the perfect sound. There’s a special mode you can start mAirList in, mAirList Tag, which gives you a directory tree and a PFL dialog for faster processing.
Admittedly, this is not feasible when starting off with an existing collection of, say, 5000 files. This is what Auto Cue is for, which offers the ability to automatically set the Cue In, Fade Out and Cue Out markers based on adjustable dB thresholds. It must be enabled in the config (on the Misc → File Import page). Each file which hasn’t been tagged before (that is, which does not have a mAirList ID3 Tag or MMD file) will be processed on first import into the playlist. You can then review the values and possibly save them into a tag or MMD file for later use.
For more sophisticated applications, e.g. automatically overlapping voice tracks with the ramp of the next song, you can use one of the scripts offered here.
for scheduling, I have a number of different playlists for zara....which is very easy without a script to program....load the list and tell it what hours to play it in....I don't have time to schedule music on a daily basis, it should be able to run itself, and I have tried freeware schedulers out of curiousity with no luck. That's why I'm hopeful of mairlist being able to (1) create a list (2) programming it for any hour 24/7 all within the mairlist program. ideally, playlist creators should be a separate program so you can network on another machine.
A playlist creator is not yet included, but I’m working on it (as part of the mAirListDB project). For the moment, you have to use an external software which is able to produce ordinary M3U output. There’s an article in the Wiki on this topic: start [mAirList Wiki]
These playlists can be loaded and started in the same way as in ZaraRadio/Raduga, using the event scheduler. Just click on Events in the main toolbar. It is very similar to the one found in ZaraRadio (actually, it was inspired by the one from Raduga) but even more powerful.
In particular, it supports variable substitution on the file names. So if you create one playlist file per hour and use a proper name scheme (e.g. c:\somefolder\YYYY-MM-DD-HH.m3u), you can just enable variable substitution and specify “c:\somefolder%Y-%M-%D-%h.m3u” as the file name - mAirList will put in the current date and time. So you only need a single event run every hour.
Scott,
If you want to bulk-set item FadeOut/Segue points - check out my script here: http://forum.mairlist.com/index.php/topic,2558.0.html You’ll need to find some icons if you want to use them (i got mine at iconarchive.com) otherwise just //comment them out. This script will process a playlist of tracks and a) give it an EndType of T(emporary), give it an icon, set the FadeOut point, and save the MMD data file.
Various parts of that script are commented out, so look at it first and then decide what you want it to do. If you want to experiment but not make any permanent changes - comment out the save MMD line. I find that a setting of -13dB (in mAirList Config) works for songs and jingles alike - However, I set the EndTypes to “T” so that I know which files were done in bulk… That way, I can then go back and check the FadeOut time manually and change the EndType to an E or F.
There are plenty of other scripts in the Script forum - they may look complex, but some can run “hidden” in the Events Scheduler and others (like this one) can be placed in the Actions Button of a production copy of mAirList.
“Admittedly, this is not feasible when starting off with an existing collection of, say, 5000 files. This is what Auto Cue is for, which offers the ability to automatically set the Cue In, Fade Out and Cue Out markers based on adjustable dB thresholds. It must be enabled in the config (on the Misc -> File Import page). Each file which hasn’t been tagged before (that is, which does not have a mAirList ID3 Tag or MMD file) will be processed on first import into the playlist. You can then review the values and possibly save them into a tag or MMD file for later use.”
I have about 20-25K files, so yes, it’s not feasible…I cannot file the misc-file import page, so am not sure exactly sure what you mean…I have just installed 2.2 to play with…but I need to do a mass auto cue. I trimmed the files months ago, so while I agree with what you say about custom setting for each file, unless I can do it automatically, it far from practical.
the playlist generator I look forward to in version 3.0. I’ve had really bad luck with anything free, but maybe I can import zara playlist files into mairlist? maybe would have to name them m3u?
Run mAirListConfig, and in the menu tree, click Miscellanneous, then File Import.
the playlist generator I look forward to in version 3.0. I've had really bad luck with anything free, but maybe I can import zara playlist files into mairlist? maybe would have to name them m3u?
Its native format (.lst) is not compatible with m3u, but ZaraRadio has an option to create m3u output in the Save As dialog.
Your software was recommended to me and I have to say I’m very impressed. You are only a few features away from offering everything that RCS, Myriad or ENCO etc provide but with the additional benefit of fantastic flexibilty in configuration, something that they don’t.
If I can put in my vote for future development, it is for voice tracking.
So long as you use tagged music tracks (i.e. marked up with ramp and fadeout points), it will do the job for you.
Ideally, you would designate one Player as ‘Special,’ and mark your VTs in the Playlist to only play out from the ‘Special’ Player. You would also ‘route’ the ‘Special’ player to a different desk input so you can have it +6dB higher on the desk than the music.
I have downloaded IVP and will give it try once I’m happy that I’ve got my configuration and soundcards set up.
Your suggestion to set up a separate player and route it through an individual channel is a very good piece of advice - thanks.
Of course that leads to the ‘development thought’ of wouldn’t it be a good idea to store ‘level data’ about each track in the new DB. In this way speech and music could be played out of the same player but at different levels.
Andrew,
If you look through some of the threads, Torben has stated that “volume envelopes” will be part of v3.0 at some point - This’ll allow us to specify fades and level-ducking for sweepers and voice-tracks etc. Cad’s neat IVP script is a really useful tool and really we are just waiting for a “real” version of it by Torben - ie: slide bars that let you drag the audio back/forward to overide the overlaps and place sweepers over them…
); but I’m afraid we only have full live-assist shows or fully pre-recorded ones.