The DRS 2006 On Air DJ Studio (05/18/2002)
Radio Self Automation doesn't come any better than this, incorporating every possible feature a Jock needs for full control of a broadcast. Based on the cart system it is rock steady and stable to cope with whatever you throw at it. 

The all new GUI is your ticket to success. All functions are laid out in a logical order to be right there at a click of a mouse, or your fingertips for those using a touch-screen system.

This module incorporates the new LED Radio Clock, familiar to many. Turning to the color yellow, 30 seconds to the hour, gives you that added reassurance you will get your on-the-hour bulletins out on time.

Colored time indicators are also a new feature, giving the Jock that perfect edge, along with the Best Pick feature, ensuring a track is never repeated, unless of course you want to ;-)


Information Display

No Artist/No Title: Here will be displayed the artist and title of the track.

Full Time: Displays the full playable time of a track, if it were to be played on its own, without a track following.

Position: Shows the current position of the track playing (Ascending).

To Cue: Displays the current position (Descending). The last 10 seconds of the track will change color to yellow.
(Please note also a visual indicator to the right of the 'To Cue' time, showing the user, how this track will end - either 'C', 'F' or 'CF').

Intro: This 2 digit display allows the jock to perfectly time those links into a track, also changes color to yellow last 10 seconds of Intro.

Date: Um the date ;-).

Radio LED Clock: A neat little feature, which changes color to yellow 30 seconds to the hour.

Virtual Faders: A visual indicator as well as providing functionality allowing the user to fade out a track manually. The 'H' button is a Pause feature, literally pausing the track for a Jock comment or insert. To resume playback click the 'H' again.

Tracker: Green, Yellow and Red, is a quick visual indicator of the current position of the track playing, will progress left to right.


Playlist Slots
The main players of the module, 16 in-all, provide that do it yourself feel, leaving you to control what you play, when you play it.

Here is a description of the functions and displays of the Playlist Slots:

Hook: This feature is activated by checking the small check box to the left of the carts and above the 'P'. When enabled and the hook has been set in Audio Manager, the cart will only play the specific section you have chosen to play. Example this may be 22 seconds of audio chosen from anywhere within a song. If this box is unchecked, it will play the full track.

P: A click on this button allows the user to Prelisten to the track in any slot prior to playing or even during play, using the Prelistening Engine included.

Each individual slot will display the Artist, Title, Time To Cue, and any Intro. In addition the following information is shown on the face of each slot:

Drop: when shown as 'N', tells the user that this slot does not have drop enabled on this track.
The 'Drop Others' function is ideal for Sweepers, Jingles, and Voice inserts. Imagine Playlist Slot 1 contains a Voice Over and Playlist Slot 2 contains a piece of music with an intro before the vocals. When the Drop function is enabled on the Voice Over in Audio Manager, as you fire Playlist Slot 1 it will simultaneously play and drop the sound level of Playlist Slot 2 (default 75%). Therefore enabling you to play the Voice Over above the intro of the music…this is one example. This feature is available in all 16 Playlist Slots, providing you have set the drop function to your selected items.

End: displays the ending of the track, whether it is a Fade (F), Cut Fade (CF) or Cut end (C).

Also included on each slot are keyboard shortcuts and Remote Control indicators. (The Remote Control Hardware is available to buy separately through the DRS 2006 website).


More DJ Studio Functions

Re-Cue All: Turns the played carts green again, signifying to the user that these carts are ready to play once again, if you so desire.

Remove All: Removes all active carts within the display, don't worry there's an "Are You Sure" dialog box that pops up if you accidentally hit this button by mistake.

Underneath this is 'Auto Slot Rotation' and 'Manual Starts' checks, giving the user a little more control over DRS 2006 doing the work or you.


Fast Switching Playlists
The box above allows the user to quickly load a preset playlist, created using the combination of the cart system and within 'Setup', even while the current playlist is playing out. Caution, you will no longer be able to see the outgoing playlist but merely the ready to play playlist, it's a use your ears type thing.
If you want to take the slower way of loading a playlist (cart set) then 'Load DJ Playlist' is the way for you. 'Save DJ Playlist' is as it sounds, saves a playlist that you have created, to use again and again as many times as you wish, example a show start/end.

A click on the 'Setup' button causes above dialog box to open up, giving you a couple of options regarding your playlist.

Quick Link Name: Assigns a name of your choice to an individual fast switching playlist.

Quick Link File: By default this is set as 'none' until you browse to the location of your saved playlist file and assign a name which you activate by clicking 'Add Quick Link'. You may remove a cart set at any time by clicking 'Remove Link'.

This dialog also gives you additional Audio Settings, allowing you to set your desired fade out seconds, drop level and percentage of volume drop.

Info And Prelisten: This is a really cool feature allowing the user to gather information about a particular song, and even prelisten any of the songs within the Search Engine Window (entire Database).
When you click on the button labeled 'Info & Prelisten' the dialog shown below will open up. This window gives you quick access to various information about a title.
Click on 'Info & Prelisten' to activate the DRS 2006 Prelistening Engine.

Prelistening Engine

This small, yet amazingly advanced PFL unit gives the user the ability to listen to a chosen playlist item and items within the search engine window. But it does more than that, allowing authorized users to write any changes back to the database for future use. In essence it is a miniature version of the DRS 2006 Audio manager. Accessed by the 'Info & Prelisten' and 'P' buttons, the audio is carried via a second soundcard or dual output soundcard on your system.

The clear and easy to read display gives accurate mp3 tag information, encoding properties, the full time of the item, and the current position.

Cue Fade In: By moving the slider or big green arrows on the right you can set how the song will fade into a mix. Can be set by the second or tenths.

Cue Fade Out: Exactly the opposite effect of 'Cue Fade In'.

Intro: Once set advises the user of the countdown time limit before an artist begins to sing (for example). Can also be set on-the-fly by clicking the 'Set' button at the exact moment you choose.

Cue In: If, for example, an item has a silence at the beginning, you can set the 'Cue In' to get rid of this unwanted silence, so in essence the track will fire at the point which you set, or you may wish to fire the track at any point of your choosing. Can also be set on-the-fly by clicking the 'Set' button at the exact moment you choose.

Cue Out: Exactly the opposite of 'Cue In', but also ensuring you have that perfect mix by setting the time the track will end. The next track will fire at the point set. Can also be set on-the-fly by clicking the 'Set' button at the exact moment you choose.

Tracker: A visual indicator of how far through the track you have prelistened.

Jump To End: Will, once pressed, jump the tracker to the last 10 seconds of the track (by default), a time saving feature, so you may review an ending.

F, C, CF: Once set will show the user, in the main OADJ display, how this particular item will end: F = Fade, C = Cut End, and CF = Cut Fade.

Current Slot: Indicates the playlist slot you are prelistening to, you may choose any of the items in the playlist slots by clicking the arrows.

Drop Others: Will indicate to DRS 2006 that this item is for example a Voice Insert, and will drop the volume of an item following it so that this item will play over the top, without the audio being drowned out. When a drop others item is inserted within a playlist, it will once fired, simultaneously fire the next Playlist item. This option prevents your softer sounding items from being drowned out by a more aggressive element in the playlist. You will use this often. To activate, check the box.

Preferences, Toggle Playlist/Equalizer: Provides Winamp functionality.

More Information: Will open the Information dialog, providing further details of Album, Sound Code, and Comment etc.

Write To Database: If the user has rights to use this function set in the Administration Kit, He/She may write any changes made to an item, back to the database. Please be careful assigning rights to use this feature.

Save & Exit: Will, once you have completed your alterations to an item, temporarily save those changes to the item, when the item is played, it will use those changes, one time only. When the item is cleared it will revert back to the settings held within the DRS 2006 Database.


More features

Drop Next: Will drop the sound level (default 75%) next item to play in the playlist slots, so that you may speak over the incoming item, example during an intro.

Drop Now: Will drop the sound level (default 75%) so that you may speak over the item at any point - ideal for intros. To speak over an outgoing item and an incoming item, be sure to hit both the 'Drop Now' and 'Drop Next' buttons.

Cart 1: Incorporated as a rough singular Jingle, Bed, and Sweeper player, give the user the additional function of playing one of these individually or over a track, even an outgoing and incoming track (Crossplay). It has three settings:

Loop: Will loop continuously the item within the cart.

Cart mode: Will automatically drop the level of the main mix to 75% (Default) so an item can be played above the main item. It will also highlight the 'Drop Next' function should this item be required to be played over two items. Once complete it will return the main mix back to 100% volume. If you choose to end the item earlier than its predetermined time, simply click it once more and it will return the main mix to full volume. (This is useful for Fade End items)

Please note: You may at any time during the playing of this item, fade out the main mix.

Bed mode: Acts in a similar way, however this item will play at 75% (default) and will not drop the main mix volume or highlight the 'Drop Now' / 'Drop Next' functions.

Please note: You may at any time during the playing of this item, fade out the main mix.


Search Engine Database Features

Category Filter: Allows for quick and easy access to the few or many categories of music you may have within your database. By typing 'All'in the category filter box, will display all your database items in the search engine window. For example if you choose 'Rock' it will display only those items pertaining to rock, which have been set via Audio Manager. To refresh this screen and return to view all database items click 'Reset & Refresh'.

Sort After Column: Again the same for this filter, giving you the option to view songs by year or intro for example, displaying those in the search engine window.

Text Search In Current Columns: By entering a few characters of a title or artist of a song, the DRS 2006 powerful search engine will immediately display all songs that have those characters contained within the filename. For example typing: "auto", will display "Automatic Taxi Star - She's a bit", and any others containing the word "auto". Can't remember the Artist, no problem, just type in what you know and let DRS 2006 find the matches for you. It is worthy to note to activate the search you must click the 'Search' button below the 'Filtered' items digits.

Best Picks: This is a very neat feature allowing the user to see at one glance what would be the best item to play next.
For each category DRS 2006 sets up a Priority Index consisting of 9999 entries. Each time an item is played in one of the DRS 2006 modules (expect the Audio Manager) this item is put at the very beginning of the Priority Index list. The entry showing the highest number, i.e. 9999, indicates that it would be the best item to play next while an entry showing the lowest number indicates that it has just recently been played. Pressing the 'Best Picks' button will display the entry currently showing 9999 in the Priority Index column. If 'All' is selected from the 'Category Filter' box you will see several entries numbered 9999 - one from each category.
Note: You can achieve the same result by selecting 'Priority Index' from the 'Sort after Column' box.
When an item has been pla
To best understand how this feature works you should try it out yourself. Once you start playing an item you can see how it is automatically being moved to the beginning of the list and a new item has been moved up to position 9999.

Quick Filter: For filtering very quickly through your database via artist or title, choose artist or title above the alpha buttons and hit an alpha button. This will display all artists or titles beginning with that letter.


Playing songs in DRS 2006
As with all cart based modules within DRS 2006, select the song within the search engine window and move your pointer to a cart of your choice and with the left mouse button click once on that cart, this will insert and cue the item ready to play. The right mouse button will remove the item from the cart. To play, click on the cart with your left mouse button. Many features of DRS 2006 come complete with remote control and keyboard shortcuts for your convenience.