The DRS 2006 Playlist Editor (03/22/2002)
Now that there are audio files in your database you can begin creating playlists. A playlist is a list of songs that will be played one after another sequentially.

Creating a playlist is simple with the DRS 2006 Playlist Editor. When you open the Playlist Editor the last playlist that was opened with the Playlist Editor will be displayed.


Main Display Screen
The display screen in the Playlist Editor shows what items you have in the playlist and in what order they will be played. The display shows the Artist, Title, Time, The type of end (Cue or Fade), Intro Time, Type, Cue In Time, In (Fade In), Cue Out Time and Out (Fade Out time). These functions are set in the playlist. Any items place in the playlist as well as any settings adjusted to a particular item are unique to the playlist and do not affect any other playlist in the system. When you save the playlist not only are the items saved, but the settings you make to the items are saved as well.

Clock
The clock derives the time from the system settings of your computer and can be set using Windows®.


Slider Controls
Below the main screen are five slider controls. The five-slider controls adjust the 'Fade In', 'Fade Out', 'Cue In', 'Cue Out' and the 'DJ Break' settings of the items in the playlist.

To adjust an item in the playlist first select it with your mouse by clicking on the playlist item and then, adjust the slider control. To the right of the slider are two arrows that you can single click to make an adjustment or hold down on the arrow with the left mouse button for a continuous adjustment. You can watch the value change on the main screen under the function you are adjusting.

For example, if you want to adjust the 'Cue Out' time for item two in the playlist. First click on the second item in the playlist and then click and hold the left mouse button down as you adjust the 'Cue Out' slider. Move the slider to the right to increase the time, move the slider to the left to decrease the time. You can see the values change in the 'Cue Out' column on the main screen as you move the slider.

These values are the same values as in the Audio Manager but unique to this playlist. Changes made to values here don't affect any of the default settings. The default values are taken from the Audio Manager.

DJ Break
The 'DJ Break' does not actually start or stop anything. The time setting serves as a reminder to the DJ as to how much time has been allotted for the DJ break. The time appears in the playlist screen and in the On Air Studio screen. See the 'Insert DJ Break'-section near the bottom of this page to learn how to insert a DJ Break into your playlist.

Button Functions
The buttons and the corresponding description of how each button functions will be described below, starting in the lower left-hand portion of the screen.

Autofill Playlist
Click on the 'Autofill Playlist' button and a popup screen will appear. The top screen titled 'Available Autofill Types' displays the available type of items you defined in the Audio Manger. There is a scroll control to move up and down in the list. Click on a type to select an item, then click on the button 'Move To Rotation' to place the item in the 'AutoFill Rotation Types' list. If the music type of the item is available it will be placed in the screen titled 'Autofill Rotation Types', if the type is not available a popup message will appear with the message 'No Titles of Type xxxx available'.

Continue to add the types you want in the rotation. For example if you want six 'Music Types, two Commercials and one Jingle, the 'Autofill Rotation Types' box would look like the list below. The list below would play six Music types in a row, then two Commercials followed by one Jingle. Once the last item has played the list repeats.

Music
Music
Music
Music
Music
Music
Commercial
Commercial
Jingle


Autofill Rotation Screen
Below the 'Autofill Rotation Types' Screen are six buttons. These buttons are used to edit the items in the 'Autofill Rotation Types' Screen.

Load Rotation
The 'Load Rotation' button when clicked will load a previously saved rotation. The default directory in DRS 2006 is the playlist folder ("C:\DRS2006\DigitalPlaylists") with a file extension of .rot. Select the rotation file you want and click the 'Open' button to load it.

Save Rotation
Click on the 'Save Rotation' button to save a rotation you have created in the playlist directory. Give the file a name and depress the 'Save' button to save it.

Remove
To remove a single type click on the type you want to remove and click the 'Remove' button once. The type will immediately be removed from the 'Autofill Rotation Types' screen.

Move Up
Select a type and click the 'Move Up' button to move the Type up one instace. Each successive click will continue to move the item closer to the top.

Move Down
The 'Move Down' button functions in exactly the same way as the 'Move Up' button, except it moves the Type towards the bottom of the screen with each click of the button.

Autofill Hours
Below the 'Autofill Rotation Types' screen is a slider that you adjust by putting your mouse pointer on the control and holding down on the left mouse button as you slide the control to the left or right. The digital display to the right of the slider will show the hours of Autofill as you adjust the slider. If you set the slider to zero hours then no items will be placed in the playlist screen.

Autofill
Once you have all the types and the hours of autofill that you want click on the 'Autofill' button to begin creating the autofill playlist. Once completed the list will appear in the 'Playlist Editor' screen. Anything that was in the playlist prior to clicking the 'Autofill' button will be replaced with the new autofill list.

Cancel
Clicking the 'Cancel' button exits you out of the screen but any changes you have made up to that point will remain. Clicking the 'Cancel' button returns you to the main playlist screen.

Print Playlist
Click on the 'Print Playlist' button and a popup window will appear asking "Are You Sure?" Click the 'OK' button and DRS 2006 will print the playlist using the default printer and settings in Windows®. The printed list will show the name of the playlist and the total time of the playlist at the top of the page and print the date and page number at the bottom of the page.

If you don't have the Audio Plugin you really should consider adding it to your system. Whether you go straight on the air with your broadcast or to recording media, the Audio Plugin keeps your sound level and sound personality constant, and without a trace of distortion. More information can be found in the Audio Plugin section. Be sure to check this one out.

Import Playlist
Clicking on the 'Import Playlist' button is used when you want to import a playlist that was created with schedulers or various other software. Below the techniques for importing a playlist and adding it into DRS 2006 will be described.

Importing a playlist from other scheduling software
The DRS 2006 Playlist Editor is capable of importing playlists from various other scheduling software products like Selector, Powergold or Music Master. The import functions are completely customizable so there are no limitations as to what scheduler you want to use. Importing playlists with DRS 2006 is easy. You insert the structure of any ASCII file and tell the DRS 2006 system where the Artist and Title are to be placed.

To import a playlist start by clicking the 'Import Playlist' button. Start by naming the structure file that contains the information and then click on the load structure name. For a new structure file, give the structure file a name or load an existing structure file using the 'Load Structure' button. The file will end with the extension .pst . Open the 'Playlist' directory and load a structure file. Now that DRS 2006 knows what type of structure to look for, click the 'Load Playlist' button to load a playlist that was created for that structure type, this file will have an extension of .asc.

To Import the Playlist, click the 'Import Playlist' button at the bottom of the popup screen and the process will begin. Once the import process has completed you will see the list appear in the screen. If you used one of the demo playlist, chances are that only a few of the items if any, would actually exist in your database. In this case you will get a message that reads:

This means DRS 2006 could not find an item from the imported playlist. If the item in the imported list referred to a file called "Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy With It" and there is no "Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy With It" in your database, then the error can be resolved using the methods below.

1. Alternative: You can select an alternative structure from the DRS 2006 database. It may be that you already have the structure item, but it is named or written differently.
2. Leave Marked: DRS 2006 will leave the item market with an error. You can work on it later if you choose, but you really do not want leave it in this condition since DRS 2006 does not know where to find the audio file.
3. Delete: Simply delete the item and it will be removed from the list.
4. Cancel Check: This button will omit the integrity check. All files that DRS 2006 did not find will be marked with an error. You can return later to work on these items.


DEMO Structure Files
Here are a few demo files you can use to test the import functions of the DRS 2006 Playlist Editor:
Download: Importer Test Pack

This Package includes:
1. Powergold.pst (Structure file to import Powergold ASCII files)
2. Selector.pst (Structure file to import Selector ASCII files)
3. MusicMaster.pst (Structure file to import Music Master ASCII files)
4. Powergold.asc (Demo Powergold schedule file)
5. Selector.txt (Demo Selector schedule file)
6. MusicMaster.asc (Demo Music Master schedule file)

NOTE:
If you encounter a problem importing or using a file, if you will send us your playlist we will provide you with a structure file for free, if one of the existing structure files will not work.

The second step is to load a playlist file provided by the scheduling software.
If you do not already have a structure file, you first need to discover how the third party playlist file is structured. DRS 2006 needs 5 values:

Record Length: The Number of place characters the dataset contains.
Start Position Artist: The place location where the character of the Artist field starts.
End Position Artist: The place location where the Artist field ends.
Start Position Title: The place location where the Title field starts.
End Position Title: The place location where the Title field ends.

You can examine how your playlist is structured. Open it with Windows Notepad™ or any other simple text editor. Enter the info and then see if DRS 2006 can understand the file in the 'Test Fields'. This is easier than it sounds!

Save Playlist As
To save a playlist click the 'Save Playlist As' button and the Playlist directory will open. You can either name the playlist file with a new name or click on an existing name to save the new Playlist. Additionally just below the 'DJ Break' slider is a text box called 'Playlist' you can edit the name of the play list name and call it whatever you want. Do not confuse this with the name of the playlist file, The Playlist has a file extension of .dbf.

New Playlist
Clicking on the 'New Playlist' button will open a popup message that asks, "Are You Sure?" If you answer 'Okay', your current playlist will be replaced with a blank list. If you have a playlist that you have not saved, be sure to save it prior to starting a new playlist. If you want start a new playlist click the 'Okay' button otherwise click the 'Cancel' button.

Insert New Item
Clicking on the 'Insert New Item' button will open the Database Search Engine. From here you can search for an Item and then select it by clicking on the Item with the left mouse button. Click on the 'Select Item' button to insert the item into your playlist.

Remove Item
To remove an item from the playlist click the item to be removed with you left mouse button and then click the 'Remove Item' button near the bottom of the screen.

Move Up - Move Down
There are two navigation buttons available, they are the 'Move Up Item' and the 'Move Down Item'. Select any item in the playlist and use the buttons 'Move Up Item' or 'Move Down Item' to move a item to any position within the playlist.

Caution: The Playlist Editor will permit you to place the exact same item into the playlist one right after the other. If the same file exist in this condition you may get unexpected results when the second file in the list attempts to play. If however there were some reason you would want to do this, save the file as a different name. Add the file into the Audio Manager and DRS 2006 will then treat the identical sound file as a different playlist item and work just fine.

Insert DJ Break
A special item that does not reside in the database is called the 'DJ Break'. This item will stop the sequence in the playlist and the DJ then has control of the program. When the playlist runs in the On Air Studio and the time comes in the playlist for a DJ Live Break, the playlist stops and the DJ assumes control. Remember that the DJ must click the 'Start' button to have the system resume from the point where it stopped for the DJ break.

The DJ Time in the column 'Title' of the main screen only serves as a reminder to the DJ as to how much time was allotted for the break. If the break was 2 minutes 30 seconds and the DJ ran over a few seconds the DJ can continue. Once finished the DJ clicks the 'Start' Button and DRS 2006 resumes playing from the playlist.

If you click the 'Insert DJ Break' button in the Playlist Editor you will get a pop up box where you can enter a short comment about the break.

You can insert a comment that will be displayed in the 'Title' field of the On Air Studio display screen. For example you could insert the message: "Weather forecast" in the comment box.
The third item is the time or projected length of the DJ break, which is set with the 'DJ break' slider. Again this is a reminder to the DJ as to how much time is allocated for the break. Set the slider time of the 'DJ break' first, then click the 'Insert DJ Break' button.

The comment box in the Playlist Editor will allow 45 Characters to be entered, but only the first 26 will be displayed in the 'On Air Studio' so as not to extend into the cue information on the screen.

Insert Event
You can insert events into your playlist. With this feature of the DRS 2006 Playlist Editor you can insert an item from the database that you want to run at a specific time into the playlist. For example, a station ID at the top of the hour, or a news promo five minutes prior to the top of the hour.

By pressing the 'Insert Event' button you can define the event time using three sliders to set the time of the event hours, minutes, seconds. The button at the top of the pop up window is used to select the item to be played for the event. The selection of an event is the identical procedure as selecting any other file in DRS 2006 from the database.

Once the item is selected and the event time is set for the item, it will be inserted into your playlist at the event time by clicking the 'Insert Item' button at the bottom of the pop up screen. The item will be moved to the exact place and time in the playlist and if necessary will adjust the cue point of the previous item. When the playlist is used in the On Air Studio and the event time is reached, the item currently playing will fade and the 'Event item' will play. When the event finishes the playlist will resume to the next item in the playlist.

If you enter two events one on top of the other and the first event is longer or overlaps the second event. The second event will be skipped over and the playlist will continue to the next item in the playlist that was next to play before the event kicked in.

Full Time
Click on the 'Full time' button and DRS 2006 will calculate and display in a message box below the sliders the total time of the Playlist. You can calculate the total time of the list at any time by clicking the 'Full Time' button. The time will not automatically update as you remove or add items. When you are finished editing your playlist click the 'Full Time' button to get the finished playlist total play time.

Current Time
The 'Current Time' is the play time from the beginning to an individual play item. Click on an item in the playlist and then click the 'Current Time' button to find the play time to the item in the list.

Jumps
The jumps control is a numerical display with two arrow controls that decrease the number with the left arrow and increase the number using the right arrow. The purpose of the jumps will be described in detail below. The numerical settings are the approximate time in seconds that the item will jump from and jump to in an item. If for example a numerical value of 10 was present and a song was started, the first 10 seconds of the song would play and then jump to the last 10 seconds before the cue out point of the item.

The Fade Scan feature in the Playlist Editor is without doubt one of the most useful tools you will find to precisely set your playlist to work exactly as you expect, and without any surprises at air time. If you were not aware how the 'Fade Scan' functions in the Playlist Editor, you might think something terrible had gone wrong in your Playlist. Nothing is wrong; it's just the 'Fade Scan' at work.

When you play or preview your playlist in the Playlist Editor it will play exactly as it will on the air with one exception: It would require hours to sit and listen to each and every item play, cue and fade to insure that the playlist was acceptable. The 'Fade Scan' plays just a few seconds of the item then jumps to a point near the end of the play item. In just a short period of time you can be sure that every item in the playlist will cue and fade at just the right time as each item is played. If a cue point or fade is not exactly right from one item to the next, you can adjust the setting of the item until you get everything sounding perfect. You can stop playing at any point in the Playlist, make any needed adjustments and then start from any point in the playlist.

You adjust the fade scan points or jump points using the arrow keys. The amount of jump is equal to approximately the number of seconds in the display.

If you set the jumps to "0" the Fade Scan will be off. That means, the playlist will run exactly as in the On Air Studio.

Note: The adjustments you make in the playlist are unique to just the playlist you are editing, your adjustments to a single playlist will not affect any other settings you have in any other playlists. If you want to set a global setting for the cue or fade points of an item, you would use the Audio Manager.

The Blue "D" Indicator
Below the slider controls to the right is a blue box with a capital 'D'. This is not a control but an indicator that will be active whenever the play list time is recalculated from a 'Dynamic' Type file that gets loaded. Since a 'Dynamic' file has an unspecified time DRS 2006 calculates the play time of the file and then updates the entire Playlist total play time.

Virtual Faders
The virtual faders. P1, P2, P3 are located to the right of the slider controls in the Playlist Editor screen. They are active when any item plays, they remain inactivate until an item or multiple items begin to play.

A Virtual fader means the Playlist Editor can handle three play items all at the same time. They are active when the disk above the fader is spinning.

With the exception of a cold start, it is normal to see two or all three virtual faders active at the same time. As items start and finish DRS 2006 will select a virtual fader for the next item as needed.

Start
The large green 'Start' button will start any item playing in Fade Scan mode. Select any item in the playlist with your left mouse button and then click the start button. If you have an item in the playlist that follows the item you first started, it will begin playing as soon as the Cue Out point is reached in the current item playing. The list will continue to play until it either reaches the end of the Playlist or you depress the 'Stop' Button.

Stop
The large red 'Stop' button will immediately stop any item that is currently playing. There is no fade action in the Playlist Editor.