Audio Vault Question

[davidadein]

I have no engineering experience, but was wondering if anyone around here knew how to handle cold opens on songs during automation.

Right now we have secondary tones near the 5 second mark on all of our imaging, to trigger the next song to start so that it's seamless. The problem we run into is with songs that have intro's less than 5 seconds. With this configuration the intro of the song slams right into the end of the imaging. This is fine when we have a live talent in who can control this, but when we're automated it can sound pretty silly. Any suggestions on how other stations deal with the cold open issue?

 

[zachmorton]

One way I used to do it was to put the liners/sweepers in a VT or voicetrack catagory, not as rotators, but as separate audio cuts. Then, when the schedule is produced, just open the AVscheduler and scroll the log, which will force the "vt"s to be recognized properly. After that, just send it to the automation. I know, a bit of work, but it is creative if nothing else!

One thing to keep in mind though...is you cannot have sec markers on the liners/sweepers. What the result will be is that the song will post...or hit the singing part of the song if the intro is short enough. If it's a really long intro (longer than your liner)...it might start the song before the liner (and in some instances, quite a bit before). With mine, it was just dry liners/shouts, so it didn't matter where they started...was cool to have them post right before the lyrics of the song.

 

[chriscollins]

One way I used to do it was to put the liners/sweepers in a VT or voicetrack catagory, not as rotators, but as separate audio cuts. Then, when the schedule is produced, just open the AVscheduler and scroll the log, which will force the "vt"s to be recognized properly. After that, just send it to the automation. I know, a bit of work, but it is creative if nothing else!

One thing to keep in mind though...is you cannot have sec markers on the liners/sweepers. What the result will be is that the song will post...or hit the singing part of the song if the intro is short enough. If it's a really long intro (longer than your liner)...it might start the song before the liner (and in some instances, quite a bit before). With mine, it was just dry liners/shouts, so it didn't matter where they started...was cool to have them post right before the lyrics of the song.

You can leave sec tones on them and still get the desired behavior if you add VoiceTrackIgnoreEOM=True in the AvAir section of the ini (provided you are running a pre-flex version).

 

[chriscollins]

Also, I should add that I hate songs starting before the liner. Sounds loose. I set VoiceTrackSlide=0, so that the song and liner always fire simultaneously. In my opinion, that sounds much better.

I am also coding my dry liners to schedule in my scheduler based on the intro time, so for a 7 second intro, it schedules a 6-7 second liner, etc...

I use musicmaster. Pretty easy to set it up on that.

 

[Charlie]

I am also coding my dry liners to schedule in my scheduler based on the intro time, so for a 7 second intro, it schedules a 6-7 second liner, etc...

I use musicmaster. Pretty easy to set it up on that.

That's something I teach people when doing PowerGold sessions - Assign the songs with to a Property Group called "Sweeps" and then use a Property Rule (with a points value to determine how strict it should be) before the songs in the Clock Template. It can also be used when VT'ing to ensure the jock has a good intro to walk-up with.

 

[chriscollins]

I am also coding my dry liners to schedule in my scheduler based on the intro time, so for a 7 second intro, it schedules a 6-7 second liner, etc...

I use musicmaster. Pretty easy to set it up on that.

That's something I teach people when doing PowerGold sessions - Assign the songs with to a Property Group called "Sweeps" and then use a Property Rule (with a points value to determine how strict it should be) before the songs in the Clock Template. It can also be used when VT'ing to ensure the jock has a good intro to walk-up with.

Yep. There are so many people that just learn enough to get by, as opposed to really utilizing the music scheduler. Sadly, most PD's now, just schedule and go. No concern for segues and the overall flow of the station.

 

[zachmorton]

Not even sure why stations permit programmers to spend money on a scheduling package for...anymore, I hear just awful programming on-air because most pd's or md's schedule the music as the scheduler throws them out there without regard to how the flow sounds. Regardless of how it's set up, it just doesn't sound perfect right out of the box.