Randy Lahey said:
I've used Music Master on 4 different computers in 2 different markets, and it is always incredibly slow.
As has already been said, if you have many rules, very inflexible fixed position clocks, loads of songs by a few core artists that need protecting, then scheduling will be slow.
Adding to that, I'd say that if you are trying to make your library be what it isn't, then you will have slow scheduling. For example, if your library is 30% up tempo but you have rules for 50% up tempo, then that rule will fight with the others. Result: bad rotations and long processing.
Switching out songs is brutal. To load up the songs (that you can switch with) takes about 5-10 secs. I know it's only 10 secs, but I'm used to everything happening instantly. Also, those 5-10 secs add up, if you're switching out a lot of songs.
F5 swaps should be almost instant (swapping two songs already on the log). Bringing up an eligible song list (F9) should be almost as fast, unless, again, you want close matches or near matches (breaks no rules or breaks no unbreakable rules). Again, rules that are badly done will slow it down.
I'm just wondering if it's the program or my computers?
I presume you have the current version of the program, or nearly so. And I presume you are using a computer that was new in the last 3 to 4 years... otherwise, the program is designed for hardware that you don't have and which is several generations old.
At my last station, one of the computers was terrible...definitely on it's last legs, but Music Master seemed to work exactly as it does on the newer computer I'm using now...SLOW!!!
First check... run the log analysis (on the schedule options it can be made a default for a while till you work this out) and see how much searching you have to do to get each match. Also, you can see how many songs totally failed, indicating that the rules are not tuned to the library.
I made it a rule to adjust the rules (redundancy intentional) after every music test... often taking as much as 20 to 30 hours of adjusting the rules and doing a month or so of test logs. The time results in better rotations (more TSL) and a better perception of variety (you can make fewer good songs sound more varied than many stiffs).
If you have support options with A-Ware, then you can send a database to them for analyis.
Would an upgraded computer make much difference, or is this a Music Master issue?
Where you have your songs is irrelevant. If you have low-fi copies to do flow analysis or tips and tails, then those will only be activated if you tell them to play and not a slow-down. The most important hardware issue is the CPU and system speed, then the amount of memory and finally the speed of the hard drive.
The slowest I have had on a reasonably good machine with 2009 technology is about 6 minutes for what MusicMaster called the "deepest set of rules we've ever seen" on a station with 100% migrating clocks and a 1200 song library with every kind of flow and sound code you've ever seen, as well as very, very tight vertical and horizontal rotations going out more than 5 weeks. On a station like AC KLVE, usual schedule times were on the order of 90 seconds with recently optimized rules.
