Fade out random playlist for events

[Chris Deacon]

Dmitry:  What is the best way to force, say, a 5 second fade out at 59min55sec in a random music playlist to permit an hourly event block (such as station ID plus news) to play, then return to the playlist?  I don?t understand how this can be achieved with cross fade and I don?t wish items to crosfade anyway (so there is no overlap).  So music fades out to zero; hourly block plays at full volume; playlist resumes.  A similar requirement exists when crossing to a line input.  I need a clear separation between the current music and the event to be played.  How to achieve this most efficiently?   

 

[Chris Deacon]

OK I figured it out using the fade out tool - had a setting wrong....    I assume  this is the best way to achieve what I?m trying to do? 

 

[djsoft]

You should adjust crossfade settings to your preference: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/crossfades.htm

It's also possible to have custom crossfade settings for certain file types, e.g. station IDs, adverts, etc: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/using_different_types_of_files.htm

 

[ThomasR]

It would be cool if you could fade out playlists with a timer. Meaning the fade out reverts automatically after a certain amount of time.

 

[Chris Deacon]

Thanks for your advice with the cross fades - they are an awesome feature, but I do not believe they can provide what I need in this instance.    As has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, at the end of a playlist, there is no way to predict the location of a cross fade.  If I schedule a fade out command at say 5 secs before the top of the hour, the music fades nicely.  Then I can also schedule a new event on the hour that plays without any crossfade and without stopping.  Crossfade would mean the first few words of a news broadcast would be lost.  I also tried putting the crossfade command at the beginning of the news playlist but the playlist stops at that point and the news does not play.  So the method above seems to work OK.    The other method I will experiment with is using sweepers that time out to the hour.  It would be good if you added a backtiming feature to RB.  This would work as follows:  Random playlist track A ends sometime near the top of the hour e.g. 45 seconds before the hour.  Meanwhile a ?timeout? track B of length 3 mins begins playing at zero volume. When track A concludes, a station ID could be triggered (?stay tuned for the news in just a moment?) and track B fades up and out to the hour, finishing exactly on the hour. 

This could require RB making an estimate of the time when the random playlist files are likely to reach almost to the hour (final track A) so that a suitable length track B can be automatically selected from the timeout folder.

This is similar to the sweepers option that currently exists, with the exception that the music fades in rather than starting a sweeper from the beginning.      If this can already be done using sweepers then there may be no need for all of this.  However, this is how many live radio programs are ?timed out? and the feature is supported by some other radio automation packages.  Just a thought....

 

[djsoft]

This could require RB making an estimate of the time when the random playlist files are likely to reach almost to the hour (final track A) so that a suitable length track B can be automatically selected from the timeout folder.

This is exactly what the Sweepers feature does: http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/sweepers.htm
The sweeper will fade in according to crossfade settings. You can create a separate file type for sweepers to change the fade out time.

This is similar to the sweepers option that currently exists, with the exception that the music fades in rather than starting a sweeper from the beginning. 

This is interesting, do you mean find a sweeper that is longed that the remaining time in the hour, start it a bit later, so that it will end exactly at the end of the hour?

 

[Chris Deacon]

This is similar to the sweepers option that currently exists, with the exception that the music fades in rather than starting a sweeper from the beginning.

This is interesting, do you mean find a sweeper that is longed that the remaining time in the hour, start it a bit later, so that it will end exactly at the end of the hour?
[/quote]
Not quite....  it selects a sweeper that is longer than the remaining time in the hour; meanwhile the last full track finishes, and at this point, the sweeper fades in at the point calculated to fill the remaining time.  The sweeper would be started EARLY, but not faded up yet; it would be running at zero level under the end of the last full track, until this track finished, at which time it would automatically fade in to fill the gap and end exactly on the hour (or a few seconds prior).  This would provide a very professional sound and would eliminate the need for sweepers of a range of different lengths to be stored - it could draw randomly from any track in the database as long as it was LONGER than the remaining gap at the top of the hour.      They key to success would be to predict the precise length of the gap from the end of the playlist, and fill it automatically with the backtimed outro track.  Ideally before it fades in, a short station ID could also be triggered to mask the transition.  The outro track would always have lowest priority to enable other events to play first.

Would this be feasible? 

 

[djsoft]

This doesn't differ much from how it works now, and I'm really not sure that the proposed solution is better than it is now.

Currently it does the following: determines how much time there is before end of the hour. Finds a sweeper that is exactly this duration or longer. Inserts it after the currently playing track. If the sweeper is longer, it will be ended (with fade out) before the next hour starts.

In your solution, it's generally the same, but sweepers starts from arbitrary point, and this could be 30 seconds into the song - I'm not sure it will sound better compared to ending the song prematurely.

Generally you don't need to prepare sweepers as such. You can just make it select a song from your whole music library. Sweepers have repeat protection, so it won't repeat the same artist that played recently.

Another option you can consider if exact timing is not required - use waiting options for scheduled events. For example, for the top of the hour event you can set "Maximum time wait in the queue - 15 seconds, with action - play". In this case, the chance that the sweeper will play in full before TOTH event is greatly increased.

 

[Chris Deacon]

OK I am happy to try using sweepers, but note that most broadcasters in this country need to ?time out? exactly to TOTH using the technique I described.  Of course vocals are never used for this and frequently the outro track will be a theme that is identical every week, precluding the use of random sweepers. I still believe  is would be worth considering for a future feature and so bring RB up to par with some of the far more expensive offerings. . Meanwhile RB is a great piece of software!

 

[djsoft]

Of course vocals are never used for this

Why not? Many stations use their music library as a source for sweepers, in this case there's a good chance that it will find a track that will end at the exact end of hour, give or take couple of seconds.

most broadcasters in this country need to ?time out? exactly to TOTH

If a sweeper is an instrumental, does it make a lot of difference?

I still believe  is would be worth considering for a future feature and so bring RB up to par with some of the far more expensive offerings

Technically it's possible to make it work this way, but it was never requested by any other users, the most requests were about improving sweepers feature in terms of performance and repeat protection.

 

[Chris Deacon]

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I was always taught that instrumentals were more suitable for a fade in/fade out situation like we are discusssing, and that one should avoid fading a vocalist!  This probably arises from the need for live presenters to frequently talk over the outro track, and talking over a vocal track is not nice  .    I agree that if the sweepers can select from a large number of tracks, there is a good chance that the timing will be right, but it will be a bit hit and miss.    An example of where my suggested feature would be particularly useful is when the same theme is used every time for a particular program - in this case sweepers won't necessarily allow a precise time out without fading. 

There's always a first time request for any new program idea (although I am sure I have seen a similar request on this forum somewhere before) - and I only raise it for your consideration when time permits and as an optional refinement for an already excellent program!  Maybe we should see if any other users would find this useful....

 

[djsoft]

one should avoid fading a vocalist

But fading in will still happen when the song doesn't start from the beginning.

There's always a first time request for any new program idea

This is true, and we'll consider implementing this in the future (it's already added to our internal list) - thank you for the suggestion.