Set up Music Library

[Marcel]

Hi

I'm currently working on a new webradio project and really like RB. There's one thing I'm not too sure about how to do it the right way.

I have about 2000 Tracks. The station will be fully automated. In other automation software you categorize the tracks in the music library and then select the respective categories in a scheduler or playlist generator. As far as I see this works differently in RB and I wonder if I am right.

To structure the music library I create a m3u playlist in the maininterface for every song category eg. dance, ballads, jingles etc. If a new song is released later on ? I add it to the respective playlist. Then I got to PLG Pro and create a new preset with the same categories and link these categories to the playlists I've created before. And here's my problem: When I create a new playlist in PLG Pro all categories are gone and I need to create them again.

Honestly, I think I didn't understand this concept really ;-) ? can somebody help a newbie.
Thanks
Marcel

 

[BigMark]

I understand your issue and have posted a similar request for help with something like this, but in the mean time (Like you I have about 3000 tracks) I have them all broken down into folders on my hard drive and them I've made playlists from each folder (named the same as the folder category/genre etc...) then you can mix and match the PLs.

If you want a different genre to play at a different time of day let's say Jazz from 10am to noon then you'll have to schedule that playlist to play at that time and it will play then set back to main PL when finished.

I hope this helps and if not I'm sorry I'm still learning too...

 

[radiodungog]

Marcel, BigMark,

We have been using RB for more than 2 years now.  A few comments from our perspective:

1. We use Vortexbox as our music library storage mechanism.  We also use it to rip CDs.  VB stores the music on a HDD in artist / album / track format.

2. To us it is not important how and where the CDs and music files are stored - bit it's very important that the storage structure is consistent AND it doesn't change or move.

3. We currently use playlists to store the music tracks that are approved to play.  We don't shuffle music tracks around from one folder to another - but instead we may alter what music tracks are stored in the playlists.

4. Ideally we would like to tag the music files using the FLAC and MP3 tags to represent those music files that we have approved to play, and perhaps the categories of each track.  The reason for doing this is that we consider the best place to make such a selection is in a tag on each music file - and preferably at the highest level of the heirarchy and that is on each music track.  Therefore with some automated filtering techniques master playlists can be generated by looking at the tags and our job is therefore to keep the tags up to date.

Hope this helps,  Jamie C.

 

[BigMark]

it does thank you, however since the playlists are derived from tracks sitting in a folder it would be nice to arrange tracks in order by having a tab. If I have a jazz folder, soft rock folder, and a hip hop folder and I want to simply find a song in that folder hitting the folder tab, find the jazz section and play a track. Quick and easy and any new tracks added to the folder would then be added automatically when hitting the folder tab. Just like by artist or genre tab.

FYI the search for track option errors for me those making me think of this method.

Thanks

 

[djsoft]

I have about 2000 Tracks. The station will be fully automated. In other automation software you categorize the tracks in the music library and then select the respective categories in a scheduler or playlist generator. As far as I see this works differently in RB and I wonder if I am right.

Playlist Generator Pro can generate playlists using folders as sources. You can also use different Music Libraries or Playlists as sources.

If you have everything categorized in folders, there's no much need to add those tracks to Library, using folders directly in PlGenPro is the easiest solution.

Then I got to PLG Pro and create a new preset with the same categories and link these categories to the playlists I've created before. And here's my problem: When I create a new playlist in PLG Pro all categories are gone and I need to create them again.

You don't need to create a new preset every time. You can edit the existing preset or save it with a different name.
If your categories use folders as track sources, you don't need to modify or update presets at all - new tracks you add to folders will be picked up automatically.

 

[djsoft]

4. Ideally we would like to tag the music files using the FLAC and MP3 tags to represent those music files that we have approved to play, and perhaps the categories of each track.  The reason for doing this is that we consider the best place to make such a selection is in a tag on each music file - and preferably at the highest level of the heirarchy and that is on each music track.  Therefore with some automated filtering techniques master playlists can be generated by looking at the tags and our job is therefore to keep the tags up to date.

Jamie, the feature to disable/enable a track will be added in one of the nearest updates. It will control only if Playlist Generator Pro can include this track or not. If track is manually added to the RB playlist, it will play regardless "Disabled" flag is set or not.