MusicMaster Blog

by Paul Ziino

There are lots of rules available in your Rule Tree. I see these two used frequently, but they are often misunderstood.

First, what does Maximum Rest do? When you place Max Rest in your active Rule Tree, it acts as a turnoff point. Once the time has been met as set in your Max Rest rule, any rules that come after it are turned off, thus making the song a priority for scheduling. Here’s my rule list for category H-Hot Recurrents.

Max Rest is set to 1d 13:00. Once a song has rested longer than 1d 13:00, Maximum Rest will turn off the rules that follow. Basically, once a song has rested 1d 13:01, we no longer will test the Tempo rules in this example. You will see this in the Schedule Editor represented by rules that are listed in black—black rules are not being tested. (The two rule groups that appear in black do so because they have time restrictions and are not being tested at this point in the schedule.)

Notice I said Maximum Rest turns off the rules that come after it. Maximum Rest does not turn off Optimum Scheduling Goals. So if the Goals are in place, they will still play a part in the automatic scheduling process.

But there is another rule option available if you really want to ensure the song plays, no matter what. If Absolute Maximum Rest is exceeded, the song is immediately scheduled right then and there without regard to any existing rule failures or Optimum Goals.

To summarize, Maximum Rest will turn off the rules that come after it, while Absolute Maximum Rest turns off the rules and the goals that come after it in the rule hierarchy.

As always, if you have questions on this or any other MusicMaster related topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team. We’re happy to assist!