MusicMaster Blog

By Paul Ziino

When you are in the Schedule Editor, you can tell MusicMaster exactly what song you want to plot in any given position (more…)

Looking for a fast way to identify which rules (and in what order) are being tested on an individual category? VIEW CATEGORY RULE LIST is the answer!

In the Rule Tree, right click over a category folder. On the context list tha pops up, select the choice for view category rule list. When opened, it will show you all of the rules, combining any All Categories rules with the rules applicable to the category. If you are using any Optimum Goal Scheduling, those rules will be listed at the bottom of the list. Should you wish to view the rules on a particular day and time, simply change that in the box and select “GO” to see the updated rule list. You also have the option of toggling to amother category rule view after you’ve selected this for a previous category view.

I think this is a great way to “double check” your Rule Tree set up work, and/or often very quickly identify if a particular rule is being applied (or perhaps if it isn’t and should be)…As always, if you have any questions about what you are seeing in the Rule Tree, get in touch and we’ll be glad to look things over with you!

by Drew Bennett

In the bottom right hand corner of the software, you can see the name of your database displayed. If you double click here, MusicMaster shows the About screen where you can find your MusicMaster software version number and service release. You can also find links to your System Information, Release Notes and your License information here. This information can be handy when you are speaking with your Music Scheduling Consultant. You can also reach this screen by choose ‘Help,’ and then, ‘About MusicMaster,’ from the main menu.

By Marianne Burkett

You’re just a click or two away from finding out the facts about your Music Library! Right click on any field…like Artist Keyword and go to Library Analysis. Look at the results and find out instantly how many titles from each artist you have, who your core artists are, and if there are any duplicates because of a misspelled keyword. Go to any other field like Tempo or Mood and get instant feed back. Is your library primarily slow, medium or up-tempo or do you have too much of one thing and not enough of the other? Use Library Analysis as a great foundation for building rules that fit your library. As your library shrinks and grows, your Analysis will change – so from time to time it may be necessary to change your rules!

By Drew Bennett

When you abandon old clocks for new ones, a lot of times the old clocks get left in the database and never used again. (more…)

By Paul Ziino

You can create a new query in MusicMaster by going to Dataset/Library/Query the Library/New Query. Here you can select the categories to be included as well as what operator you are looking for. Want a query of all the Females in the data? Create the New Query for the Gender or Role field, contains, Female code. Click Add, and then click the Save As icon at the top of the query box to name this new query.

Now when you are in Library Maintenance you'll see the third icon from the left is a binoculars with a heart. This is the Favorite Query icon. Click the little pull-down arrow to the right of the icon and you'll see a list of all saved queries. Check your favorite one, and now when you click the Favorite Query icon, it will automatically load the songs that match that query!

Marianne Burkett

While most music stations have no real need for exact timing, there are those stations that provide a mix of Music and information and have the need for exact timing. MusicMaster has exact timing features that can be incorporated into the clocks: Hour Timing and Segment Timing. Depending on your needs – you can have MusicMaster for Windows do the back timing for you – up to the second! Of course, as with any format – Voicetracks and anything that happens after scheduling with MMwin would have some effect on the end result. If you’d like to find out more about Clock Hour Timing, try the Help section of the software or contact your personal Music Scheduling Consultant.

Here’s a very cool Rule Type available in MusicMaster: AutoKick. Find it in the “Song/History Rules” folder, then in the subfolder of “Hour Rotation Rules”. While this rule type can accomplish the same goal as setting an Hour Rotation, Day Offset Window of 1 day, 1 hour, the window size you set can be more narrowly defined. You can set a breakable or unbreakable rule for a category that is defined to the quarter hour, half hour, as well as a full hour! I like to suggest this to programmers who have very fast music rotation categories, or where you are simply trying to make certain that the same non music items (sweepers, positioners, jingle elements, as an example) aren’t falling into the same positions daily.

Looking for a simple way to print all of your currently active clocks in MusicMaster Windows? Go to DATASET-CLOCKS-FORMAT CLOCKS, or click on the clock icon on your tool bar. No need to click the check boxes, or refer to the assignment grid to create your print job. Just click on the SELECT rectangle on the right hand side, and then ASSIGNED CLOCKS-Grid: (Name of the Currently Active Grid)…You’ll then be returned to the FORMAT CLOCK MAINTENANCE list, where you’ll note that all the clocks that are active on the grid you chose are checked. Then, select the PRINT rectangle on the right hand side, and you’ll be presented with the FORMAT CLOCK PRINTING OPTIONS box, where you can decide what you would like to include/exclude from the print job, and in addition to printed versions of the linear clocks, if you’d also like to have each of them print in a “hot clock” type fashion. Next select the CONTINUE rectangular choice box, your selected printer choice, and then finally the OK box. Done!

By Drew Bennett

Let’s make prompted queries! They’re great when you want to search for something a lot but that something is always something different. Make sense? It will. (more…)