MusicMaster Blog

By Laurie Knapp

In Version 8, it’s easier than ever to use Migrating Positions with Flex Rules. There’s a new wizard for adding Migrating Positions, a Pattern Builder which shows you sample clock assignments, and more display information to indicate potentially problematic Flex Rules settings.

About Migrating Positions

Migrating Positions are not new to MusicMaster Pro Version 8, but in case you have never used them before, here is an overview of how they work.

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By Brian Wheeler

Building clocks is a task that most MusicMaster users visit infrequently. Many users will create a set of clocks and use them for long periods of time with little, if any, change. Other users may require more frequent changes but may not feel very efficient in this process. Are you maximizing the tools at your disposal?

There are many features in MusicMaster that make clock building and tweaking easier, but for now I’m going to focus on the Info Bar. The Info Bar is typically docked on the left side of your MusicMaster program if you have it visible at all. If you don’t have it visible, you can go to View, then select Info Bar to see all that the Info Bar has to offer.

The first thing you’ll likely notice is the list of your music and non-music categories from top to bottom. Not only can you click on these categories to get a quick view of each category’s contents, but you can also drag these categories into a clock that you are building. You can drag and drop an entire hour’s worth of music in a matter of seconds using the Info Bar.

You can also drag in lognotes. those commands for your playback system that you so carefully typed into your clocks are all retained under the clock tab at the bottom of the Info Bar. Click on the Clock tab, then select the ‘Lognotes’ header. There is your entire list of carefully created lognotes. You can drag and drop those into your clocks, too! No sense in having to type them all out again.

Also note in Version 7, the new Elements Tab in your InfoBar allows you to drag clock elements directly into place.

Using these tools, plus other great tools like the ‘clone’ feature in the clocks (use the toolbar or context menu option) can make the arduous task of creating or modifying clocks into a breeze.

If you’d like more tips and tricks to minimize your clock building/rebuilding time, give your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant a call and we’ll be happy to show you all kinds of time-saving features.

By Paul Ziino

MusicMaster Version 7 offers a new way to edit clocks.  Introducing Quick Entry!

Open a clock or create a new one, then click the wrench icon.  Here you have two columns of options: Show/Hide Elements and Show/Hide Columns.  If you don’t want to view specific element types you can un-check them.  For this exercise we’re going to add a check to Quick Entry under the Show/Hide Columns.  If you want to keep these settings, check the box to Save as Default Settings.

Each element type has a keyboard shortcut associated with it now.  You can enter that shortcut in the QuickEntry column of your clock editor.

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By Marianne Burkett

As I’m digging deeper into Version 7, I’m seeing things I’ve always dreamed of as a programmer.

First go to Tools/Options/Display Colors and set up this feature that has been in the program for some time.  You can select colors you’d like to see for various elements in the clocks.  In the capture below, I made Stopsets Deep Red and Lognotes Pale Yellow.

When building clocks, I love our “Pie” view.   If you color your categories with various colors, it makes it simple to distribute the categories evenly through the clock.

Check out the default view in Pies which we’ve always had.

In Version 7, with a quick visit to Tools/Options/Additional Properties you can put the number “1” in “PieClockLabels” in the Clocks Section, and you get category code and element information in the pie view as well.

When you hover over anything in the pie you also get details about lognotes, music and non music descriptions below the pie.  In the sample screen shot, my cursor was on a P2 Power 2000 category.

If you made a lot of clock changes and use the pie, this new feature can help in making sure they’re spaced out correctly.

If you’d like the video tour of new core features in Version 7, click the link below.

https://www.musicmaster.com/version7.php

Any questions, call your Music Scheduling Consultant!

By Marianne Burkett

So, you have a 5’oclock Free Ride feature and you want specific rules to fit the hour.

You want no slow songs, no buzz killer songs, right?  Just music that will pick up the spirits of those stuck in the car, in rush hour traffic.

With MusicMaster, if there’s a will there’s a way.

Let’s go to the Rule Tree and set up some custom rules for your 5pm clock(s)!

Go to: Dataset/Rule Tree or just click on the Lightning Bolt Icon.  At the top right-hand side of the Rule Tree in Available Rule Types is the folder “Special Rule Tree Items”.  Inside that folder is “Rule Group”.

Pull the Rule Group over to the Unbreakable All Categories folder.  The Rule Group properties will open up once you’ve dropped it in the folder.

You only have a few clocks assigned to your 5pm hour so this will be quick.

First fill out the “Description” field and give your rule group a name, then move over to “Group Mode” and select “Test Rules as if they’re not in a group”. (When you use the recap report, you’ll be able to see what rules in the rule group are failing or having difficulty if you chose this option.)

Next, go to the “Clock Restrictions” section and list the clocks you want to adhere to your specific set of rules for the specialty show.  Be sure to separate the specific clock codes with a comma!

Click okay and your Rule Group is ready to fill up with specific rules for the show.

Drag and drop your rules over the title of the Rule Group and you should see the lightning bolt next to the rule, indent a bit.  If the lightning bolt isn’t indented, it’s not yet in the rule group.  If that’s the case, drag it over the name of the Rule Group and it should tuck in for you.

Save your Rule Tree and you are done!   How easy was that?

The beauty of this is if your specialty show ever moves to a different time, the rules will just follow the clocks to the new time.

If you have any questions, please contact MusicMaster Support.

By Paul Ziino

A client posed the following scenario.

I am only using one clock 24/7.  The categories always show up in the same place every hour.  As such, those items at the end of the hour aren’t getting played very often—they’re dropped due to time updates in automation.  I play primarily 80s pop, but have four positions per hour that are 90s, 70s pop, 80s rock, and 70s rock.  Right now, that 80s rock drops almost every hour as it’s the last position.  What can I do without rebuilding everything else that is working so well?

We looked at his clock.  He has things spread out very well, so anything that strays from that core 80s pop sound is surrounded by that core sound.  He still wanted one of each of those categories scheduled in the hour, but maybe he didn’t always need it to be the 80s rock that gets dropped.

So, what did we do?  Migrating Positions!  We turned those four clock positions that called for the 80s Rock, 70s Pop, 70s Rock, and 90s into migrating positions.  Now MusicMaster knows where in the hour to schedule those four items, but it can move them around making their specific placement different one hour to the next.

By looking at the clock and Flex Rules, you can see that we have four positions in the hour (Usage column in the Flex Rules) and that one of each of those positions must come from each of those four categories (Min/Hour and Max/Hour in Flex Rules).  We let MusicMaster decide which position will come from each, and the result is the same rotation overall, but different placement within the hour.  Overall, it’s an easy way to move things around and keep it interesting without the need to create a bunch of different clocks.

If you have questions on this or any other MusicMaster topic, make sure to reach out to your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant.

By Jesus Rodriguez

You may already have a holiday grid ready to go for the winter break. You may possibly even have clocks that flip your station to an all Christmas channel 24/7. Those concepts are great tools to have so that you’re prepared for the holiday season every year. (more…)

By Aaron Taylor

For this article, I thought I’d try to create a reference guide to some other common questions that seem to come up for us on an ongoing basis here at MusicMaster. My hope is that you’ll be able to utilize this as a “Go to Guide” the next time you have one of those “I know you showed me this once” types of questions. (more…)

By Marianne Burkett

So… you want your clocks to be slightly different each hour and you painstakingly create many, many clocks.  That is one way to do it.  However, in MusicMaster there is a lesser-used feature that I really like that will save you time now and in the future… the Format List! (more…)

by Paul Ziino

Lots of stations do a 2fer Tuesday feature or other artist double-shots. Here’s how to do this in MusicMaster.

Start by going to Dataset/Library/Keywords/Artist Keywords, click Tools/Kickoff Category Wizard and follow the prompts. Check the categories you want MusicMaster to consult when determining which artists have enough music for a 2fer. Generally this would be your entire active music library, though some stations have a large Hold category with songs that could be used for 2fers as well.

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