MusicMaster Blog

By Jerry Butler

Optimizing your MusicMaster database is essential to ensure it runs efficiently and meets your station’s specific needs. While not all settings may be appropriate for every station, reviewing the following areas can help you fine-tune your setup for optimal performance.

Category Size and Dig Depth

• Large Categories: If you have large categories and have the schedule properties settings to dig 100%, you’re testing every song each time you schedule that category. We see some stations have categories with 1000, 10,000, or even more songs in active categories. This can greatly impact your scheduling and editing time.
• Divide Large Categories: You might divide large categories into smaller ones or reduce the dig depth to test a smaller percentage of songs.
• Reducing Dig Depth or using Virtual Dig Depth (MusicMaster Pro): By reducing dig depth in your schedule properties, you are testing fewer songs, allowing for faster scheduling. If you are using MusicMaster Pro, consider using Virtual Dig Depth. This feature digs only as far as it calculates as necessary for the scheduled element before moving on, which can significantly speed up the scheduling process.

History Purge Settings

• Active vs. Archived History: MusicMaster uses active history for scheduling, while archived history is available for reports.

• Automatic Purge History: Ensure the “Automatic Purge History When Necessary” checkbox is selected. If not, you’re testing songs against history data stretching back to the start date, which can slow down the scheduling process. I’ve seen this where stations were testing years of history, and they didn’t realize it. Keep in mind, that if you need access to live logs for a specific amount of time, you’ll need that time reflected in your setting for active history. Once the logs have been archived, data is still available for reports, but logs can no longer be opened.
• Adjusting Active History Length: Most stations don’t need more than 90 days or 8 plays for active history. Very current-based formats may reduce this to 30 days, while classical stations might extend it to a year or more. Adjusting these settings reduces the amount of data tested, speeding up scheduling. It all depends on the size of your library and your rotations. Adjust these settings according to your station’s needs.

Rules: Review and Clean Up

• Identify Duplicates: Review your rule tree for unnecessary or duplicated rules. Duplicates can occur without you realizing it, especially between the “All Categories” folder and “Individual Categories”.

• Filter and Clean: Use the filter function to highlight where specific rules are active. You can do this by right-clicking on a rule on the right side of your rule tree from available rules, then clicking filter rule tree. The system will highlight your active rules on the left so you can see every category where the rule is active. You can clear the filter by clicking the green funnel with the X on the rule tree toolbar. Cleaning up redundant or outdated rules can improve system performance and streamline your scheduling process.

Schedule Editor Options

• Display Fields: The fields you display in the Schedule Editor can impact performance. The “Schedule Status” field, while useful, loads additional rule-testing information that can slow things down. Remove any fields you don’t need to enhance editing performance.

• Test Optimum Scheduling Goals: Under Tools > Options > Schedule Editor Options, uncheck “Test Optimum Scheduling Goals” if you don’t need them in the editor. Most stations test goals in the Automatic Scheduler, but not in the Schedule Editor. This can improve performance by reducing the load on the editor.

• Results Bar: If you don’t have the results bar showing, you can access it by clicking on the wrench or arrow next to the wrench on the schedule editor toolbar. Check the box next to the results bar to display. If you right-click on the results bar, you can customize it. Remove unnecessary panels you don’t need. If you don’t use results bar at all, remove all panels displayed to prevent items from loading in the background. This can also improve performance.

MusicMaster Data Location

• LAN and WAN Use: MusicMaster CS is optimized for use on both LAN and WAN.
• Server Storage: Storing MusicMaster Pro data on a server provides benefits like better security and access from multiple computers, though it might be slower depending on your network setup.
• Local Storage: For the fastest performance, many stations store their MusicMaster Pro data locally on the computer running MusicMaster.

Running Tools Purge

• Regular Maintenance: The Tools > Purge utility cleans up your database by reindexing and compressing it. It first creates a .bak file of your data, ensuring a current version is saved. Regularly running Purge can help maintain and improve performance.

Backup Strategies

Nothing will slow you down more than losing your data. Backups are IMPORTANT.

• Standard and Custom Backups: To protect your data, regularly run both standard and custom backups. Standard backups save your backup to the same location as your active database, while custom backups allow you to store backups elsewhere on a network drive, USB drive, or cloud storage.

• Quick Tip: The .bak file created during a Tools Purge can be renamed to .mmd and opened in MusicMaster. While not a replacement for a regular backup process, this has saved many programmers in a pinch.

Conclusion

By reviewing and adjusting these settings, you can ensure that your MusicMaster database is optimized for your station’s needs, helping you achieve the best possible performance. If you have any questions or need assistance, contact your MusicMaster Scheduling Consultant for expert guidance.