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More detailed information is available in the full online help documentation included with the trial editions of the software, available from the Download page. |
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What does Creator do? Creator is a music/spot scheduler. It basically selects audio files based on your specifications and writes the filenames to playlist files. Playlists are usually generated daily or weekly. The structure of the playlist files may be
altered to suit the audio player application that will be reading them.
Playlist files may be loaded into audio players such as Winamp, Windows
Media Player etc, or loaded by proper radio broadcasting playout software,
including our own Studio software. |
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With Creator, you are able to design the structure of every hour of the day. Hourly rotations are defined by selecting a mixture of music categories and spot groups. Each category may be a different genre of music, tempo, age, etc, so you can, for example, inhibit two fast rock 90's songs from playing consecutively. Different days of the week, or hours of the day, often require a different format. Once the structure has been defined, Creator can generate playlists week after week with no maintenance required, unless spots such as advertisements need to be added or removed. Creator can also schedule spot groups (advertisements, jingles, stations ID's etc) to play at specific times when used with compatible playback/automation software, such as StationPlaylist Studio. Creator has many other features such as •
song and artist repeat protection so the same songs, or songs by the same
artist are not played too close together •
creates an interactive web based playlist for the entire week for your
DJ's or listeners to see what's coming up •
generates a summary of all selected songs for royalty payment purposes •
and a summary of spots for billing purposes •
and many more features (see the
Products
page). |
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Voice Tracking (only available in Creator Pro) provides a way to easily and quickly record and insert voice announcements into the playlist at manual or pre-determined positions in the playlist. This makes your station sound live when unattended. Voice tracking provides a way for a DJ to pre-record an entire show within a few minutes, allowing more time to do other things, or simply leave the studio. StationPlaylist Studio Pro supports
playing voice tracks simultaneously with the beginning of the next song,
so this combination provides a seamless "live" show for the listener. |
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How do Voice Intro's and Outro's work? Voice Intro's and Outro's may be recorded for individual songs or artists. When a song is selected, an optional intro or outro matching the song or artist may be accompanied in the selection. This feature initially requires some investment in time to record the announcements, but the station can sound live in an automated situation with no voice tracking required. As with Voice Tracking (above), Voice
Intro's may also be overlapped with the beginning the of song when using
Studio Pro for the playback automation software. |
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A Category is a list of music audio files which are related to a particular genre, tempo, age, or whatever criteria you like. The more categories that are defined, the more control you have over the structure of each hour (rotation). Category items (tracks) are generally selected randomly, whereas spot group items are generally selected sequentially (alphabetically). Audio files may be specified individually
in each category, however, we suggest that all music files in each
category are moved into their own folders on the hard drive. ie.
Each category relates to a folder. This is recommended for two
reasons. Categories are used in
rotations. |
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A Spot Group is usually a group of jingles, advertisements, or a group of station ID's etc. They are also often used for lengthy programmes such as a weekly programme of pre-recorded talk shows, etc. Unlike Categories, Spot Group items (tracks) may be selected sequentially in a specific order or alphabetical order. Like Categories, Spot Groups may be added to
rotations, but may also be set up as Timed Events where they are scheduled
for a specific time. |
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A rotation is made up of a list of categories and spot groups which add up to roughly 60 minutes of play time. Here is a shortened example of a possible rotation:
When a playlist is created, an item is
selected randomly from each category, and sequentially from each spot group. Many different rotations may be defined for different
hours of the day. The hours and days where a rotation will be used
is defined in a schedule. Other types of entries are also
possible in a rotation such as voice track markers and break notes. |
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A schedule defines which
rotations will be used in each of the 24 hours of a day.
Multiple schedules may be created for different days of the week, or one
schedule may be used for all 7 days. Multiple schedules provide
for different music formats on different days of the week. |
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How do I schedule advertisements?
Creator is primarily a music and jingle scheduler.
It is not specifically designed to schedule commercials, although many
successfully use Creator to schedule commercials.
Traffic/billing schedulers are dedicated to scheduling commercials and also provide a client billing facility. These can save a lot of time, particularly when many advertisers are involved, and when each client wants their ads scheduled at specific times of the day. Creator Pro integrates with 3rd party traffic schedulers, using the Traffic Importer in the Playlist Editor. One example is The Traffic Light priced from US$195. See the Traffic Log Importer chapter in Creator’s documentation, under the Playlist Editor chapter. Users often adopt their own system of scheduling commercials with Creator. Here are some of them.
Random Method
This method can be the easiest to setup and manage, providing you have a limited range of advertising packages, and advertisers do not dictate when their ads will be scheduled. Place all the commercials in one large folder on the hard drive and create one spot group for this folder. Set the Sort Type to Randomly. If you have say 2 or 3 different advertising packages with a different amount of placements per day, create 2 or 3 spot groups instead of 1. Now schedule the spot group in your rotation(s). For example, if you have 4 advertisements that need to be played 6 times over a 12 hour period, 2 ads per hour must be scheduled in the rotation... 6 Per Day Ads This method is very easy to set up and manage provided the number of ads in each spot group are kept at a constant number. When an advertisement finishes, either add a new advertisement to replace it, or add a fill in jingle or ad for your own programmes. This does not then require changes to the rotations. But If additional ads need to be added to this group, the rotation will need to be modified to include an extra ad per hour (to handle 6 advertisers), or a new commercial break at a different time of the hour. Only a small number of rotations may be required using this method, perhaps only 1 rotation, and the spot group, rotations, and schedules should not need regular adjustments from day to day. Block Method
This method requires one spot group for each
commercial break. This provides full control over what is
played when, and allows the number of commercials in the commercial
break to vary from one day to the next, without the need to adjust
the rotations or schedules on a regular basis.
In this method, a set of files are usually individually added to each spot group associated with a commercial break. Set the Spot Group Type to Block. To schedule the ads in the precise order specified, set the Sort option to Per Folder/Unsorted. Otherwise Randomly is a good option if you intend to use the same set of commercials in other commercial breaks during the day. Add the Spot Group once to a rotation to schedule all the ads at once. This method will often require a rotation for each hour that you advertise. If this is 24 hours a day, then you may need 24 rotations, unless some commercial breaks are to be repeated. Adjustments to each commercial break spot group or folder may be required every day to ensure the same commercials are not always played together in the same break. Some operators use a spreadsheet to design what ads should be played and when, and the files moved into the required spot groups every day, for the following days playlist. Individual Method In this method, a spot group is created for each advertiser. The spot group is then placed in the specific desired locations in many rotations. This method also requires up to 24 rotations for unique placements every hour. Adjustments to each rotation is likely to be required every day to ensure the same commercials are not played in the same order every time. Some operators use a spreadsheet to design what ads should be played and when, and the rotations modified every day, for the following days playlist. Manual Method
If only a few commercials are to be played,
the Playlist Editor facility in Creator can be used to simply
insert the files into any position in any hour of the generated
playlist. The Playlist Editor supports drag & drop from a Windows
folder, or use the Insert dialog. |
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What does the Playlist Scheduler do? StationPlaylist Scheduler (included in the Creator package) is a small system tray application which loads hourly playlists into a simple audio player (preferably Winamp) every hour. This provides a very basic and budget automation solution where the power of Studio and other automation / live DJ assistance applications are not required. The Scheduler is also able to load
Creator every day or week to automatically generate a new set of
playlists, for unattended automation. |
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What does Studio do? Studio is basically a sophisticated audio player with special features that radio stations need. Studio is most often used to automatically load playlist files every hour, and play the audio files in an automatic or live assistance (manual) mode, as scheduled by Creator or other music scheduling software. Studio is most useful with a music
scheduler, however, Studio can also be used without a scheduler, where
tracks are inserted manually for doing live shows. |
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Why should I use Studio and not a free media player? Winamp and other simple media players are only
suitable for very basic automation requirements. Studio provides
many advantages for automation, such as However, Studio is also valuable in
assisting DJ's/presenters/announcers with their live shows. |
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Does Studio keep a track of played advertisements for billing? Studio Pro can generate a detailed CSV
log file of every spot played. This
file can be loaded directly into a spreadsheet and filtered to produce
spot summaries for advertisement
billing purposes. Studio can also record each song played for
royalty recording purposes. |
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Why are
spots not showing with the red dot icon? If you are using Creator to generate
the playlists, the Playlist Format option in Creator needs
to be changed to the StationPlaylist Studio selection.
This is necessary for Studio to recognize spots, break notes, and timed
events. This option is on the Playlist Options tab. |
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Why are some songs and spots fading out too early?
Studio provides an intelligent automatic crossfading
system. This starts the next track playing when the last peak volume
of the current track drops below -15
decibels at the default setting. This system works very well for most tracks, but in some
cases, manual adjustments may be required. There are several
solutions.
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Can I use a 3rd party Scheduler with Studio? Yes. Studio can read standard M3U playlists which many schedulers can generate, however, to use some of the advanced features of Studio, a special playlist format is required which only Creator natively supports. The advanced features include support for timed events, break notes, and voice track overlapping. However, StationPlaylist Creator has
a Music Log Importer feature for importing fixed column daily log files
and creating the required playlists for Studio. |
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How do I add Winamp plugins to Studio? Studio can utilize Winamp DSP plugins for such things as audio compression/limiting and internet streaming. Copy the dsp_xxx.dll file to the StationPlaylist\Engine\Plugins folder. Some DSPs have supporting files which also need to be copied to either the Engine or Plugins folder. Studio also supports some Winamp General
plugins, which are installed to the StationPlaylist\Studio\Plugins folder. |
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How do I stream on the Internet with Studio? Studio comes with a stream encoder implemented as a DSP plugin. This supports WMA, MP3, AAC+, and Ogg Vorbis stream encoding for Windows Media, Shoutcast and Icecast2 servers. Enable SPL Encoder on the Mixer tab in the Output options page. See the Internet Streaming chapter
in Studio's help documentation for more
details. |
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Why is there a delay in the Mic audio when using the Mic button? Studio records the Mic audio from the soundcards recording device digitally, optionally processes the audio using compressor/limiter DSP plugins, and then outputs the audio to the soundcards output device via Windows DirectSound. The recording and output stages require buffering to prevent stuttering in the audio playback. At the default settings, the output Buffer Size is 500ms and the input Buffer Size is 100ms, so the delay is at least 600ms. On super fast PC's which have no other applications running, it can be possible to use an output Buffer Size of 200ms and an input Buffer Size of 75ms. This reduces the delay to roughly a quarter of a second. The best solution is to not use Studio's Mic system at all, and install a hardware mixer for all external audio including microphones. These have headphone monitoring capability with no delay. Another solution is to use the Monitor system in Studio. This is configured in the Output options / Mixer tab. If a separate soundcard is installed, Studio can send all audio excluding the Mic audio to this device. Therefore no delay or echo is heard in the headphones. For Internet broadcasters with one soundcard, there are settings in the Mic Input options which can switch to the Monitor and back again when the Mic is activated, without affecting the internet stream. See the Output options chapter in the
documentation. |
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Why do I receive
DirectSound Buffer Underuns in the log? This
can be caused by HyperThreading in Intel CPU's. This may be disabled
in the computer BIOS. Other possibilities include an underpowered
CPU, or the CPU is too busy running other tasks. In this case
increasing the DirectSound buffer size should help. This may be done
while play is stopped in the Output options. |
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Does Studio have
multiple player decks? Yes and no. We decided to not go down the path of emulating multiple CD decks. We realize some DJ's prefer a more hands on approach, or have become accustomed to manually starting and fading multiple players with other broadcasting software, but we wanted to automate everything as much as possible without the need to manually control multiple players. Studio internally utilizes 4 audio file players, 2 for the main player for songs and spots with crossfading, 1 voice track player, and 1 cart player. The software takes care of all mixing and volume reductions while overlapping etc in automation mode. The 2 main players may be output to independent sound devices. When this is done, Studio will not artificially fade tracks playing while in live assistance mode. This effectively works like 2 player decks which can be controlled manually in an external mixer. The voice track player and cart player can also be output to independent sound devices on the Output options page if desired. The cart system may be used for overlapping tracks
playing in the main player. This supports loading up to 96
individual tracks, usually used for backing music, jingles, and sound
effects. As mentioned, this can be output to a different sound output
device for manual mixing if required. |
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How do I configure SPL for satellite feeds and local advertisements?
We will assume in this example that traffic
software will be used for scheduling the commercials. Creator will
be used for scheduling both the satellite feeds and importing the traffic
log. See the Traffic Log Importer chapter in Creator’s
documentation, under the Playlist Editor chapter. A duration only needs to be specified for the satellite feed, not the commercial breaks. The duration isn't utilized at all when a trigger is
detected by Studio. A trigger tells Studio to stop playing the feed
and start the next track in the playlist. The duration is only used
if no trigger is detected. Triggers include TCP or serial port
commands, or contact closures from a satellite receiver.
In Studio, you need to set an option to ensure a break note with a
duration will open the line input. In Studio’s options, go to Input / Line
Input tab. Tick the checkbox “Break Note Line-In Control”. |
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How do I move my software to a new computer?
The software licence permits 2 current
installations for supporting the same station/service, so if you have only
one current installation, you may install the software on a new computer
before uninstalling from the current one if you wish. If you already
have 2 computers running the software, one of them will need to be
uninstalled first. This will not lose any configuration data. To install on the new PC, all you need are the installation programs you downloaded at the time of purchase, and the registration details provided in the purchase emails (serial numbers and 20 digit codes). If you don't have the installation programs or registration details stored somewhere safe, we can provide these while your support & updates subscription is current. Once you enter the serial number and code
for Creator and Studio, the software will display an unlock window asking
for an unlock key. If the PC has internet access, click the large button
containing the http URL and a web page will appear where you need to enter
only your email address, and an unlock key will be emailed to you. |
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What is live
streaming? Live streaming involves encoding the audio produced on your PC to a stream format, which is then uploaded continuously to a stream distribution server which listeners connect to. The audio is usually produced by radio automation software, such as StationPlaylist. Live audio from microphones can be included just like a real radio station. The alternative to live streaming is
on-demand streaming, where you upload your audio files to a hosting
company.
We do not provide this service. |
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Why do I need
your services? Each listener to a stream uses internet
bandwidth. We provide the bandwidth usually at a much lower cost than your ISP
can provide. A DSL internet connection does not usually provide
enough bandwidth to make streaming viable directly from your IP. It
will only support perhaps 6 or 8 listeners at a reasonable bitrate. |
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Why do I need a
distribution server?
The audio is encoded to a stream at your place, but listeners cannot
listen to this stream. It must be uploaded continuously to a
distribution server which makes the single stream available to multiple
listeners. This is the software we install and configure for you on our
server computers. |
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Which
distribution server should I choose? We provide Windows Media, Shoutcast, and Icecast2 servers. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. The answer also depends on the stream codec you will be using. See the next question "Which stream codec should I choose?". A Windows Media Server is required when streaming with the Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec. It is difficult to get listed on the Windows Media Radio Directory, but WMA provides several advantages as mentioned in the stream codec question below. A Shoutcast Server supports MP3 and AAC+ codecs. Choosing this server will get your station automatically listed on the Shoutcast Directory. This directory is very popular and can boost listener numbers. An
Icecast Server supports MP3, AAC+, and Ogg Vorbis codecs. It is
open source software which is newer than Shoutcast and has several
features not found in Shoutcast. Choosing this server will get your
station automatically listed on the
Icecast Directory and
Open Radio Directory. These directories are not as popular
as the Shoutcast directory. |
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Which
stream codec should I choose? There are advantages and disadvantages for using different codecs. A number of stations provide 2 codecs to gain the advantages of both. For example, A WMA stereo stream and a MP3 mono stream using a Windows Media server and Shoutcast server. Also see the next question "Which bitrate should I choose?". WMA Pro Advantages: This is the main codec supported by Windows Media Player, and most PCs have this player installed by default, and is therefore very accessible. It provides much better sound quality than MP3 at the same bitrates, and very similar to AAC+ at 32kb/s or higher. A 48kb/s stream provides better than FM stereo quality. Windows Media Player can be easily integrated into a website. WMA Disadvantages: Bitrates below 32kb/s provide poor sound quality compared to AAC+ but still better than MP3. AAC+ Advantages: This codec is the newest and provides the best sound quality of all codecs at bitrates of 64k and below. Even at 24k, the sound is very pleasant in stereo with adequate treble, and excellent for listeners with dial-up internet modems. It is compatible with Shoutcast and Icecast servers. A 48kb/s stream provides better than FM stereo quality. AAC+ Disadvantages: Being the newest codec, there are less audio players that can play this stream format. Some that do are Winamp v5, Foobar2000, XMPlay, Screamer, VLC for Mac/Linux. Windows Media Player can play this format provided the listener downloads this plugin first. MP3 Advantages: Being the oldest codec of the 4, it has the most player support. Almost every audio player supports playing MP3 streams without downloading plugins on Windows, Linux, and Mac. It is compatible with Shoutcast and Icecast servers. MP3 Disadvantages: Being the oldest codec, it produces the worst sound quality of all 4 codecs. A higher bitrate (at a higher cost) must be used to provide a reasonable sound quality. Ogg Vorbis Advantages: This codec provides the best sound quality of all other codecs at bitrates over 64kb/s, and much better than MP3 at any bitrate. Most listeners listening to quality 3 or higher would find it difficult to tell the difference from the original CD. It is a patent free and open source codec. The other 3 codecs are proprietary. Player support is very high in Windows, Linux, and Mac. Ogg Vorbis Disadvantages:
Although many players support playing Ogg Vorbis streams, Windows Media
Player and Real Player require a plugin installed by the listener --
WMP Plugin,
Real Player Plugin. AAC+ provides better sound quality than Ogg
Vorbis at bitrates of 64kb/s and lower. It requires an Icecast
Server for distribution, and is not compatible with Shoutcast Server. |
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Which bitrate
should I choose? The answer depends on which codec you decide to use, your budget, and how good you want the audio to sound to your listeners. Here is a list of codecs with the bitrate that in our opinion provides a sound quality that is very nice to listen to, with treble response at 16khz or higher.
Here is a list of lower bitrates which provide reasonable sound quality that is still very pleasant to listen to.
Lower bitrates can be achieved by streaming the audio in mono rather than stereo, and still provide a pleasant listening experience. WMA Pro is a newer codec and provides
significantly better quality than plain WMA. StationPlaylist
Studio and
Streamer both support encoding WMA Pro streams. |
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How do I have my
stream play from my website? There are
3 options. 2. For MP3 streams, and AAC+ and Ogg Vorbis streams on Icecast2 servers, you can embed a media player written for Adobe Flash. There are some free and commercial players available, such as FFMp3 and JW Player. These players will work no matter what operating system or browser the listener is using. To add this player to your website, you will most likely need to hire a website developer. Here is an AAC+ player written for Flash. 3. For Windows Media,
a Windows Media Player
ActiveX plugin can
be embedded in a web page. At the time of writing, this works with Internet Explorer and
Firefox browsers only, and requires the listener to be running Microsoft
Windows operating system. These players have been set to not start playing automatically, but this is possible with a simple change of a parameter. To add these players to your website, you may need to hire a website
developer. Alternatively, if you have some experience, you may be
able to copy the HTML code
from this page and utilize it on your website. |
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How can I
display what song is playing on my website? This depends on the player software you are using and whether it supports this feature. Refer to the software documentation for details regarding website integration. Our automation/player software, StationPlaylist Studio, supports creating an HTML, XML, or text file, and either uploading it to a web server via FTP, or directly access Studio's built-in web server. This can be displayed or utilized on a web page. You can see a small example of what is possible in our Popup player window used for our WMA Demo Stream. Previous tracks played and the next track can also be displayed. You may need to hire a website developer to
integrate now playing information into your website. |
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