Adding Cuts to the Library

Pressing the ADD button allows you to add new audio cuts along with Rotate, Command and Playlist cuts directly to the library. 

Upon making a selection, a window containing entry fields for that particular cut type is displayed. The fields and buttons on the window are the same as those on the Modify Cut window and may be used in the same way.  Audio cuts can be added to the Library by using the CD Ripper. The CD Ripper will extract the audio information directly from an audio CD. Another method of adding audio files would be Drag and Drop. While there is not a button for Drag and Drop it is discussed within this section.

Normal

Normal cuts are simple "empty" cuts to be "filled" later. No audio will be associated with the cut at this time. Only a database entry will be entered into the Library.

Many stations choose to create several ‘ Normal ’ cuts in the Library allowing them to be recorded at a later time via the ‘Timed Recording’ feature.  Once such a cut exists in the library, it may be placed into a Timed Record list.

Users can also add audio to the Library by manually copying the file into the library’s associated audio directory. The audio file should be given the cut number and file extension that will be used in the Library. After the audio file has been copied into the proper directory, press NORMAL and enter the cut number along with any other information. Pressing SAVE and EXIT will add the cut to the Library database.

Rotate

A Rotate cut is an entry in the Library database that will select and play another cut based on a list of cuts the user defines. Each time the rotation cut is played, it sequences and plays a different cut from an associated playlist. 

Generally the cuts to be rotated are recorded into the Library first. These cuts are then assembled together into a playlist. Then the Rotate cut is created and linked to that playlist.  Every time the rotate cut is played, DAD accesses this playlist and plays the next spot in rotation. 

Creating a Rotate Cut

After the library cuts to be rotated are recorded into DAD, press ADD then Rotate. This will open the ADD CUT window. Enter all information about the rotate cut that you deem necessary. The title of the rotate cut should reflect the nature of it’s audio and function. For example: Legal ID Rotator.

After entering the basic information, one must enter the name of the playlist containing the cuts to be rotated in the ‘Playlist’ field. The cut number and the name of the playlist to which the rotate cut will be linked are required entries.  Pressing SAVE and EXIT will add the rotate cut into the Library database.

Next users should create the playlist for the rotate cut. The audio files recorded earlier will now be added to a playlist. This playlist must have the same name that was entered into the ‘Playlist’ field for the rotate cut.  Refer to Section 5 for information about creating playlist.

Another way to create a rotate cut can be found under the main Playlist Modify window.

Other Rotate Cut Information

To edit or change the rotation of a Rotate cut, highlight the rotate cut in the Library Screen, then press the MODIFY button. In the Modify Cut window, the field ‘Event’ displays the playlist position number of the cut to be played next. For example, if five cuts are in a rotate cut playlist and the ‘Event’ filed displays ‘0’, then the first cut in the list will play when the rotate cut plays.

Rotate cuts can also be reset via the DCL: RESET ROTATE <cut number>. Issuing the DCL will set the ‘Event’ field to ‘0’ for the cut number given.

Users should get into the habit of entering a time in the ‘Length’ field. Rotate cuts by default do not have a length. To properly calculate time for the playlist, users should enter a time in the ‘Length’ field. This time should be the average length for the cuts contained within the rotate cuts playlist.

CAUTION:  Nest Rotate Cuts at your own risk.  Nesting Rotate Cuts refers to one Rotate Cut referencing another Rotate Cut.  Nesting Rotate Cuts is supported three cuts 'deep'.

Command

A Command cut is a cut that contains DAD Command Language (DCL), DAD Programming Language (DPL) or Switcher control information. Command cuts play a vital roll in any system. They can be as simple or as complex as the user desires. In a general sense, they are commonly used to perform a series of actions defined by the user. The actions might be to change a switcher crosspoint or to turn on a channel on the console and begin playback of an audio file.  All these actions can be combined into a single Command cut. A complete list of all DCL’s can be found by opening the Command Editor in DAD.

Creating a Command Cut

Pressing COMMAND from the ADD menu will open the ADD CUT screen. Enter a cut number and any other information necessary such as title.  After pressing SAVE and EXIT, the Command Cut Editor will open.  Enter the command desired in the space next to the Update Line button. After the command has been entered, press the Add Line button. The DCL will be added to the stack area. If other commands are required, continue to add them in the same manner. Once all the DCL’s have been entered, press the ACCEPT button. This saves the commands and exits the Command Cut Editor.

The Command Cut Editor allows you to EDIT any existing Command Cuts in the Library.  To change a line in the stack area, select that line, make any desired changes then press Update Line. Users can also Delete a selected line or Insert a command above the selected line in the stack area. The VERIFY SYNTAX line allows one to verify that the command they entered is valid. The Command Cut Editor will not allow an invalid command to be added or updated into the stack area. 

Users can also utilize the RAW EDIT and Refresh button options when editing or copying complex Command Cuts. Pressing RAW EDIT will open the CMD file in Notepad allowing one to modify the file directly. Pressing Refresh will reload any externally modified changes.

The entire command will be within a single set of quote with each command being on a separate line. 

"DISABLE GPI 1

DELAY NEXT CMD 500

ENABLE GPI 1"

For your convenience, the Editor supports ‘Type Ahead’. One can enter the first few letters of the DCL you wish to add. The upper portion of the screen will automatically display the command that relates to what you have typed. One could also scroll through the command examples manually, selecting a DCL to have its example usage shown.

Creating a Switcher Command Cut

Switcher Command Cuts are used to control external switchers. A Switcher Command Cut is very similar to a normal Command Cut and can contain DCL’s if necessary.

A Switcher Command will use the ‘Switcher’ field in the ADD/MODIFY CUT screen.  This field will contain the name of the switcher crosspoint in the workstation’s OS1 file. The workstations OS1 file contains the name of the crosspoint and the serial string or DCL information to be performed. When the Switcher Command is executed or ‘plays’, it will reference the OS1 file, finding the name of the crosspoint and send the data to the external component. If there are any DCL’s to be performed as part of the Switcher Command, they are entered as a normal Command Cut. If additional DCL’s are not necessary, the user should just press the ACCEPT button after hitting SAVE and EXIT.

Full details on configuring a workstation to communicate to an external switcher can be found in the Switcher document.

Playlist

A Playlist cut is a Library cut that references a playlist containing other library cuts. When this cut plays, it will load the playlist it references and begin playing all the cuts within that list in order. This is different from a Rotate cut. A Rotate cut will play a single cut whereas a Playlist cut will play all the cuts within its playlist.

When a Playlist cut is loaded into a Playback machine, users will initially only see the Playlist cut number. For example, the Playlist cut (00020) is shown at right is between cut number 01002 and 01003.

When the Playlist cut plays, it will load the referenced playlist and open it within the currently loaded playlist. The Playlist cut will also expand if the initial playlist is refreshed.

Here one can see that the Playlist cut has expanded. Several new cuts are now shown. The end of the Playlist cut will always be marked by a text comment.

Creating a Playlist Cut

From the ADD menu, select PLAYLIST. This will open the ADD CUT screen. Here the user will enter a cut number and any other necessary information such as title. The user must enter a playlist name in the ‘Playlist’ field. The cut number and the name of the playlist to which the Playlist cut will be linked are required entries.  Pressing SAVE and EXIT will add the Playlist cut into the Library database.

Next users should create the playlist for the Playlist cut. This playlist must have the same name that was entered into the ‘Playlist’ field for the Playlist cut. The playlist can contain audio cuts, rotate cuts, command cuts or any type of playlist event.

CAUTION:  Nest Playlist Cuts at your own risk.  Nesting Playlist Cuts refers to one Playlist Cut referencing another Playlist Cut.  Nesting Playlist Cuts is not a supported by DAD, and can produce unexpected results.

CD Ripper

Pressing the CD Ripper button from the ADD menu opens the CD Ripper. The CD Ripper allows a user to extract the audio information from an audio CD and copy it directly to the library.

The CD Ripper can be a quick and easy method of adding audio files to the library. The resulting cut can automatically be encoded with either MPEG Layer2 or MP3 format or kept in its default PCM16 format. Users can also have the audio file normalized to a defined value.

If the optional AudioCvt package has been installed, one can convert audio formats, normalize and change sample rates of ripped cuts. 

The DAD CD Ripper also supports use of FreeDB Database information. Users can download the Windows version of the FreeDB database and extract this to a shared network location. Once the database has been extracted, one can set the database path in the workstation CFI via the line: FREEDB = <path of database> in the RIPPER section. For example: FREEDB = F:\DAD\FREEDB

. NOTE:  If a message stating that the ASPI driver is not installed, you must run ASPI32.exe or the INSTASPI.BAT file (in the C:\DAD\PROGS\Aspi4.60 folder) before CD Ripper will function.   Some SATA and USB units are not detected by DAD using the ASPI driver. In these cases, one might need to use a newer version of the ASPI driver.

WARNING: Ripping can be very demanding on a workstation. Users should refrain from ripping on a workstation that is 'On-Air'.

CD Ripper Buttons and Functions

The CD Ripper functions in a similar manner to most commonly used Rippers and adds the audio file directly to the DAD Library.

A.     Check All, Uncheck All and Reset All Data buttons. The Check All button will select all tracks to be ripped. Likewise, the Uncheck All button will unselect all tracks currently selected. The Reset All Data button will erase any data that has been entered such as CutID and Title.

B.     The track area displays the tracks to be selected. The track length and uncompressed size are shown. This area will also display the cut number, title and other data when a user updates the selected track. 

     The Warning Field is used to notify users that they are going to overwrite an existing audio cut. 

C.    Users will enter a cut number in the CutID field along with the Title, the audio drive location, the format and bitrate. Pressing the button Update Selected will enter the information into the track area. Reset will erase the selected tracks data.

D.    Checking ‘Modify After Rip’ will force the Modify Cut window to open after the track has completed ripping. Checking the ‘Normalize to’ option will force the ripper to normalize all the selected tracks to the value entered into the level field directly to the right. To lower overall level of the cut, enter a ‘-<value>’ such as -5.

      Rip All to a Single Cut allows for users to rip the entire audio CD to a single cut number.     

E.     The CD-ROM settings allow a user to fine tune their ripper settings.  Generally these values should be left alone.

F.     The progress display will show the overall status of the ripping process.

G.    Several Library data fields are provided allowing the user to enter Artist, Agency, Album, Genre, Group (with a Group button) Outcue, UserDef, Composer, FilmTitle and SubGroup. Information entered will be applied to all of the cuts selected for ripping.

H.     Begin Ripping will start the ripping process. Abort will cancel the ripping process and Close will exit the ripper.

Using the CD Ripper

A user will first insert an audio CD into the CD-ROM drive of the machine. When the CD Ripper is opened, the tracks will be displayed with the length and current file size shown.

Select the individual tracks desired by clicking with the box to the left of the track number. If you wish to select all of the tracks, select the Check All button.

Users at any point can select a track and enter the Cut Number, Title data along with Drive location and audio format information.  Pressing the button Update Selected enters the data information for that cut.  Note that the cut number will automatically be assigned to unused cut numbers in order for other cuts selected. If the users manually enters a cut number that exists, a message of: Overwrite! will be displayed in the Warning field.

Users can enter items into the database fields such as Artist, Groups and Composer. Pressing the Group button will open the Groups selection window. 

To enter additional information for the cut, select the check-box option ‘Modify After Rip’. This will open the Library Modify screen after the cut has finished ripping.  After entering any data press Save And Exit to enter the cut into the Library database.

To normalize the audio files, select the Normalize check-box and enter a value. All selected cuts to be ripped will be normalized to this setting. Using Normalization will increase the overall length of time for the ripping process.

One can also have the ripped cut sent to the optional AudioCvt program. When converting the format via this method, the default settings within the AudioCvt program will be used. This allows users to change audio format, sample rate and normalize the audio file.  

After the proper information has been entered, press the Begin Ripping button.

Configuring the CD Ripper

The CD-ROM Setting button will allow one to fine-tune their ripper settings.  Users should verify that the critical default values should be as follows Read Sectors = 399 <max speed> <see below for notes based on type of drive>   For IDE style CD Rom units [older systems]:  Many users set the ripper to a value in the 200 range to prevent network related issues such as dropouts.    For SATA or USB style CD / DVD Rom units [newer system]:  Many users set the ripper to a value to 26 to prevent network related issues such as dropouts.  NOTE: When using SOME SATA style CD/DVD drives users should use a Ripper Setting of [Read Sectors] that is equal to or less than 50. If greater than 50, one could rip to a blank audio file. Keeping it under 50 rips at a good click (about ½ real-time) with audio.   Jitter correction = Unchecked While there are other values that can be altered, they should not be changed unless the user has advanced knowledge about their CD-ROM and its settings. Administrators can also modify the workstation’s CFI file by entering certain defaults for the CD Ripper in the RIPPER section.  NORM_SELECT  = 1 The value of 1 will flag the Normalized check-box active whereas 0 defeats Normalization. NORM_DB  = -4.0 This sets the default normalization level. LOCATION = G: This sets the default drive location.

Using other methods to add audio cuts

There are other several other methods available to add an audio file into DAD.  

Drag and Drop Users can Drag and Drop an audio file directly into the DAD Library screen. If the audio file is valid then the ADD CUT screen will open. Here users can enter the cut number and drive location along with any other information necessary.  If the ADD CUT screen does not appear, the cut should be converted so it can be added.
DropBox DropBox is an external program running in the background that will automatically convert audio files placed in a directory and inject them into the DAD Library. DropBox can be customized to satisfy the users needs and is an additional purchase option.
AudioCvt Audio Convert is also an external program that allows the user to convert audio files and inject them into the DAD Library or convert existing Library cuts to another audio format.  Audio Convert is also an additional purchase option.