Fleet7Radio - The innards!

[William Anders]

Okay so this is basically only for those of us that DJ the radio station. I'm going to put up guides to learn you cool things to do in SAM Broadcaster.



The first one is setting up a clockwheel rotation list. When I'm DJing and have to leave my computer for a while I usually get a queue running then manually put in the songs and throw in a few bumpers and jingles every few songs. It's a bit of a hassle as you know. So what the clockwheel does is setup an automatic rotation of songs/bumpers that are in your playlist folders in SAM.


Make sure you have your folders of music and then a separate folder for your bumpers/jingles and the like (I know Talbot needs a couple. I'll work on making them for him). Anyway so you have those folders.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/playlist.png
The folders "Tracks" and "Tracks2" contain all the music on my computer. So for this I am only using certain songs I picked out for the radio which are in the folder named "Tunes." As you see I have a folder for all the "You're in the cave with DJ Batman Anders" bumpers and jingles. Make sure they're separate from your regular music.


Okay now to set up a clockwheel rotation. Start off by clicking on the "Config" tab.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/config.png


Down the list click on "Playlist rotation rules." On the right there's a dropdown menu that says, "Keep songs in queue." I chose 12. Seemed like a good number, but you can choose whatever you want. I'd recommend 8 or higher. Then move down to the dropdown box at the bottom and choose "Clockwheel logic module" then click the "Configure" button to the right.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/playlistrotation.png


Now here's where the magic happens. You should see some code in the field there. On the right side there's a "-Clear" button. Click that and it erases all the code. What we're going to do now is put in more code that tells SAM what to play and in what order. So here's how I have mine setup:
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/codes.png
This basically says it's going to play 3 songs from my "Tunes" folder, then something from "Bumpers", then another 3 songs from "Tunes." (You could have it in any configuration you want.)


So to do this click on the "+Category" button then choose which folder you want SAM to play music from. Make sure the "Enforce playlist rotation rules" box is checked. Then click the "Random" bubble. Then click OK
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/choosetunes.png


A piece of code will now be in the white field. You can copy and paste that as many times as you want until you want a bumper to play (Note: the rotation will play over and over. So don't go crazy with copy/paste.)
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/test.png


Now do the same for the bumpers. "+Category", select folder with bumpers/jingles, uncheck the "Enforce playlist rotation rules" box, click "Random" bubble, click OK.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/choosebumpers2.png


Now you'll have your rotation set up. Click OK.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx227/eholc1/codes.png


You'll go back to the "Playlist rotation rules" menu. Choose how often you want your songs to play, it's up to you. I left them at the default 60/120/240/240 values. Click OK.

On the main board, change the DJ Mode to "Queue" then start pumping out the tunes! Music should start popping up in the Queue automatically. It'll play a few songs then do a bumper (or in whatever order you set it up to play). It will repeat itself til doomsday unless you change it. So that's why I put certain songs in another folder so it'd just play those songs and not every one I have on my computer. Definitely has come in handy when I had to get up and leave real quick for some reason, and didn't come back for a while. AND you don't have to micro-manage every song that plays and throw in the bumpers manually.

Hope this makes things easier!

Guest Post Rules are In Effect for this Post

[Captain Talbot]

Bats, I am so glad you posted this, when I get the stuff from you I will definitely study this again.