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Myriad/Presenting/Production/Uncategorized

Music Won’t Go In The Hour

Posted by Jamie Woods on

If you’re pre-recording a show you may occasionally come across a really weird bug where music will sit outside an hour.

Not to worry, there’s an easy(ish) way to get around it, it just involves digging into menus a bit more than you may be used to.

First, delete the dodgy hour. Right click on the hour’s purple markers and press Delete. It will panic and say “Do you REALLY actually want to delete this? Please no”. Ignore its pleas and continue clicking Yes.

Next, go to Log, Add Hour To Log. Under there, click Add Hour from Carts

File, Add Hour To Log, Add Hour With Carts

This will open the normal “Select Date” dialogue. Enter the hour at the start of your pre-record, select the right date and press ok. You will have to do this again later for the second hour.

Select Date

Next, it will pop up with a really odd looking Audio Wall browser. This is more or less a list of what you see on the left hand monitor.

Double click “1”, or Top Of Show (in orange), to select it.

ss2

Great. Now, just type “1” into the next dialogue (not 10, otherwise it will insert 10 sweepers in a boring order), and press ok.

"How many carts" dialogue - enter 1

That’s it! In the log you should now have an hour starting with the TOP OF SHOW sweeper, just like when you normally plan a show. You will have to do it again to add your next hour of music, but just leave the other hours non-existent so that they can be filled later on with playlist music.

Be sure to change the hour mode to Auto, not LiveAssist or AutoFade. And don’t put stops (red squares) anywhere in your pre-rec.

Myriad/Presenting/Production/Uncategorized

Pre-recording in Studio 2

Posted by Beth Carr on

Pre-recording is nothing to panic about! There are two ways you can pre-record a show – we recommend using the first, SegEdit. Setting up is the same for both methods.

Set Up in Studio 2

  • Before entering the studio, log your music into the time slot when your show will be aired (most pre-records are 2 hours so use two hour long slots) – if an error message appears when you ‘Go To’ your hour, select the ‘Log’ drop down menu on the top left of the screen, then select Add Hour to Log > Add Empty Hour and choose the hour (or two) that you need. You can then drag and drop songs into the hours as usual.

christmas-pre-recording-shows-in-studio-2

  • Sign in to the presenter’s Insanity account on Myriad in studio 2.
  • Make sure all three power switches behind the equipment are turned on in studio 2.
  • Press the ‘AUD’ button above the microphones that are going to be used during the recording – these are the two channels on the far left of the sound desk.
  • ‘Go to’ the hour in the log that your pre recording is scheduled to play on air and make sure it is set to AUTO (it should not be in AutoFade).
  • Press the round ‘PFL’ button above Myriad cart 4 (blue channel, far right of the sound desk). All the Myriad channel faders should be down.
  • On the right of the sound desk are 10 buttons, set out in two columns – press the top two (AUD) but leave all the others.

christmas-pre-recording-shows-in-studio-2-1

1) Using SegEdit: (recommended)

  • Highlight over the song you want to play after your link and open SegEdit (located on the right hand computer screen above the logs).

Pre-recording using SegEdit

  • Press the spacebar to play the end of the track before your link.
  • The recording will start automatically when the microphone picks up sound so make sure you are quiet until you want to start recording. You MUST start the recording before the red line near the end of the track – if you’re not ready to talk, make a noise like a cough or pop to activate the mic (then you can be quiet again). You can see the duration of the recording at the bottom right hand corner of Myriad.
  • Press the spacebar again to start playing the song after the link and then spacebar again to stop the recording.
  • If you are happy with the link then remember to click save!
  • Repeat the spacebar button pressing for all voice links.
  • Once you are finished, right click the top of the hour that contains the time and date and select ‘Export this Hour to a file’ – save it in Computer/Music (M:)/PRE RECORD LOG FILES and save it as ‘Presenter/Show Name Date Time’. Make sure you do this for both hours.
  • Make sure you log out when you are done!

2) Pre-recording into carts: (commonly for interviews or other features)

  • Log into Myriad.
  • Find an empty cart on the AudioWall – 8000-10000 is used for recordings.
  • Right click on the empty cart and select ‘record into cart’. It will automatically start when the microphone picks up audio.
  • Press stop on the bottom right corner of the screen (the recording cart) to end the recording and save it if you are happy.
  • Make a note of the pre-recorded material’s cart number so you can log it with your music in your show.
  • To locate the cart your pre recordings went in to, click ‘Jump’ on the left hand side of the computer screen and type the number of the cart.
  • Edit the name and artist to something more memorable and put the date it will be aired to make sure the cart isn’t accidentally deleted.
  • You can drag your recording into the log as you would with music and use SegEdit to blend it in with the songs.

Beds in Studio 2

  • If you want to add beds to your pre-record, you can do this in studio 2!
  • Choose the bed (or beds) you’d like to use and drag it into cart 1, 2 or 3. Select ‘AUD’ and keep the fader up on the sound desk (these carts are the other three blue channels on the right, next to cart 4).
  • Start playing the bed whilst voice recording (either on SegEdit or into a cart) on the Myriad screen and when you want to talk over it, drag the slider down to between 5 and 10 (it may sound louder on the headphones than it will on air)
  • If you want to talk over an intro to a song, fade out the bed as you would when live and press the spacebar to start the next song on SegEdit.
  • PLEASE NOTE: The ‘ON’ buttons above the Myriad faders do not start tracks as they would in Studio 1 so you have to manually press play for the carts on the screen and then click back onto the SegEdit panel.

Resetting Studio 2

  • Once you are finished with your pre-record, turn off the ‘AUD’ and ‘PFL’ buttons on all the channels you have used.
  • Put the three Myriad channel faders back up and turn off the ‘AUD’ function on the right hand buttons.
  • Log out of Myriad and return the studio to how you found it:

Resetting Studio 2 to broadcast settings

Any problems, email training2.insanityradio.com or ask your producer.

Uncategorised/Uncategorized

The Silence Detector

Posted by Jamie Woods on

Ever noticed something different playing out on the radio/stream than what’s going on in the studio? Chances are you’ve encountered the emergency programme, controlled by the aptly named silence detector.

Essentially, if there’s silence (or very very quiet) output from the live studio for about 20 seconds, the silence detector switches to the emergency programme. Historically, this has been Bohemian Rhapsody, but it’s now shuffled and could be any song from its playlist.

So what counts as very very very quiet? If you leave the studio and Myriad reaches a stop, it will kick in after 20 seconds until the presenter gets a chance to either press Go or talk (or both). Songs that over-use stereo (like Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd) may trip it if, say, the left channel is quiet. And, finally, songs that just have a really really quiet intro or ramp.

It’s always a good idea when uploading music to make sure that tracks don’t have a long, quiet introduction.

So what do I do if it trips?

Essentially, play some music. If the song isn’t peaking at 5 on the meterbridge (the retro looking dials), adjust the green knob (trim) to turn it up. After about 5 seconds of content in the studio, it will switch back to regular programming.

There’s another silence detector that sits at the transmitter, which will continue to play music on 103.2FM if there’s an emergency at the studio. This one kicks in after 30 seconds of silence, or immediately if the studio goes off air. In this case, the stream will probably sound different to FM.