StationPlaylist.com - Frequently Asked Questions

Creator Answers

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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Why should I use Creator?

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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What is Voice Tracking?

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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What is a Category?

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.
1. Creator works faster and more efficiently.
2. New music files do not need to be manually entered into a category. Music files need only to be copied to the correct folder and Creator will use them in the next playlist creation. This means little or no maintenance required.

Categories are used in rotations.
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What is a Spot Group?

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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What is a Rotation?

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:

Station ID	(spot group)
New Music	(category)
Pop Slow	(category)
Ad - CD Warehouse	(spot group)
Station ID	(spot group)
Pop Fast	(category)
Male Rock	(category)
$20 ads	(spot group)
$20 ads	(spot group)
Station ID	(spot group)
Pop Slow	(category)
Female Rock	(category)
etc

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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What is a Schedule?

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.
Note: Creator Lite supports only two Schedules.
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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. Natural Log is recommended.

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
6 Per Day Ads
Station ID

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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Why have some tracks not been selected after several weeks?

The list of tracks in a Category are initially shuffled into a random order. As Creator selects tracks from a category, it goes down the list one by one until it reaches the end of the list. At this point, the track list is shuffled into another random order.

It is only the repeat intervals which interfere with track selection, in particular, the artist repeat interval. If the artist repeat interval (and title repeat interval) is set to 0, every single song in a category will be selected before any songs are repeated. This is the ideal situation, but of course you don't want songs by the same artist too close together.

We suggest selecting an artist repeat interval that your listeners will not notice too much. Around 2.5 hours is usually ample. The lower the interval, the less tracks that will be skipped over in the selection process.

A high song repeat interval can cause a similar problem of tracks being skipped over after the category has been re-shuffled in a different order. Again we suggest selecting a song repeat interval that your listeners will not notice too much. We suggest somewhere between 9 to 18 hours depending on the number of songs available. This doesn't mean every song will repeat after 9 hours. In fact most will repeat after several days if the category contains several days of tracks.

Another issue that can cause this issue is incorrect artist and title information recorded for the songs. Check the File List for each category and ensure the artist is correct. For example, If many have "Various Artists" or the artist is blank, these tracks will be considered as performed by the same artist and will not be selected within the interval setting.

Each individual category can also have it's own repeat intervals so check these have not been set incorrectly.
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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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Studio Answers

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
• Includes an intelligent automatic crossfading system which works very well with 99% of all tracks, but for those that need tweaking, it supports manual cue and segue positions on individual tracks.
• Take news or external feeds at specific times for a specific duration via line input and internet streams.
• Voice tracks can be overlapped with song ramps to simulate a live DJ talk-overs while automated.
• Timed Events may be played at precise times.
• A personalized Now Playing web page can be incorporated into your website.
• Automated time and temperature announcement files can be played.
• Play will begin at the scheduled position in the playlist after a power failure.
• Studio can be scheduled to stop playing for certain hours of the day.
• and many more features.

However, Studio is also valuable in assisting DJ's/presenters/announcers with their live shows.
• Instant jingles (carts) can be easily played at any time.
• the carts can be displayed on a permanent form on a second monitor for instant access (mouse/touch screen, or keyboard shortcuts).
• announcement breaks can be planned ahead of time.
• a number of tracks can be selected to play sequentially and then stop for a live announcement.
• easily preview upcoming tracks with a second soundcard.
• automatically lower the music volume while over-talking with the mic.
• the mic can be toggled automatically when play starts and stops.
• the line-in mixer can be controlled directly from Studio with optional fade.
• easily insert requested songs by searching the song library with a portion of an artist and/or title.
• and many more features. See the Products page for more details.
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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?
Why are Break Notes not working?
Why are timed events not activating?

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 -14 decibels by default. This system works very well for most tracks, but in some cases, manual adjustments may be required. There are several solutions.

Manually specify a segue position for a track. This can be done in the Track Tool available from Creator and Studio. Or use Track Properties and set the Segue position to 0. This will play the entire track with no crossfading.
Adjust the automatic crossfade parameters on the Input options tab. Change the Segue DB setting to say -18db. All tracks will fade out to a lower volume before the next track starts.
Apply some waveform compression to spots so that the volume is reasonably consistent throughout the track. This can be done using an audio editor.
Turn off crossfading for all spots. This is an option on the Input options tab. Note that spots will still crossfade if a manual Segue position has been established for an individual track.

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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.

Studio requires the music and spots to be combined in the same playlist. Some schedulers can only provide separate playlist logs for the music and the spots.
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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. Studio looks in the Winamp Folder specified on the Files & Folders options tab for DSP plugins and copies them to the StationPlaylist folders so they can be used by Studio.

Simply install the DSP plugin to the default Winamp folder.
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How do I stream on the Internet with Studio?

The Studio installer includes our custom Oddcast stream encoder. This supports WMA, MP3, AAC+, and Ogg Vorbis stream encoding for Windows Media, Shoutcast and Icecast2 servers. enable Oddcast on the Mixer tab in the Output options page.

See the Studio help documentation for more details.
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Why is there a delay in the Mic audio when using the Mic button?

By default, 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.

It is possible to remove the delay completely by changing an option on the Mic Input tab. Change Record from Device to Control Output Mixer. This requires the microphone to be connected to the same soundcard, and the soundcard needs to support passing the mic input through to the output. In this configuration, Studio will not touch the audio at all. It will pass straight through the soundcard only, so there is no delay. However, this means the VU meter will not reflect the Mic audio; DSP plugins cannot process the Mic audio; and by default, encoding a stream using the DSP audio pipeline will not include the Mic audio.

However, in this situation, the stream encoder should be switched to record the audio from the soundcard rather than the digital DSP pipeline. This involves clicking the button with the red X on the Oddcast window and selecting the soundcard and mixer. The mixer should be set to "What You Hear" or "Stereo Mix" or Wave Mix". These names can vary for different soundcards.

A solution for those wanting no delay but need the Mic audio compressed for internet broadcasting, see StationPlaylist Streamer. This utility costs only $28 / €19 for Studio licence holders.
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Does Studio have multiple player decks?

The short answer is 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. The 2 main players are mixed together before being output to one sound device. The voice track player and cart player can be output to independent sound devices on the Output options page if desired.

We know of several commercial stations that prefer this level of automation as it prevents mistakes, sounds professional, and most of all is much easier to operate.

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, or sound effects. As mentioned, this can be output to a different soundcard output device for manual mixing if required.
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Stream Hosting Answers

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 yet 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 built 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.

High Quality
WMA Pro	64 kb/s
AAC+ (HE-AAC)	64 kb/s
Ogg Vorbis	80-90 kb/s (VBR quality 1)
WMA	96 kb/s
MP3	128 kb/s

Here is a list of lower bitrates which provide reasonable sound quality that is still very pleasant to listen to.

Medium Quality
WMA Pro	32 kb/s
AAC+ (HE-AAC)	32 kb/s
Ogg Vorbis	48-54 kb/s (VBR quality -1)
WMA	64 kb/s
MP3	96 kb/s

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 2 options.
1. You can simply advertise the stream server URL as a link on your website. We send you the stream URL. A visitor simply clicks the link which will load his default media player and play the stream. For example:

2. A Windows Media Player (WMP) ActiveX plugin can be embedded in a web page. This works with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. This has the advantage of playing the stream automatically as soon as a web page is displayed. A disadvantage is some people prefer to use their favorite media player to play streams, which may include enhancements such as bass or treble adjustments. It may also not play on Linux computers.

This player has been set to not start playing automatically, but this is possible with a simple change of a parameter. To add this player 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.

Note that only WMA Pro, WMA, and MP3 streams can be played natively from a web page without the listener needing to install a plugin first.
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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 document and uploading it to a web server via FTP. This can be displayed on a web page inside an iFrame. 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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