TUNETRACKER SYSTEM IN ACTION - Using TuneTracker Command Center™

The TuneTracker Command Center™ "Command Screen"

You might light to print out this page and keep it handy near your computer for reference!

Here are quick descriptions of the features in the TuneTracker Command Center™ user control interface, which we call the "Command Screen." Wherever you see links in the information below, we strongly recommend you click them for important additional information on the features available to you!

Most of the features described below are applicable to all Command Center installations. A few may not be found on your version of Command Center, depending on how long ago you purchased it. Inexpensive upgrades are available if you discover there are features listed here that you do not already have.

First, let's look at the main sections of the Command Screen:

A. On-Air Events Area B. Next-to-Play Area C. Scrolling Program Log View

F. MyShow Configurable Buttons

D. VU Meters and WeatherPad E. ButtonPad and Scrolling Text box

Now, let's zoom in and look at each section, one at a time.

A. On-Air Events Area

Everything on the left side of the Command Screen that's above the bright green line is on the air! Each on-air event is lit with a brightly colored button to indicate it is currently being broadcast. In this illustration we see that both an audio file (bright green) and the live line input (bright red) are being broadcast simultaneously. The on-air events area expands vertically to accommodate the display of up to four simultaneous on-air events, though any number of events can be put on simultaneously. The TuneTracker System can handle an amazing number of them at once, however impractical that might be under most real-world situations. But its smoothness even under such a heavy load gives you an idea of how well it'll handle everyday tasks.

The Live Events Area's items stay put while you are scrolling through your program log, so you never lose track of what is currently playing.

1.   Event Line - Every playable event is displayed in scrolling list along the left side of the command screen. There are two shown here, containing the following components described below.
   
   
   
2.   Progress Bar - A grey "background bar" grows from left to right right across the background of the event as it is playing, showing you graphically how much of the track has played and how much remains to be played.
   
   
   
3.   Artist and Title - If the attributes for Artist and Title have not been filled in on your audio files, TuneTracker will display the path and name of the file.
   
   
   
4.   Ramp Time - Indicates the amount of time you have assigned to the file as being safe to "talk over." Ramp Time can be used for reference during live shows, and is also used by TuneTracker when playing voice-tracks over the introductions and endings of songs. In 3.1 and higher, Command Center displays a countown of the remaining ramp time as the song intro is playing, so the DJ knows when to stop talking.
   
   
   
5.   Countdown Timer and Stop Button - The time indicated in the bright green button indicates how long the event still has to play before it is finished. You can click the button to kill the event at any time, taking it off the air.
   
   
   
6.   Fader Control - When you click and hold on the fader control, a big, mixer-sized fader appears, giving you a long, smooth, real-world way to adjust the volume of the track. In Command Center 3.2 and up, there are volume sliders for each event, including those yet to play, allowing you to pre-set the volume of a track before it starts playing. This is useful in live DJ environments where the announcer wants the song to start low for talk-over purposes, and then turn the song's volume up manually when done talking. The technique for adjusting volume is to click on the small volume icon, and when the large slider appears, move your mouse (or finger) down until it is parallel with the slider knob, then move your mouse into the volume control area, and adjust up or down. Alternatively, if you move your mouse/finger into the open area above or below the slider, the slider volume will jump to your pointer location.
   
   Volumes by default are set to an optimum level and are displayed with the slider knob at about 75%. If a cut is unusually quiet, you can raise the level by pushing the slider above 75% into the "boost" range.
   
   
   
7.   Bright Green Line - At the bottom of the Live Events Area you can see a bright green line. Every item visible above the bright green line is presently on-the-air, and will remain visible and unscrollable even if you change display modes.

B. Next-to-Play Area:

The item just below the bright green line, with the gold Start button, is the next-to-play event. As with the items in the Live Events Area, the Next-to-Play item is not moved or affected by scrolling your program log.

Below are descriptions of the numbered items shown in the next-to-play illustration.

1.   Running Time - The red text indicates the estimated time when the next-to-play item will be broadcast.
   
   
   
2.   Artist and Title - The name of the Artist and the Title are displayed. If the attributes for Artist and Title have not been filled in on your audio files, TuneTracker will display the path and name of the file.
   
   
   
3.   Ramp Time - The display here shows the amount of time you have assigned to the file as being safe to "talk over." Ramp Time can be used for reference during live shows, and is also used by TuneTracker when playing voice-tracks over the introductions and endings of songs.
   
   
   
4.   Gold Button - This clearly identifies the next-to-play event. The black text on this button shows the length of the next-to-play event. Clicking on the gold button will cause the event to immediately start playing. If you click-and-hold on the gold button, a crossfader will appear that lets you do a smooth, crossfaded transition between the song already playing and the new one you want to put on the air.
   
   You can manually start the next-to-play event by clicking the gold button, clicking the "Start" system button in the ButtonPad area, or by hitting the Spacebar on your keyboard. The next-to-play item will be put on the air. If another cut is already playing, that cut will be taken off the air, which allows for a "panic start" if you need to rapidly skip out of what's playing and move to another event.
   
   You can change what is next-to-play by right-clicking on any other event in your program log and selecting "Make next-to-play." Or, if you want to force Command Center to "jump over and skip" everything between the current song and the item you want to make next-to-play, you can double-click on the item, and everything in-between will be skipped-over.
   

Don't Miss These Right-Click Options! Right-clicking on any event in the program log presents you with a variety of useful features.   Cut Cut will immediately remove an event from the program log, while remembering what it was, so that the item can be pasted back in elsewhere in the log.   Copy This copies the track to memory without removing it. If you go to other locations in the log and right-click on them, you'll have the option to paste the copied there.   Paste Right-clicking on any existing event in your program log and choosing Paste will cause whatever item you most recently cut or copied to be pasted just beneath that event.   Make Next-to-Play The event you right-click on will be moved up into the next-to-play position. Any items that were in-between will not be disturbed. If you instead double-click (or double-touch) the event, it will be moved up as well, but all items in-between will be removed and skipped (not played).   Get Song Info Retrieves any information you have added to the Info attribute of the song (touchscreen alternative is touch-and-hold).  See Get Info   View Program Log Queue Switches your view to the program log queue, displaying your list of program logs. Keyboard alternative is the number 2.  See display modes   Collapse log to hour view Reduces your program log view to just show the hours. Keyboard alternative is the number 3.  See display modes   Expand current log to full view Displays the full, expanded program log view and updates the display to show the correct location for the current time-of-day. Keyboard alternative is the number 3. See display modes   Open Program Log in Editor Opens the text editor you have selected in System Prefs, to allow you to make wholesale copy-and-replace changes and other log edits. Always save your changes and then do CTRL-R in Command Center to reload the altered program log afterwards.

C. Program Log Area

The entire area beneath the bright green line is a scrolling list that can be viewed in four different display modes. You can toggle among the various views by hitting the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 on your keyboard.

1.   Makes memo lines visible in your program log list
   
   
2.   Program log queue mode, collapsed to display just your list of program logs
   
   
3.   Program log collapsed to display just the hours
   
   
4.   Program log shown in full, uncollapsed view

Please don't let this flexibility scare you! The modes are simple and straightforward. Learn how to access and use all four and you'll see how easy it really is.

By default, the Program Log Area is in 4 mode (full program log view), and shows your entire day's program log (playlist). You can scroll up and down through the list using the scrollbar to its the right.

The program log display area is completely dynamic, letting you drag-n-drop files in from BeOS folder windows, as well as from Lightning, our request finder program. You can also drag-n-drop to rearrange items in your program log. In addition, right-clicking on any audio event in your program log gives you a number of instant options, such as the ability to copy the item, cut it, paste it, and make it next-to-play. Each dynamic change you make is immediately written to your program log file, unless you have turned that feature off in Preferences.

Shown here is just one line from the program log, and its elements are described below.

1.   Running Time - The dark red text indicates the estimated time the event will be played.
   
   
2.   Artist and Title - If the attributes for Artist and Title have not been filled in for your audio files, TuneTracker will display the path and name of the file.
   
   
3.   Ramp Time - Displays the amount of time you have assigned to the file as being safe to "talk over."  Ramp Time can be used for reference during live shows, and is also used by TuneTracker when automatically playing voice-tracks over the introductions and endings of songs.
   
   
4.   Dark Green Start Button - The dark green button next to each event can be used to put that event on the air immediately, regardless of its location in the log.  Every track is instantly accessible. When you click itsdark green start button, the audio track is instantly moved up in your log and put on the air. The change is also written to your program log file.
   
   Unlike the gold next-to-play button and the "Start" system button, clicking a dark green start button on an event line will not cause TuneTracker to jump out of a currently-playing event. It will just add the new item to what is currently playing.
   
   If you click-and-hold on a dark green start button, the crossfader (Command Center 3.2 and up) will appear, letting you do a smooth, crossfaded transition between the song already playing and the new one you want to put on the air.

D. VU Meters and WeatherPad

TuneTracker's nimble, lifelike VU meters refresh 43 times per second, or less, if you ever need to "throttle them down" for a particularly slow computer. The setting is found under the Misc tab in System Preferences. Just beneath the VU meters is the WeatherPad, which displays real-time temperature and conditions. The system clock also resides in this area of the display. Details follow.

•   1. Scrollbar - This is a partial view of the scrollbar that is used to scroll the program log. You can grab the little elevator to scroll freeform, click just above or below the elevator to scroll a page at a time, or scroll in tiny steps using the up and down arrow buttons found at the top and bottom of the scrollbar.
  
  
  
•   2. VU Meters - Your VU meters are referenced to 0 db at the far right. Your needles can bounce all the way over to the right without distortion being evident. If you see the needles "pegging" all the way to the right, that's a sign your song or other audio file might be highly compressed and/or clipped.
  
  
  
•   3. WeatherPad - As the BWeatherTT utility busily retrieves the latest local temperature, sky conditions and precipitation for you (once every few minutes), they are automatically updated and displayed here. If you click on or touch the current conditions in the WeatherPad, Command Center's scrolling text box (mentioned later in this section) will display the current forecast if that information is available. You can select the weather region nearest you from the BWeatherTT Preferences settings.
  
  
  
•   4. System Clock - The TuneTracker system clock displays, in white text, the current time, in either standard or military (24 hour) format, depending on which you have selected in the Look-and-Feel portion of TuneTracker Preferences, under the Misc. tab. If your computer is connected to the Internet, the computer's system clock will be updated by TuneTracker each time a song starts, unless that feature is turned off in System Prefs.

E. ButtonPad Area

Within the ButtonPad area you will find important TuneTracker system buttons (items 1-6 in the illustration), user-configurable buttons (along the right side) and a scrolling text box. Each item is described below.

Upper Row of System Buttons

The upper row of three system buttons are identical in use and purpose to those found in TuneTracker Basic and Pro.

1.   The Start button instantly fires the item that is in the gold, next-to-play position. You can also start it by clicking the gold button on the event line, or by hitting the spacebar on your keyboard. The Start button is not recommended as a method of advancing to the next event if there is already one on the air, since it doubles as a panic button, forcing the current event off the air as it puts the next-to-play event on.  If you want to start the next-to-play event over the top of the event currently running, we recommend using the crossfader.
   
   Hitting shift-spacebar (Command Center 3.2 and up) will force Command Center to play the exactly correct cut for the current time of day, based on calculated playing times, and will begin playing the cut at the exact right place in the song or other audio event. This "nearest second" feature is useful if you need to move to the specific event that should be playing at the current time of day, and even to the exactly correct second in that event.  When doing a shift-spacbar start, expect a slight delay...it takes a few seconds for shift-spacebar to calculate and bring you to the exact-right location in the exact-right audio file.
   
   
   
2.   The LIVE button opens a channel to the line-in of your sound card, and displays it in the On-Air Events Area (above the bright green line) to show that it is on the air. You can also turn LIVE on and off using the "L" key on your keyboard.
   
   
   
3.   The AUTO button toggles automation mode on and off. You can also turn automation on and off using the "A" key on your keyboard.
   
   Lower Row of System Buttons
   
   
4.   ShuttlePad - ShuttlePad is a great way to shuttle items around in your program log. You can drag an item from the program log to ShuttlePad, drop it there (ShuttlePad remembers it), then scroll to another part of your program log, click-and-drag (or touch-and-drag) from ShuttlePad, and drop a copy of the item to the new location. This can be done repeatedly, giving you an excellent method of rapidly adding an item to multiple locations in your log. If you forget what's in the ShuttlePad, just click on its button and a description will be displayed in the scrolling text box.
   
   
   
5.   Preview - Drop any audio file event from your program log onto Preview, to listen to it off-the-air through a second sound card. To stop listening, click directly on the Preview button. You can drag-n-drop an audio file from your program log, Lightning, or any BeOS window to listen to a track using Preview. Preview does not work with Ogg Vorbis files, and attempts to use Preview with that file format may cause system instability. The Preview button replaces the Help button in newer Command Center systems. The Help manual is now displayed by instead hitting F1 on your keyboard.
   
   Select the sound card you want to use for Preview in System Prefs, under the Misc. tab.
   
   
   
6.   System Prefs - This brings up TuneTracker Preferences, which are covered elsewhere in this manual. You can also bring up System Preferences by hitting the letter "P" on your keyboard.
   
   The Rest of the ButtonPad Area
   
   
   
7.   Configurable Buttons - Each button along the right side can be configured to play a specific audio file, display a specific text file, open an audio channel on an external switcher, or launch a program or batchfile. Instructions are covered in the Configurable Buttons section of this manual.
   
   
   
8.   Scrolling Text Box - This text area is used to display weather forecasts, scripts you've assigned to buttons, help messages, error messages, and anything else TuneTracker decides to tell you. The color of the messages varies depending on the contents. Weather and announcer scripts (your text files) display in gold. Help text displays in white. Error messages display in red.
   
   Scrolling Text Box Features...
   
   
   
   
   •   Hitting Enter on your keyboard  (or touch-hold in the textbox using a touchscreen) makes the text box larger and smaller
     
   •   CTRL-Up Arrow increases text size. CTRL-Down Arrow decreases text size
     
   •   CTRL-Left Arrow and CTRL-Right Arrow flips through the available fonts
     
   •   You can right-click on the text box and select the option to remember your custom font style and size. Your choices will then be recalled if Command Center is closed and reopened
     
   •   Right-clicking on the text box and selecting the option will restore the factory default font style and size. The default settings will then also be recalled if you close and restart Command Center
     
   •   Right-click on the text box and select the option to read the latest TuneTracker newsletter or Quick-Tip from the Internet
     
   •   Right-click on the text box and select the option to view the current day's Output Log (you can also display the Output Log by pressing the "O" on your keyboard.

F. MyShow Area

This section allows each announcer to have an unlimited number of pages (and even multiple sets of unlimited pages) of buttons, each configured to his or her choice of audio clips, text scripts, switcher input channels, and Run commands. The potential here is as deep as the ocean, so dive in!

1.   Navigation Buttons - At the far left and right side of the MyShow Area are arrow buttons that let you flip through pages and pages of personally-configured buttons
   
   
   
2.   MyShow Buttons - Each is can be configured to play or display whatever you like, and can be custom-labeled as you see fit. Instructions are covered in the Configurable Buttons section of this manual.

Built-in Help

There is a lot of excellent, rich context-sensitive documentation built right into TuneTracker. If you right-click on any item on the screen and choose "Help," TuneTracker's scrolling text box will display some really useful information on the feature you selected and how to use it.

There's also context-sensitive help available in System Prefs. When you move your mouse over any item in System Prefs, you will see a description of that item at the very bottom of the Preferences window.


Launching the User's Guide from Command Center (3.2 and above)

Unseen in the Command Center Command interface is the feature that brings up the main manual. To do so at any time in Command Center 3.2 and above, tap the F1 key on your keyboard.





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