The TuneTracker Command Center "Command Screen"
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:
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 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.
On-Air Events Area
Everything on the left side of the Command Screen that's above the
bright green line is currently on the air! Each on-air event is lit with a brightly
colored button to indicate it is currently being broadcast. The on-air events
area expands vertically to accommodate 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 On-Air Events Area's items are visible onscreen even while you are scrolling through your program log, or viewing the program log queue, so no matter what else you're viewing, you never lose track of what is currently playing or what's next-to-play.
Below are descriptions of the numbered items shown in the On-Air Events Area illustration.
- Event Line - Every playable event is
displayed in a scrolling list along the left side of the command screen.
There are two items shown playing in the illustration; a song file (green button) and a line-input event (red button).
- Progress Bar - A pale grey "background bar" grows from left to 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.
- Artist and Title are displayed if the song's attributes have been marked. Otherwise a path and filename will be displayed instead.
- Ramp Time - Indicates the amount of time you have designated 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.
- 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.
- 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. You can adjust the volume of a song presently playing. You can also pre-set the volume of a track, so it starts at a lower volume. 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.
- 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.
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 Area illustration.
- Running Time - The red text indicates the estimated time when the
next-to-play item will be broadcast.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
The gold, next-to-play event is automatically pre-queued in SoundPlay and ready to play instantly when clicked.
To start the next-to-play event, click its gold button. This will put it on the air, without taking the previous event off the air. If, instead of doing a single click on the gold button, you click-and-hold (or touch-and-hold) on it, 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 also "jump" to the next item, taking the previous item off the air, by clicking the grey Start button farther to the right on the command screen, or by hitting the spacebar on your keyboard.
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.
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C. Program Log Area
The
entire area beneath the gold next-to-play event is a scrolling view of your program log 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.
- Makes memo lines visible in your program log list
- Program log queue mode, collapsed to display just your list of program
logs
- Program log collapsed to display just the hours
- Program log shown in full, uncollapsed view
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 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.
- Running Time - The dark red text indicates the estimated time the
event will be played.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The AUTO button toggles automation mode on and off. You can also turn
automation on and off using the "A" key on your keyboard. When AUTO is on, the word AUTO will appear as bright green text, and the button will appear depressed.
By click-holding or touch-holding on the AUTO button, you can put Command Center into "Live-Assist Mode," which forces it to ignore any time-corrects and interrupts in your program log, even when automating. This is extremely useful during a live DJ or talk show, because you won't have the automation jumping past items it considers unneeded due to perceived time constraints. When in Live-Assist Mode, the AUTO button itself will turn a shade of green. To disable Live-Assist Mode, do the click-hold or touch-hold again and the button will return to grey color indicating normal functionality. Live-Assist Mode can also be turned on and off using # LiveAssist commands placed right in your program log. s
Lower Row of System Buttons
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Hitting Enter on your keyboard (or touch-hold in the textbox
using a touchscreen) makes the text box larger and smaller
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!
- 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
- 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
Unseen in the Command Center Command interface is the feature that brings up the main manual. To do so at any time, tap the F1 key on your keyboard.
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