OK… here I go again. Not sure where my earlier post ended up…

 

Autotracks 3.1.49...

 

I’ll cut the crap this time and go straight for the jugular, with one note. My mild mannered Music Manger had an uncharacteristic bout of swearing this afternoon, a sure fired indicator to me that all was not well with Autotracks! (Its only the second time I’ve heard him swear in the 4 years I’ve known him and if I had counted the number of time he did today it would make up for the past four years and a few more besides.. it was several sentences of naught words!)

 

Usually we (Paul & I) would do this.

 

1. Source new music from ‘I Like Music’, CD/DVD, memory stick or other.
2. Import into Audiowall using wizard or ‘drag ‘n’ drop’.
3. Edit intro/extro & hook, add photo, change colours, add notes and save. Repeat until new music all added.
4. Open Autotracks.
5. Find carts with browser tool.
6. Highlight those for importing and add to Autotracks with import tool after being asked what category to import to (default was ‘A list’ now says something else and you have to use dropdown box to select category).
7. Import tracks and review record cards, add/remove and update detail and apply.
8. Check category has new music.
9. Move tracks that are no longer in A, B or C list to other rotational lists.
10.  Schedule
11.  Update Database.
12.  Make Tea and drink.

 

Today…

 

Everything was to item 7 as per usual, then…

 

1. None of the imported music was where it should be in ‘A List’.
2. Tried for a second time with a single track making sure that the correct category was selected in the dropdown box within the import window.
3. Again, nothing appeared.
4. Searched the database by artist and discovered the track had been imported against the category given on the Audiowall. This then required the opening of each record card imported to select the correct category for it to move to where it should be.
5. Paul’s issue, is slightly more extreme as he’s rebuilding the database had imported over 100 new tracks this weekend which are now scattered all over the database in places they should be – hence the swearing –which will take another few days to put right.

 

And there’s more,

 

If you open the cart browser and try to search of ‘ZZ Top’ as an example, it searches the entire database and then displays the entire database everything is listed. I didn’t believe it at first so tried again and then again, same result every time… so something’s not working with the search either.

 

I hope this make sense?

 

Roger.

Roger Woods
Producer/Presenter/Engineer

I had a simiar issue of it not importing the carts into autotrack, but it was only when the cart browser was in grid form or mini form the import failed. When selecting the carts in the list form it worked.

So something is broken with the import button on grid view and mini grid of cart browser.

The problem of the cart importing as the same catagory as the cart would have been human error. The import drop downs have changed & the default catagory is now <same as cart catagory>.



Glen Mitchell
Systems Manager
Hot Radio
Poole & Bournemouth
glen.mitchell@hot1028.com

I've just done another test. I've put new music on the audio wall. Set the Catagory to the catagories i want & added notes. Autotrack sucessfully imported the records from the carts & pulled through the correct catagory, end type & notes. (althpugh notes have formatting infomation either side...annoying!)

The importing again only seems to work if cart browser is in list view   not grid view. (this is a bug)

Right after playing again I have the following observations (bugs).

When the mass import carts into autotrack window displays, it by defaut for songs has <use cart catagory>. However, even when you change this to something else like my AWAITING TO BE PROCESSED catagory in autotrack, it still imports into autotrack as what the cart catagory even if overriden on the drop down selection when importing into autotrack. Only importing as songs is affected, Links are ok & import into the correct catagory.

Ideally I like to do everything from a single programme, so have tried music importing the other way.

1. go to the cart browser & find a spare cart click on the icon (white document) to insert audio.
2. select the audio file I want to import (currently only imports WAV & Transport ZIP files)
3. On the last page of the Import Audio wizard, You have the option to automatically assign a cart number in sequence starting from cart number X. The bug on this is that X always displays as cart 1, even when opening the wizard from the specific cart number. This needs fixing.
4. At this point when clicking the finished button to begin the import, It brings the mass import carts into autotrack window. Selecting anything at this point doesnt work as there is not yet any audio or info in the cart to import, so its a waste of time that popping up at this point, as it fails to work & you then have to manually click on the import carts to at icon.

Also this is an old version of the Audio Import Wizard & not the same as the audiowall or myriad manager. This badly needs to be updated to match the other importer in myriad & allow import of MP3 from directly within autotrack, as currently it cannot import mp3. This would mean a music manager could use just one programme to import new music to the spare carts & add the info to autotrack & then schedule.

Also the facility on the autotrack import wizard to check the audio wall for the same cart title is very usefull. Why is this not in the newer import wizard in myriad?                           



Glen Mitchell
Systems Manager
Hot Radio
Poole & Bournemouth
glen.mitchell@hot1028.com

Hi Roger,

Ok first one first - we've now found and fixed the problem with the Import button not working in the Grid or Single Row modes.

As a question though, obviously this will only import a single item, so can I ask why you do it that way round rather than creating a new song card and then entering the cart number into the box there? It may just be because you are doing quite a lot at a time, but doing them individually rather than mass selecting (by using the list view)

We've also now fixed the issue with the Category ALWAYS being read from the cart rather than the one you have selected in the Import window

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

Just an additional thought, if you add a load of songs and then can't find them, don't forget you can use the "Date Added" options in the Search for Songs window to find all songs added recently

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

Hi Glen,

Unfortunately AutoTrack is still v3.1 and can't support the v3.6 Audio Engine which is why it can't contain the new Import Wizard at the moment.

With the Myraid v3.5 and v3.6 wizards you should see a search button at the bottom right hand corner of the Import Files or RIP CD Track list - this carries out the same search for matching items as the original import wizard - do you have this button on screen?

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

Hi Peter

Yes the search facility is there in Myriad. To be honest I hadn't even noticed it or knew what it did - know now!

How soon away is Autotrack 3.6 likely to be? Would you be able to fix the audio importer in 3.1 so that it doesnt keep defalting to importing into cart 1?



Glen Mitchell
Systems Manager
Hot Radio
Poole & Bournemouth
glen.mitchell@hot1028.com

Hi Glen,

At the moment we're don't have much in the way of information about an AutoTrack v3.6 to match Myriad v3.6 because there is a LOT of 'connection' work needed to bring it up to the same level as AutoTrack v3.1. For example at present the current Audio Report window in Myriad v3.6 can't 'ask' AutoTrack if a Cart is in the database or not so we can't do those reports to show which items are in and which aren't in the database. For the same reason we also can't therefore add in the nice big button to Auto-Import Carts into the database.  Then theres a lot of things related to the Audiowall Update utility that can't work in the same way because of architectural changes - and to sort these is a pretty big job so we're treading carefully.

Obviously the big push over the last few months has been to get Myriad, Myriad Network, Advert Manager,  OCP etc. up to v3.6, so at the mo we're still very much working out how to get the best out of AutoTrack with Myriad v3.6 - but hopefully we'll have some more news later this year

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

Hi All,

We've just released v3.1.51 which fixes this issue and it's available now from the usual AutoTrack location - full announcement post to follow

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness