NOTE:  There may be NO MORE than 1000 songs per category. Keep this in mind as organizing. 

SEPARATION RULES

The separation types are: Artist, Gender, Tempo, Texture, Mood, and Sound. The default is an Artist separation of 2 with no separation for the other types. This is because artist data will exist automatically for most songs. The other separation data must be hand entered song by song in the 'Library Manager'. If that data is entered then these other separation types should be set to an appropriate value for your format.

MUSIC CATEGORY DETAILS

Basic Description

APEX has a powerful internal Music scheduling system. It features 21 music categories and separation rules for music types such as Artist, Gender, Tempo, etc. 

Music Manager Features

1) Naming each of the Music categories for ease of use.

2) Displaying (and saving to file for printing) various reports about the music assigned in each category.

3) Assigning Separation Rules for the Music selection criteria (Artist, Gender, etc.)

Music Categories

Each type 'M' music file can be assigned to a single music category (from a total of 21) for selection in the schedule. The category is assigned for each audio file in the 'Library Manager' screen. Up to 1000 audio files can be added to each music category. 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  It is not possible to avoid all rule conflicts with a small category or a limited number of artists. To reduce rule conflicts when a schedule is selected by the software, categories should not be smaller than 40 songs. Also, small categories should have as many artists as possible and few artists with multiple songs. While the software will always maintain a maximum title separation, artist separation suffers when rule conflicts occur. When rotating the music, a Message is raised if there are rule conflicts. The 'View Day' report in the 'Edit Schedule' screen will display the music log with actual title and artist separation for evaluation. A 'Music Conflict Log' is available in the same screen that can be used to find the conflicts and manually select a different song if desired. 

Naming Categories

Each category can be named in this window. To name the category, click on the CHANGE NAMES button. The names boxes change color and may be typed into. The changes are saved when this window is closed. Click on the CHANGE NAMES button again to stop the naming procedure. Typical category names are 'Currents' for recent songs released in the last 6-12 months, 'Recurrents' for songs released in the last 6-12 months, Oldies, Golden Oldies, 70's Hits, etc. Keep the names short for ease of use.

Displaying Category Song Lists

When you click on a category name box, a list of songs assigned to the category is displayed in the 'Selected Category' window. The number of songs and average length of the category is also displayed. Examples of song categories might be: Currents, Recurrents, Gold, 70s Pop, 70s Rock, 1971 Top 40, Christmas, etc. 

Music Reports

The Music Manager will create three types of reports for viewing, saving, and printing: Music by Cart Number, Music by Artist, and Music by Category. These reports are useful for quickly viewing and analyzing your music library. 

Setting Separation Rules

The separation types are: Artist, Gender, Tempo, Texture, Mood, and Sound. The default is an Artist separation of 15 (~ 1 hour) with a separation of 2 for the other types. This is because artist data will exist automatically for most songs. The other separation data must be hand entered song by song in the 'Library Manager'. If that data is entered, then these other separation types should be set to an appropriate value for your format. 

Rotate Type 'M' music Events and SONGnN Events

By default, this option is 'off'. In that case, the 'Rotate Hr' and 'Rotate Day' features will only rotate scheduled SONGnN events and NOT type 'M' music events. If the option is turned on, then music rotations in DHD-tools will rotate BOTH SONGnN events and ordinary type 'M' music events (that may have originally been SONGnN events but have been rotated previously).This feature makes it possible to rotate music in scheduled hours without reloading a Format Clock that contained the original SONGnN events. 

ABOUT MUSIC SCHEDULING IN APEX

Scheduling a Song Category for Play

Schedules in DHD are typically built around format Clocks. A typical clock will have several spotset breaks with several songs in a row between each break. The mix of categories in that music set determines your station's music format. A song category event is placed in the play schedule as a SONGN cart number (where N= 1-21). The title displayed in the schedule will be the Music Category Name.  For example, you might come out of the break with a 'Hit' category followed by several different music categories that fit your format. Example: SONG01, SONG02, SONG03. 

Three Ways of Music Scheduling (Basic & Intermediate & Advanced)

Once a schedule with SONGN events has been created, the actual songs must be selected at some point. Rotating a Song event is when DHD replaces the SONGN event in the schedule with a real song from category 'N'. This is done in three ways. 

1) Basic: first is if the SONGN event has not been rotated before the On Air Play list plays the event. In that case, the APEX on air Playlist will select a song from the 'N' category. Because music selection is done in On air, music specific voice tracking in DHD-tools is not appropriate for this option.  

2) Intermediate: if 'Auto-rotate Music Events' is enabled in the APEX on air setup, then all type 'M' music events will rotate based on their music category when automation is started or the hour changes. The hour need not include SONGN events because on air will find the music category from the actual song in the play list. Because music selection is done in On air, music specific voice tracking in DHD-tools is not appropriate for this option. 

3) Advanced: the third (preferred) case is when the rotation is performed in DHD-tools in the 'Edit Schedule / Play Schedule' screen. This is the preferred option since music specific voice tracking can be performed.  

IMPORTANT NOTE: the cases (On air play versus Scheduling) perform music rotation in different ways. The On air play rotation is a simplified but powerful rotation that uses factory set scheduling rules. The Scheduling music selection uses user programmable rules and has reporting so that song conflicts can be manually resolved. 

Case 1) Song Selection in the APEX Playlist (Basic & Intermediate)

In this case, the separation rules in the Music Manager are not used. When a song in a category (such as SONG02) is first played in the on air play list, all of the songs in the Category are randomly shuffled, the songs are then played sequentially until all songs in the list are played, then the list is randomly shuffled again. During the shuffle process, a minimum title separation is maintained of 3/4 the size of the Category. Back to back artist separation is protected. In this simplified case of music rotation, all songs are played within each category and a consistent sound is maintained.

Case 2) Song Selection in the DHD-tools Scheduling Manager (Advanced)

a) Voice Tracking: this case must be used if the station voice tracks its schedule or wants the best possible scheduling separation. The songs must be rotated before the voice tracking is performed.

b) Rotation: to rotate a SONGN schedule, select the day and hour in the 'Edit Schedule' screen. Then click on the 'Rotate Hr' or 'Rotate Day' buttons to autoselect music to replace the SONGN events in the schedule with actual songs. 

By default, the 'Rotate Hr' and 'Rotate Day' buttons will only rotate scheduled SONGnN events and NOT type 'M' music events. If the option is turned on in the Music Manager, then music rotations in DHD-tools will rotate BOTH SONGnN events and ordinary type 'M' music events. This feature makes it possible to rotate music in scheduled hours without reloading a Format Clock that contained the original SONGnN events. 

IMPORTANT: because the rotations test the previous ten hours, it is critical that hour and day rotations be done sequentially. Do not rotate the 10am hour and then rotate the 9am hour. Do not rotate Wednesday and then rotate Tuesday. In both cases the separations would be changed. 

c) How the Music Selection Works

When an hour (or day) is rotated, a History is examined for the previous ten hours. The Category from the SONGN events is tested against the History. A small list 1/4 the size of the Category is created from the most rested songs that are in date and do not violate any scheduling rules (such as Artists separation). A song is then selected at random from the small list. If all songs fail the selection rules so that the list is empty, then a random selection is made from the 1/4 most rested songs in the category without regard to the other separation rules. Thus title separation is retained while most notably Artist separation may not be.

d) Resolving Rule Conflicts

If total conflicts occur for any SONGN events during the Hour or Day rotation, then a Message opens at the end of the rotation noting the conflicts with suggestions on how to resolve them. A list of the conflicts is available by clicking on the 'Music Conflict Log' button so that the conflicts can be located in the schedule and resolved manually. 

e) Viewing the Music Schedule and Separation

Select a day and hour in the Play Schedule screen. Next click on the 'View Day' button. A report will open displaying the scheduled songs for the day. Each song also displays the title and artist separation in the schedule. IMPORTANT: the report starts with the end of the day at the top and increments backwards in time to the beginning of the day. 

f) Creating Categories

To reduce Artist and Title rule conflicts, categories should not be smaller than 40 songs. Also, small categories should have as many artists as possible and few artists with multiple songs. 

g) Out of Start or Kill date Songs

Start and Kill dates are observed by the scheduler. Care should be taken to not have many out of date songs in a category.

h) Empty Song Categories

If an empty song category is encountered during a rotation, then an error message will be displayed and the hour will not be rotated or changes saved. The category must have songs added to it or the schedule hour changed to a different category. 

i) Adding or Changing Songs in a Category

The music scheduler tests the Library every time it rotates an hour so any new or changed songs will be updated before the rotation. 

j) Not All Songs in a Category are Played before the Category Repeats

Each time a song from a category is scheduled, the song is randomly selected from a group of songs made up of the most rested songs in the category. The group size is 1/4 of the songs in the category. By using random instead of sequential play through the category, the song mix is better separated but does not play every song before repeating a song from the category. Every song will eventually play.