MusicMaster Blog

By W.I.Z.A.R.D

Like most software, you probably use the stuff you need. How often do you step outside your comfort zone? Have you really looked into other features MusicMaster offers to see if any of them might help you speed up your work or make your station sound better? That’s what we thought. It’s okay. We understand. That’s why we made this list. Here are 10 ideas to look into.

Autoplatoon – Move your music in and out. Check out these previous articles that discuss the benefits.

Keyword Separation Wizard – Get as much distance between your keywords possible with this feature. This is one of the places you can have a lot of fun in the software just trying separation times. Why not see if you can get 9 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes of separation? The worst thing that will happen is that every single keyword will get a specific separation time. Check out Library, Keywords, Tools, Separation Wizard and watch for an article on this topic in a few weeks.

Check the Log – Are you sure you haven’t created problems when you edited the log? Check the Log reviews the log for whatever rules are of most interest to you (some or all, your choice). It’s the best way to make sure there are no issues when you finish editing. Visit Schedule, Check the Log.

Manual Assist Scheduling – What is the benefit of filling the position at that specific moment in the log rather than after the fact? Easy. The benefit is that you will see immediately what is causing problems (so you may end up adjusting your rules), but just as important, you will have the best opportunity of finding something to put in the position with less conflicts. Try it out under Schedule, Automatic Scheduler, Options tab.

Schedule Properties Max Fails/Skips – What happens to songs that just keep failing the rules? The Schedule Properties options for Max Fails/Skips controls how those songs are handled so they don’t get “stuck” at the top of the Schedule Order. Visit Schedule, Scheduler Order.

Mark new songs and distribute them in the Category – When you add songs, mark them (make sure you don’t have any marked songs in your data already). Use the Schedule Order, Arrange option to distribute those marked songs. Now the music that is new to the category will be distributed throughout rather than all placed together. Remember to unmark songs when you are done.

AutoFill – Are you adding the same information over and over? For instance, do you add gender codes on each song? In the classical format, do you add the musical period or pronunciations information for each work? AutoFill can put this static information in for you with a couple of clicks. Review the icon in Library Maintenance.

AutoLink – If you use AutoComplete and have a large database, AutoLink can narrow down what AutoComplete finds. Go to Library, Fields to set this up this Property.

Special History Reports – Sure you probably come here to run an ASCAP/BMI or CRTC report. Have you ever looked at the top eight reports on the list? These are reports that we created at MusicMaster to help you dig down into your data. Reports here include analysis of Artist/Titles, Categories and Attributes among others. Check out Analysis, Special History Reports.

Tools, Options – Okay, we could have pulled 10 things from this area alone! Here are two that you should start with: Library Editor Options and Schedule Editor Options. You’ll find all sorts of ways to set up library defaults and searches. On the Schedule Editor option, determine how searches, inserts and direct data entry options are done as well as the ability to refine how replacement searches are done.

We realize there are lots of places to explore in MusicMaster. These are just a few of the ways MusicMaster can work harder for you. Your Music Scheduling Consultant can discuss any of these areas with you further or help you set them up. Let us know how we can help.