Least Recently Played not working

[Twangmaster]

Hi fellow radiofreaks,

This is my first post as I am new to the forum.
I have been going through the forum but do not seem to find the answer to my question.

I have been playing around with the software, uploaded about 300 tracks in 8 different genres.
I made a rotation list of about 30 tracks and turned auto DJ on.
It fills itself nicely in the order I requested and when it loads more tracks they are mostly different tracks.

Now after a day or so when I look in Tracks manager I seen that some tracks have been played 4 times while others from the same genre have been played 0 times.
I have priotity for all tracks at default and all tracks at Least Recently Played.

What am I doing wrong here?

Cheers,
Niels.

[704djs]

did you check the repeat rule fam when you setup

[Twangmaster]

don´t know, somebody helped me set it up.
where can I change this?

or do you mean when I uploaded the tracks?

It´s been rolling all night and now some tracks are at 7 plays and a lot at 0. :-(

What do I do to change this?

[704djs]

can you do a step by step walk through so we know what step you took

[Twangmaster]

OK will do.

1) I started with an empty database with version 1.6.4.4 RC4

2) I uploaded several folders in different subcategories/genres
    For testing I uploaded a total of 383 tracks in 12 different genres.
    All folders (one folder per genre) were uploaded with the following settings:
    - Complete scan on
    - Play track for 0 times and then nothing
    - Priority 50 (default)
    - Auto fades on

3) I made a rotation under default with 24 tracks 1 from each genre and then again in the same order 1 from each genre
   - Selection Type: Least Recently Played
   - Sweeper: Without
   - Rëpeat rules on

4) Rotation Rules set to:
Don´t play same track for 90 minutes
Don´t play same artist for 90 minutes

5) Turned Auto DJ and Automated on.

Keeps on loading new tracks from this rotation list, order is correct but now I have tracks that have been played 12 times and other tracks in the same genre 0 times.

What´s going wrong here?

Cheers,
Niels.

[704djs]

go to here
Don´t play same track for 90 minutes
Don´t play same artist for 90 minutes
and change this to like 120 or 180 and see if it's start playing all the song meaning more song than it already showning

[Twangmaster]

I can do that but when I start broadcasting full time I will have a powerplay that I want to play every two hours so I cannot put my rotation rule on more than 90 minutes. I don´t get how this Rotation Rule has to do with the Least Recently Played Rule. Shouldn´t they both work? Not play the same track for 90 minutes AND take the least recently played from a category? I don´t see where that is going wrong for me.

[Twangmaster]

Just out of curiosity I changed all the Selection Types in the Track Rotation list to Least Times Played and reset the play count.
This does not work either. I already have some tracks from genres that have been played three times while others from the same genree have been played 0 times.
So the Selection Type option does not seem to work at all.
What is the problem here?

[Vanlen]

Sorry you are having issues.  You didn't say off the top which version you were using 1.60 release  or the latested of the Betas?  Either way it should work as you have laid it out, although 300 songs running all night at about 18 per hour without promos, commercials etc might not be enough but I could be wrong, usually am.   

All folders (one folder per genre) were uploaded

So when you imported the folders did you check to make sure that the subcategory was different than just the genres?   I mean   Music - 80s - genre - slow ,  Music 80s - genre - Alist,  Music - Instrumental - Rock etc and so on in your music rotation.

Also with your Power Play every two hours you could create a separate rotation for this and load it at the top with an event timer and when finished go back to your Regular rotation. 

Hope you get it sorted out

Cheers

[Twangmaster]

I am using the Beta version 1.6.4.4 RC4, the latest we could find for installing last Friday.
The latest Alpha version was having difficulties conecting to the server but that is working fine with this Beta.

300 songs is definitely not all the songs I will be working with but for this test (actually 380) there are plenty of tracks to choose from in the category/genres I have used (12 total with all of them having 20 to 40 tracks in them).

There will be a 2.000 track catalogue database once we start (a lot but this is not a commercial station but a niche station) and we will have a playlist with current tracks including a Powerplay (1 track, 40 plays a week), A rotation (3 tracks, 30 plays a week) and B rotation (8 tracks, 20 plays a week). I have 12 Subcategories (timeperiods) divided into 17 genres. On top of that I have one Subcategory called Playlist divided in 5 different "genres" (The above mentioned rotations plus a weekly "classic" and an exclusive track.)

Most shows will be non stop and automated. Only some presented show in the weekend at first but 95% will be non stop.

I was thinking of making an event for every hour of a show (i.e. Monday-Friday 06.00, Event=Morningshow-Hour 1):
1. Stop Auto DJ
2. Clear Playlist
3. Load TOTH
4. Load specific Song Rotation (Morningshow Hour 1)
5. Start Auto DJ
6. Start Playing
Then repeat the same order for Monday-Friday 07.00 - Event Morningshow=Hour 2) loading the Song rotation Morningshow Hour 2.

The Song rotation will look something like
- Database track subcat 1 - genre A
- Database track subcat 2 - genre A
- Database track subcat 2 - genre B
- Database track subcat 3 - genre C
- Playlist track / powerplay
- Database track subcat 4 - genre G
- Database track subcat 1 - genre G
- Playlist track / A rotation
- Database track etc....

Actually I could also include the TOTH in the rotationlist on first position and skip step 3 in the event, guess the result will be the same.

The powerplay will be at a different spot of the hour every two or three hours.
This way of scheduling seems most logical to me but I am new to Radio DJ so maybe I am thinking totally the wrong way.

So a couple of hours ago I reset the count and disabled the repeat rules. Good news is it is not playing the same track twice, picking a different one every time, bad news is it is playing two tracks by the same artist right after each other. Sigh. That´s a no go for me. I want artist AND track seperation at least at 90 minutes.

There must be something very simple I am overlooking here. With the Repeat rule turned on AutoDJ just seems to totally ignore the Selection Type playing some tracks 12 times while the same category has dozens of unplayed tracks to choose from. This is getting really frustrating.

Thanks for you time so far. I hope we can solve this.

Cheers,
Niels.

[Vanlen]

Wow, a lot going on there but you can customize RadioDJ pretty much the way you want by also creating playlists as well as rotations loaded up the way you want, but first let's try to figure out why songs are not working as expected in your the least played rules.  So how are you creating your audio to be imported by Track and/or Folder into RadioDJ.   Is each song created and labelled along the lines of say  ABBA - Dancing Queen with the hyphen separating the artist name and the song name as the file name?   Remember that   The Beach Boys - California Girls and BeachBoys - California Girls would be considered a different artist.  If that's clear as mud then it must be something else. 


Cheers

[Twangmaster]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I got all my filenames like you mention and also got my tags right. Should be something else wrong. But what???

[Twangmaster]

So I have tried something else. In options/other settings: "On Play, reduce priority by 5.0".
I put Selection Type in the rotation list on By Priority.

Guess what, RadioDJ already played tracks for the second time even though their Priority was down to 45 while others in the same category were still at 50.

So conclusion SELECTION TYPE IS NOT WORKING AT ALL. I have tried it three different ways now.

Is there seriously nobody that knows what the problem is here?
It cannot be that difficult can it?

I´m at loss here.

Thanks,
Niels.

[Vanlen]

Hi Twangmaster:

Sorry you are having these issues while others seem to be rolling along fine.   So something is amiss but as to what I'm running out of ideas so maybe someone else can jump in with further knowledge. In the meantime is RadioDJ in your Root of C: or in your programs folder?   Mine is in C: along with mysql outside and free of the dreaded programs folder.  Are you running XP or Win 7 and what mysql are you running with?   2.  Have you looked in Track Manager to make sure all of the tracks you wish to play are enabled? and what format are your audio files in ie if say 44.1 16 bit 320k CBR and not VBR if using mp3 for instance.   4.  How many items do you have in your rotation (Station Format) setup.  For instance mine is something like.

Music  Indie   current   Least times played rule checked
Music  Indie   current   Least times played rule checked
Music  Indie   alist        Least times played rule checked 
Jingle  ID1     program  (no rules checked as they play in rotation order
Music  80s     heavy     Least times played rule checked
Music  Indie   alist        Least times played rule checked
Music  Indie   current   Least times played rule checked
Music  Splitter program  Least times played rule checked

and so on for about 14 items and then use events to load time specific promos, programs, other timed playlists and/or other rotations for certain day parts etc.

Hopefully someone else can chime in here.     

Cheers

[Twangmaster]

Radio DJ is in my Program Files folder but I can´t see why that should stop the software from applying the Selection type.
I am running on Windows 7, all tracks are enabled and all files are 44.100/320 MP3´s. I have 24 tracks in my default rotation and it is currently just on AutoDJ loading new tracks from that rotation automatically.

I am running out of time here. What seems to me like a simple thing to solve is apparently some mysterious problem nobody at the forum has ever encountered. I have to start importing my full database and start making my program rotations in order to launch in time. If the problem persists I guess I will have to see about that later but i have a launch deadline coming up and lots of work to do.
Fingers crossed I guess that it will work correctly with a full 2000 track database and 30 different programs with different rotations.
If not I´ll be back. Cheers, Niels.