From the studio
Notes on automation, voice tracking and making a station sound the way you meant it to
WASAPI output, and what happens when the device disappears
Audio devices vanish. USB interfaces get knocked, drivers restart. What matters is whether the application notices and tells you.
Read the postWhy the database uses WAL, and what that protects you from
Studio machines lose power. They are rarely shut down politely. The journaling mode you choose determines whether that costs you a database.
Read the postMetadata that loads without freezing the application
Reading tags from a thousand files takes time. Doing it on the interface thread is why some software locks up on import.
Read the postA dark theme is not decoration in a studio
Studios are dim. A white interface at 05:00 is genuinely uncomfortable, and the parts a theme misses are the parts you notice most.
Read the postBuilt-in help, because nobody reads the manual at 03:00
Documentation that lives outside the application is documentation nobody opens during a shift. F1 is a better answer than a PDF.
Read the postRunning well on the machine you already have
Studio PCs are rarely new. Four deliberate optimisations make a large library workable on hardware nobody is going to replace this year.
Read the postPreventing dead air: the four causes worth engineering against
Dead air almost always comes from one of four things. Each has a specific defence, and none of them is "be more careful".
Read the postHow long should your crossfade be?
A single number applied everywhere is always wrong somewhere. Here is how the setting actually behaves, including on very short items.
Read the postBuilding a morning show that runs itself until the presenter arrives
A worked example: the 05:00 to 07:00 block, assembled the evening before, using rotation clocks, voice tracks, the clock wheel and cue stops.
Read the postHandling news drop-ins and live segments
Three different mechanisms cover three different kinds of interruption. Choosing the wrong one is why some stations fight their automation.
Read the postCommercials, station IDs and the ADS category convention
Category codes are not just labels. Prefixes like ADS, ID and VT change how the audio engine treats a track at transition time.
Read the postYour automation should be able to explain itself
Scheduling software that cannot tell you why a track landed at 09:14 is asking you to trust it blindly. That is a bad deal for a programme director.
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