DayTracker Audio Logging Software

DayTracker is a broadcast logger that records everything TuneTracker broadcasts, all day long, whether from live or pre-recorded audio sources. It is not a part of the TuneTracker System distribution, but rather, is a purchasable add-on you can order from the TuneTracker web site. Why would stations buy it? There are a number of important uses for DayTracker.

Certain countries' governments (like Canada) require the keeping of audio logs. Using DayTracker, stations can quickly and inexpensively add the ability to keep accurate recordings of programming, so compact that a week's worth of audio logs will fit on a single CD-ROM.

DayTracker is also helpful for "proof of performance" purposes, allowing you to prove your advertisers' and underwriters' announcements did indeed run as promised. Some users will take advantage of its ability to grab a portion of a day for broadcast at a later time, or to record programming for distribution on CD to people who cannot receive the station.


TO INSTALL AND LAUNCH

If you purchased a TuneTracker System "Station-in-a-Box" and included DayTracker in your order, DayTracker should already be pre-installed on your system. In that case you don't need to do an installation and can proceed directly to the settings information below. If you purchased DayTracker separately, follow these steps:

•   Unzip your DayTracker zip file under BeOS, open the resultant folder, and drag the "BRS_DayTracker" icon into the following location (your system's exact path might vary slightly) on your hard drive: /boot/apps/TuneTracker System/SoundPlay TT/Plugins
  
  
•   Close SoundPlay, if it's open, then relaunch it. Drag "DayTracker" from the inactive window pane to the active window pane.
  
  
•   Double-click on DayTracker in the active window. Click the maximize tool in the yellow tab at the top of the window (it looks like two overlapping squares)
  
  
•   Click "Start" if you wish to have DayTracker begin logging now. Otherwise, revisit the screen when you are ready to start using it to do audio logging, and click the start button.
  
  
•   Close and relaunch SoundPlay so it saves the new settings
  
  
•   DayTracker is now installed and running. To make changes to its settings or stop it from recording, go back into Preferences/Filters, click on DayTracker in the active window pane and click "Configure." Your settings options are described below.

SETTINGS

To adjust settings, go into SoundPlay Settings/Preferences, assure DayTracker is dragged to the Active window pane, and double-click on it.

Start/Stop:  Want to start the recording? Click Start. To stop, click Stop. The file will be closed. If you click Start again, DayTracker will start recording a fresh file with a new filename based on the current date and time. If left running unattended, DayTracker will create a fresh file every day at midnight, which is its normal behavior. Files are created in a "Broadcast Logs" folder, which can be found by first double-clicking on the "home" folder on your desktop.

You can do more than continuous logging-style recording. By manually starting and stopping the recording, you can use DayTracker to record just a segment of your programming day. This is handy to record a special part of your broadcast day for rebroadcast at a later time, or to do an aircheck of a live show so you can listen back to it later. When doing so, you'll probably want to boost the recording quality, as described next.

Quality:   The default settings of 8 bits and 11.025 khz works out really well for doing broadcast logging of full days of programming. Using those settings, seven full 24-hour days will take up less than the space on a standard CD-ROM. If you want a higher quality recording, it's easily done by increasing the bitrate and/or the sampling rate. You can also choose to record in either mono or stereo.

DayTracker records in MP3 format, so files are only about a tenth the size of a standard WAV file. Even so, you can significantly increase the amount of hard drive space used by increasing the quality settings. 22.05 khz, 16 khz stereo is the maximum setting, and sounds very good even when recording music programming. However you need to balance the quality you want against how much hard drive storage you're willing to surrender to your recordings.

Each step in quality will approximately double the amount of hard drive space used. You'll double the storage demand by going to 16 bits, double it again when you go to 22.05 khz, and double it once again by choosing stereo instead of mono. So in general, we recommend the higher quality rates only when you plan on doing a short-term recording.

If you have a small hard drive and don't clean out your old DayLogs for awhile, you could eventually run yourself out of space. For that reason, DayTracker has a built-in safety valve. If your hard drive starts getting dangerously low, DayTracker will alert you and will not start any more new DayLogs until you clear up some space on the drive.

Locations and Filenames:  Want to have your DayLogs stored to a different location? Use the Browse button to choose a new location.

DayTracker saves files using filenames that indicate the date and time when the files were first started recording. If you want to alter the filenames to include different information, there are lots of different approaches you can use by experimenting with the filespec drop-down button options. We recommend you at least include the time in each file, so each filename is different. Otherwise each file you start recording will replace the previous one. You can include your own separation characters to divide elements such as hours and minutes, however note that if you bring the files over to Windows, certain characters like : (colon) can't be included in filenames.

As with all aspects of SoundPlay, in order for your preferences to be saved permanently and remembered when SoundPlay is launched in the future, you must close SoundPlay after making your changes to settings. If the settings you are using don't need to be permanently remembered, you needn't close SoundPlay after changing settings.

HOW UNIVERSAL?

The MP3 files recorded in DayTracker can be played back in most-any media player on any platform. Some players, like BeOS' own "Media Player" program do an especially good job of displaying "running time," making it extra-easy to find an exact point in the file where you want to begin listening. In BeOS' Media Player, a little popup display shows the exact time as you move the playback cursor across the file.

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