TUNETRACKER SYSTEM IN ACTION
# Live and # Live-For, in Depth
TuneTracker™ commands: # Live and # Live-For
The "# Live" (TuneTracker Basic) and "# Live-For" (Command Center) commands are an automated method of opening a live connection to whatever audio source is plugged into your sound card. Before we get into the uses of the command, here are a couple notes about connecting live audio to your TuneTracker System™.
The Be Operating System allows you to select an input source from among those available on your sound card. The most common are Mic-In and Line-In. You can have a mic and an external audio source plugged in simultaneously if you'd like, but you must choose one or the other manually in BeOS Media Preferences. If you want to switch rapidly from one to the other, do the switching using an external mixer, with the mixer's output fed into the line-in of your sound card.
If you encounter feedback or continuous live audio even when live is turned off in TuneTracker, it may be because you have a full-duplex sound card, which is not a sign of trouble at all. Just go into your BeOS Media Preferences, choose the Output settings section, and mute Input. What you're doing is telling your system not to run input through to the output constantly, but only at the times when you tell it to.
"# Live" and # Live-For are great for joining a network or church service at a specific time, or when used in tandem with the "# interrupt" command to open a live channel to a studio in your building where a live show, conference, lecture, speech, council meeting, church service, concert, or other event will start at a specific time.
The # Live automation event is NOT intended for frequent, day-in, day-out satellite automation. Use a TuneTracker Command Center system with a switcher for that sort of broadcast operation.
# Live (TuneTracker Basic ONLY)
There are two possible parameters: "live on" and "live off." When "live" is activated, TuneTracker Basic's "Live On" button is lit, and an "Input" line shows up in SoundPlay. The button in SoundPlay which stops the connection is ghosted to prevent accidental interruption. This safety feature can be over-ridden in TuneTracker™ Preferences. The amount of time the live connection is maintained is controlled by placing a pause command between the live on and live off events, as shown below.
In the first example below, TuneTracker™ will broadcast the input of your sound card for five minutes.
This next example allows you to permanently turn live on, until interrupted later at a specific time.
- Example:
# live on
# Pause-For 00:05:00
# live off
You can make the second example work in the original TuneTracker™ by placing a "dummy" cut just before the # live off event. Just create a little audio file of about two seconds in length, that is nothing but silence. This circumvents an issue in TuneTracker™ that keeps it from being able to break away from a previous event if anything other than an audio file follows an interrupt. Compensate for the length of the silent audio cut by making your interrupt start two seconds earlier.
- Example
# live on
# Pause-For 99:00:00
# interrupt@:55:00
# live off
# Live-For (Command Center ONLY)
The "# Live-For" command is an automated method of opening a live connection to whatever is audio source is plugged into your sound card. In Command Center, you specify the period of time for the live event right in the same line, so no Pause-For line is necessary.
- Example 1:
# Live-For 00:05:00
- Example 2:
# Live-For 99:00:00
# Interrupt@:18:00
In the Example 2, Live-For uses an "infinite pause" which will keep your live event active "forever" until it is taken off the air by an # Interrupt. The interrupt can either use a fade before removing the live event, or cut it off abruptly if you specify a fade time of 0. See interrupt for more details.
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