TUNETRACKER SYSTEM IN ACTION - TuneTracker
TuneTracker's Silence Sensor
The TuneTracker "BRS SILENCE SENSOR" is a SoundPlay plugin that sends audio information to TuneTracker. That data is what supplies TuneTracker with not only silence information, but volume information, so TuneTracker's built-in VU meter also relies on the proper installation of the plugin. The plugin should have been automatically added to the SoundPlay plugins folder at installation time. If it becomes lost or deleted, a copy of it can also be found in the /boot/apps/TuneTracker System/Extras folder.
CONFLICT RESOLVED
Starting with TuneTracker Pro™ and TuneTracker 2™, a conflict between TuneTracker's "BRS Silence Sensor" plugin and any other audio plugins you might have enabled, has been resolved.
If you have the original TuneTracker.0 and have run into problems using audio plugins along with the SS plugin, an upgrade to Pro or 2.1 will solve the problem.
INSTALLATION
The TuneTracker silence sensor must be enabled in Soundplay before it will work. Starting with TuneTracker Pro™ and TuneTracker 2™, the "BRS SILENCE SENSOR" plugin appears in the Visualization section of SoundPlay preferences. Just drag it to the right window pane to activate it, then close Preferences and close SoundPlay so the preferences are permanently saved. In the original TuneTracker™, go into the Filters section instead, and follow the same procedure.
WHY USE THE SILENCE SENSOR?
Even in the best of worlds, sometimes, stuff happens. A recorded audio cut has a bad section, resulting in prolonged silence. A live broadcast feed from a radio network scheduled to run for five minutes goes dead after a minute and a half. Now if you happen to be sitting nearby, you can catch that sort of thing and deal with it. But if you're running automated, and unattended, TuneTracker™ isn't going to contend with the issue until it gets to the end of its predicted duration for the event. In other words, it will wait patiently until the natural length of the audio event has expired, then it will move on. That's not the best solution, of course. We want to jump on it much more quickly than that!
That's where our silence-sensor comes in. The silence-sensor "listens" for audio, and as long as it hears it coming through, it minds its own business. But if things go quiet, the silence-sensor starts counting. One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds, etc., until it either reaches the time threshold you've set for it, or some audio is heard. If audio is heard, silence-sensor stops counting and settles back into its rocking chair, appeased. If not, if the time threshold is reached, silence-sensor nudges TuneTracker™ and says, "move along!" TuneTracker™ kills whatever was attempting to play and advances to the next line in the program log.
FINE-TUNING THE SILENCE SENSOR
Silence, of course, is in the ear of the beholder. So in Preferences, in addition to giving you a time threshold settable from zero seconds to infinity, we also have an audio threshold control; in essence, a "deafness control." You can set TuneStacker™ to be as sensitive or as "hearing impaired" as you like. We find that an audio threshold setting of "0.01" works very, very well, but feel free to experiment to find what you like best.
Why would you ever want to make the silence-sensor slightly "hearing impaired?" Again, because sometimes "stuff happens." For example, you may be taking your news reports from a noisy network feed. If a feed on a network like that ceases in the middle of a newscast, there may be enough background noise on the line to keep the silence-sensor satisfied that audio is present. In a case like that, a higher number in the audio threshold setting, such as "0.10" might do the trick.
If you do decide to experiment with the audio threshold settings, load a program log into TuneTracker™, and start it playing in Auto-On mode. While a song is playing, click SoundPlay's Stop button (the square one). If the silence-sensor times-out properly after the number of seconds you have set in the time threshold setting, and TuneTracker™ starts the next event without trouble, your audio threshold is plenty low. Keep adjusting the number (click "save and apply" after each change) until the silence-sensor fails. Then, just back the number off a little and you'll have a good setting. If you're compensating for a noisy feed, do the same testing with the noisy feed, adjusting until the audio threshold just barely ignores the noise.
CONTROLLING THE SILENCE SENSOR AUTOMATICALLY
You can also automate the turning on and off of the silence sensor, right in your program logs. See the # SS ON/OFF command.
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