Before you can broadcast a file, you need to add it to the playlist or to one of the cart players. The most convenient way is to open a directory in the browser section, and drag-and-drop the file into the player. To open the directory, click the “Add” button above the browsers, and you will be prompted to select the desired directory. You can also add browsers containing a directory tree or pre-defined playlists (e.g., M3U). Click the little arrow next to the “Add” button and chose an option from the menu.
In order to add a file, drag-and-drop it from the browser (or from Windows Explorer) into the playlist. You can also drag a file directly into one of the players. It will be inserted into the playlist automatically.
By default, the “auto load” option is enabled: mAirList will automatically load the top-most three items into the three players. You can change the sequence of the items in the playlist by grabbing an item in its left-most column and dragging it into the desired position. Moving an item into the top three positions will automatically load it in a player.
You can also load the players manually by dragging and item from the playlist into a player (when starting to drag, you have to click the item in any but the left-most column). This is mandatory when auto load is disabled in the playlist's popup menu.
Before broadcasting an item, you might want to pre-listen to it. The default hotkeys are F5, F6 and F7 for player A, B and C, respectively. Press the same key again to quit PFL mode. (All hotkeys can be customized, or you can use other remote control methods like MIDI or joystick interfaces). By default, all players use your default sound card for both broadcasting and pre-listening. You can change this in the configuration dialog.
Activating the PFL mode, the Advanced PFL window will appear which allows you to set various cue points:
This is the “cue in” point at which playback should begin. Anything before this point is cut off.
The “ramp” or “intro” point, usually the point at which vocals begin within a song. mAirList will visualize the segment between cue in and ramp with an additional progress bar, assisting you with ramp talks.
The point at which vocals stop (and the presenter can talk again over the instrumental part). The progress bar is is displayed dark green after this point.
The point at which the automation should fade out the song and start the next item. This value is also considered when computing the effective duration of the item, and used as the end marker of the progress bar.
The point at which playback of the item should definitely stop. Can be used to cut of noise at the end of songs.
Each cue point has three buttons:
Set the value to the current playback position.
Reset/delete this cue point.
Let playback jump to this cue point.
You can also use the mouse wheel in order to fine-tune a cue point in 1/100s steps. The mouse wheel will affect the cue point which has been altered by one of the buttons lastly. So the steps of setting an exact cue point would usually be the following:
Listen to the PFL playback.
When reaching the approximate position, press SET.
Click TEST to listen to your selection.
Use the mouse wheel to fine-tune the point, and use TEST to test the new fine-tuned value.
Each type of cue point can also have a list of alternative values, for example when a song offers different end points for ramp talks, or in order to implement refrain hooks. To access this list, click the label displaying the cue point's current value. A new window will appear displaying all alternative cue poins. You can add the current value as a new alternative, delete an alternative or double click a value in order to copy it to the current value. Clicking “TEST” will activate test mode in which playback jumps to an alternative value when it is clicked.