Version 5 Manual

Transcription

Version 5 Manual

MegaSeg 5 Manual
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Version 5 Manual
(3rd revision)
Copyright © 1998-2010 Fidelity Media, Inc.
MegaSeg 5 Manual
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MegaSeg 5 Manual
Welcome
Thank you for using MegaSeg DJ mixing and radio automation software! This guide will
help you get started with MegaSeg, as well as include detailed information about its features. If you have any questions not covered in this manual, please check our F.A.Q. at
www.megaseg.com/faq.html, or e-mail us for assistance at [email protected].
Table of Contents
Whatʼs New?"
4
System Requirements"
4
Getting Configured"
4
Connecting to a Sound System"
6
Starting MegaSeg"
8
The Main Interface"
9
Supported File Formats"
12
Importing Folders and Files"
13
Import Options"
15
Importing Audio CDʼs"
16
Edit Media"
17
Remove Imported Folders and Files"
25
Searching the Library"
26
Building a Playlist"
28
Keyboard Shortcuts"
29
Preview a Track"
32
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The Request List"
32
Starting the Playlist"
33
Looping the Playlist"
36
Loading and Saving Playlists"
36
Sound Effect Hot Keys"
39
Advanced Playlist Features"
40
Playlist Events"
41
Playlist Scheduling"
46
Playlist Rules"
52
Playlist Logging"
53
Playlist File Formats"
55
Administration Password"
56
Mic On/Off Button"
56
Multiple Sound Outputs"
57
The Mixer"
59
MIDI Controllers"
64
Log Files"
65
Viewing a Trackʼs Play History"
66
Printing the Library and Playlists"
67
Video Playback"
67
Ambient Video Playlists"
68
Network Library Syncing"
69
The MegaSeg F.A.Q."
70
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What’s New?
Please visit our version history page (www.megaseg.com/version.html) for a full list of all
features and improvements made to MegaSeg.
System Requirements
Any Mac with an Intel or PowerPC processor running at 600 MHz or faster, with Mac OS
X 10.3.9 or better, QuickTime 6.5.2 or better, and minimum of 512 MB RAM. The latest
QuickTime is a free download using Software Update in the Apple menu, or visit
www.apple.com/quicktime/download.
▫ NOTE
You do not need the Pro version of QuickTime Player. There is no benefit to MegaSeg if you buy
QuickTime Pro.
Getting Configured
When running MegaSeg, it is important to keep your system optimized and running
smoothly. We recommend using a clean system, with no haxies installed... (A haxie is
Mac slang for a program that modifies the system to do a feature or trick not originally
intended by Apple. This includes modifying the appearance of the OS for example.
These may cause conflicts with various software and can be difficult to diagnose).
Occasionally, you should run Apple s Disk Utility application to repair your system s
permissions. This is a routine maintenance procedure you should do after installing
system updates or after several months. The Disk Utility program is in the Applications
folder inside the Utilities folder. Click the boot drive from the list on the left, select the
First Aid tab, and click the Repair Disk Permissions button located below. This is only
intended for the internal hard drive, and does not enable for other drives.
If you plan on using an external hard drive for audio and video in MegaSeg, first make
sure your external drive is formatted for Mac. Most drives are formatted for PC out of
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the box, and while the Mac can use them that way, it s best to reformat to the Mac s native drive format for best compatibility with MegaSeg s features (such as file tracking
and metadata). To check if your external drive is formatted correctly, select the drive on
the Desktop and press Command-I (or Get Info from the File menu). Under the heading Format it should read Mac OS Extended and optionally (Journaled) . If it says
anything else, it should be reformatted for best performance and safety. You can format the drive using the Disk Utility application described above.
We also recommend you enable the Keep All Drives Spinning option in MegaSeg s
preferences. (This will enable automatically once MegaSeg detects you are using multiple drives for media, but can be disabled if necessary). Hard drives commonly spin
down or sleep when not being accessed for a few minutes, and can cause delays as
MegaSeg or the OS tries to access them. Even if you play all your music from an external drive, the internal drive may spin down, which again can cause delays. The Keep All
Drives Spinning option helps prevent these problems.
Finally, remember the more programs you have running at once, the slower your system
performance will be. We recommend not running any other programs when using
MegaSeg. To make sure you have all other applications quit (besides the Finder), check
the Dock and click any icons that show a white dot (or black triangle in older versions of
Mac OS X) below or beside its icon. These apps are currently running, and you should
quit them using the Quit command in their menu bar (Command-Q).
▫ NOTE
You do not need to worry about how many applications you have installed on our system. Simply
installing an application does not slow things down. Only applications that are running use the processor. However, there are exceptions. Some rare applications install background processes that
run invisibly. Often these are helper apps to the main program that installed them, and do not use
much (if any) processor time. But there have been cases where a system conflict can cause a
background process to run wild, and bring the system to a crawl. If you suspect this is happening,
there is an Apple program called Activity Monitor that can diagnosing the problem (located in the
Utilities folder inside the Applications folder). It has a pop-up menu to select the group of processes you want to check. Select All Processes to see everything, which will include lots of oddly
named UNIX OS processes. Then look for one that is using a major chunk of the processor time
(for example, over 50% consistently). You can sort by processor time by clicking the % CPU column. If you find something wrong, try searching online for information about that process.
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Connecting to a Sound System
All Macs come with a built-in high quality 16-bit sound output that uses a standard 1/8
stereo mini-jack for audio out. To hook up your Mac using this output, you will need an
1/8 stereo plug to RCA-style plug cable, which is easy to find at most electronic stores.
It s best to maximize your Mac s sound output when connected to a sound or P.A.
system for the best signal-to-noise ratio. To do this, select System Preferences in the
Apple menu, and then click on the Sound icon. Select the output device you will use for
output to your sound system. Then move the Output Volume slider all the way to the
right for the highest sound output into your sound system. Sometimes this slider does
not properly reflect the current volume when first displayed, so you may need to set it
to the middle and back to full to ensure it is set correctly.
▫ NOTE
MegaSeg has an option to set the system volume to its maximum automatically when launched, and
will reset to the original volume when quit. This setting is in the General tab of the Preferences, and
named Maximize System Volume . However, this only effects the selected system output device.
MegaSeg supports using multiple audio output devices at once (i.e. two stereo usbdevices), as well as multi-output devices (i.e. a single device with multiple stereo pairs),
allowing you to cue or preview tracks in your headphones without interrupting the
main Playlist. You can use your Mac s built-in audio as your Cue output device, while
using an optional second sound device as your main Playlist output (or vice-versa). Examples of devices include inexpensive audio adaptors, USB mixers, FireWire multichannel studio interfaces, and CardBus or PCI-based sound cards. For specific examples, see
our Output Solutions page at www.megaseg.com/outputs.html
▫ NOTE
Some audio output devices have two or more stereo channels in one device (in contrast to using
multiple single output devices to achieve multiple outputs). These devices may need to be configured to function properly with MegaSeg using Apple s Audio MIDI Setup utility application (located
in your Applications s Utilities subfolder). This app will show a list of all your connected audio devices. Select the device and note the Format settings. A popup menu to the right will display the
channel modes available. If it says 2ch-... and there is a higher channel option, select it. For most
devices, you should be done and you can now select the device in MegaSeg s output settings. If
you run into problems, try going back into Audio MIDI Setup and re-select the device, then click the
Configure Speakers button. In the dialog that appears click the Multichannel button. Here you
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can select from various channel presets. Generally, for a four channel device, you would select
Quadraphonic from the popup menu to the right.
Apple s Audio MIDI Setup utility application
To select the sound devices for multiple outputs, open MegaSeg s Preferences and click
on the In/Outputs tab (or click the Outputs button in the Mixer view). There you will be
able to set each output device for the main Playlist output, as well as a preview channel
for cueing, a Hot Keys output for sound effects, and the input/output device combo for
Mic play-thru. There is also a checkbox to enable Discrete Output Mode, which will be
discussed further in the Mixer section. Discrete Output Mode changes the Playlist and
Preview output options to Left Deck and Right Deck outputs, similar to using two CD
players or turntables and thus requires an external mixer to sum the outputs together.
You do not need to enable Discrete Output Mode to mix music, and the standard mode
is often easier to work with.
▫ NOTE
◇ If you plan on using multiple outputs, make sure the devices are connected before starting
MegaSeg. This includes any USB or FireWire based devices.
◇ Each sound output has its own master volume setting. To set the volume for each output device,
open the System Preferences and click the Sound icon, then the Outputs tab, and in the list select
each device one by one, and maximize the volume for each device.
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◇ When using USB audio devices, it is not recommended to use them with a standard USB hub.
Some manufactures have special USB hubs designed for audio devices.
If your computer generates a hum in the sound system when connected, a ground
loop is the likely culprit. A ground loop is caused by a grounding problem in the electrical wiring of both the sound system and the computer in combination with how your
audio cables are connected. It can be difficult to solve, but sometimes moving all the
equipment onto a single power strip can help. If rewiring is not the answer, you can try a
ground loop isolator cable (available at your local electronics shack), which simply puts a
transformer in the audio line to prevent the ground loop from occurring. The isolator
cable will have little to no side-effect on the sound quality, and a major positive one (no
hum!). When on the road, a ground loop isolator cable is a good thing to have handy.
Warning! Do not place your subwoofer to close to your computer and external hard
drives, as the woofer's magnetic field is very strong and can cause unpredictable results
and or damage to computer equipment.
Starting MegaSeg
Once installed, double-click the MegaSeg program. If it s your first time running the full
version of MegaSeg, a registration form will appear to enter your name and serial number. When you are registered, MegaSeg will continue to launch and display the main interface. MegaSeg may also connect to the Fidelity Media web server on a periodic basis
to check for updated versions. No personal or machine information is transferred during these connections.
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MegaSeg In Standard View (Mixer Hidden)
The Main Interface
The main MegaSeg screen is designed to be used in either window or full screen mode.
To switch into full screen mode, select Full Screen in the MegaSeg menu. In this mode,
MegaSeg will enable Dock Hiding; to access your dock, move your mouse to the side of
the screen your dock is located.
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▫ NOTE
If you want to work on something else while MegaSeg is running in the background, use the Hide
MegaSeg option under the MegaSeg Menu (Command-H). When you want to see MegaSeg again,
select MegaSeg in the Dock.
Two lists are displayed on the main screen. The left list is your Library of imported files.
The right list is your current Playlist or queue. Above the Library display are two text
buttons used to select different views of the Library. Click Title Sort to bring up a
menu to select a different sort order. You can sort the Library by Title, Artist, Album,
BPM (beats per minute), Play Count, Time, Year, or Date Added.
The default category displayed is All Categories . Click this text to access the Category
Browser, or optionally click the Category button to the left of the Library. MegaSeg
comes with some example categories which you can fully customize. Click a category to
display the media in that category. If you switch to a category that has nothing in it,
MegaSeg will ask if you want to remove the category, as well as all empty categories.
You can show songs in multiple categories by using the checkboxes next to each category name. When more than one category is selected, there are options to match Any
or All of the selected categories in your list. Selecting Any will display tracks that
match any checked items in the category list. Selecting All will display only tracks that
have been assigned multiple categories that match all of the checked categories. Pressing the Spacebar will toggle the checkbox for any selected category, and ControlClicking or Control-Spacebar will uncheck them all.
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Above the Library and to the right of the category display text, it displays the total
number of tracks in the current list. Another number above the Playlist window displays
the total number of items cued in the Playlist. Below the playlist it displays time information about the current selected track in the Playlist. The first number is the time the selected track in the playlist will start playing, second is the minutes away the selected
track will play, and the third time shows the total playlist time of all tracks cued.
To select a track from the Library to play, simply click and drag it into the Playlist. Another method is to double-click a track in the Library to add it to the Playlist. Holding
the Option button while you double-click will add it to the top of the Playlist, or if you
double-click any track in the Playlist it will move to the top of the Playlist. To remove
tracks from the Playlist you simply drag them back into the Library, or select a track
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and press the Delete key. Finally, you can use many keyboard shortcuts to add, move,
and remove tracks, for example Command-Right Arrow (see the Keyboard Shortcuts list
later in this manual).
MegaSeg lets you customize the way the Library and Playlist displays information. You
can set the lists to display 1, 2 or 3-rows of information per track. To toggle between
the various modes, click the small square button at the top left of the Library and
Playlist that shows one or more lines depending on the number of rows displayed. The
two and three row modes allow for viewing more information besides just Title, Artist,
and Time. (In one-row mode, the Time field will be replaced with BPM or Play Count info
depending on the current sort order).
You can further customize the list views in the Preferences, under the Views tab, where
you can set the font face, size, and default text color. You will also see options to enable
category and Finder label colors which will be discussed later.
If you are using MegaSeg for the first time, you won t have anything in your Library, so
let s import some tracks now.
Supported File Formats
MegaSeg allows you to import any files QuickTime supports, including video, MP3, MP4,
AAC (m4a and m4p protected), Apple Lossless, MPEG-1/2/4, MOV, DV, AIFF, WAV, etc.
If you want to play WMV or WMA (Windows Media Video & Audio), DivX, FLV, and other
formats not natively supported by QuickTime, you can install free plug-ins such as
Flip4Mac (www.flip4mac.com) and Perian (www.perian.org). Make sure you have the latest
QuickTime version for the best playback of supported formats.
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Importing Folders and Files
Click the Import button on the left side of the screen which opens a dialog with options
to import files from a folder on any drive, your iTunes music library, or a connected
iPod. Note there are two iTunes import buttons, one which uses Spotlight (a search feature introduced in Mac OS 10.4) to import new files since the last time you used that
import option, and the other iTunes button performs a full scan of all the iTunes music
folders for new tracks to import. (The full-scan is nearly as fast as the Spotlight import,
but it depends on how large your iTunes library is). The first time you import from
iTunes, it will perform a full-scan regardless.
▫ NOTE
Importing files into MegaSeg does not copy or duplicate the files, but simply links or references the
media in its current location. For example, when importing media from iTunes, MegaSeg will then
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play the same files iTunes does, and not take up any extra hard drive space. Keep this in mind if you
use MegaSeg to delete or move tracks into the Trash, as they are the same files iTunes uses.
Besides importing from your internal drive, you can also use an external hard drive or
network server to store your music, or split your Library across multiple folders and
hard drives. If using a network server for music, there may be a slight delay when you
start playing a file (around 1/5 of a second). We recommend 100-Base-T or faster Ethernet connections for the best performance.
The option to Import to Category is useful if you have a folder full of specific files you
want categorized as such. You can select a category to assign to all files at once using
this pop-up menu. Otherwise, if you want to use the Genre tag from each file s metadata
as the category, simply leave the Import to Category pop-up menu set to Same as
Genre Tag . (Click the Options button on the bottom right to show additional options).
Since media in MegaSeg can be assigned to multiple categories, you can combine using
the Genre tags and assigning an overall category with the Import to Category option.
This can come in handy, for example, to import all files with today s date as a category,
and then display that category for easy editing of newly imported files. Then later remove the date category without removing the files. (Note, you can sort by Date Added
in the Library as well).
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Import Options
Press the Options button to control how files are imported. The first option is Include
Sub Folders , which means all folders inside the folder selected to import will also be
imported. When this is selected and you use the Import Folder button, be careful not to
select your main hard drive and have MegaSeg import every media file on your hard
drive. Because MegaSeg can play so many different types of files, including pictures,
PDF, and text files, you may end up with a Library full of stuff you don t want. Fortunately, it s easy to mass remove imported folders using the Remove Folders command
in the File menu (or Folders View in the Library s sort menu).
MegaSeg has its own tagging system for imported media, which works with all type of
files, not just MP3 or AAC files. It uses the Mac s resource fork to store metadata,
including custom start and end times, memory positions, categories, notes, etc. The
Use MegaSeg Tags checkbox enables MegaSeg to use this stored data for the Title,
Artist, Album, Year, Category, BPM, and Notes fields if a MegaSeg Tag is available in the
file (for example if it was previously imported in MegaSeg or from another MegaSeg
system). If a song has not been edited in MegaSeg before (and therefore not have a
MegaSeg Tag), the ID3 tags will be used for those fields. MegaSeg will always use the
MegaSeg tags for End Time (Segue Time), Start Time (Cue-in), and Intro Time even
when this option is not checked.
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The Use file s Genre Tag for Category checkbox tells MegaSeg to honor any Genre tag
assigned to MP3 and AAC files. If one is found, it will add it to the MegaSeg category
list and assign it to the file. If the Use MegaSeg Tags option is also checked, and a
MegaSeg Tag is found, it will override the ID3 tags.
There is also an option to filter files by their extension using the Skip Files With Extensions text box. Enter extensions of file types you never want MegaSeg to import, with
commas separating each extension; For example use jpg,gif,tiff to filter out common
picture files.
The iTunes Import Folder setting allows you to tell MegaSeg where your iTunes music
files are located. MegaSeg will automatically set this to match your iTunes setting. Typically this is your Music folder inside your Home folder (~/Users/username/Music/
iTunes/). However, you may change this manually if you wish. Once set, you can use the
iTunes button as a shortcut to scan that folder for new music.
▫ NOTE
The iTunes Import Folder path can be set as a shortcut to any folder, and then you can use the
iTunes button to import from that folder. It doesn t need to be related to iTunes in any way.
Importing Audio CD’s
If you want to import from a CD, we recommend using Apple s iTunes to encoded CD
track s into MP3, AAC, or Apple Lossless files, and then use MegaSeg s iTunes import
button to easily bring in the files you ve encoded with iTunes. The files are not duplicated on your drive or moved when imported into MegaSeg. The files are simply referenced from the original iTunes location.
You can also import files created with any MP3 encoder. To test files and settings for
compatibility with MegaSeg, you can use Apple s QuickTime Player. Any audio file
QuickTime Player will play, MegaSeg can play.
▫ NOTE
◇ Avoid encoding VBR formatted MP3 files, as they can cause audio playback problems.
◇ The Library has no track limit set and can hold as many files as you have memory for.
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Edit Media
To edit a track, just click it once to highlight it, then click Edit or select File->Edit Media
Info from the menu (Command-I).
In the Edit Media window, you can change all the fields in the Library. MegaSeg has
many fields in the database, many of which are displayed in pop-up info boxes, as well
as useful for logging. Many will be used for future features in MegaSeg as well.
To select the categories you want to assign to a track, click the Set button to the right
of the Categories filed. A window will pop up with a list of categories, along with buttons
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to Add, Rename, and Remove categories, as well as Set Color and No Color buttons.
When you rename a category, MegaSeg will perform a find and replace throughout the
entire Library. To merge two or more categories, simply rename the categories you want
to merge using the same name as one of the existing categories. You can remove categories with or without removing the files from the Library. There is also an option to
move files from a category to the Trash, if desired.
The Set Color button allows you to assign a color code for that category, which in turn
will display all tracks in the category with that color text. However, you must enable this
feature in the Preferences before it will display category colors in the Library and
Playlist. In the Preferences window, click the View tab, and then check the Use Category
Colors checkbox.
Check the categories you want to assign to this track (or double-click a category name
to quickly select one category). You can also use the arrow keys or type-to-select a
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category, and press the spacebar to toggle the selection for any category. Also ControlClick or press Control-Spacebar to clear all other checked categories.
Back in the Edit Media dialog, most of the other settings under the Info tab are self explanatory. The Highest Chart field can be used to enter the highest chart position a
track reached in any given year. This can be useful trivia while announcing a song, for
example.
The Popularity and Energy/Mood settings are definable to help you remember and gage
your music. (They appear in the pop-up info boxes when you leave your mouse hovering
over a track, when that feature is enabled in MegaSeg s general preferences).
The Vocalist setting is used to tell MegaSeg the sex of the vocalist. This works with the
Rules feature that limits the number of male or female vocalists that can play in a row (a
trick many radio stations use to keep the mix sounding fresh). When confronted with
groups or bands use the vocalist for the song. For example, Fleetwood Mac could be labeled as Male or Female depending on the vocalist of each song.
The Use Display Color checkbox allows you to assign a color code for this individual
track. This will override any global category color settings that might affect the track.
In the Options Tab, you can set Volume, Pitch, BPM, Into Countdown, Start and End
times, Ending Type and Segue Options.
Let s start with the End Time. The End Time (Segue) is the time when MegaSeg will start
the Next track in the Playlist complete with an automatic crossfade. To set the Segue
Time, press the Play button to the right, which will start the song (if not already
started) near the ending of the track. You can also scan the track using the FF/REW
buttons or the timeline control in the preview player below.
When you hear the perfect moment where you want MegaSeg to automatically start the
Next track and fade this one, click the Set button. This stores the current time at the
moment you click Set into the End Time field. You can click Set as many times as
needed to get the perfect time. Once saved, when this song is played in the Playlist
while in AutoSeg mode, all tracks that follow this track with start at that exact end point,
and this track will fade out behind the next one in the Playlist.
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When you don t customize a song s Segue time, and leave it at the default time (the absolute end of the file), MegaSeg enables the AutoSeg Trim feature that will subtract
time from the end of the track. The default AutoSeg Trim is 7 seconds. If you play
music that has extended endings or long fades, you might want to increase it in the
Preferences under the Playback tab. Some songs end cold and keep playing loud up
until the last 2 or 3 seconds with a sting. In these cases, you should set a custom end
time to prevent AutoSeg Trim from enabling and allow the entire track to play.
Hint: When MegaSeg segues between tracks, the End Time (Segue) is the time the fade
will start ‒ not end. Don t worry about it fading out a cold ending prematurely if you set
the end time at the very last note.
For perfect segues every time, you should custom set each track s end time. Every song
is different, and it s best to set it by ear. For example, a good segue time is usually after
a lyrical phrase, or the downbeat after a measure or 8 bars. Some songs fade out for
30+ seconds, others fade in 10. For the best AutoSeg results, these segue point judgments are best set by you rather than rely on the AutoSeg Trim feature.
Luckily, we ve added an easy way for you to set custom segues on the fly ‒ No need to
use the Edit Media dialog. If you turn off AutoSeg by clicking the AutoSeg toggle to the
right of the Playlist, when the song reaches the end of the track, it will just wait for you
to click the Segue button to start the Next song. However, when in Administration mode,
another button appears under the Segue button called Seg & Set . This will also Segue
into the next track, but also a dialog window will appear asking if you want to save the
moment you clicked the button as the new custom segue time. This makes it easy to set
endings while mixing live, but also quick to set many tracks by using the current song s
Play Ending button (Command-9) and timeline controls.
Hint: If after setting a custom segue time with Seg & Set, and you feel it was not the
best time, you can back up the Playlist two tracks (using the Cue Position buttons) and
start the same song over, press Play Ending (or Command-9), and try again. Command-;
and Command- are the keyboard shortcuts for Cue Position.
Back in the Edit Media window s Options tab, the Use native length for End Time
checkbox is useful when you may be swapping out sound files behind MegaSeg s back
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that have different lengths. For example, if you are running a radio station, you may
have imported some generic news programs that change daily, but may also have
slightly different durations. If you check this option, you won t need to reset the end
time each time the source file changes.
▫ NOTE
MegaSeg tracks the location of files that are imported, so if a file is moved or renamed, it will locate
that file automatically (using a Mac OS Alias link). However, if you replace a file with one of the
same name in the same location, MegaSeg will notice this and use that file instead, abandoning the
alias link to the original imported file. This makes swapping out files easy.
Continuing with the Edit window, you can also set an Intro countdown timer to display
when you start a song, so you can see how long before the vocals start (aka the ramp
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of a song). This Intro time has no effect on the playback sound at all. It s simply a visual
countdown as you are talking over the intro of a song. The Intro time is also displayed in
front of the End Time in the Library and Playlist displays, so you can see in advance how
long the intro is.
Next, the Cue-In Time is used to trim the beginning of a track. This is handy to remove
dead space before the music starts. Use the Play button Next to the Cue-In Time to
preview the track s Current Cue-In Time. In the preview player below, the play button will
always start from the absolute beginning of the track. The Set button works the same
as the End Time and Intro Time s Set button described earlier.
The Volume setting and slider control allows you to adjust the volume of individual files
in the Library. Since some songs are recorded softer than others, use this control to
boost the volume to help them match. Be careful not to distort by setting it too high.
MegaSeg also has an Automatic Volume Control setting (AGC) in the preferences under
the Playback tab which will automatically ride the levels of all playing tracks. Because it
analyzes the sound level and does adjustments on the fly, it overrides any custom volume levels set in the Edit Media window.
The Pitch setting allows you to change the speed of playback for this track. This will
change the song s default playback speed. However, this can be changed on the fly in
the Mixer (discussed later in the manual).
The BPM (Beats Per Minute) indicates the native tempo of the song, and will be displayed when you sort by BPM in the Library (or use the 2 or 3-line display mode). BPM
settings are helpful for beat matching songs; however, it is also useful for determining
the mood of a song for general AutoSeg playback. To set the BPM, start the song using
the Play button near the bottom of the Edit window, and then click the Set button next
to the BPM text box. A window will pop up asking you to tap the Spacebar 16 times to
the beat of the music. If you get off beat, just click Reset (or press R ) and start over.
The BPM Tapper window will calculate the BPM based on the best averages of your 16
taps, and display the BPM setting in the Edit window.
Important: You must have the Pitch set to 100% when using the BPM Tapper from the
Edit Media window to get a correct reading. (This is not necessary when using the Set
BPM button in the Mixer).
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The Ending Type option will display a reminder for how the track ends. Typically music
ends with either a fade or cold ending. A fade means the music keeps playing while the
sound slowly gets softer and softer. A cold ending means the track ends abruptly with a
musical sting. Sustain means a song ends on a single note held out gracefully. This setting has no effect on playback, and is simply a label for your reference. It is displayed as
a single letter F,C,S at the end of the time, and also in the pop-up info boxes.
The Segue Options allow you to create special tracks that play over other songs. For
example if you have a pre-recorded voice over (ID or announcement) you want to play
over the intro of a song, you can click the Voice-Over (play over next track) checkbox.
This does two things. First, it sets the End Time to 00:00, meaning as soon as this track
starts, it will also start the track that follows it in the playlist at the same time. Next, it
will enable the Segue Fade-Override checkbox, which allows this track to continue playing after starting the next track in the Playlist without fading. Checking this option is the
same as if you set both of those options manually. This is simply a shortcut.
Enabling the Segue Fade-Override option will prevent this track from fading when it
reaches the End Time, and the next song in the Playlist starts. This can be useful for
voice-overs as well, if for example you want the voice over to start playing for a few
seconds before starting the next track. Let s say the voice over is a total of 20 seconds,
but the intro of the next song is only 10. Setting the End Time at 00:11.00 and clicking
the Segue Fade-Override option will allow the voice over to play for 11 seconds before
starting the next song, while allowing it to continue to play over the intro of the song.
▫ NOTE
It is not necessary to use the Segue Fade-Override setting to keep a song that ends with a cold
ending from fading out prematurely. Simply set the End time for the song at the exact moment the
song ends (the sting). MegaSeg does not start fading the track until after the End time is reached,
so it won t effect the cold ending.
Under the History & Dates tab, there are fields for Play Count, Last Played date, Show
Logged History charts, and Restrict Play Dates. The Play Count and Last Played date
can be edited or cleared, but the Show Logged History will scan the Logs folder for all
dates and times this track has played, and display a chart window. If you wish to clear
the History, simply trash or archive the Log files located in the MegaSeg data folder, in-
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side your home Music folder. The Show History and Log windows is discussed later in
this manual.
▫ NOTE
MegaSeg will automatically archive Logs older than 6 months into the Archived Logs folder within
the Logs folder of the MegaSeg data folder ( /Music/MegaSeg/Logs/Archived Logs/).
Restrict Play Dates is a feature that allows you to prevent a track from playing out of a
certain range of dates. If the track is added to the playlist when outside the restricted
date range, it will be removed automatically before it gets to the Next position, and a
dialog will appear alerting the user of the restriction.
Under the Additional tab are database fields that are useful for logging (they show up in
the log files), and also display in the pop-up info boxes when hovering your mouse over
a track in the Playlist or Library (when that option is enabled in the General preferences
tab). The Related Artist field is also useful for the Rules feature that can prevent the
same artist from playing in a certain amount of time. Since many members of groups
eventually have solo projects, this field allows you to tell MegaSeg the relation and keep
them from breaking the artist separation rule. For example, if editing a song by John
Lennon, you would enter Beatles in the Related Artist Field. This would keep the track
from playing too close to another John Lennon or Beatles track, or any other track that
has Beatles set as the Related artist, for instance a Paul McCartney solo track.
The Notes field is also note worthy; This field can be searched using a special Search
Notes command in the File menu, and also displayed in the info pop-ups when hovering
over a track in the Library or Playlist (when enabled).
Under the File tab is info about the media file itself, including size, data rate, sample
rate, and the file s location on the drive. You can click the Show File button to reveal the
file in the Finder. The Browse button allows you to set a new target file for this track in
the Library.
With Auto-Rename file when saved checked, the track will be renamed to match the
Title and Artist fields under the Info tab when you click save. If you don t want this to
happen, uncheck this option, and it will remain unchecked for all tracks from that point
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forward. You can click the Use Format button to select how you want MegaSeg to rename files. This setting also affects how MegaSeg determines the Title and Artist fields
from files imported without ID3 or AAC tags. For example, if the file name starts with
the Title first, or the Artist first.
Once everything is set, click Save (or press Return) to save the changes. Alternatively,
to edit the next song listed in the Library or Playlist, press the Edit Next button.
Remove Imported Folders and Files
To remove individual files from the Library, click the track once to highlight it, then click
Remove (or press Command-Delete). You can optionally select multiple files to remove by
Command-Clicking or Shift-Clicking multiple tracks, or pressing Command-A to select all
tracks in the list.
The dialog will display the track or number of tracks selected and ask if you want to remove it. Notice the checkbox that allows you to optionally trash the files. With this unchecked, it will only remove the track from MegaSeg s Library, and leave the related
media file on your hard drive, where it can be re-imported later (or still used by iTunes).
Optionally, if you want to trash the file, check the box to move the file to the Trash. You
can also do this without having to check the box by pressing Option-Command-Delete.
WARNING: If you check the checkbox to trash the file in the Remove File dialog, and that file is
used by iTunes, it will no longer be playable in iTunes.
Besides using multi-select to remove multiple files, MegaSeg also has a command to
remove entire folders of files that have been imported. From the File menu, select the
Remove Folders command, and in the Library view it will display the lists the volumes
that have been imported. Use the disclosure triangle next to each drive name to see the
folders that have been imported in that volume. If the specific folder you want to remove is located deep inside the drive, keep opening the folders until you locate the
folder or file you want to remove. Select the folder or file, and press the Delete key. If
you want to remove everything from your Library, simply select each volume name and
press Delete (repeat for all volumes listed). Again this does not effect the files at all. It
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simply tells MegaSeg to forget the files imported from these locations, and does not
trash or erase the files.
While we re on the topic of removing media, there is a Scan for Missing Files command
in the File menu under Library Tools that can help weed out missing files. When this
command is selected, it will start scanning the library to ensure all media files are found.
When it finds a missing file, a dialog will appear with the title and path location to the
missing file, and buttons for Remove, Remove All, Find, Skip All, and OK. Clicking Remove will tell MegaSeg to forget this single file was ever imported. Remove All will do
the same for all subsequent files found (avoiding this dialog), and a report window will
appear afterward with a list of all files removed. The Find button allows you to browse
your files to select a new target file for the track, and re-link the media. Skip All will ignore the missing file leaving them in the library, and generate a report of all missing files
encountered. And clicking OK will skip the current missing file dialog.
If you have many duplicate files in your Library, there is a Scan for Duplicates command
in the File menu under Library Tools. This has several options to narrow down the results. The search results will be displayed in the Library, so you can Preview each duplicate and decide which you want to keep before removing it with the Remove button as
described above.
Searching the Library
To search the Library, type in the text box that says Search on the left side of the main
window. The resulting tracks will appear as you type in the Library list, and the category
text button above the library will change to Matched followed by the number of
matches. It will search the Title, Artist, Album, Year, and BPM fields. Click the X button
(or press Command-F) to clear the search results and return to the category display.
The search engine is designed to return fuzzy results. This means that you don't need
to type in every word exactly. If say, someone makes a request and doesn't know the
exact title word for word, the search will most likely find the song.
For example, say you want to find the Billy Joel song, "We didn't start the fire". You could
type in start fire (no quotes), and it will find it even though "the" was skipped. You can
also type in partial artist and title info, for example, joel fire , or billy fire start .
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▫ NOTE
◇ The search is not case sensitive, and filters out most punctuation. It also performs a word-byword search, so Mister Mr. will match Mr. Mister or MR Mister.
◇ If you use quotation marks in the search field, MegaSeg will search for an exact phrase, or words
that are together in exact order. If standard searches do not narrow down the results, and using
quotes don t return the results you want (too narrow), try adding part of the artist to the search.
For example, instead of say you say me , use Lionel Say .
There is also a Search Notes command in the File menu that will search the full text of
the Notes (aka Comments) field. This search can be slow the first time after starting
MegaSeg, but much faster subsequent times.
Finally, the Library and Playlists support type-to-select , where you can auto-select a
track that starts with what you type when the list is selected. Click on the list you want
to find a track in, then just start to type, and the list will jump to the track that starts
with what you ve typed, depending on your sort order (Title, Artist, Album, BPM, etc.)
▫ NOTE
The Playlist will match any display field it can find that starts with what you type.
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Building a Playlist
With songs in to your Library, you can now build a Playlist. To add a song to the Playlist,
you can double-click a song in the Library. It will jump over to the Playlist, cued up and
ready to go. Double-clicking a track in the Library will add it to the bottom of the
Playlist. Alternatively, you can insert it into the Next position of the Playlist by holding
down the Option key when you double-click. To remove a song from the Playlist, select it
and press the Delete key, or drag the track back into the Library (which only removes it
from the Playlist, and not effect the Library). You can also use drag-n-drop to move
tracks around or insert them in the Playlist.
You can also add every track from the Current Library display to the Playlist by clicking
the hidden Add All button that is between the Library and Playlist (or use Command-A to
select all tracks and drag-n-drop, or press Command-Right Arrow).
When you add a song to the Playlist, a small text-colored box (dot) appears in the top
right corner of the track in the Library. This box indicates the song has been added to
the Playlist, and gives you an easy way to tell what songs haven t been added yet. If you
remove a song from the Playlist, and it doesn t appear multiple times in the Playlist, the
box will disappear. Clearing the Playlist using the Menu, Playlist->Clear (Command-K),
clears all the boxes.
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When a song plays, the box changes red. This reminds you which songs have already
played. It will stay red until your next session, or until you select the Clear Red Play
Marks command in the Playlist menu.
You can randomize the Playlist by clicking the Random button, or selecting from the
menu, Playlist->Randomize (Command-R). This can also be used to mix different categories
of music together. For example, display your Punk Rock category in the Library and
click Add All, then follow that by displaying your Country category, and click Add All.
Then randomize the Playlist, and you ve got an interesting mix of punk and country
songs. (Maybe not the best example, but you get the idea).
Some additional commands in the Playlist menu, include a Sort By sub-menu with various options to sort the current playlist. The Remove Duplicates command which will
leave only the first occurrence of any duplicate tracks in the playlist. The Insert Break
command will insert a Break: Wait For Segue track into the Playlist at the current selected track position (or optionally in the top or bottom of the Playlist). While in AutoSeg
mode, the break track will cause it to stop the Playlist and wait for you to click Segue or
Start Playlist to start it back up again. The Break button below the playlist will always insert a break track at the top of the playlist.
Keyboard Shortcuts
MegaSeg is very keyboard control savvy. The Playlist can be built entirely using the keyboard. For example, to insert a song anywhere in the Playlist without using drag-n-drop,
first press the right arrow to select the Playlist. Then the up and down arrow to select
the position you want to insert into. Next press the left arrow, then select the track you
want to insert. Now press Option-Right Arrow, and the song will insert itself in the Playlist.
To add to the bottom of the Playlist, press Command-Right Arrow. To remove the selected
Playlist song, press Command-Left Arrow. Home, End, Page Up, Page Down keys work for
the selected list as well.
To move a song around in the Playlist, press Command-Up/Down Arrow. Either of these
keys can be held down to speed up the movement of a song. Option-Up/Down Arrow will
jump the selected song to the top or bottom of the Playlist. These options are useful if
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you want to move a song to the bottom, out of the way, without removing it from the
Playlist, or want to jump a song to the Next position.
Following is a partial list of other useful keyboard shortcuts for MegaSeg. Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the Help menu to see a complete list.
Command-Spacebar and Command-/ both perform a Segue to the Next Track.
Option-Click Add button adds all tracks from the Current Library display to the Playlist.
Option-Click Segue will save the exact time clicked as the new Segue Time for the track.
Command-F activates the Find text box.
Left/Right Arrows change list display focus.
Up/Down Arrows controls selection and scroll of the highlighted list.
Page Down/Page Up/Home/End control the selected list displays.
Command-Up/Down Arrows moves selected song in Playlist.
Command-Right Arrow adds selected track in the Library to the bottom of the Playlist.
Command-Left Arrow removes selected track in the Playlist.
Option-Right Arrow inserts track in the Library before the selected track in the Playlist.
Command-Option-Right Arrow adds the track to Next position (top of the Playlist).
Option-Up/Down Arrows moves the selected track in the Playlist to the top or bottom.
Command-; and controls the Cue Position of the current Playlist.
You may have noticed by now, when a song plays in MegaSeg, the Playlist moves forward, removing each played song from the top of the Playlist. Actually, it s not really removing them. They are still there, but the Cue Position (aka Next position) has
advanced past those tracks. The Playlist only displays the current Cue Position forward.
So what if you want them back?
Below the Playlist display are two Cue Position buttons. These buttons allow you to rewind to tracks already played or skip past in the Playlist. The arrow buttons make it
convenient to play songs out of sequence without actually changing the order of the
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Playlist. By using the arrow buttons, a music bed or sound effect can be replayed as often as you like, without actually inserting it into the Playlist multiple times. The keyboard
shortcuts for Cue Position are Command-; (semicolon) and Command- (apostrophe).
The Break button next to the Cue Position arrows will insert a Break: Wait For Segue
track into the top of the playlist, as described above, and the Skip To button is used to
jump the Playlist to the selected track in the Playlist. This is a shortcut to using the Cue
Position down arrow.
You can duplicate any track in the Playlist using the Duplicate Track command in the
Playlist menu (Command-D).
The Add 5 Random Songs option in the Playlist menu (Command-5) will add 5 songs randomly selected from the Current category displayed in the Library. An integrated no
repeat filter calculates 75% of the total number of songs available in the current displayed Library or Category list and scans that many songs from the bottom of the
Playlist, thus preventing any recent song repeating. For example, with 100 songs already
cued up in the Playlist, this option scans the last 75 songs of the Playlist to prevent any
repeats while it adds the 5 new random tracks. Note at least six tracks are required in
the Library list for this command to function. Note, if you use the Random button (or
Command-R) to randomize the entire playlist, if a song is in the Playlist more than once, it
may place the repeated songs close together.
To clear the Playlist, select Playlist->Clear Playlist from the menu (Command-K).
▫ NOTE
MegaSeg will save your Playlist in a temporary backup file automatically to prevent any loss in case
of problems. When you start MegaSeg, if it finds a backup file, it will automatically load it.
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Preview a Track
At any time, you can preview a track by selecting it and pressing the Preview button to
the left of the Playlist (Command-U). Playback controls will appear on the bottom left of
the MegaSeg screen. When Preview is on, you can click any other track and it will instantly switch to preview the selected track. To prevent this from happening, press the
Lock checkbox above the title in the Preview playback controls.
MegaSeg supports multiple outputs when previewing a track, so you can preview in your
headphones without disrupting the music playing in the Playlist through your main
sound system. When using multiple outputs, you can force the preview to play on the
main sound output by holding down the Option key when selecting Preview (or
Command-Option-U). Please read the section on Multiple Outputs for more information.
The Request List
MegaSeg includes a separate Request List feature which allows you to note requests
from any Library or Playlist display list using the Note Request button (or Command-N). A
dialog window will appear with the option to add a text message you want to have displayed when the song is cued up in the Next position of the Playlist. Once you have
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noted some requests, press the Requests button to display your Request List in the
Library display. You can add songs from the Request list into the Playlist the same way
you add songs from the regular Library list. To clear a request from the list, press the
Delete key, or use the Remove Request button.
When songs are added to the Playlist, they are automatically removed from the Request
List. Also the Request list will not let you add duplicates to the list. When a requested
song is cued in the Next position, if you added a text message to the request, a window
will pop-up to display your message.
▫ NOTE
All noted requests are cleared when you Quit MegaSeg.
Starting the Playlist
With some tracks cued up in the Playlist, click the Start Playlist button at the bottom of
the MegaSeg screen (from the menu select Playlist->Start Playlist, or keyboard shortcut
Command-G). The first track in the list will play while MegaSeg counts down the time.
You can start and stop the playlist at anytime using the keyboard shortcut Command-G.
This toggles Start/Stop mode. However there are two separate shortcuts that control
start and stop exclusively; the keyboard shortcuts Command-[ for Start Playlist and
Command-] for Stop Playlist. These work great for the start and stop buttons on some
programmable wireless remote controls. (MegaSeg is compatible with the Apple Remote
by default. See our controllers page at www.megaseg.com/controllers.html for more controller options).
MegaSeg defaults to AutoSeg mode, indicated by the highlighted AutoSeg toggle switch
on the top right. In this mode MegaSeg will segue to the Next song and fade out the
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previous song automatically. (For more about how MegaSeg knows when to Segue, read
the section about editing segue times and AutoSeg Trim mode earlier in this manual).
The default Fade-Out time during the segue crossfade is 3 seconds, and the default
Fade-In time is 0 seconds. You can change both of these settings in the Preferences
under the Playback tab (Command-T). The Fade-Out time is the length of the fade the
current song will have once the next song starts. This setting has nothing to do with
when the next song will start... it s strictly the duration of the fade after the next song
has started. The Fade-In time is the length of the fade-in for the next song that starts.
Typically this would be set to 0 seconds, as it s most common to have a new song start
at full volume. But there may be an occasion where you want to create a dramatic and
long crossfade which includes a fade-in. This of course can also be accomplished
manually at anytime using the Mixer, discussed later in this manual.
While we have the Playback Settings tab open, note the AutoSeg Trim setting. This was
discussed in the Edit Media section of this manual. Briefly, this will subtract seconds
from the segue time if they are set to the absolute end of the file (the default, unedited
end time for an imported track).
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Next there is an option for Automatic Volume Control. This feature will act as a volume
leveler for each song played. If a part of the song is soft, it raises the volume automatically in real-time. This increases the average volume of a track overall, and is a good
feature to use if your songs vary in volume.
▫ NOTE
If you have set custom volume settings for tracks using the Edit window, the Automatic Volume
Control setting will override them.
Back to MegaSeg s main screen, you can manually segue to a new song at any time by
pressing the Segue button (Playlist->Segue Now, or Command-/, or Command-Space). This
will instantly start the Next song and fade out the previous song. Sometimes it s desirable to fade the Current song a little before starting the Next one. You can do this by
using the Start/Stop Playlist button (or Command-G). Stop the Playlist for a second, then
start it up again quickly for the desired effect.
The Segue button works in AutoSeg mode or Manual mode. When in Manual mode,
MegaSeg waits for you to press the Segue button at the end of a song before continuing. Once the Playlist is in motion, the Start Playlist button changes to Stop Playlist. If
pressed, it will fade out the Current song and halt until you start the Playlist again.
When in Administration Mode, the Segue button has an added Seg & Set button, which
allows you to set the Segue time on the fly (covered in the Edit Media section of this
manual). This makes it easy to set your Segue times interactively while you listen to how
the segue sounds.
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Looping the Playlist
You can loop the Playlist by clicking the Loop button below the Playlist. With this option
on, once the Playlist is finished, it will reset the Cue Position to the beginning and start
again. Optionally you can save a playlist you want to loop, and create an event that will
reload the playlist when the current one ends. This is useful to remove any changes that
may have occurred to the playlist while it played the first time (due to advanced features such as Events and Rules), and make sure the re-looped playlist is a fresh copy.
You can also have the playlist randomize when reopened using the Events method.
Loading and Saving Playlists
You can load and save your Playlists with the buttons on the right of the Playlist display.
The tracks in the playlist are saved as regular Unicode text files in a tab delimited for-
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mat, and stored in the Playlists folder located in the MegaSeg data folder, inside your
Music folder ( /Music/MegaSeg/Playlists/).
▫ NOTE
The file format is compatible with iTunes, so you can import a saved playlist file into iTunes.
However it is much easier to use the built-in features for opening and saving playlists to iTunes
(discussed below).
The Save playlist button will enable when you have tracks in your Playlist. Click Save,
and a dialog appears asking for a name for the playlist. Below is the list of all your previously saved playlists. Notice the pop-up menu that lets you select where to save the
Playlist. This defaults to MegaSeg Playlists which will save it as a text file in the
Playlists folder inside your MegaSeg data folder (which is located in your home Music
folder by default). Alternatively, you can save this playlist directly to your iTunes
Playlists. Depending on the size of your iTunes Library, this may take some time the first
time you select it. Once you click Save, iTunes will launch (if not already) and MegaSeg
will save the playlist into iTunes.
At the bottom of the Save Playlist dialog, there is a checkbox labeled Include media already played . This tells MegaSeg to save all tracks in the playlist including the tracks
that have already played and don t currently appear in the playlist (because they are
past the cue position). With this unchecked, MegaSeg only saves the tracks from the
Next position forward.
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To open a saved playlist, click the Playlists button on the left of the main MegaSeg window. In the Open Playlist dialog that appears, it shows two sections for MegaSeg
Playlists or iTunes Playlists as the source location. The MegaSeg Playlists are text files
located in the Playlists folder as described above. Once the playlists are displayed, you
can click any playlist to see a preview of the playlist to the right. If there are any tracks
in the list that are not already imported into MegaSeg, or they are missing, they will be
colored red. Before you can open an iTunes Playlist directly, it is recommended you first
import all tracks from iTunes using the Import feature described earlier in this manual.
However, MegaSeg will attempt to import the tracks from an iTunes playlist on the fly.
One great feature is the fact you can drag-n-drop individual tracks from the playlist
preview list into your current playlist. You can also Preview any selected track by pressing Command-U or clicking the Preview button to the left of the main MegaSeg screen.
Below are buttons for Open, Append, Prefix, Open In Requests, and Delete (depending
on the width of the window). Clicking Open will clear the current Playlist and load the selected one. If you wish to add the selected Playlist to the end of the Current Playlist
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without clearing, click the Append or Prefix buttons. The Open In Requests button
works the same as the Open button but instead will load the playlist into your Requests
list. The Delete button erases a selected Playlist file instantly (bypassing the Trash). You
can not delete playlists from iTunes directly; instead do that in iTunes.
If you load a Playlist that contains songs you deleted from the Library after the Playlist
was saved, MegaSeg will alert you to the problem and report how many songs are missing in the Playlist. A report window will pop up with the actual track title and artist from
each missing track in the Playlist file. If you edited a tracks Title or Artist field after saving a playlist, it will appear with it s original name in the playlist preview list, however
when opened, it will appear with the new info.
Sound Effect Hot Keys
You can assign Hot Keys to quickly trigger playback of any imported track. To view the
Hot Keys window, press the Hot Keys button to the left of the Library, or select the Hot
Keys command in the Playback menu (Command-Y).
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You can drag tracks from the Library or Playlist into the Sound Effects category, or any
other displayed category in the Hot Keys window. This will add the category to the already assigned categories for that track. If you want MegaSeg to replace the category
of the track, you can hold down the Option key while you drag it in. To remove a track
from a category list, select it and press the Delete key.
There are a few different options for playing tracks. First, when the Enable Hot Keys
checkbox is unchecked, you can type the first few characters of the track title and it will
jump to select the closest matching item. You can also use the arrow keys to move the
selection, and press the Return key to start the playback. Pressing Return again while
the same track is selected will stop the playback. Otherwise, if a different track is selected, it will instantly switch to that track. Double-clicking on a track will also start or
stop the playback.
With the Enable Hot Keys option checked, pressing any key that has been assigned to a
track will start that track s audio instantly. To assign a key to a track, select it, and press
Set Key . You can also start a track by its Hot Key without the Hot Keys window open by
holding down the back-apostrophe/tilde ( ) key, located in the upper left corner of your
keyboard, while also pressing the track s Hot Key.
Advanced Playlist Features
MegaSeg has many advanced features for building automated playlists. The combination of the Rules, Events, Scheduler, and Log options in the Preferences allows you to
create truly powerful automation solutions.
Using these features you can program song rotations and have playlists load when certain events occur. They can be used to automatically insert jingles or voice IDs into a
playlist every 15 minutes, for example. Radio Stations can setup category rotations for
playing certain songs more than others, or scheduling commercial breaks, or other
scheduled programming. Restaurants and bars can use it to start playlists at preset
times to set the mood throughout the day, or adjust the volume to various levels. Mobile
and Club DJs can use it to pre-schedule playlists based on their customized categories
to help create a more varied mix.
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These advanced features are outlined in the following sections.
Playlist Events
Select the Events tab in the Preferences window, or optionally select Events from the
Playlist menu (Shift-Command-T). Here it allows you to set an action to occur at a particular time, date, day of week, or other trigger event. Some examples include loading a
playlist at startup, inserting a track every 30 minutes, inserting a random track from a
specific category every 5 segues, and adjusting the volume at a specific time.
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Press the Add Event button to show the available event actions. The Open Playlist or
Schedule option allows you to select any saved file in your MegaSeg Playlists folder. The
Insert Playlist or Schedule option works nearly the same as the first option, but instead
of clearing the current playlist, it inserts it into the top of the current playlist. This could
be useful for inserting commercial breaks (stopsets) for example, but there are many
possibilities.
Using the Insert Track option you can select a specific track from the Library to insert
into the top of the Playlist. The Insert Track From URL option allows you to specify a
URL on a web server to download. Absolute time based event triggers support a predownload option, which is helpful if you want to ensure the download is complete before
the event time.
The Insert Category option will pick a random track from the selected category. This is
great if you want to rotate many tracks as one. For example, if you have many variations
of voice overs that introduce Oldies, you could put them all into a special VO-Oldies
category, and have MegaSeg insert a random track from that category, instead of just
one specific track.
▫ NOTE
The randomness of the Insert Category option is actually an even rotation, post-shuffle. This means
that MegaSeg randomizes all tracks in each category once, and then each time the Insert category
option is used, it plays each track one by one through the list of randomized tracks. This creates an
even rotation, which is much better than simply picking random tracks each time. If it were truly
random, you might end up hearing the same track two times in a row, or other tracks hardly ever.
Optionally you can set MegaSeg s Category Settings in the Scheduler tab to randomize a category
at various times (the default is at each startup). For example, you can have MegaSeg continue with
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an even rotation until it has rotated through the entire category 2 or more times, then re-randomize
the category.
The Insert Break option will insert a Break: Wait For Segue track into the Playlist. This
is the same as selecting Insert Break in the Playlist menu (Command-B) when a track is
selected in the Playlist. While in AutoSeg mode, the break track will cause it to stop the
Playlist and wait for you to click Segue or Start Playlist to start it back up again.
Adjust Master Volume can be used to change the volume level of MegaSeg using the
master volume control on the lower right corner of the main screen.
Turn Mic Play-Thru On/Off will toggle the Mic On/Off button on the lower right corner of
the main screen, which will lower the volume to the Mic Attenuation setting under the
Playback tab in the Preferences, as well as enable Mic Play-Thru mode for the set Mic
input in MegaSeg s In/Outputs settings.
Open Event List allows you to schedule a new Event List to load at a particular time for
added flexibility. For example, if you have a particular set of events that you run during
the week, you may want a different set of events to run on the weekend. You can accomplish this automatically by creating an event that swaps event lists on Friday night
at 11:59 PM. Then create another event in the weekend event list that loads the weekday events at 11:59 PM on Sunday.
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The next dialog show the Time of Event or what triggers the event. The Time or Date
option allows you to set a specific time and/or date/day to fire the event. Click the Set
button to assist in selecting the time and date in the proper format. Notice in the Select
Time/Date dialog that appears you can set the time, but also optionally the days of the
week or a specific date this event will fire. If all days are selected for the week, and you
are not using a specific date, the Time is the only info that will be inserted in the Add
Event dialog when you click OK.
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Back in the Add Event dialog, the next few options are self explanatory, such as X minutes past every hour, Every X minutes, Every X tracks played, When current playlist
ends, and At MegaSeg startup.
The last option is Before category , which can be toggled to After category by clicking the text. This option allows you to create an event that inserts another category or
track before or after another track in a specific category. For example, if you want a
voice announcement to play before all songs in your Oldies category, simply click Set,
select the Oldies category, and then click to toggle it to Before Category (if not already
set), and continue to set the Event Action to insert the track.
Finally there s an option to Interrupt Current Track , which is only valid if there is a
track playing when the event triggers and the event action involves changing the playlist
in some way. With this unchecked, MegaSeg always lets the current track play to the
end time (segue time) before advancing to the revised playlist or newly inserted track.
Once an event has been added to the event list, make sure the events are enabled by
clicking the Enabled Playlist Events checkbox. You can also toggle the events enabled
on and off from the main screen using the toggle switch on the right hand side (below
AutoSeg). Also notice each event has its own checkbox you can use to enabled and disable individual events in your events list.
You can also Save your events list file, which allows you to use the Open Event List
event action described above.
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Playlist Scheduling
In the preferences window, press the Scheduler tab. This feature allows you to build
playlists based on your categories. Just drag-n-drop a category from the list on the left
into the Playlist Schedule on the right. The category names act as place holders for the
tracks that will be scheduled in their position. When you save this Playlist Schedule, it
stores it in your Playlists folder, and when opened as a playlist, a random song from
each category in the schedule is filled in (like using the Insert Category option under
Events). What is actually happening is each category is shuffled separately when
MegaSeg first starts (or based on your Category Settings), and then sequentially picks a
track from each category when filling in the category positions of the Playlist Schedule.
By evenly rotating the shuffled songs in a category, you create an even rotation speed
based on how frequently a category is scheduled in a playlist, and the length of the
playlist. As you drag categories into the schedule, MegaSeg does the math for you by
displaying the rotation speed for each category in the right column. This is extremely
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handy to fine-tune rotations. The length of the rotation for any particular category depends on three things. First, the number of tracks in the category. Second, the total
length of the playlist schedule (assuming it rotates endlessly). And third, the ratio of
each category in the list in relation to others.
▫ NOTE
The rotation speed is based on looping the current playlist schedule. If you use multiple schedules
or events, the rotation time will be different, but you could calculate this based on how many
schedules are alternating. (This is easier to determine if all schedules are the same length).
Here s an example of a Playlist Schedule using genre-style categories:
Pop
Disco
ID
Jingles
Pop
Announcements
Oldies
Pop
When this schedule is loaded as a playlist, it will pull a track from each category and put
it in the Playlist. This makes it incredibly easy to generate playlists with voice ID s and
jingles placed between every 2nd song for example. Although you could also accomplish
that using the Events features, and leave the playlist schedules dedicated to rotating
your music. But for sake of example, here is a typical hour long schedule for a radio station using custom categories...
Top of Hour ID
Power
Medium
Jingle
Gold
Sweeper
Medium
Recurrent
Stopset Music
Promos
Commercials
Stopset Exit Sweeper
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Power
Medium
Jingle
Recurrent
Sweeper New Music
New
Medium
Gold
Stopset Music
Commercials
Promos
Stopset Exit Sweeper
Recurrent
New
Gold
Note the positions which contain IDs, Jingles, and Sweepers, for example the Top of
Hour ID , can be either an absolute track dragged into this schedule from the Library, or
a category that contains multiple ID tracks that rotate. Also notice the commercial break
starts with a Stopset Music category that could contain instrumental beds before each
commercial break to talk over.
In this example, categories are created for chart position or popularity of a track. For
instance Power would be today s top 5 tracks on the chart, which would be played the
most frequent. By creating custom rotation categories, you can place the correct
amount of songs in each category, based on how frequent you schedule each category,
and generate a playlist with your desired rotation speed. MegaSeg s Scheduler will show
you the current rotation time based on the current schedule s length when the schedule
is looped.
For example, you could have a Power category that contains the hottest songs you
want to rotate every 3 hours. A Medium category could hold more songs, but called
more frequently to set the rotation around 5 hours. And say a Gold or oldies category
that holds a large number of tracks, but scheduled only once or twice an hour for a
longer rotation.
Here is a basic outline of a typical radio station s categories and rotations:
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Category Name
Power
Medium
Current
Light
New
Recurrent
Recurrent 2
Gold
49
Number of Songs
Calls per Hour
Rotation Time
5
10
13
5
40
120
250
200
2
3
3
1
2
2
2
1
2.5 hours
3.3 hours
4.3 hours
5 hours
20 hours
2.5 days
5.2 days
8.3 days
Notice the Calls per Hour column, which describes how many times that category is
inserted into the schedule in relation to other categories. If this schedule was an hour
long, and rotated endlessly, with the Number of Songs listed in each category, the Rotation Time column is the resulting rotation speed.
At the bottom left corner of the Scheduler, you can set it to load a different playlist
schedule file when the current one ends, which in turn could load another playlist file,
and so on. This allows you to create many variations of playlist schedules, and have
them loaded in their own rotation. For example, you could create even and odd hour
variations of a hour long playlist. Note when doing this, MegaSeg can not accurately
calculate the rotation for the categories, unless each schedule has the same length and
ratio of categories.
Even if the tracks in each category is randomized only once and played sequentially, the
schedule and various rotation speeds create a randomizing effect. However, if your rotations are too even (different categories rotating around the same time, or evenly divisible of each other), it may create rotation problems. Consider this example using only
two categories, New and Old, with 5 songs in New and 10 songs in Old . If your
schedule is setup like this:
New
Old
Old
New
Old
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Old
...You would end up hearing the same songs next to each other frequently, because with
5 songs in New and 10 in Old you are playing Old tracks twice as much as New, which
makes them rotate at the same speed.
In contrast, try:
New
Old
New
Old
Old
By dropping one Old category they are not rotating at the same speed. Old rotates
slightly slower, which guarantees a shift overtime causing different New and Old songs
to be next to each other. (Optionally, you could add or remove a track from one of the
categories to create a shift).
But there s still a problem with this. You typically do not want two of the same category
next to each other, because you may frequently notice the same two tracks from that
category next to each other. There are two ways to deal with this problem...
1. Instead of 5 songs in Hot and 10 songs in Old, make it 6 songs in New and 9
songs in Old, and never schedule two of the same categories next to each other,
keeping it balanced (i.e. alternate New and Old). Now the songs will shift overtime,
and without the problem of two Old or two New songs next to each other.
2. Introduce a 3rd category as a buffer to prevent two of the same categories from
being next to each other.
Playlist Scheduling takes time to master, but once setup and running smoothly, you can
create a unique mix that takes little effort to maintain over time. Simply move new
tracks in and out of your various categories, and make sure to keep the same number
of tracks in each category to maintain the rotation speed you desire.
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Click the Category Settings button to see your options for when your categories will be
reshuffled. The Reshuffle Times tab will display all your categories in a list, with a Reshuffle column that shows how frequently that category will randomize, and a Last Date
column showing the last time that category was randomized. Select a category in the list
and then below you can change the desired trigger for reshuffling.
Click the Rotation Order tab to see the current order of tracks in any category, as well
as the current cue position (highlighted in green). The cue position is the next track that
will be scheduled from that category. You can drag-n-drop tracks to reorder them, and
change the cue position by clicking the Set Cue button. Manual re-ordering of tracks is
useful if you have a category set to Never reshuffle, and you want to control the order
of how tracks will play. For example, if you want to schedule a series of shows to play in
order, based on a particular category that holds the shows. Rather than use Events to
program each individual show to play, you can create an Event to insert the show category, or use the Scheduler to insert the show category within a playlist schedule. Then
add shows to the category and arrange the order they should play with the Rotation
Order settings.
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Playlist Rules
Under the preferences s Rules tab are options to warn or prevent the same artist, title,
or album from playing too close together. There are also options to prevent tracks from
playing in the same hour as the previous day, and limit the maximum male or female vocalists played in a row.
There are different options for preventing them from breaking below, and also exclude
rules from being enforced for certain categories (for example commercials, IDs, or jingles). Below you can have MegaSeg warn you with a red explanation point icon ! in the
Playlist, if a rule was broken. Mousing over or clicking this icon will display a dialog window which describes the rule that is broken. Alternatively, you can have MegaSeg automatically enforce the rule using various options. The Move Track Down Playlist option
will place the track out of the way where is doesn t break the rule. If the Playlist is not
long enough, it will either display a warning, or if the Playlist is set to loop, will extend itself automatically to make room. The next automatic option is Remove Track from the
Playlist. And finally, the option to Replace Track With Same Category will reschedule that
position with a new track, next in rotation, from the category that does not break the
rule and reconcile the replaced track for later insertion.
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▫ NOTE
For online radio stations, to meet the DMCA streaming criterion, set the album rule to 60 minutes.
This means you will not play more than three songs from the same album in a 3-hour period. This
also meets the criterion for playing no more than four tracks from the same compilation album
within a 3-hour period.
Playlist Logging
The Log tab in the preferences window has features useful for live streams. You can
update Live365.com s playlist in real-time with the current playing song (Live365 is a
webcasting service for Internet radio stations). Next up, there s an option to send the
current song info to a SHOUTcast or Icecast server, or any server using a custom URL.
You can optionally have MegaSeg send the info to two servers by separating the Sever
URL and Username/Password data fields with a comma. This is useful if you encode
multiple low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth streams. The preset menu allows you to select default URL formats for SHOUTcast, Icecast, or custom. You can customize any
URL you ve entered to include many metadata variables with the Insert Variable popup
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menu. First place the cursor in the text field position you want the variable to appear,
then select the menu, and it will be pasted into the URL.
MegaSeg also creates various Now Playing files saved in the Logs folder (inside the
MegaSeg data folder, located in your Music folder). Included is an HTML file which you
can either have uploaded automatically using an FTP application, or turn on the Mac OS
X Web Sharing feature, and set this file as your homepage, and link to it directly from
your main site via the IP address of your system.
You can optionally customize the various files with a template. To do so, you include
comment tags in your template file that tells MegaSeg where to insert the song information. For example:

This will insert the title, artist, album (year), and notes using a preset format.

This will just insert the title of the current track.

And this will insert just the composer, etc. The complete list of supported tags include:

Artist-->
Album-->
BPM-->
Categories-->
Composer-->
HighestChart-->
Lyricist-->
Notes-->
Popularity-->
RecordID-->
Publisher-->
Year-->
Length-->
Path-->
LastPlayDate-->
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Based on the extension your template has, the NowPlaying file will change its extension
to match. This means you can make a template that makes MegaSeg output XML, a
plain text file, or any format you wish.
Next there is the ability to customize the Recently Played file that is also saved into the
Logs folder. This file lists the most recently played tacks, of course. To customize it
using a template, you can insert comment tags such as:


...where X is the number of tracks you want displayed. You can also create specific layouts using tags, such as:

...to display the title of the last track played, or:

...to display the album of the track played 6 positions ago. All the same tag names are
supported from the Now Playing list.
Below that is the ability to customize the Coming Up file. The default shows the next 10
tracks in the Playlist. In your custom template, you can insert comment tags such as:

...where X is any number up to 20 tracks you want listed. You can also create specific
layouts using tags, such as:

...to display the title of the next track, etc. All the same tag names are supported from
the Now Playing list. The Coming Up log file is updated every 30 seconds.
Playlist File Formats
MegaSeg s playlist format is a tab-delimitated text file which can be optionally edited or
generated externally using other software. The fields that MegaSeg will use to load a
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track include the Title, Artist, File Path, and Unique ID. MegaSeg only needs to match
one of these fields to successfully open a playlist (no other fields are required). If a
track in a playlist has not already been imported into the Library, MegaSeg will automatically do so when the playlist opens. MegaSeg also supports the .m3u playlist format
with full path info. In addition, any playlist file can contain a URL link to audio/video files
on a web server. The URL may appear in the File Path column of the tabbed format, or
by itself on its own line.
Administration Password
You can password protect the Library and preferences by selecting the option in the
General tab under MegaSeg s Preferences. When enabled, any time you select a command such as Edit, Import, or Preferences, the password dialog will appear. To exit Administration Mode, select Administration Mode from the File menu.
Mic On/Off Button
MegaSeg s Mic On/Off button turns on and off the mic input play-thru to the selected
output device in the In/Outputs preferences. It also ducks (attenuates) the audio level
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for a talk over. The level of attenuation can be set in the Playback tab in the Preferences window (Command-T).
Multiple Sound Outputs
MegaSeg supports playback from multiple sound devices, such as the USB based Griffin
iMic, for previewing and cueing tracks. There are two modes when using multiple sound
outputs with MegaSeg. In the standard mode, one output is dedicated to the program
output, and the other is dedicated as your cue, or preview output. The Preview/Cue
output is where the music will play when selecting the Preview button in the Mixer or the
Preview button on the left side of the Library.
▫ NOTE
The Preview buttons in the Mixer display are only visible when using the standard output mode, not
while Discrete Output Mode is enabled. This is because Discrete Output Mode uses your external
mixer for cue and preview.
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The Preview button toggles the output of the playing track between the main program
output and the cue output channel. One benefit of using the standard mode is only one
output is needed to crossfade between tracks. You don t need an external mixer ‒ just
plug right into your amp or powered speakers), while the other output can be directly
hooked up to headphones for preview and cueing.
To beat-mix between songs it s best to use Discrete Output Mode. This mode removes
the Preview button from the Mixer, and each outputs is assigned exclusively to a deck
to be used for playback into an external mixer. In this mode, you plug your headphones
into the mixer, and use the Mixer s cue feature to listen to either deck s output.
Using Discrete Output Mode gives you a more hands on feel for crossfading, allowing
you to use the physical crossfader on the external mixer. MegaSeg s on screen crossfader works as well in this mode, but will default to center, so both decks output to your
external mixer.
▫ NOTE
You can attempt to beat mix in the standard mode, but due to possible buffer delays between
sound outputs, when pressing Preview to switch channels it may cause the tracks to get slightly off
sync. Some sound output devices can adjust the buffer time to help minimize this effect.
You can also practice beat mixing without a second output. When the same sound output is selected for both program and cue, MegaSeg will split the audio so the cue is in
the left channel and the program is in the right. This mode is good to use when first
learning the Mixer.
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The Mixer
The Mixer interface allows you to fully control the mix with similar controls found on
professional CD players as well as advanced features for visual wave syncing and cueing. You can set precise cue points and memory positions, adjust pitch, volume, bass
and treble, enabled pitch-lock (aka master tempo to keep the pitch the same while you
adjust the speed/tempo), set loops, and control the crossfade.
▫ NOTE
If you have MegaSeg s Discrete Output Mode option enabled, you will not see a headphone preview
button in the Mixer. This is because you will cue or preview each deck using headphones plugged
into your external mixer. With Discrete Output Mode off, MegaSeg dedicates one output for the
playlist and another output for preview , and allows you to toggle each deck as desired. This
eliminates the need for an external mixer and headphones can be connected directly to the output
device configured as the preview output in MegaSeg s output settings.
The Mixer also assists in beat matching when the BPM values for the two songs are set.
To set the BPM for a track, click the Set BPM button, which will bring up the BPM Tapper to calculate the BPM in Preview mode. Once the BPM is set, use the equals (=) button on either deck to automatically match the BPM and pitch on its deck to the other
deck s BPM. You may need to fine-tune the pitch in order to perfect the match. The
closer the match, the longer the two songs will hold tempo together. Restart the track
multiple times on beat with the other song in order to determine how long it holds
tempo, making adjustments each time until it can hold tempo long enough to mix between them.
The Wave Viewer above the crossfader can assist in visually syncing the beats. It supports pitch shifting via mouse click-dragging and scroll wheel adjustments. Apple s
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newer trackpads on MacBooks and the wireless Magic Trackpad offer two-finger scrolling, and Apple s Magic Mouse offers one-finger scrolling. Simply scrolling while the
mouse is over one side of the Wave Viewer will temporarily adjust the speed. The scrolling speed adjustment is good for small tweaks or extreme spin-up or break effects. For
beat syncing, it s better to use the click-drag method as you can let go of the mouse at
the precise time you see the beats sync, and it snaps back to the pre-drag tempo. You
can also use this as an optional fast-forward or rewind depending on how far you drag
up or down. When the deck is stopped or paused, the Wave Viewer can be used to cue
a track like analog tape or vinyl records using the scroll wheel or two-finger trackpad
scrolling. This is especially good when the Inertia or Momentum option is enabled on the
Trackpad s scrolling options in the System Preferences.
▫ NOTE
If you use trackpad scrolling in the Wave Viewer, some trackpads offer an acceleration effect that
gives the Wave Viewer inertia or momentum, like spinning up a vinyl record and it coming to rest.
To see if your trackpad supports this, open the System Preferences, click the Trackpad icon, and
look at the Scrolling settings. We recommend enabling the Inertia or Momentum setting for use
with MegaSeg. You may also try increasing the Scrolling Speed for more control.
It takes some practice to beat mix, but to help you get comfortable, start by mixing a
song into itself. This eliminates the need to worry about matching tempo, and instead
helps you focus on cueing, and starting the track in sync. Start by putting a song in the
Playlist multiple times, press Start Playlist, and then bring up the Mixer. Now press the
Preview button, which if you are only using one output, will split the audio of the Current
and Next decks in your speakers. Now experiment with the cueing and playback controls, without adjusting the pitch. Try to start the track on beat to itself (the same song
playing in the Current deck). If it s not perfect, that is OK, because you can shift the
track slowly while playing using the pitch bend buttons (+) and (-). Press and hold one of
these for a few seconds, and you will notice the drums start to sync with an echo that
gets shorter and shorter until a phasing effect happens. Once the tracks are in sync, let
go of the button and it will stay in sync. Now click Preview to exit that mode, and experiment with the crossfader in between the two decks. Drag it back and forth to mix
between the two songs.
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▫ NOTE
The Wave Viewer (detailed above) allows you to visually mix and sync beats by doing pitch bend
adjustments by simply clicking and dragging the waveform while its playing. The more you drag up
or down, the more pitch bend you get. Let go and it snaps back to the previous set tempo.
Now practice starting the Next song on beat. To do this, it s important to find the perfect start point for the Next song, which is normally the down beat of a measure. In Preview mode (if not using Discrete Output Mode) press Play, and listen for the start beat
of a measure, and press Pause. At this point you can fine-tune the cue point. Click and
hold the arrow buttons below the Pause button to adjust the cue point. You will here it
enter a stutter mode where you here it play the current cue point over and over, which
makes it easy to adjust into the drum beat for a tight cue. Once satisfied, press Stop to
lock it in. Even while the track is stopped, you can press the fine-tune arrows to adjust
the cue point. Now press Play (or the Spacebar) to start at that cue point. Pressing Stop
(or the Spacebar again) will return to your set cue-in point. You can also press the Play
button (or the P key) multiple times in a row to restart from the cue-point like a sampler.
This can be used to great effect when beat mixing.
An alternative way to set a cue-in point is to use the keyboard memory positions. Press
Play, listen for the cue point, press the M key at the desired cue point to save it in the
memory, then press the R key to return to the current saved cue point. You can then
use the fine-tune arrows to adjust it, and press M again after you fine-tuned the position
to store it. Pressing R while it plays is an alternative to clicking Play again to instantly restart playback from the memory position.
Now let s work on beat matching two different songs together. Make sure the two songs
have BPMs set, and start the first one in the Playlist. Then in the deck, press the equals
button (=), and MegaSeg will change the pitch of the song to match the tempo of the
opposite deck s song. Next, preview and press Play (Spacebar) on the mixer when you
hear the down beat in the song. If you were a bit late to start, try again by restarting the
track, or press and hold down the plus (+) button until you hear the beats sync. Alternatively you can use the Wave Viewer and simply drag the wave up or down to sync the
beats up. Notice if the Next song starts to drift off beat. At first it may be hard to tell if
it s falling behind or ahead. Experiment with holding down either the (-) or (+) buttons
until it gets in sync again. Once you determine if it s slow or fast, make a small adjust-
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ment to the pitch, and try to sync again. You are ready to exit Preview and crossfade
once you feel it holds tempo long enough to perform an acceptable mix.
▫ NOTE
The (+) and (-) buttons temporarily slow down or speed up the Next song while they are held down.
You can increase the effect from +/- 2% to +/- 4% by holding down the Shift key, or decrease the
effect to +/- 1% with the Control key. If you click the button quickly multiple times, and then click
and hold, you can break out of the limit as well. Also note while the deck is selected, the Up and
Down Arrows control the pitch shifting, and the Left and Right Arrows control the base pitch.
The Mixer s crossfade control has buttons below that start auto-crossfades. The duration of the auto-crossfades is determined by the Fade-Out Time set in the Playback settings tab of the Preferences. The auto-crossfade options from left to right are SlamFade, Crossfade, Fade-Cut, and Slam. The keyboard shortcuts are 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The Slam-Fade (1) is the most common way to start a new song. It will start the Next
song full volume and start fading the Current song out smoothly. This is the same as
clicking the Segue button with a Fade-In time set to the default of 0 seconds.
The Crossfade (2) will fade in the Next track and then fade out the Current track. It s
the same as clicking Segue with the fade-in and fade-out times set to the same length.
Fade-Cut (3) requires two clicks. When first clicked, it starts to fade in the Next track,
then waits while the crossfader is in the middle and both tracks are playing full volume.
Then on the second click, it sharply cuts out the Current song. This is a common crossfade move when beat mixing, when you want to cut the last song out right after they
play together for a measure or two, for example.
The Slam (4) option will slam the crossfader to the opposite side it s currently on, causing a sharp cut between decks. The (S) key will also trigger the slam option.
Finally, once the crossfade is complete, use the Advance button to advance the Playlist.
This shifts the tracks from the Next deck to the Current deck, and then loads a new
track into the Next deck. If your crossfade is not complete when you press Advance, it
will finish the crossfade automatically.
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There are a row of five memory buttons at the bottom of the deck s transport controls.
These can be set at any time by clicking the Set button to the left, and then clicking the
memory button to store the current cue position. You can delete a memory position by
clicking Set twice to put it into delete mode. You can optionally press the M key to store
the the first memory position, and the R key to return to the first memory position.
If you want to search for tracks with similar BPM values, click the Search button at the
bottom of the deck controller. It will enter the BPM value of the track into the search
field, which brings up a list of similar BPM tracks.
The Loop In button triggers MegaSeg s looping feature, and marks the start of the loop.
You can press this in real-time while a track is playing, or while in pause or stutter cue
mode. After pressing Loop In, the button changes to Loop Out, which will mark the end
of the loop when clicked. If it is playing in real time, you will now hear it looping that section of the track over and over. The button will now change to Loop Exit. Clicking that
will clear the loop and allow the track to play through to the end, or until you start another loop.
There are three keyboard shortcuts for the Loop feature. Press (L) to mark the Loop In.
Press (O) to mark the Loop Out. And press K to exit the loop. The added power of using
the keyboard shortcuts is you can shorten a loop as you go by pressing the O key multiple times. Then exit the loop by pressing K, and finally resume the same loop you just
exited by pressing O again.
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There are several keyboard shortcuts for the Mixer. Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the
Help menu for a list of keyboard shortcuts.
▫ NOTE
The time displays above each deck can be clicked on to toggle elapsed and remain time,
MIDI Controllers
MegaSeg is compatible with any MIDI controller device for mixer functions. In the Preferences, click the In/Outputs tab, and then click the MIDI Control Codes button to select
a preset for some popular controllers, or use the Custom preset to set the MIDI commands to match the device of your choice using the MIDI Learn mode. When MIDI Learn
Mode is selected, click on each Function in the list and then press the key on your controller that matches. The MIDI Code for that key will be learned by MegaSeg. You can
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use the Up/Down arrows on your keyboard to quickly run through the list of functions
and set each code. (See www.megaseg.com/controllers.html for examples of popular controllers).
▫ NOTE
You must have your MIDI controller connected to your computer before starting MegaSeg for it to
be recognized correctly.
Log Files
MegaSeg creates a Log File for each day, and is located in the Logs folder inside the
MegaSeg data folder (witch is in your Music folder by default). These files log every
track that is played, as well as the time and date, along with various other fields about
the track from MegaSeg s database. Tracks in the Playlist that are missing from the
hard drive will be skipped and marked as such in the log, as well as other events, such
as Playlist Breaks, and opening playlists. You can view any log by clicking the Log button
on the right hand side of MegaSeg s main window (or press Command-L). A pop-up
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menu on the window lists recent logs you can choose to view, or select Open Log to select an older one. The logs are stored as text files that can be opened and printed with
TextEdit or any word processor or spreadsheet.
To prevent unnecessary buildup in the Logs folder, MegaSeg will automatically archive
logs 6 months old inside an Archived Logs subfolder within the Logs folder. You can optionally delete or archive logs manually. Once a log is removed from the Logs folder, it
will no longer be scanned when building Play History charts or when using the Refresh
Play Counts command from the Library Tools menu.
Viewing a Track’s Play History
All media playback is logged in text files stored in the Logs folder. Using these files,
MegaSeg can display a play history chart for any selected track. The Show History
command in the File menu (Shift-Command-H) brings up a window that maps each hour
of the day the selected track was played for all dates found in the Logs folder. If a song
was played more than once in any given hour, a play count number will appear instead
of a bullet point. This makes it easy to keep track of when and how often a track is
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played; which is especially handy when fine tuning the speed of music rotations in
playlists generated by the Events and Scheduler features.
Printing the Library and Playlists
MegaSeg can print any list that appears in either the Library or Playlist displays. Simply
click a track to select which list you want to print, and then select Print from the File
menu (Command-P). In the dialog, you can choose up to seven fields you want to include
in the printout.
Video Playback
Any video format QuickTime supports can be added to the library, played in the main
playlist, and cued and controlled by the Mixer decks, just as if it were an audio file.
MegaSeg will display a video window when a video plays by default, which will be the native size of the video. You can control the size and other options of the video window
with the Video menu. There are options to keep the video window open or closed at all
times, or open only when a video plays. You can also specify you want the video to display full screen, and optionally hide the menu bar when full screen. If you have a second
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monitor or video display connected to your system (aka a 2nd desktop), you can move
the video window to that screen by dragging it off to the side of the screen. Use the
System Preferences to adjust the arrangement of the displays in virtual space, so you
know which side the 2nd desktop space is attached to your main desktop screen. Once
the video window in on that desktop, you can enable Full Screen mode and it will resize
to fit that screen. You can exit full screen mode at any time by pressing the Escape key.
▫ NOTE
By default, MegaSeg will detect a 2nd desktop or video display connected to your DVI or S-Video
output on your system, and use that display for video playback when you select Full Screen.
When using the Mixer, the current deck will display video. When cueing a track in the
Next deck, you will hear audio only. The video will switch to the opposite deck when you
press the Advance button. When beat mixing video, you would typically start the Next
deck and crossfade the audio in, and once complete, press Advance to switch the video.
Ambient Video Playlists
This feature allows you to play videos and animations at the same time you are playing
and mixing audio-only files. If you include a music video or other video file in your main
playlist, when it plays it will pause the Ambient Video Playlist, and replace it with the
video in your main playlist. When that video ends, it will continue to display the videos in
your Ambient Video Playlist.
To set this up, just click on the Ambient button on the right side of the playlist, and the
Ambient Video Playlist will appear in place of the main Playlist. Now just drag-n-drop
tracks from your Library into this list. You can then drag-n-drop to re-order tracks or
click the Delete key to remove tracks. There is also the option to set specific tracks to
loop multiple times by clicking on the multiplier column for each track. Click the Start
button below and MegaSeg will continuously play the tracks listed in a loop (except
when a video is played in the master playlist as mentioned before).
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Network Library Syncing
MegaSeg allows for syncing library, playlist, and events data between multiple MegaSeg
systems running on a local network. This is typically useful in radio stations where the
On-Air system can be edited or synced with the system in the Production Room or Program Director s office.
To enable this feature, we recommend setting up the system that is used for
performance (such as the On-Air system) with direct access to the audio files, either
from an internal or external drive. Then turn-on File Sharing on that system, so the Production Room or other systems can access those audio files over the network file share.
You can then open MegaSeg s preferences on another system, and under the General
tab, locate the User Data Folder Location setting. Click the Change button, and select
the MegaSeg data folder the first system is using. MegaSeg will then load that library,
and you will have access to the same playlists, events, and other data used by the main
system. Click the Network Settings button to name this MegaSeg system to give you
feedback of what systems are currently online and sharing data.
When you make a change to the Library using any of the edit features, you can then
Sync those changes to all MegaSeg systems that are linked by selecting the Sync
Shared Library menu command found in the File menu, under the Library Tools submenu. If a system is busy, it may take up to a minute for the sync to complete.
▫ NOTE
◇ Always sync after making any changes to the Library. If you forget to sync, and another system
syncs back, it will overwrite your changes. Be especially careful if multiple people are making
changes at the same time.
◇ Make sure the drive volumes are named differently when networking to ensure no confusion and
conflicts between system.
◇ When mounting the main system s volume to link multiple systems together, mount the root volume, not the user s home folder, to ensure the files can be found correctly.
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The MegaSeg F.A.Q.
Please be sure to check out the MegaSeg F.A.Q. at www.megaseg.com/faq.html for more
help and information about MegaSeg. You can also read the recent release notes at
www.megaseg.com/version.html for the very latest information about new features and
hidden functions that may not have been covered in this manual. If you have any questions, be sure to contact us at [email protected].
We hope you enjoy using MegaSeg!
Fidelity Media, MegaSeg, and the MegaSeg swirl logo are trademarks of Fidelity Media, Inc.
Apple, Macintosh, QuickTime, and Mac OS are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.
Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies
and are respectfully acknowledged.

Version 5 Manual

Transcription

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