What happens when more than one cut is placed into a cart? The default answer, in a word, is rotation. Rotation is the ability to schedule a single cart in a log, but to have that cart play out different material at different times. This capability has myriad uses. One of the simplest, common in commercial radio facilities, is to allow multiple versions of a spot to be placed into the system, while still allowing the traffic department to have to track and schedule only one cart number. A more sophisticated use involves use of the cut's dayparting settings, forcing different cuts to play based upon certain date/time criteria, such as day of the week or time of day. Cut dayparting is a very powerful feature in Rivendell, and is something we will discuss shortly.

To edit the properties of a cut, either double-click its entry in the cut list, or touch it once to highlight and then touch the Cut Info/Record button. The Record Dialog will now open up.

The Record Dialog

Roughly the upper third of the dialog is for editing the various cut parameters, the middle section is for configuring the cut's daypart settings, and the bottom third is a record machine that can be used both to record new audio into the system and to audition any recording already made.

For carts for which Schedule Cuts is set to By Weight, each cut in can be dayparted on the basis of these parameters:

While not strictly a dayparting parameter, the Weight setting of a cut can strongly influence the order (and hence placement) of when a particular cut will play. The weight value of each cut in a cart consistutes the numerator of a fraction, the denominator of which is the sum of the weight values of every cut in the cart. Rivendell's cut selection algorithm will seek to play each cut in like proportion. If it is important in some cases to be able to specify the precise order of each cut play-out, consider changing the Schedule Cuts dropdown to By Specified Order.

By default, each newly created cut in a By Weight cart starts out with dayparting disabled, meaning that it will be 'eligible to play' at all times. By clicking the Enabled radio button in the Air Date/Time box, an absolute start and end date for the cut can be entered, meaning that the cut will be prevented from airing in the on-air modules at any time outside the range of those date-times. Likewise, by selecting the Enabled radio button in the Daypart box, start and end times (relative to the day the cut is to air) can be entered. Cuts designated in this way will be allowed to air only within the specified range of times. Finally, by ticking or clearing the appropriate boxes in the Day of the Week box, a cut can be constrained to air only on certain days of the week.

All of the dayparting parameters can be used either singly or in combination with each other. When combined, the resulting 'eligibility' is calculated as the logical AND of the applied dayparting limits. For example, a cut with the 'Monday' box cleared will refuse to air on Mondays, regardless of whether any of the other daypart rules match.

It's important to remember that dayparting rules affect audio play out only within the on-air modules. You will still be able to audition and play the audio without limitation in the other Rivendell modules.

Each cart or cut in RDLibrary is assigned a color to indicate it's 'playability' for air, as follows:

The lower third of the Record Dialog is used both to audition and record audio. To audition the cut, simply press the play button (the one with the triangular symbol). The button will illuminate, audio will show on the bar meter and start playing immediately. The audio will play to completion, unless either the stop button (square symbol) is pressed, or the Record Dialog is closed.

To record new material into a cut, first ensure that the Channels drop-down menu is set to record the appropriate number of channels, then touch the Record button (round symbol). If the cut contains audio that was recorded previously, a warning box will pop up at this point to inform you of this and to give you a chance to abort the recording without erasing what was previously recorded. If Yes is selected here, the previous recording will be overwritten and no longer accessible. The Record button will now be illuminated steadily, while the Play button will be flashing, indicating that the record machine is in 'ready' mode. The bar meter will also be active to indicate input levels, and this is the point where you want to verify that your levels are correct, with peaks just into the yellow area being optimal. Nothing is actually being recorded just yet.

We have two options for actually starting the record machine. We can start it manually by pressing the Play button, at which point the machine will immediately begin recording, or we can set the Record Mode drop-down menu to the VOX (short for voice activated) setting. When in VOX mode, the record machine will start automatically as soon as it senses the presence of audio at the input.

Once started, recording will continue until either the Stop button is pushed, or the maximum allowed length for a manual recording (set by the system administrator) has been reached. Once stopped, if the AutoTrim drop-down menu has been set to On, the Start and End markers will be automatically set to the beginning and end of detected audio within the cut. (We will discuss Markers in detail when we get to the section on the Edit Markers dialog).