The following are subjects frequently raised by ENCO users and some answers presented by the Support staff. We hope that your question is among them, but if not, follow the link to get a personal answer.

Q: What's a good guideline for audio levels on cuts recorded into DAD?

A: We recommend around +6 peak levels. Allowing audio to come any closer to clipping is a dangerous proposition in any digital audio system, not just DAD.

Q: For some reason my digital output just started playing back at the wrong speed (slowed down or speeded up). Any idea why?

A: Check the source of the sync into your sound card. Most likely what happened was someone turned off the DAT machine the card was syncing to.

Q: How do I get DAD to remember machine placement for the next time I start DAD?

A: Put DAD into expert mode, every time you save the user setup it will save where you put the machines.

Q: Why won't my rotate cuts rotate in the library?

A: Rotate cuts are setup to not rotate in an environment where the channel assignment is set to Audition. (So that checking the cut to see what's coming up next WON'T advance the rotation to the next cut.) Setting your library's channel assignment to Program should solve that problem.

Q: Why is there no As Played log file for my workstation?

A: You need to set an asplay variable in your dadnet.bat or dadlocal.bat file. You can do this by right clicking on the appropriate icon (either DAD Network or DAD Local) on your desktop and right clicking. Then select edit from the list of options and it opens this file in Notepad. You can add a line which reads: set asplay=%location% if you want the log to be named the same as the workstation or set asplay=insertnamehere if you want it to be named something else.

Q: How does the DAD Autofill feature work?

A: Autofill works like this. You will make six Rotate cuts in the library. These cuts point to playlists that hold audio cuts of uniform lengths (60 - 30 - 15 - 10 - 5 and 2 seconds). These Rotate cut numbers are entered into the workstation's configuration file. There is an area in the second half of the file that says AUTOFILL60 = 00000. The cut number for the Rotate cut with :60 audio cuts would be entered here instead of the zeroes. An autofill is associated with a given segment of a playlist that you want to make sure takes up a known amount of time. In your playlist you will enter an AUTOFILL START marker at the beginning of this segment. You would then add an AUTOFILL END marker at the end of this segment. Upon playback, if this segment was only two minutes long and the Autofill was programmed for a three minute length. DAD will add cuts automatically to bring the length up to three minutes. It would call the :60 rotate cut and enter it before the AUTOFILL END marker.

Q: What are Backtime Markers and how do they work?

A: The Backtime Markers are used for timing to a specific point in the playlist. When you add the marker into the playlist you will give it a 24 hour time. When the Backtimers are turned on in SETUP > CONF. PLAYBACK MACHINES, you will see the small window in the lower right side of the playback deck display a time. This time from the currently playing cut to the marker if no one intervenes with the playback. The playlist also needs to have timing markers set in it instead of the position numbers for this to work correctly.

Q: Can I use MP3 files in DAD?

A: There has been much talk on and off the ENCO users list about MP3s being used with DAD. We have heard stories of files being taken from numerous different sources and then inserted directly into the DAD library without any kind of file checking. With as many sources of MP3s that there are in the world right now, there are bound to be nearly as many types of MP3 files. MP3 support in DAD is conceived around the idea of it being occasionally necessary, in a very "supervised" manner, to quickly get an MP3 into DAD for immediate playback on the air...not really as a supported variant on your standard library cuts. The reasons for this are legion, but are mostly related to the lack of standardization within the format and the relatively low sound quality of the files.

Before inserting these files into your software, you should be checking on the following things:

• Is this file raw MPEG or an actual WAV file?
• Is this file at the same sample rate as the rest of my library?
• Is this file at the same bitrate as the rest of my library?
• Does this file have proper (non-corrupt) header information?
• Is this file unimportant enough that I would never need energy data (waveforms)?
• Is this file ever going to be used in a voicetracking operation?

If the answers to these questions are important enough to you to make you pause and consider whether you should be really using MP3s or not, then we suggest that you use one of our products such as DropBox or MPEGConvert. Using one of these utilities will insure that the file that gets inserted into your DAD library is an exact match with everything else that is there already. Add to that mix that Dropbox is a completely automated utility and MPEGConvert can be as well. Simply save the file to a predesignated folder and Dropbox will automatically convert it and place it into your DAD system. MPEGConvert can be setup to do batch conversions of numerous files at the same time. Both will give you just a little more peace of mind in your day to day DAD operations.

Q: Should I use a Digigram wave device driver?

A: We have had many DAD users with Digigram boards report some anomalous issues that would normally be completely unexpected. Sudden loss of the ability to play audio, problems with refreshing playlists or quad pages that result in DAD crashing, and many other difficulties have plagued some users for quite some time. What has come to our attention recently is that many of these users had installed the Digigram wave device driver for Windows. ENCO does not produce any product which requires the use of this driver and recommends serious consideration and some preliminary stability testing before implementation. Digigram has openly acknowledged that it has serious problems with the wave device driver, especially with programs such as MediaPlayer, and has advised us against having our users utilize it in any unnecessary way.

Common sense would seem to indicate that these wave drivers not be installed on any machine that is expected to be used in a mission critical manner; that is onair, primary production, or air backup machines. ENCO strongly suggests that some form of guided application testing be done before installing any peripheral software that requires the wave device driver on a DAD workstation. Those users who have and use NewsDAD on a regular basis on machines that also run DAD should note that we are taking every available step to rectify this situation as quickly as possible.

Again, this applies only to those who have installed the Digigram wave device driver for Windows. For Antex users or anyone who has never installed this driver, this does not apply to you. Normal DAD operation does not require that this driver be used in any manner. DAD uses and supports the NPRuntime driver provided by Digigram to stream audio to their soundcards. If you would like help determining if you have this driver installed and if it may be affecting your operation, please feel free to contact Tech Support at any time during normal business hours. In Windows NT it will be listed as "Digigram Wave for NPx" under the devices tab in mulitmedia properties. Windows 2000 users should check Sounds and Multimedia Properties to see if "Digigram Wave for NPx" is listed in the hardware tab.

Digigram has indicated that addressing these issues is a high priority for their development team. ENCO and Digigram are working together to find a resolution for this as quickly as possible.

Q: Why will an over continue to play after you TAKE/NEXT the cut it's playing over?

A: Overs start at a delayed time from the start of the associated cut. When the audio cut starts, the delay for the over also starts. When stopping the cut, the delay for the over is still active. This why the over will play.

Q: How do I set up my CD drive to facilitate CD ripping?

A: Make sure the ASPI driver is installed. To do this, open C:\DAD\Progs\ASPI. You will find three system files (DLL and SYS files). Copy these to C:\winnt\system32. After you've done this, go back to the ASPI folder and run aspi32.exe. Reboot your computer and DAD should be able to see the CD-ROM.