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Post by mark on Apr 13, 2018 4:25:57 GMT
I have heard that this is a popular program and seems to be used a lot as I have read here so I downloaded the FREE version to try it out and see how it works. Seemed to be pretty good as a tutorial on you tube showed. Also supposed to be automated so you can set it and let it go by itself.
But maybe some of you can give me some advice as here's what happened when I tried it.
I have 3370 tracks in total(songs, jingles, Id's, Chickenman episodes). So when I wanted to get some songs into the Zara playlist I found that I had to put them in ONE AT A TIME!....I couldn't see how to group the whole lot and get them all in at once, wouldn't work. This would take me AGES....weeks....3370 items!
Any advice here? Is the only way to put tracks on is one at a time? And would it's capacity allow for all my 3370 tracks to go on there anyways?
Next thing....so I put 3 songs in the Zara playlist and set the playback to normal and then tried shuffle. Went to the settings and wanted to see how it would fade out one song and start the next one over the fade out of the last and how this would really work.
Problem....when the first song finished, even though in the right top it showed the next song to play the same song just kept repeating and the others wouldn't play. What gives? What am I missing? No, I didn't have it set to repeat.
So far not so good.
Also is there any way in the settings to adjust tone(EQ settings)?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 13:17:58 GMT
Something I Actually Know About
Mark, I feel pretty smart right now because I know the answer to everything you've asked!
First, when you open a folder to select an audiofile to put into the Zara playlist, highlight all the files in the folder and hit ENTER... that will put all the files in the playlist.
Second, on the right side of the Zara Window, directly above the Playlist, you will see two small curved arrows, the top one pointing right and the lower one pointing left... UNCLICK that, because when it is clicked it will cause the current audiofile to play repeatedly.
You will get to love Zara once you know all the little secrets.
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Post by mark on Apr 13, 2018 17:01:10 GMT
Thanks Carl, I will try with your instructions.
The idea is to use this as my audio source with a small net-book as it can do so much to sound just like a commercial station....another song starting as one is ending with overlap, announcing the time in real time where you insert it. An MP3 player, even the best can't do this, although the one I use has gapless playback.
I will see what happens and I hope Zara can hold ALL my tracks(3370 of them) not just a certain number.
Oh yes, Groove which is doing the playback has EQ function.
If I contact Zara they don't speak English!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 17:31:27 GMT
Zara Has No EQ
Zara has no EQ within its software.
But you can place an EQ utility in the audio chain coming out of the Output from Zara and send the output of the EQ utility on to whatever is next in your audio chain.
And here's another thought, although it is only guesswork and I do not know if it is possible...
According to Zara expert Johny C. the Zara program generates audio by linking itself with WMP (Windows Media Player), even though when you use Zara you never see any sign of WMP... it's window does not pop open... everything happens in the background.
So MAYBE, and only maybe, an EQ facility in WMP can be used (if there is an EQ inside WMP, I don't know).
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Post by mark on Apr 13, 2018 17:47:00 GMT
Groove, which is the default player with windows 10 was the player used when I was trying Zara before and it has EQ adjustments. I will check into the latest Windows Media Player and I think my computer's settings may have EQ with the sound card but this is not the major concern.
Having it work like I want and it holding ALL, not just some of my 3370 items is the main thing.
When I try again I will report back on if it worked or not. I could also get a pay version if it does things like EQ that the free version doesn't.
But we'll see.
Wish they would speak English so you could contact and communicate with them!
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Post by mark on Apr 13, 2018 22:36:21 GMT
Hey, Carl....tried and found out unless there's a way, or I need the pay version, that all of my tracks won't go on. Only a small number but I don't know what it's capacity is.
So Zara is no good unless it can put all my 3370 tracks in the playlist.
Anything I'm missing?
The tutorials don't answer this and cannot contact because they don't speak English.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 23:07:00 GMT
We Need Johny More Than Ever
Johny will definitely know the answer to this.
My own playlists are probably never more than 100 or 200 items at the most, because I run programs and not songs.
There is something to try....
Let's say that your main instance of Zara is On the Air and you don't want to interrupt it.
Open a Second Instance of Zara, select NEW to wipe its playlist clean, load 250 songs (if it will accept that many), then SAVE AS a Sequential File under a name of your choice.
Do the same with every 250 songs until you have about 12 or so Sequential files saved, each containing 250 songs.
Load all of the sequential files into the Main On Air Instance of Zara, and I am guessing that might do it!
Let us know and jot the trick into your Zara Manual.
When Zara plays a sequential file it plays all the contents of that file before switching to anything next.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 23:24:07 GMT
You should be able to drag and drop your files as a batch into Zara. I just took the directory that they were all located in and dropped it into the Playlist area. There were almost 12,000 songs (446 hours, 23 minutes, 50.8 seconds).
Zara does have a problem with random file directories if they contain large numbers of files (I've posted about it previously). As time goes on, the elapsed time it takes Zara to choose a file to play increases - after several days, if you run 24/7, that can run into multiple seconds.
I've not noted that or any other sort of problem with straight forward Zara playlists.
Edit: I just saved the playlist, and then loaded it back in. No problems. Almost 12000 songs.
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Post by mark on Apr 13, 2018 23:24:28 GMT
Was looking at others and came across Play It which is a similar thing but seems more elaborite with more features and with an available plug in that adds custom EQ and on board compression for $15 on the free version.
Anyone have experience with this one?
I will try with Zara again as you suggested but may try this other and see what happens but if you find out about the Zara playlist that's great...either it will work or not.
The problems you mention is good to know as a radio station is supposed to run continuosly and have a large playlist.
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Post by Johny on Apr 14, 2018 0:09:16 GMT
Hi Mark, are all the files mp3's, Zara wont play aac, mp4 & copy protected wma files. You should be able to drop the root folder containing all your files in to Zara and it will load them all, if you have a lot of files it will take some time. To shuffle your files ones you have made your playlist, hold down Ctrl & K on you keyboard and that will shuffle all your files. One draw back with making a very large playlist is it takes longer to load the playlist. I make my playlist of 500 files and then have a shortcut at the bottom of the playlist to the next playlist. No there is no way to get eq in to Zara.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2018 0:29:25 GMT
You can, of course, get EQ in Zara if you run 1.4.4 (requires XP), which supports Plug-Ins. Just for completeness.
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Post by Admin on Apr 14, 2018 3:05:25 GMT
Mark, Are all of your file types supported by Zara? If not Zara will just skip them. That's all I have to offer. Carl and Dave and Johny C know much more about it than I, as Zara just worked from the gitgo for me. Hey, Carl....tried and found out unless there's a way, or I need the pay version, that all of my tracks won't go on. Only a small number but I don't know what it's capacity is. So Zara is no good unless it can put all my 3370 tracks in the playlist. Anything I'm missing? The tutorials don't answer this and cannot contact because they don't speak English. |
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Post by mark on Apr 14, 2018 4:54:06 GMT
Thanks for all your input.
ALL the files are the same....all in MP3s, all 3370 of them....the Id's Jingles, Chickenman's, songs....the same.
If I group the whole shebang and enter nothing happens....won't load into playlist. If I do the same with a small group(maybe a couple of hundred) yes it loads them but it seems there's a quota but no good if won't have the whole playlist available to be in the mix.
Looked up a few others with free versions and posted on the Facebook page(and part 15.us) if anyone knows of others that work and got an answer to try "Radio DJ" and the poster said she(name's Rachael so assume a she) has 10K tracks and they all go on nicely.
I also came across in my search "Play It" which I should give a try and for $15 extra a plug in allows EQ and compression custom settable.
My computer specs exceed the min. requirements stated for Zara and the others...Windows 10pro 8GB RAM and i5 processor.
I would get another small 12" laptop for this but would make sure the specs are more than enough for the program. Refurbished units can get higher end performance at a lot less cost.
Will check out these others and see what happens but have an open mind for Zara. If all the tracks will go on, great, and I understand there's a plug in available for EQ for Zara too but didn't see in the info on their site.
Thanks for the help and I will try the few and see if one will work good. If not I'll keep the status quo as it's been OK all this time.
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Post by mark on Apr 14, 2018 5:14:23 GMT
Hi Mark, are all the files mp3's, Zara wont play aac, mp4 & copy protected wma files. You should be able to drop the root folder containing all your files in to Zara and it will load them all, if you have a lot of files it will take some time. To shuffle your files ones you have made your playlist, hold down Ctrl & K on you keyboard and that will shuffle all your files. One draw back with making a very large playlist is it takes longer to load the playlist. I make my playlist of 500 files and then have a shortcut at the bottom of the playlist to the next playlist. No there is no way to get eq in to Zara. Yes..ALL MP3's and waited for 5 minutes to see if the whole group of 3370 items would load and nothing. But when just taking a group of maybe several hundred they went on but when I tried to put more at a point no more would go on. The EQ would be nice and others have I found out. Like the overlap of one song into another at the end and having real time announced at points all automated working by itself. Although with spoken ID's that feature would cut off the end of the ID before it finishes. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2018 15:59:11 GMT
Mark, if you go to Tools > Options > Fade, you can control the overlap of tracks.
The Silence Detector under Options is also something that can control tracks playing. I always disable it.
I can't think of a reason why you can't load 3000+ tracks into a playlist. As I and Johny have said, all you have to do is drag and drop the files (a directory can be one of the files, which then loads all the files in that directory) into the playlist, and then save it.
The files have to audio tracks that Zara supports (such as .mp3).
I just tried it on my computer with over 10000 files and it worked like a charm. It takes a while to load the files, and the resulting playlist, but it does get them all.
I'm wondering if something weird is happening, such as you're running out of memory, or disk space, or something like that. I'm currently looking at a playlist in Zara that lasts 444 hours, 49 minutes and 54 seconds, with over 10000 (11,900 to be precise) files in it.
Edit: Just thought of something. Are you storing your playlist as a .m3u file? That or .pls. I don't know if there are any restrictions on .lst files (which is the default save extension). I've played around with .seq & .rot, but I haven't pushed the boundaries of # files in them.
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