PlayIt Live is radio broadcast automation and playout software for Windows. It schedules and plays out your station's audio (music, jingles, adverts, and presenter links) either fully automated, fully live, or anywhere in between. It is used by community, internet, hospital, school, and commercial radio stations around the world.
The PlayIt Live main window in Live-Assist mode.
PlayIt Live is free to download and use, with optional premium features for professional broadcasters.
What you can do with PlayIt Live
Play out audio - Run your station from a single playout log, with multiple players that load and play tracks in sequence. Choose between Live-Assist Mode for hands-on presenting and Decks Mode for a classic radio deck layout.
Manage a music library - Import and organise your audio as Tracks, each with the artist, title, intro, segue, and cue points needed for smooth playback. Organise your library with Track Groups.
PlayIt Live has two player modes, which you can switch between from File > Settings > Player Mode:
Live-Assist Mode is the primary mode. It combines a playout log of upcoming items with players at the top, letting you run a fully automated station, present live, or assist a live show.
Decks Mode presents a classic radio deck interface, with separate decks that you load and play manually.
Extending PlayIt Live
PlayIt Live can be integrated with other systems and automated through the Control API, a premium feature that lets you control PlayIt Live programmatically from external hardware and software.
Glossary - Definitions of common PlayIt Live terms.
Concepts
This page introduces the main building blocks of PlayIt Live and explains how they fit together. Each concept links to a more detailed section. If you are new to PlayIt Live, reading this page first will help the rest of the documentation make sense. For short definitions of individual terms, see the Glossary.
The playout log
The playout log is the heart of PlayIt Live. It is the running order of everything your station will play, shown as a list of items in the order they will go to air. Most items are tracks, but the log can also contain voice tracks, break notes, fixed time markers, and other special items.
You can build the log by hand by dragging tracks into it, let PlayIt Live fill it automatically from your schedule, or use a mixture of both. See The Playout Log.
Tracks and track groups
A track represents an audio file, together with the information PlayIt Live needs to play it well: artist, title, duration, and cue points such as the intro and cue out position. Tracks are imported into your library and can be browsed and searched from the track list.
Track groups organise your tracks. A group can be a Listed group (a hand-picked list of tracks), a Filtered group (tracks selected dynamically by their properties, for example "all songs from the 1980s"), or a Grouped group (a combination of other track groups). Track groups are used throughout PlayIt Live: to filter the track list, to build a playout pattern, and within clocks and playout policies.
Players, segues, and player modes
The players load tracks from the playout log and play them in sequence. In Live Assist Mode, several players sit at the top of the main window, each showing intro, elapsed, and remaining timers.
A segue is the transition from one item into the next, where one track ends and the following one begins. PlayIt Live works out segues automatically from each track's cue points, and you can fine-tune them in the Segue Editor.
PlayIt Live offers two player modes: Live Assist Mode, built around the playout log, and Decks Mode, a classic deck-based layout.
Automation
PlayIt Live can run your station on its own. Two switches in Live Assist Mode control this:
The Log Scheduler automatically fills the playout log ahead of time so there is always something queued to play.
Automation plays items automatically and locks the log to prevent accidental changes. Turning Automation on also turns on the Log Scheduler.
With both switches off you are in full manual control; with both on, the station runs unattended.
Scheduling
Scheduling is how PlayIt Live decides what to play and when. There are a few related concepts:
A Playout Pattern is a repeating sequence of track groups (for example song, song, jingle) that the scheduler cycles through to fill each hour. This is the simplest way to automate your output.
Clocks are hour-long templates that lay out exactly what should play in an hour and in what order, mixing track groups, specific tracks, adverts, voice tracks, and markers.
The Clock Schedule assigns clocks to the hours of the week, so different hours and days can sound different.
Playout Policies are rules that keep your output sounding consistent, for example preventing the same artist or track from repeating too soon.
Together these feed the scheduling engine, which generates the playout log.
Adverts and scheduled events
Advert Scheduling manages commercial spots: you create campaigns of adverts, PlayIt Live places them into advert blocks across the log, and it produces a play report for billing.
Scheduled Events trigger actions at specific times or when PlayIt Live starts, for example merging an external log or switching Automation on.
Voice tracking
Voice tracking lets a presenter record links between tracks ahead of time. The recorded link is stored in the log and played at the right moment, so a pre-produced show can sound live. Voice tracks can be recorded in the studio or remotely with Remote Voice Tracking.
QuickCarts
QuickCarts are instant-playback buttons for jingles, sound effects, beds, and other audio you want to fire on demand while presenting. They are arranged on pages of buttons alongside the playout log.
Priority streams
Priority Streams allow a remote presenter or external source to take over from automated playout. When a priority stream is live it overrides normal Live-Assist output, then hands back automatically when it ends.
Bringing audio in and out
Monitored Folders watch folders on disk and import audio automatically as files are added, keeping your library up to date without manual importing.
Internet Broadcast streams your audio output to an Icecast or Shoutcast provider, and Now Playing sends details of the current track to a file or online service. Both are set up from the Tools menu.
Logged Tracks records what was actually played and when, for reporting and royalty purposes.
To share a single set of data across several computers, PlayIt Live can connect to PlayIt Manager (or to the built-in server of another PlayIt Live), keeping tracks, schedules, and the playout log in sync.
Plugins
PlayIt Live can be extended through plugins, installed and configured from the Plugins menu in the main window. Available plugins include Microphone Mix, Audio Processing, and Remote Start (MIDI).
Glossary
Common terms used throughout PlayIt Live and this documentation. For a fuller explanation of how these pieces fit together, see Concepts.
Automation - A mode in Live-Assist Mode that plays items automatically and locks the playout log to prevent accidental changes. Turning Automation on also turns on the Log Scheduler.
Break Note - A non-audio marker placed in the playout log to remind the presenter of something, such as a station ident or a live read. A break note can have a duration, during which silence is played.
Clock - An hour-long template that defines which track groups play in an hour and in what order. See Clocks.
Clock Schedule - The assignment of clocks to the hours of the week, used to generate the playout log. See Clock Schedule.
Cue In - The point in a track where playback should start, typically just after any silence at the beginning. See Tracks.
Cue Out - The point in a track where it is considered finished and should segue into the next item. The track typically fades out at this point, unless No Fade is selected. See Tracks.
Dayparting - Restricting a track to specific days and hours so it is only scheduled at appropriate times. See Tracks.
Decks Mode - A classic radio player layout with separate decks that you load and play manually. See Decks Mode.
Fixed Time Marker - A playout log item that forces the items after it to start at a set time, dropping earlier items as needed.
Hook - A short, recognisable section of a track (such as the chorus), used in hook sequences within clocks. See Tracks.
Intro - The opening section of a track before the vocals start, used so a presenter can talk over it or a sweeper can play across it. See Tracks.
Live-Assist Mode - The primary player mode, built around a playout log with players at the top. Suits fully automated, fully live, or assisted presenting. See Live-Assist Mode.
Log Scheduler - The switch that automatically fills the playout log ahead of time so there is always something queued to play.
Monitored Folder - A folder on disk that PlayIt Live watches and imports audio from automatically. See Monitored Folders.
Now Playing - A feature that sends details of the currently playing track to a file or online service. See Tools.
Out Cue - The way a track ends, for example fade out or sustain. See Tracks.
PlayIt Manager - A separate server application that stores a single source of station data, which multiple PlayIt Live instances can connect to and synchronise with. You do not need PlayIt Manager to synchronise: one PlayIt Live instance can also sync with another that already has its built-in remote access server set up. See Synchronising Data.
Playout Log - The running order of everything the station will play, shown in the order it will go to air, as well as a historical record of what has already played. See The Playout Log.
Playout Pattern - A repeating sequence of track groups that the scheduler cycles through to fill each hour. See Playout Pattern.
Playout Policy - A rule that keeps output sounding consistent, such as preventing the same artist or track from repeating too soon. See Playout Policies.
Pre-Fade Listen (PFL) - Previewing a track through headphones before it goes to air. See Pre-Fade Listen.
Priority Stream - A remote or external source that can override automated playout, used to bring in a live presenter. See Priority Streams.
QuickCart - An instant-playback button for jingles, sound effects, and other audio fired on demand. See QuickCarts.
Remote Management - Managing your track library and schedule from a web browser via the built-in remote access server. See Remote Management.
Remote Studio - Presenting and editing the playout log in real time from a web browser, with the ability to monitor the station audio and add your microphone live. See Remote Studio.
Remote Voice Tracking - Recording voice tracks remotely from a web browser or PlayIt VoiceTrack. See Remote Voice Tracking.
Segue - The transition from one item into the next, where one track ends and the following one begins. See Segue Editor.
Segue Editor - The window for fine-tuning the segue between tracks and for recording voice tracks. See Segue Editor.
Station ID - A short jingle that identifies the station. Also a track type in PlayIt Live. See Tracks.
Sweeper - A track, usually with no background music, designed to be played over the intro of a song without clashing. See Tracks.
Track - An audio file in your library together with the information PlayIt Live uses to play it, such as artist, title, and cue points. See Tracks.
Track Group - A collection of tracks defined by a list, a filter, or a combination of other groups. See Track Groups.
Voice Track - A presenter link recorded ahead of time and stored in the playout log so a pre-produced show can sound live. See Voice Tracking.
Once the download is complete, run the downloaded .exe file.
3
Accept the licence agreement
You will first be presented with the software licence agreement. Once you have read and agree to these terms, click I Agree.
4
Choose components
Choose the components to install. Here you can select whether to install Start Menu shortcuts. No shortcuts will be created on the desktop. Click Next to continue.
5
Choose install location
Choose the location to install the software. By default, this is in Program Files, but can be changed to your preference. Click Install to begin installation.
6
Launch PlayIt Live
Tick Start PlayIt Live and click Finish to launch PlayIt Live. If PlayIt Live does not start, go to the Start Menu and type PlayIt Live.
Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime Requirement
As part of the installation, PlayIt Live will install the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime. This is required for embedded web browser features such as tutorial videos and the Plugin Gallery. The runtime is already installed as part of Windows 11, but will need to be downloaded and installed for Windows 10. Please note that embedded web browser features are not supported in Windows 7.
New versions of PlayIt Live are regularly available from playitsoftware.com/Products/Live. It is important to back up your data before you install any new versions. Data and logs for PlayIt Live are stored in the Windows 'ProgramData' folder.
By default, this is located at:
C:\ProgramData\PlayIt Live
To back up your data, simply copy this folder to an alternative location, such as an external hard drive.
When a new version is installed, the data in the location above will not be removed.
Uninstallation
When installed, PlayIt Live will include an Uninstall shortcut in the Start Menu.
If you chose not to add Start Menu shortcuts, the uninstaller can be found at (by default):
C:\Program Files (x86)\PlayIt Live\uninstall.exe or
C:\Program Files\PlayIt Live\uninstall.exe
Double-click the icon to start the uninstall process.
By default your database and settings will be retained when you uninstall. You can choose whether PlayIt Live data is removed by ticking the Delete application database and settings checkbox.
Click Next.
Click Uninstall to remove PlayIt Live.
Getting Started
In order to begin using PlayIt Live, you need to log into your PlayIt Software account. Click the Log In... button to begin logging in. If you do not have an account, you can create one for free by clicking Register... or visiting playitsoftware.com/Account/Register.
If the computer you are using is not connected to the internet, you can activate offline.
Logging In
To get started with PlayIt Live, click on the Log In... button in the Get Started window. This will take you to a web browser where you will be prompted to log in using your PlayIt Software account.
Enter your account email address and password, or log in using your Facebook account.
Once you are logged in, the main window will appear, allowing you to begin using the software.
Enter Registration Details
If you do not already have an account, click on the Register... button in the Get Started window. This will take you to a web browser where you will be prompted to register for your PlayIt Software account.
After clicking Register, you will be prompted to verify your email address. Check your registered email account for an email from PlayIt Software with the subject "PlayIt Software: Please verify your email address...". To ensure that you receive this email, add [email protected] to your address book.
Once you have followed the verification link in the email, you will be logged in to PlayIt Live and the main window will be displayed.
Activating Offline
If the computer on which you have installed PlayIt Live is not connected to the internet, it is possible to activate offline.
1
Open Activate Offline
From the Get Started window, click Activate Offline...
2
Generate a licence key
In the Activate Offline window, you will need to enter your Licence Key. To generate a new licence, visit playitsoftware.com/Account/Licences/Generate. If you have not already, you may be prompted to log in or create an account.
In the Generate New Licence section, select PlayIt Live and ensure that version 2.05+ (latest) is selected. Enter the Computer Name and Machine Code that you see in PlayIt Live and click Generate Licence Key.
3
Enter the licence key
Once the licence key is generated, make a note of it or download the licence file and select it within PlayIt Live. Licence keys start with the text "3*".
By following these steps, you can activate PlayIt Live offline without an internet connection.
The Main Window
When PlayIt Live first starts it will be presented in Live-Assist Mode. The player mode can be changed from File > Settings... > Player Mode.
The main window provides access to all PlayIt Live features:
Live-Assist Mode - The primary player mode with a playout log and multiple players
Live-Assist Mode is the primary operating mode in PlayIt Live. It provides a comprehensive interface for managing live broadcast playout, with players at the top, a playout log showing upcoming and past items, a track list for browsing and adding tracks, and controls for automation and scheduling.
The top menu bar provides options to set up PlayIt Live.
The File menu contains:
Enable remote connections: Set up PlayIt Live to enable the built-in remote management server and allow remote connections for managing data and remote voice tracking.
Sync with a remote server: Set up PlayIt Live to connect to a remote management server such as PlayIt Manager or the built-in server in another PlayIt Live.
Settings: Configure the user interface and audio devices.
Exit: Close PlayIt Live. A confirmation box will be shown.
Playout Pattern: Manage the pattern of track groups that will be used for playout.
Clocks: Manage clocks used to generate the playout log.
Clock Schedule: Manage clock hourly assignments used to generate the playout log.
Playout Log: Manage the overall, day-to-day output of your station.
Advert Campaigns: Manage advert campaigns for playing adverts (commercial spots).
Advert Log: Manage the advert log, the log of adverts and when they will play.
Advert Play Report: Export a report of when adverts were played for affidavits.
Scheduled Events: Manage events that can be triggered to happen at a specific time or when PlayIt Live starts.
Priority Streams: Manage priority streams which can be used to override normal live-assist automation and bring in a live presenter/DJ via a remote stream.
Users: Manage users who can log in to use the software.
The notification bar is used to provide important information to the user without disrupting their current activity. Warnings will be displayed here if there are any setup issues or a track fails to load.
The players at the top load tracks from the playout log in the expected order. Players can be assigned to individual sound cards so they can be used with different channels on a professional mixer.
Each player has three timers and three buttons.
The blue timer indicates the intro remaining of the loaded track.
The green timer indicates the elapsed time of the loaded track.
The red timer indicates the remaining time of the loaded track.
The green play button starts playing the track.
The orange pause button pauses the track.
The silver eject button fades out and stops the player.
The playout log shows the upcoming items that are scheduled to take place. Typically these are tracks to be played, but can be break notes, fixed time markers, or other special items. Each playout log item features (from left to right) the play time , icon, title, tempo (if adjusted), duration (or remaining time) , segue toggle switch, edit and eject/delete button. These are the default columns; you can change which columns are shown by right-clicking the column headings and selecting Select Columns (see Displaying more information about a track below). A three-dots ellipsis icon is used to show additional menu options.
Icons
The icon on the log item displays the type of the item. Icons and colours can also be customised based on the track group a track belongs in. It is possible to colour the entire row by changing this setting.
- Track
- Voice Track
- Break Note
- Fixed Time Marker
- Currently playing item
- Past item that was played
- Past item that was not played
- Future item that will not be played due to a fixed time marker
Current Item
The current item is indicated by a right arrow in a circle icon:
The current item is the currently playing or the next item to be played when playout resumes.
Adding tracks
To add a track to the playout log, drag and drop a track from the Track List to a position between existing tracks or between an empty "drag tracks here" marker. If you dragged a track into a position soon to be played it will be loaded into one of the players in sequence. You can also drag and drop audio files directly from Windows File Explorer into the playout log.
Playing tracks
To play the track, click the Play button in the player at the top. When an item is playing it will be shown in green and the duration column will display the remaining time for that item.
While a track is playing, the progress bar will be displayed showing the current position in the track. To change the position, click the Seek checkbox to the left of the progress bar and then click the position in the progress bar. The Seek checkbox is there to prevent the position of the track from being accidentally changed whilst on air.
The triangles on the progress bar indicate the track's trigger points: the grey down-pointing triangle marks the fade point (Cue Out), and the red triangle marks the point at which the track is ejected and finishes.
Navigating the playout log
It is possible to scroll up to past items to see what was played, or scroll down to see what is going to be played in the future. You can do this by scrolling with the mouse wheel or using the up and down arrows to the right of the playout log. You can also navigate using the keyboard arrow keys or the Page Up and Page Down keys.
You can click the Home button to return to the current item. Pressing the Home key on your keyboard does the same. The Home button has two states, underlined and not-underlined. When the Home button is underlined the playout log will automatically scroll with the current item. If you manually scroll away, the Home button will no longer be underlined. After 5 minutes of inactivity the playout log will return home.
The Go to time button can be used to navigate to a specific date and time in the log. This is useful if you wish to edit the log or record voice tracks for a future programme.
Toggling segues
A segue is the transitioning of one item into another item. The segue toggle switch changes between a green arrow and a red stop sign . A green arrow indicates that the succeeding track will automatically play after this track. A red stop sign indicates that playout will stop after this track has finished.
Fine tuning segues
The Edit button allows you to fine tune the segue between the current, preceding and succeeding tracks. This will launch the Segue Editor.
Recording voice tracks
For voice track items the edit button will be replaced by the Record button . This will launch the Segue Editor allowing you to record your voice track. Until a voice track is recorded, a voice track item will display a placeholder entry. This will not be loaded into a player and will be skipped if a voice track has not been recorded. You can change the length of the placeholder duration by clicking on the duration. By default this looks like [00:30].
Deleting, restoring and ejecting items
Click the Bin/Trash button to soft delete a playout item from the log.
Hold the CTRL key to display the Delete button to hard delete the item.
Click the Restore button to restore a previously soft deleted item.
If the item is currently playing, the Eject button is shown instead. Clicking it fades out the item, and the next item plays if the segue option is set to continue.
Protected items
If the item is marked as Protected, the Shield icon is shown. This prevents the item from being accidentally deleted. Protected items will not be dropped by Fixed Time Markers or soft deleted by the Auto Adjust feature.
Playout log item menu
Click the Ellipsis button to expand the context menu for the playout log item. Here it is possible to perform additional actions such as Edit Segue, Edit Track, Delete, Track Play History, or visit Web Links. Right-clicking a playout log item will also bring up the same menu.
Hour headings
The log contains headings for the hour for which the item is scheduled. Each hour shows how much the hour is currently over or under running. Each hour also features an Ellipsis button with additional options. This can be used to schedule the hour now, import an hour from a playout log format, export an hour to PlayIt Playout Log format or a plain text format, or clear the hour completely. The import/export features are useful if you want to save a playlist and import this into another hour. You can also select to Mixdown this hour to an MP3 or WAV file for later broadcast or review.
Scheduling an hour now
Click the hour heading's Ellipsis button and select Schedule Hour Now to immediately populate that hour of the playout log from its scheduled clock, without waiting for the log scheduler to reach it. In the menu, Schedule Hour Now appears at the top, above the existing Import, Export, Clear and Mixdown options.
Schedule Hour Now generates the playout log items for that hour from the clock assigned to it in your clock schedule, exactly as the log scheduler would when it reaches that hour. If you have advanced scheduling, any adverts due in that hour are scheduled at the same time.
This is useful when an upcoming hour has not been automatically populated yet. For example, the log scheduler only looks a short way ahead, so a future hour you have scrolled to may still be empty. Rather than switching the Log Scheduler on (which would schedule from the current point forward), you can schedule just that one hour on demand so you can review, edit, or voice track it ahead of time.
Displaying more information about a track
You can display more information about a playout log item by right-clicking the column headings and selecting more columns. You can resize the columns by clicking and dragging between the columns. You can reorder the columns by going to Select Columns and using the Up and Down buttons.
You can also display more information about a particular track by clicking and expanding the log item. The Out Cue, Intro, Album, Genre and Year are displayed on the left with the Comment field displayed on the right. If the track was recently played, the Last Played time is also displayed.
Frequency spectrum
The playing items on the playout log can display a frequency spectrum visualising how the audio changes dynamically. The bars indicate the distribution of audio frequencies, from low on the left (bass) to high on the right (treble). This can be disabled under Settings.
This shows the user who is currently logged in. To log out, click the button and then click Log out. This is only shown when Require users to log in to use PlayIt Live is ticked on Manage > Users.
To filter the track list by track group, select the track group from the dropdown. The track list will show only tracks that exist in the selected track group. Track groups can be managed from Manage > Track Groups.
Use the search box to filter the track list. When text is entered, the track list shows only tracks whose displayed column values contain that text (by default this is the Artist - Title). Click the clear button to remove the filter.
The search box also supports advanced expressions that filter on a specific field. For example, enter ActiveDuration < 180 to show only tracks shorter than 3 minutes (180 seconds).
Searching only filters within the track group currently selected in the Track Group selector.
The track list shows a list of tracks added to the system. By default, the list shows each track in the form Artist - Title with the duration in the second column. Click either column to sort by that column, click the column again to reverse the sort order. The list can be filtered using the search box or the Track Group selector above.
It is possible to select the columns in this list by right-clicking a column and selecting Select Columns. On the track list, it is also possible to right-click a track item to view additional options such as Edit Track, Pre-Fade Listen, Track Play History, and Web Links.
The track list can be resized by dragging the space to the left of the track list.
While Tracks are a fundamental playout log item type, you can also insert special items into the log. Simply drag and drop the box for the item type you want to insert into the playout log. You can click the down arrow icon to collapse this section to save space.
The onscreen clock shows the current date and time. The onscreen clock can also be configured to include two additional clocks, for example, countdown clocks. Right-click the clock and select Configure.
Clock types that can be selected are:
Current Time: Shows the current clock time.
Until End of Hour: Shows a countdown until the end of the current hour.
Until Time in Hour: Shows a countdown to a specific time within an hour. This can be useful if your show ends a few minutes before the top of the hour to account for commercials/advertisements.
Until Next Fixed Time Marker: Shows a countdown to the start of the next fixed time marker. This can be useful to count down to the next break.
Until Next Stop: Shows a countdown to the next time audio will stop playing. Note that the playout engine only looks forward up to 5 hours, so it will display --:-- if audio will stop in the long-term future.
Switch automation ON to automatically schedule the playout log and lock it so it cannot be changed to prevent accidental changes. Switching Automation ON will also switch on the Log Scheduler.
When Automation is switched on, a message will be shown at the top of the playout log indicating that the log is locked.
The master controls control the overall player status. Click the Play button to start the next item in the playout log. When the audio is playing the Play button will become a Play Next button which, when clicked, will advance to the next track. Click the Pause button to pause all playing players. Click the Stop button to fade out and stop all playing players.
Priority Streams
When one or more priority streams are open, priority stream players are displayed below the main live-assist players. These will indicate which priority streams are connected and playing.
When priority streams have overridden main live-assist playout, a message will be shown to indicate this.
The Segue Editor is used to give you greater control over how tracks are sequenced. Tracks can be moved closer or further away from the preceding or succeeding track. If you are familiar with PlayIt VoiceTrack, the Segue Editor operates in the same way. It is possible to move tracks, trim the start and end, and fade tracks in and out or adjust the volume.
Changing the fade envelope allows you to adjust the volume of the track. Click the orange line on the waveform to edit the fade envelope. Clicking on the line will create an envelope point. Adding multiple envelope points will allow you to create a shape to adjust the fade volume. To remove a point, drag the point outside the waveform box. The light-grey envelope shown is the effective envelope when a track playing at the same time has Duck other tracks enabled.
Drag and drop the top bar of the track to align it with the previous or next track. Dragging from the far left of the bar adjusts the track's position relative to the previous track; dragging from the far right adjusts it relative to the next track.
A thick vertical line shown on the track represents a cue point marker. The Cue In point is shown in green, the Cue Out point is shown in pink and the Intro point is shown in cyan. Cue Points can be changed via Manage > Tracks and editing a track.
- Record button: Start recording from your microphone. Please see the Voice Tracking section for more details. This button is disabled if you are not editing the segue for a voice track.
- Delete recording button: Deletes the recording so it can be discarded. This button is disabled if you are not editing the segue for a voice track.
- Play button: Start playback from the current playback position. Tip: You can use the space bar to perform this action.
- Pause button: Pause playback at the current playback position.
- Stop button: Stop playback and reset to the previously selected position marker. Tip: You can use the space bar to perform this action if audio is playing.
- Jump to start: Move the position marker to the start of the view. Tip: You can use the Home key to perform this action.
- Move to previous track: Move the position marker to the previous track from the current position. Tip: You can use the Page Down key to perform this action.
- Move to next track: Move the position marker to the next track from the current position. Tip: You can use the Page Up key to perform this action.
- Jump to end: Move the position marker to the end of the view. Tip: You can use the End key to perform this action.
Current playback position: Indicates how long has elapsed in the project.
As above, but you will advance to only voice track segues. These can be used to iterate through voice tracks and quickly record voice tracks. These buttons are disabled if there are no voice tracks nearby in the log.
The Segue Information shows how the selected track will sequence from the previous track into the next track. To see the segue information for the track, click on the waveform.
The segue style defines specific ways that the track will sequence:
Cue Out/In (default): The cue in of the track will line up with the cue out of the previous track.
Sweep Start: The sweeping track will start at the same time as the next track, provided it is short enough to play before the intro point of the next track. If the sweeping track is longer than the intro of the next track, the sweeping track will start before the next track and play up to the end of the intro. This option will make use of the Early Out cue point on the previous track if this is available.
Sweep Intro: The sweeping track will finish playing immediately before the end of the intro point of the next track. This option will make use of the Early Out cue point on the previous track if this is available.
Custom: You can manually set up how the tracks sequence with each other.
When you move a track by dragging the waveform, the segue style will automatically change to Custom.
Note that Sweep Start and Sweep Intro require Intro or Early Out points to be set on the preceding or succeeding tracks, otherwise Cue Out/In will be used.
The Duck other tracks checkbox can be used to reduce the volume of the previous and next track when this track is played. You can configure the ducking (volume and speed) via the Settings button. When ducking is active you can see the effective track envelope changing to show the volume change.
If the volume of a track or recorded voice track is too quiet, use the Gain setting to increase the volume. The default gain for voice tracks can be set via Settings....
It is also possible to adjust the tempo of the track. Typically this is used automatically by the Auto Adjust feature to fit items to a Fixed Time Marker or the end of the hour.
The Settings button allows quick access to voice tracking settings from the Segue Editor. Here you can edit the audition time or the audio devices for playback or recording.
Purchasing the Voice Tracking module unlocks full voice tracking functionality. Until activated, voice tracks are preceded by an audio overlay.
Voice tracking is an industry-standard technique to create the illusion that there is a live announcer sitting behind the desk in a radio studio, when in fact all the audio has been prerecorded and played out automatically. Voice tracking can allow you to record a three-hour show in less than half an hour.
PlayIt Live enables you to do this by inserting Voice Track items into the playout log and recording the audio with your microphone. The recorded audio can then be sequenced with other tracks in the log and tweaked using the Segue Editor. It is also possible to record voice tracks remotely, on another computer, and send these voice tracks to PlayIt Live. For more information on this, see Remote Voice Tracking (Setup).
Inserting voice tracks
Start by dragging tracks into the log for the hour you wish to voice track. Then drag a Voice Track item from the Special Items panel into the log for every voice link you would like to record between tracks.
The Special Items panel contains the Voice Track item (highlighted). Drag and drop a Voice Track item into the playout log to insert a voice track placeholder.
A placeholder will be shown in the playout log for each voice track item you need to record.
Recording a voice track
Click the red circle record icon on the voice track you wish to record. The Segue Editor will be shown allowing you to record your voice.
If you are using voice tracking for the first time, go to Settings... and ensure that your microphone device and audition time settings are set up correctly. The audition time is the number of seconds of the end of the previous track you will hear when you start recording your voice track. Remember to click OK to save your settings.
To start recording your voice track, click the Record button, or press the R key.
A pop-up box will be shown if you have not purchased a Voice Tracking module licence.
Your recording will start and you will hear the end of the previous track. Start speaking to record your voice. The Record button will change to the Play Next button. Click the Play Next button to play the next track after the voice track, or press the R key again. The button will change to the Stop button. Click the Stop button to finish recording, or press the R key one more time.
Editing a voice track
Your Segue Editor view should now look something like this, with the recorded voice track shown in the middle:
You can trim the audio of the recording by clicking the edges of the waveform to remove any unwanted silence at the start or end of the recording. You can also move the audio around by clicking and dragging the top bar of the waveform and edit the volume by clicking and dragging on the orange fade envelope. If the audio you have recorded is too quiet, use Gain to increase the volume.
You have now recorded your first voice track. Click Next Voice to save and record the next voice track, or click Save to save and return to the playout log.
Voice tracks in the playout log
The voice track will now be shown loaded into the players if playing next, and shown in the log with the other tracks.
Voice tracks can be recorded as far in advance as you need. Just scroll down the playout log to the required time.
Recording beds and imaging
When recording a voice track item, a Carts section is shown to the right hand side under the Audio Settings section. This can be used to record other audio alongside your voice track, for example, a bed (background music) or imaging such as station idents.
Simply drag and drop an audio file into the cart, or you can use the menu icon to load an existing track, file, or eject the cart. You must ensure carts are loaded before starting to record your voice track. Use the volume slider to adjust the volume of the audio if you want to talk over it.
Purchasing the Voice Tracking module unlocks full remote voice tracking functionality. Until activated, voice tracks are preceded by an audio overlay. Remote voice trackers can send voice tracks to PlayIt Live without needing the module themselves. The number of users who can connect concurrently is determined by the number of users selected when purchasing. With the Premium Module Bundle, an unlimited number of remote voice tracking users can connect at the same time.
PlayIt Live can be configured to allow users to connect from another computer at home or another studio and record voice tracks in your playout log. They can also edit the segues and add additional tracks from your library.
You will need to do the following to allow remote users to connect:
Enable remote connections by starting the built-in remote server.
Set up users, including username, password, and the hours they are allowed to edit in the playout log.
Add voice track placeholders to the playout log where users can record voice tracks.
Give the remote URL from step 1 and a username and password from step 2 to the user.
1. Enable remote connections
From the main interface, go to File > Enable remote connections...
The File menu with the 'Enable remote connections...' option highlighted.
Expand the Advanced section, ensure that Use HTTPS is checked. The default server port of 25433 should be fine. Click Start Server.
The Advanced Settings section showing the Start Server button, the Server port field set to 25433, and the Use HTTPS checkbox ticked.
This will enable remote connections to PlayIt Live. Depending on your configuration, you may be required to configure your Windows Firewall and network port forwarding to allow connections from outside your network. You can use the Help me set up external access button to assist you with this.
The 'Help me set up external access' button.
Under external access is a remote URL that will be used by the remote user to connect. Take note of this.
A green tick confirms that PlayIt Live is set up for external access. The remote URL is displayed below.
2. Set up users
From the main interface, go to Manage > Users...
The Manage menu with the 'Users...' option highlighted at the bottom.
On the Manage Users window, click Add New. Enter a display name, username and password for the user. Use the Remote Voice Tracking grid to select the hours the user is allowed to remote voice track into.
The Remote Voice Tracking permissions grid. Days of the week are listed on the left and hours 00-23 across the top. Green 'Y' cells mark the hours the user is allowed to voice track.
Add more users as necessary.
Click OK on the Manage Users window to apply the changes.
3. Add voice track placeholders
Voice track placeholders are gaps in the playout log where users can record their voice tracks. You can add voice track placeholders to the playout log by dragging the Voice Track button from the Special Items panel onto the playout log.
The Special Items panel showing the Voice Track button highlighted with a red border, alongside Fixed Time Marker, Break Note, and Remote URL buttons.
You can use the Go To Time button to go straight to an hour to drop voice tracks for a future hour.
Alternatively you can add voice track placeholders directly via Manage > Playout Log or via a clock via Manage > Clocks. If a user starts a remote voice tracking session for an hour which has not yet been scheduled in the playout log, PlayIt Live will automatically schedule this hour.
4. Connect a user
Once you have set up the above, contact your remote voice trackers sending them the remote URL and their username and password. Remote voice trackers can remote voice track in two ways:
Recommended: Voice tracking via a web browser (any operating system). Please refer to Remote Voice Tracking (Usage).
Via PlayIt VoiceTrack (Windows only). Please refer to the PlayIt VoiceTrack documentation.
Purchasing the Voice Tracking module unlocks full remote voice tracking functionality. Until activated, voice tracks are preceded by an audio overlay. Remote voice trackers can send voice tracks to PlayIt Live without needing the module themselves. The number of users who can connect concurrently is determined by the number of users selected when purchasing. With the Premium Module Bundle, an unlimited number of remote voice tracking users can connect at the same time.
This page explains how to perform remote voice tracking into PlayIt Live via a web browser. You will need:
The remote access URL of your station. This usually ends with .playitradio.com and must start with https://.
Username
Password
A Chrome-based web browser such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Vivaldi. These are available on any operating system.
Connecting to PlayIt Live
Visit the remote access URL in a web browser. Select Remote Voice Tracking.
The Remote Voice Tracking option on the PlayIt Live remote access landing page, shown as a large button with a microphone icon.
Enter your Username and Password and click Log In.
The PlayIt Remote Voice Tracking login page with Username and Password fields and a Log In button.
Selecting a voice tracking slot
Select the voice tracking slot you wish to voice track into.
The Select Voice Tracking Slot page showing a list of available hour slots as blue buttons, each labelled with the date and time.
If there are no voice tracking slots available you will see the following message. Your station programmer must ensure there are voice tracking placeholder items in the hours you need to voice track.
A message stating 'No slots available' with instructions to contact your administrator and ensure voice track placeholders exist in the playout log.
The remote voice tracking interface
After selecting a slot, the playout log items in the hour will be downloaded and the browser will begin to download the start and end of the audio for each of the tracks in the hour. Once the download has finished, the Downloading indicator will disappear.
The remote voice tracking playout log showing tracks with their scheduled times, a purple 'Downloading' indicator next to tracks still being downloaded, and voice track placeholders with red record buttons.
On the right hand side, you will see the Session Controls section. Here you can switch to a different hour slot or end the remote session. It is important to end the remote session after you have finished so that other voice trackers can connect. The number of people who can connect at the same time depends on the Voice Tracking licence of the station you are connecting to, so if you are unable to connect you may need to wait for another voice tracker to finish, or contact your station administrator. The Update queue shows the commands that are being sent to the server. If these are showing as "Processed" you know these are being accepted successfully by the remote voice tracking server.
The Session Controls panel showing a 'Switch Slot' button, an 'End Remote Session' button, and the Update queue area.
Recording a voice track
Click the red circle Record icon next to a Voice Track Placeholder item to launch the segue editor.
A voice track placeholder row in the playout log with a red arrow pointing to the record button on the right side.
The web-based Segue Editor showing three audio waveforms stacked vertically (previous track, voice track placeholder, and next track), with playback controls at the bottom and segue settings on the right.
If this is the first time you have used voice tracking you will be prompted to allow the browser to access your microphone. You must click Allow.
A browser permission dialog asking to use your microphone, with Allow and Block buttons.
Select the Playback device that will be used to play the audio and the Microphone device used to record. You should choose a microphone device that does not record the playback and you should wear headphones so the audio from the computer is not picked up by the microphone. Click Save Changes.
The Settings dialog showing dropdown menus for Playback device and Microphone device selection, with a Clear Audio Cache button and Save Changes/Cancel buttons.
To start recording your voice track, click the Record button, or press the R key.
The end of the previous track will start playing and your microphone will be recorded. Speak as the track is finishing. When you are ready to play the next track, click the Play Next button , or press the R key again. Finish recording your voice track, then click the Stop button , or press the R key one more time.
Depending on the performance of your computer, the browser may need to finish encoding your recorded audio. Once encoding has finished, the interface will be ready to use again.
Editing a recorded voice track
After recording, the voice track waveform will appear in the segue editor between the previous and next tracks.
The Segue Editor showing a recorded voice track waveform between the previous and next tracks, with a purple duration label showing the recording length.
Click anywhere in the timeline to place the playback marker and click the Play button (or spacebar) to start playing the audio to review your recording. If you wish, you can use the Duck other tracks checkbox on the Segue Information section to bring down the audio of the previous and next track. The attenuation settings used here are the ones configured within PlayIt Live.
The Segue Editor showing the end of a track waveform with a volume fade-down envelope (orange line) and red square control points where the track overlaps with the voice track below.
You can also manually adjust the volume envelope by clicking on the orange line to create a point and then clicking again on that point to move it. Each point will be shown with a red square. To remove a point, drag the point up or down outside the waveform box.
The volume envelope on a track waveform with multiple red square control points on the orange line, creating a custom fade shape.
You can change the overall volume of the track by editing the Gain section under Audio Settings. This is useful if your microphone is particularly quiet. In this case you would increase the gain value.
The Audio Settings section showing a Gain field set to 4 dB, next to a voice track waveform.
You can move your voice track recording relative to the previous or next item. To do so, click the title bar (where it says [Voice Track Placeholder]) and drag it to the desired location. If you move it from the left-hand side of the track, it will move relative to the previous track. If you move it from the right-hand side of the track, it will move relative to the next track. Moving a track is useful if you missed the point where you wanted to finish speaking and wanted to correct it without re-recording.
The title bar of a voice track being dragged, shown by the cursor grabbing the '[Voice Track Placeholder]' label.
Saving and finishing
Once you have finished recording and tweaking your voice track segue, click Next Voice to advance to the next voice track item to record. Once you do this, the voice track you just recorded along with the segue information will be sent to the voice tracking server ready to broadcast.
Once you have finished with the segue editor, click Save Changes at the bottom.
You will notice in the main interface that the Update queue is populated with processed commands.
The Update queue section showing a list of processed commands including 'Upload Voice Track (Processed)' and several 'Update Segue Data (Processed)' entries.
It is worth regularly checking this to ensure the queue is being processed as expected.
Adding more voice tracks
To add more voice tracks to the hour, drag and drop the Add Voice Track button to where you want to add the voice track. If you click the button, the voice track will be added to the end of the hour.
The 'Add Voice Track' button with a microphone icon, being dragged into position in the playout log.
Track list
You can see a list of the tracks available on the remote voice tracking system that you can drag and drop into the hour. You can also filter by track group or use the search box.
The Track List panel showing a dropdown filter set to 'All Tracks', a search box, and a list of available tracks with Artist, Title, and Duration columns.
Re-ordering the hour
Click and drag any item row to move it within the hour.
Items in the playout log being reordered by dragging. A track is shown being moved to a new position between other tracks.
Segue editor carts
In the segue editor, the Carts feature allows you to record audio from your computer straight into your voice track. This is useful if you want to include a bed (background music) or a station ID (jingle). Carts are located on the right-hand side of the segue editor.
An empty cart slot with a play button and a volume slider.
To load a track, you can either drag and drop a track from your file system into the player, or you can click the menu icon (three dots) and select Load File...
Click the Play button to play the cart while recording a voice track and the cart will be included directly in the recording. Drag the slider on the cart to adjust the volume of the cart if it is too loud to talk over.
A cart slot loaded with a bed track, showing the track name, duration (02:02), and a volume slider.
Audition time
The audition time is the amount of time the segue editor will play of the end of the previous track before you need to speak. This can be changed under the Settings button on the Segue Editor. If you increase the Audition Time, you will need to click Clear Audio Cache and refresh the browser to download more audio, otherwise you will hear silence if not enough audio has been downloaded.
Finishing up
Remember to end your remote session by clicking the End Remote Session button so others can connect, if necessary. If there are any pending items in the update queue, it will wait for these to finish before logging you out. Do not close your browser until these have finished, otherwise your hour may be incomplete.
Troubleshooting
If you are having trouble connecting to your station's remote access URL, try visiting https://playitradio.com and pasting the address into the box and clicking Connect.
If you see the following error message, please contact your station administrator. The server has not been correctly configured for browser-based remote voice tracking.
An error message on a pink background stating 'A secure (HTTPS) connection is required to use Remote Voice Tracking in the browser. Please contact your administrator to select Use HTTPS under Advanced options when starting the server.'
Priority Streams is a feature allowing you to bring in an external stream such as a remote presenter/DJ or outside broadcast. When a priority stream is live, normal live-assist playout will stop and the priority stream will take over. If a priority stream is not connected or if it is too quiet or silent, it will not go live and not take over normal live-assist playout. The highest priority, open, active priority stream will take priority over normal live-assist playout.
Purchasing the Advanced Scheduling module unlocks Priority Streams. Start a free two-week trial from within PlayIt Live via Help > Licensing Information.
How it works
When a priority stream is open, PlayIt Live will continuously try to connect to a live URL (for Live URL streams) or check for connections on the direct stream connections port (for Direct Connection streams). If a connection is made and the volume level of the audio is sufficient (see silence threshold) then the priority stream is considered active. Normal live-assist playout will fade and stop, or wait until the currently playing track finishes (depending on settings) and then the priority stream will go live. If there are multiple active priority streams, the one with the highest priority will go live. If the priority is the same, the one that was active first will go live.
When the priority stream is no longer active, live-assist playout will resume its previous state (playing or stopped) or switch Automation ON, depending on settings.
To control the open state of a priority stream automatically you can use a Change Priority Stream Open State action under Manage > Scheduled Events, or add a Scheduled Event Action item in the playout log.
Main interface
When one or more priority streams are open, priority stream players are displayed below the main live-assist players. These will indicate which priority streams are connected and playing.
When one or more priority streams are open, priority stream players are displayed below the main live-assist players. Each priority stream shows its name, connection type, connection status and audio levels.
When priority streams have overridden main live-assist playout, this message will be shown to indicate that normal playout has been paused and the priority stream is live.
Scenarios
Allowing a stream to take over live-assist automation at any time
Simply create an open priority stream.
Then stream audio to the live URL or to the direct stream connections port.
Allow a stream to take over live-assist automation after the news
Create a closed priority stream 'Example'.
Add to the playout log the following items:
Fixed Time Marker 00:00 (Hard)
Scheduled Event Action: Change Priority Stream Open State: Close [All Priority Streams]
Track: News
Track: News Out Jingle
Scheduled Event Action: Change Priority Stream Open State: Open 'Example'
Then add additional items after that match the format of the streaming show. These will act as a backup if the priority stream is disconnected or does not turn up.
Then stream audio to the live URL or to the direct stream connections port. When the priority stream is open it will go live.
Pre-buffer a stream to take over live-assist automation after the news
Create a closed priority stream 'Example'.
Add to the playout log the following items:
Fixed Time Marker 00:00 (Hard)
Scheduled Event Action: Change Priority Stream Open State: Close [All Priority Streams]
Track: News
Scheduled Event Action: Change Priority Stream Open State: Pre-Open 'Example'
Track: News Out Jingle
Scheduled Event Action: Change Priority Stream Open State: Open 'Example'
Then add additional items after that match the format of the streaming show. These will act as a backup if the priority stream is disconnected or does not turn up.
Then stream audio to the live URL or to the direct stream connections port. When the priority stream is open it will go live.
Scheduled Event Actions can be added to clocks to template the automatic control of priority stream open states.
When creating clocks that contain Scheduled Event Actions to bring in priority streams, you should add track or track group items that match the format of the show that is being streamed. If the priority stream disconnects, PlayIt Live automation will be able to take over with relevant songs.
Terminology
Active: An active priority stream is one that is open, is connected and has a volume level higher than the silence threshold. If a stream is disconnected or falls below the silence threshold for a period of time it will be considered inactive.
Go Live: The priority stream with the highest priority which is active will be faded up. Depending on the settings selected, the normal live-assist playout will fade and stop, or the current track will finish before the priority stream is faded up.
Open: PlayIt Live will try to connect to the live URL or check for audio for the user on the direct stream connection port. Open streams can go live.
Pre-Open: As Open, but the stream will not go live. This can be used to pre-buffer a stream before opening and going live.
Closed: PlayIt Live will not check or stop checking for connections for the priority stream and will stop going live.
Decks Mode emulates a cart machine where a disc jockey physically presses a button to control the cart. Tracks are loaded into individual decks by dragging and dropping from the track list or from a file on your file system.
To enable Decks Mode, go to Settings > General and select the Decks Mode (Classic) option under player mode. You can configure the number of decks and audio device assignments in the Settings > Decks Mode tab.
The deck players at the top allow you to load and play tracks. Each deck operates independently with its own playback controls. See Decks Mode Player for details on the individual deck controls.
The segue button between each pair of decks controls whether the next deck will automatically start playing when the current deck finishes. A green arrow indicates that automatic playback is enabled. Click the button to toggle this behaviour.
Filter the track list by track group using the dropdown. See Track Group selector.
Decks Mode Player
A Decks Mode player is loaded with a track by dragging and dropping a track from the track list or from a file on your file system. When a track is loaded, it is automatically cued to the Cue In point if this is set on the track.
The progress bar indicates the duration that has elapsed for the track in the player. Click the seek checkbox to the left of the progress bar to enable seeking. When seeking is enabled, the elapsed portion of the progress bar will change to blue. Click on the progress bar to seek to that position in the track.
The progress bar features a number of highlightings:
The Stop button fades out and stops the track. The stop button is replaced with the Eject button when the track is not playing or no track is loaded into the player.
The Eject button unloads the track from the deck. The eject button is shown when the track is not playing. When a track is playing, it is replaced with the Stop button.
The segue button controls whether the next deck will automatically start playing when the current deck finishes. A green arrow indicates that the next deck will automatically play. Click the button to toggle this behaviour.
QuickCarts
QuickCarts are single-click one-shot players. They are typically used to play jingles, promos, or beds. Simply drag and drop a track from the track list or an audio file from Windows Explorer onto a QuickCart to load it.
QuickCarts can be configured as a panel of rows at the bottom of the main window, or as a separate window (like a cartwall) which can be placed on a separate monitor. Multiple pages can also be configured.
Use the left and right arrows to navigate between pages. Click the page name to open the QuickCarts Pages window where you can add, rename, and reorder pages.
QuickCarts are displayed in one or more rows. Drag and drop a track or audio file onto a QuickCart to load it. When loaded, the cart displays the artist and title of the track with the remaining time below.
In Playback mode, click a cart to start playing. Click again to fade out and stop. Click once more to force stop immediately.
When playing, the cart shows a progress bar as the background and a status of PLAYING. A looping cart shows LOOPING and a cart that is finishing its loop shows FINISHING. While a cart is fading out, the cart turns a dark shade of grey and the status FADING is shown.
By default the playback sequence is Play → Fade → Stop. This can be changed per cart from the Edit QuickCart window, for example to immediately stop without fading (Play → Stop), or to cease looping first (Play → Cease loop → Fade → Stop).
If a cart is configured as Solo, playing it will fade out and stop all other playing carts. It will also stop if any other cart starts playing.
Segue arrows allow you to create automatic transitions between QuickCarts. In Edit mode, click the space between two adjacent carts to set a green arrow indicating the segue direction. When the first cart reaches the cue out point it will automatically trigger the next cart in the direction of the arrow. Click the arrow to reverse direction, or click once more to remove the segue.
When a QuickCart plays, other players can be ducked. See Settings to configure this.
Click the pencil button to enter Edit mode. In this mode, clicking a cart opens the Edit QuickCart window where you can select a track or file and override the artist and title. Right-click to eject a cart. While in Edit mode, hold Ctrl to temporarily switch to Playback mode.
Click the paint bucket button to enter Paint mode. In this mode, clicking a cart changes its background colour. Double-click the paint button to select a new colour. While in Paint mode, hold Ctrl to temporarily switch to Playback mode.
Gain slider
The gain slider appears on each loaded cart and allows you to adjust its playback volume independently. This is useful for balancing levels across carts recorded at different volumes without modifying the original audio files.
The gain slider visibility is configured under File > Settings > QuickCarts:
When loaded: The gain slider is always visible on loaded carts.
When editing: The gain slider is only shown in Edit mode.
Never: The gain slider is not displayed. Previously set gains still apply.
The page list shows all pages in order. Select a page to rename it, delete it, or change its position. Double-click a page to make it the current page and navigate to it in the main window.
Click Delete Page to delete the selected page. A confirmation will appear before the page is deleted. It is not possible to delete the last remaining page.
The Edit QuickCart window is opened by clicking a cart in Edit mode. It lets you configure the audio source, display name, background colour, and playback behaviour for an individual QuickCart.
When Solo is checked, playing this cart will fade out and stop all other playing carts. This cart will also stop if any other cart starts playing. Solo is designed to ensure only one cart plays at a time.
When Loop is checked, the cart will loop between the Loop A and Loop B cue points. If Loop B is not set, the cart loops from the end. If Loop A is not set, the cart returns to the Cue In point when the loop restarts.
The playback sequence determines how the cart behaves when clicked in the main window. By default, the sequence is Play > Fade out > Stop, meaning each click advances the cart through these states. Click any step to change it.
For looping carts, additional options are available: Cease loop (stop the cart from looping, allowing it to play to the end) and Go to Loop B (jump to the end of the loop, useful for beds with a specific ending).
Set the Cue In point where playback begins, and the Cue Out point where a segued cart will start. Use the Set button while listening to mark the current position. Use the Test button to preview from the set point.
For looping carts, Loop A and Loop B cue points also appear here.
The waveform shows the audio volume over time. Cue points are overlaid as coloured markers. Double-click on the waveform to start playing from that position. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Use Play and Stop to preview the cart. The audio device used to play back the audio can be configured in Settings. Use Back and Forward to jump to the start or end of the track. Use the Zoom buttons or the mouse wheel to adjust the waveform zoom level.
Click Cancel to close the window without saving changes.
Pre-Fade Listen
The Pre-Fade Listen window allows you to listen to a track before it airs.
Click the Play and Stop buttons to control playback. You can double-click on a part of the waveform to advance to a position in the track. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the waveform for a more precise position selection. Audio will play back on the audio device you have selected under Settings > Track Editor Audio Device.
Purchasing the Advanced Scheduling module unlocks the full play history across days and hours. Without the module, only the most recent play is shown.
The Track Play History window provides a visual representation of when and how often a track and its artist are played over a selected time period. This supports in-depth analysis and informed decisions in music scheduling.
Accessing Track Play History
To view the Track Play History for a specific track:
From the main window, on a playout log item, select the three dots (or right-click) and select Track Play History...
From the main window, on the track list, right-click a track and select Track Play History...
Reading the Grid
The window displays a grid where:
Rows represent days.
Columns represent hours of the day, from 00 to 23.
A green music note icon indicates the track was played during the corresponding hour and day.
A blue person icon indicates the artist of that track was played during the corresponding hour and day.
For times in the future, the icons indicate the track or artist is scheduled for that hour.
Practical Uses
Track Play Frequency: Instantly see how often a track is played, helping to avoid overplay or underplay of particular songs or artists.
Play Pattern Analysis: Identify patterns in track plays to optimise music rotation and scheduling.
Artist Exposure: Monitor how frequently songs from a particular artist are played, helping to maintain a diverse playlist.
User Login Window
The Log In window appears when PlayIt Live is configured to require users to log in before use. Enter your username and password and click Log In.
If you have just installed PlayIt Live you will not see this window. To require users to log in, go to Manage > Users and click Require users to log in to use PlayIt Live.
Changing Your Password
If your administrator has set up your account and requires you to change your password on first login, you will be prompted to enter and confirm a new password. Click Change Password to continue.
Forgotten Admin Password
If you are an administrator and have forgotten your password, you can reset it by logging into your PlayIt Software account on the PlayIt Software website with the same account as that who has licenced the software:
Visit https://www.playitsoftware.com/Account/Dashboard/ResetAdminPassword and verify that the Client ID matches. You must be signed in to the PlayIt Software account that licenced the software; attempting to reset the admin password from any other account will not work.
Enter Reset Code Part 1 into the website, which will generate Reset Code Part 2.
Enter Part 2 into the box in PlayIt Live and click Reset.
You will be prompted to change your password.
Settings
The Settings window allows you to configure all aspects of PlayIt Live. Open it from the File menu by clicking Settings....
It is organised into the following sections:
General - Theme, font size, time/date display, fade time, player mode selection, track editing/monitoring, and user login.
Live-Assist Mode - Number of players, audio device assignments, segue settings, scheduling settings, and user interface options for Live-Assist mode.
Voice Tracking - Microphone recording device, audition time, recordings folder and format, ducking, cue points, and playout log editing mode.
Advanced Scheduling - Priority streams, fitting to time, and other advanced scheduling options.
Decks Mode - Number of decks, audio device assignments, and Remote Studio mic device for Decks mode.
QuickCarts - QuickCart layout, audio devices, ducking, and gain slider options.
Keyboard - Keyboard shortcut bindings and global trigger settings.
Web Links - Custom web links displayed in the main window.
Select the language used throughout the PlayIt Live user interface. A change of language only takes effect after you restart PlayIt Live. If you switch to a language by accident and can no longer read the menus, see Changing the language back at the bottom of this page.
Choose what happens when you double-click a track in a track list. Options include playing the track, editing its properties, or adding it to the playout log.
Configure the time and date format used throughout the application. You can choose between 12-hour and 24-hour time, and between day-first and month-first date formats. You can also enable or disable the on-screen clock.
Set the default fade time in seconds. This is the duration used when fading between tracks. This also applies when tracks are segued in Live-Assist Mode.
When enabled, players will flash when the remaining time drops below the specified number of seconds. This provides a visual warning that a track is about to end.
Select the audio device used for previewing and editing tracks. This is the device used when you audition a track from the track editor or track list. The track editor audio device is also used for the player in the Pre-Fade Listen window and the segue editor.
Configure the cue-in and cue-out thresholds for silence analysis. These values determine at what volume level (in dB) a track is considered to have started or ended. By default, the Cue In threshold is -62 dB and the Cue Out threshold is -14 dB. Silence analysis is used to automatically set cue points on imported tracks. These settings are also applied when a file is dragged and dropped from the file system onto a player, helping to achieve the best sounding gapless playback.
When enabled, users must log in before using PlayIt Live on this computer. This is primarily used to restrict user permissions, and applies to logging in locally on the same computer as PlayIt Live. This is the same checkbox available under Manage > Users.
Click Cancel to discard your changes and close the Settings window.
Changing the language back
If you switch to a language by accident and can no longer read the menus, you can still find your way back to this setting. Open the menu at the top left (the File menu), choose the Settings... item, then use the Language setting at the top of the General tab. The table below gives those two menu labels in each language:
Language
File menu
Settings item
Deutsch (Deutschland)
Datei
Einstellungen...
English (United Kingdom)
File
Settings...
English (United States)
File
Settings...
Español (España)
Archivo
Configuración...
Español (Latinoamérica)
Archivo
Configuración...
Français (France)
Fichier
Paramètres...
Italiano (Italia)
File
Impostazioni...
Nederlands (Nederland)
Bestand
Instellingen...
Português (Brasil)
Arquivo
Configurações...
Live-Assist Mode
The Live-Assist Mode tab contains settings for the number of players, audio device assignments, segue behaviour, scheduling, and user interface options when using Live-Assist mode.
Select the number of players to display in Live-Assist mode. You can choose between two, three, or four players. More players allow you to have more tracks loaded and ready to play simultaneously.
Assign an audio output device to each player. By default, all players use the same device, but you can assign different devices to different players for multi-output setups.
Configure the default sweeper segue style and ducking behaviour. Sweepers can overlap with the previous track, and ducking reduces the volume of the playing track while the sweeper plays.
Configure the built-in log scheduler and schedule-ahead settings. When the built-in log scheduler is enabled, PlayIt Live will automatically schedule tracks ahead by the specified number of hours and minutes.
Schedule ahead
By default, PlayIt Live will schedule at least 15 minutes ahead when the Log Scheduler is ON. Use this setting to increase the amount that is scheduled ahead, up to 24 hours. PlayIt Live schedules in full hours, so scheduling ahead by at least 15 minutes will trigger the next hour to schedule at xx:45 past the hour (15 minutes before the end of the hour).
Default Track Scheduling Strategy
PlayIt Live uses a scheduling strategy when deciding what tracks to select for Track Group clock items or track groups in the Playout Pattern. The options are:
Smart Selection - Selects a track using a weighted random algorithm. A track played longer ago is given a larger weight, increasing its chance of being selected.
Random - Selects a track entirely at random from the track group.
Most Rested - Selects the track from the track group that was played longest ago.
Clock scheduling mode
Choose how PlayIt Live decides which clock applies to each hour:
Clock Grids - Use the Clock Grids window, where you build reusable weekly templates with layers, recurrence, and date ranges. This is the preferred mode for new schedules.
Legacy (Calendar) - Use the older calendar-based clock schedule.
Only one mode drives clock selection at a time. Switching modes does not delete anything: the data for the mode you switch away from becomes inactive but remains stored, so you can switch back at any time.
Set the font size used for the live playout log on the main interface. A larger font makes the upcoming items easier to read at a glance, which is useful for presenters reading the running order from across the studio or on a larger studio monitor. A smaller font fits more items on screen at once.
You can choose from the sizes 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16. The default is 10. The playout log headings, warnings, and other text scale in proportion to the size you choose, so the whole log stays balanced.
To change the size, select a different value from the dropdown and click OK. The change is applied to the live playout log immediately, with no need to restart PlayIt Live.
Voice Tracking
The Voice Tracking tab contains settings for recording and managing voice tracks. Voice Tracking allows presenters to pre-record links between tracks.
Shows the current licence status for the Voice Tracking premium module. If Voice Tracking is not included in your licence, this will display a message explaining how to activate it. Without a valid Voice Tracking module, all voice tracks will be preceded by an audio notice requesting that you purchase the module.
Select the audio input device used for recording voice tracks. This should be set to the microphone or audio interface you use for recording. The device chosen here should not record audio that is played back, to avoid music from being recorded into the voice track recording.
Set the number of seconds from the end of the previous track that are played when you start recording a voice track. This determines how much context the presenter hears while recording a voice track.
Enter the folder where voice track recordings will be saved. Use the Browse... button to select a folder. Ensure the currently logged-in user has write access to this location, and that there is sufficient disk space to store recordings at this location.
Select the audio format for voice track recordings. You can choose from different formats and quality levels. Higher quality recordings sound better but take up more disk space.
When enabled, the volume of other players is reduced while a voice track is playing. You can set how much the volume is reduced (the duck amount, as a percentage) and how quickly the change is applied (the duck speed).
When enabled, PlayIt Live automatically detects cue points for voice track recordings. Set the cue-in and cue-out thresholds (in dB) to control the volume levels at which the voice track is considered to start and end.
Set the default gain (in dB) applied to newly recorded voice tracks. This can be used to boost or reduce the volume of voice tracks relative to music tracks.
Shows the current licence status for the Advanced Scheduling premium module. If Advanced Scheduling is not included in your licence, this will display a message explaining how to activate it.
Configure how PlayIt Live fits scheduled content to time markers. Adjust the target threshold (how close to the target time the scheduler should aim), the number of attempts, and the time allowed per fit calculation. These settings control the precision and performance of the fitting algorithm.
By default, Target threshold is set to 30 seconds, Number of attempts to 25 and Seconds per fit to 2 seconds. This means that PlayIt Live will generate up to 25 combinations of playout log items and pick the first (or best) one that fits within the target threshold.
Decreasing Target threshold or increasing Number of attempts or Seconds per fit will increase the time it takes to schedule playout log items.
Configure when a priority stream is considered inactive based on silence. Set the volume threshold (in dB) and the duration (in seconds) that the stream must be below this level before it is considered inactive.
When enabled, PlayIt Live listens for direct stream connections on the specified port. This allows external applications to send audio directly to PlayIt Live as a priority stream.
Remote users can connect using any Icecast-compatible encoder such as the Internet Broadcast plugin, BUTT, or Rocket Broadcaster. To set up a user to connect, create a user under Manage > Users. The following details can be used by the remote user to connect:
Setting
Value
Server Type
Icecast
Server Address
Your external IP address
Server Port
The port specified here in settings (remember to tick the checkbox to allow connections)
Username
PlayIt Live user specified under Manage Users
Password
PlayIt Live user password specified under Manage Users
Mount
/
Other Advanced Scheduling features include Auto Adjust, Advert Scheduling, Track Dayparting, Daypart Separation and Hook Sequences.
Decks Mode
The Decks Mode tab contains settings for the number of decks, audio device assignments, and Remote Studio Microphone Playback Device when using Decks mode.
Set the number of full-row decks displayed in Decks mode. Each deck operates independently and can be loaded with a different track. There is no fixed upper limit on the number of decks you can select, but the maximum is constrained by your screen resolution.
Select the audio device used for Remote Studio microphone playback in Decks mode.
QuickCarts
The QuickCarts tab contains settings for configuring QuickCart panels. QuickCarts provide instant playback of jingles, sound effects, and other short audio clips.
Enable or disable the QuickCarts panel docked to the bottom of the main window. When enabled, you can configure the number of rows, carts per row, and audio device for this panel.
Set the number of QuickCart buttons displayed in each row. As more QuickCarts are displayed per row they will be resized to fit the available space on the screen.
Enable or disable the separate Cartwall window. This provides an additional set of QuickCarts in its own floating window with independent layout and audio device settings.
When enabled, right-clicking a QuickCart in Playback or Edit mode will eject the currently loaded cart. When the setting is off, eject only works in Edit mode.
When enabled, the volume of other players is reduced while a QuickCart is playing. You can set how much the volume is reduced (the duck amount, as a percentage) and how quickly the change is applied (the duck speed).
The list shows all available commands and their current keyboard shortcuts. Select a command from the list to view or change its shortcut in the editing panel below.
Use the modifier checkboxes (CTRL, ALT, SHIFT) and click the key box to define the shortcut for the selected command. Click Clear to remove an existing shortcut.
For example, to bind CTRL+Right to move to the next QuickCart page, select the CTRL checkbox and click the '<key>' text box. When prompted to press a key, press the Right arrow on your keyboard. The keyboard shortcut is now configured.
Enable this checkbox to make the shortcut work even when PlayIt Live is not the active window. This is useful for controlling playback from other applications.
Please think carefully when choosing keyboard shortcuts. For example, it is not recommended to configure the Space Bar as a keyboard shortcut. This could interfere when you are typing into the search box and inadvertently trigger an action.
Web Links
The Web Links tab allows you to configure custom web links that are displayed in the main window. These links can be used to quickly look up the current track or access websites relevant to your broadcast, such as a search engine, music databases, station websites, or social media.
Web Links can be used to quickly search the web for an artist or track by right-clicking a track on the main interface (or expanding the track's context menu). Each configured link appears as an entry on that right-click menu, and selecting an entry opens the link in your default browser with the current track's details substituted in.
The list shows all configured web links with their display text and URL. Select a link to edit or reorder it.
Display Text - The text displayed on the right-click context menu, e.g. Wikipedia: {artist} would display Wikipedia: ABBA. The {artist} placeholder can be used here so the menu entry reflects the current track.
URL - The URL (web address) opened in the browser. Placeholders for {artist}, {title} and {album} can be used and are automatically replaced with the currently playing track's artist, title and album.
Order - The order in which the links appear on the context menu. This can be changed using the Up/Down buttons.
Using DuckDuckGo Bangs (DuckDuckGo has a feature called Bangs which makes it easy to query other services: see https://duckduckgo.com/bang).
Advanced
The Advanced tab contains low-level audio and system settings. These settings should only be changed if you are experiencing specific issues or have been advised to change them.
Set the playback buffer length in milliseconds. A longer buffer provides more stable playback but introduces more latency. The default value works well for most systems. Only increase this if you experience audio glitches or dropouts. A restart of PlayIt Live is required to apply the change.
Adjust the clock to account for a broadcast delay. Positive values move the clock forward, negative values move it back. A restart of PlayIt Live is required to apply the change.
Select which ASIO audio devices are available for use in PlayIt Live. ASIO provides low-latency audio output and is recommended for professional broadcast setups. Only devices that are checked in this list will appear in the audio device dropdowns throughout the application. ASIO devices must be explicitly initialised to avoid potential conflicts with the equivalent standard driver loaded by PlayIt Live.
A text field for entering additional advanced settings as key-value pairs. These settings are used for specialised configurations and troubleshooting. Only modify these if directed by PlayIt Software support. You may need to restart PlayIt Live for changes to take effect.
Tracks
Tracks represent audio files that can be imported into PlayIt Live. With each track, additional information is stored to assist playback and announcing on air. This information includes:
Type - The type of the track, which can be used for track group filtering, e.g. Song or Station ID. By default this is set to Inferred, which means the type is determined automatically from the tags, artist, title, and duration. See Inferred Type rules below.
Artist - The performer of the track, typically read from the file tags when the track is imported.
Title - The title of the track, typically read from the file tags when the track is imported.
Duration - The total length of the audio file.
Cue In - The position in the track where a player should start playing. This is typically where the silence ends at the start of the track and the audible audio begins.
Intro - The intro point of the track. This can be used by the segue editor to overlap the intro with the previous track.
Cue Out - The position in the track where it is considered to be finished. If a track is fading out, this should be shortly before the end of the fade. When the cue out point is reached in Live-Assist mode, this will cause the track to segue into the next.
Out Cue - The style at which the track ends (e.g. fade out, sustain).
Genre - The genre of the track.
Year - The year the track was released.
Album - The album the track belongs to.
Tags - Semicolon-separated tags for categorising the track.
Comments - Free-text notes about the track. This is displayed on the playout log when clicking an item.
ISRC - The International Standard Recording Code for the track.
Record Label - The record label of the track.
Track ID - A unique identifier for the track, which can be used for external system integration.
Track types
The following track types are available:
Song - A music track.
Station ID - A short station identification jingle.
Promo - A promotional item.
Commercial - A commercial or advertisement.
News - A news bulletin or item.
Bed - A music bed, typically used as background audio.
Station ID + Bed - A combined station identification and music bed.
The track type can be set manually on the Edit Track window, or left as Inferred to be determined automatically.
Inferred Type rules
When a track's type is set to Inferred, PlayIt Live determines the type automatically using the following rules, in order:
If any of the track's tags match a track type name, that type is used.
Otherwise, if the artist or title field matches a track type name, that type is used.
If the track's duration is less than 30 seconds, the type is set to Station ID.
Otherwise, the type defaults to Song.
All comparisons are case-insensitive.
Additional properties
Tracks also have the following properties that affect playback:
Sweeper - Indicates whether the track is a sweeper. A sweeper is a track that can be played over the intro of the next song (before the Intro point); or over the end of the previous song (after the Early Out point). It is typically dry (no background music) so it does not clash with the track it is playing over.
No Fade - Prevents the track from being faded out when the Cue Out point is reached. This is typically used for tracks that have a natural ending, such as a song with a long fade out.
Disabled - Prevents the track from being scheduled.
Valid From / Expires - Date range during which the track is available for scheduling. Valid From and Expires are measured from midnight at the start of the specified date, so a range from 1st June 2026 to 2nd June 2026 would make the track available for scheduling from 1st June 2026 00:00 until 2nd June 2026 00:00 (i.e. for the whole day of 1st June).
Hook Start / Hook End - Defines the hook section of the track, used for hook sequences in clocks. A hook is a short, distinctive section of a track that can be used for quick identification, such as the chorus of a song.
Dayparting - Restricts the track to specific days and hours for scheduling. This is typically used for tracks that are only suitable for certain times of day, such as a breakfast show jingle that should only be played in the morning.
Gain - Adjusts the playback volume of the track.
Tempo Adjust - Adjusts the playback speed of the track. Tempo can be adjusted from -10% to +10%, without changing the pitch.
Managing tracks
Manage Tracks - Browse, search, and manage your track library.
Edit Track - View and edit the properties of a track.
Bulk Editing - Edit properties across multiple tracks at once.
The Manage Tracks window allows you to browse, search, and manage all the tracks in your PlayIt Live library. Open it from the Tracks menu by clicking Manage Tracks....
The Manage Tracks window showing the track library.
Use the Track Group dropdown to filter the track list by a specific track group. Select All Tracks to show every track in your library, or choose a specific group to see only the tracks it contains. Track groups can be managed from Manage > Track Groups.
Click this button to export the current track list to a CSV file. This is useful for creating reports or sharing track information with external systems.
The main track list displays all tracks matching the current filter and search criteria. By default, the columns shown are Artist, Title, Intro, Duration, and Path. Right-click a column header to choose which columns are visible, or to access the column selector.
Double-click a track to open the Edit Track window for that track.
To delete a track, select it and press the Delete key, or click the delete icon on the row. You can select all tracks with Ctrl+A to delete in bulk. A confirmation prompt will appear before deletion. Changes are not saved until you click Apply or OK.
Deleting a track will remove it from your entire PlayIt Live library, even if a track group filter is applied. To remove a track from a specific track group without deleting it, edit the track and remove it from that group; or edit the track group and remove the track from there.
Click Edit to open the Edit Track window for the selected track. You can select multiple tracks using Ctrl or Shift and click Edit to bulk edit their properties.
Click Apply to save any pending changes without closing the window.
Edit Track Window
The Edit Track window allows you to view and edit the properties of a track in your library. Open it by selecting a track in the Manage Tracks window and clicking Edit, or by double-clicking a track.
The Edit Track window showing track properties and cue points.
The full file path of the track's audio file on disk. This field is read-only.
Click the folder button to the right of the path to open the folder containing the audio file in Windows Explorer, with the file selected. If the file no longer exists on disk, a message is shown telling you that it could not be found.
The track type, which can be Song, Station ID, Promo, Commercial, News, Bed, or Station ID + Bed. When set to Inferred, the type is determined automatically from the track's tags, artist, title, and duration. See Inferred Type rules for details.
The performer of the track. This is typically read from the file's metadata tags when the track is first imported. You can type a new value or select from previously used artists.
The Artist field is used by Artist Separation playout policies to ensure that tracks by the same artist are not played too close together.
The title of the track, typically read from the file's metadata tags when imported.
The Title field is used by Title Separation playout policies to ensure that tracks with the same title are not played too close together.
The Out Cue can be the style of the track's ending, such as "Fade Out" or "Sustain"; or the last spoken words in the track, so the presenters know when to talk over the end of the track. This is displayed on the playout log when clicking an item.
Semicolon-separated tags for categorising the track. Tags can be used for filtering and for Inferred Type rules. Select from existing tags or type new ones.
When enabled, this allows the playout system to play this track over the intro of the next song (before the Intro point); or over the end of the previous song (after the Early Out point). It is typically used for sweepers, which are short clips that identify the station or show, and are usually dry (no background music) so they do not clash with the track they are playing over.
Click Save Track to save your changes and close the window. If you are navigating between tracks using the navigation buttons, changes are saved automatically when you move to another track.
Click Close to close the window without saving any unsaved changes.
Tabs
Cue Points
The Cue Points tab is the default view and contains the waveform visualisation along with controls for setting Cue In, Intro, Hook, Early Out, and Cue Out points for the track. Cue points are used to control how tracks are played and how they transition to the next track in Live Assist mode.
You can use the playback controls to preview the track and fine-tune the cue points.
The Cue Points tab with waveform, cue point controls, and analyse button.
The cue point controls let you set the following points for the track:
Cue In: The position in seconds where the track should be started by a player.
Intro: The position in seconds where the vocals start on the track.
Hook Start: The position where a hook in a hook sequence will start. Click the Hooks section to expand this cue point.
Hook End: The position where a hook in a hook sequence will end, if the full hook is used. Click the Hooks section to expand this cue point.
Early Out: The position where the track is considered to be almost finished. Click the E. Out section to expand this cue point. Early Out can be used in two scenarios:
For songs, the point indicates to PlayIt Live that it can place a sweeper after this point as the track is finishing, providing a smoother transition.
For tracks marked as Sweeper, the point indicates that PlayIt Live can start the next track after this point, allowing the end of the sweeper to play over the intro of the next song.
Cue Out: The position in seconds where the track is considered to have finished. When this point is reached in Live Assist mode, the players will begin fading out this track and start playing the next track. The players count down the remaining time to this point.
Each cue point has its own Set, Test, and × buttons:
Set: While listening to the track, click Set to capture the current playback position as the cue point value.
Test: Click Test to play the track from the cue point position.
×: Click to reset the cue point to its default position.
Cue points can also be adjusted using the keyboard or mouse. Click on the cue point value of interest, then use the following:
Click Analyse to automatically detect the Cue In and Cue Out points based on the silence at the start and end of the track. The sensitivity of the analysis can be configured from Silence Analysis in Settings.
The system will not automatically set the Intro, Hook, or Early Out points.
The waveform shows the volume of the audio track over time. Cue point markers are overlaid as coloured lines using the following colour coding:
Cue point
Colour
Cue In
Green
Intro
Blue
Hook
Hot pink
Early Out
Orange
Cue Out
Red
Double-click on the waveform to start playing at a different position in the track. Use the Play and Stop buttons to control playback, and the Go to start and Go to end buttons to jump to the start or end of the track. Use the Zoom buttons to zoom in and out of the waveform if you need to set a more precise cue point. You can also zoom with the mouse wheel while hovering over the waveform.
Scheduling
The Scheduling tab contains options for controlling when the track is available for scheduling.
The Scheduling tab with disable, valid from, expires, and ignore year on dates options.
Tick this checkbox to prevent the track from being considered when scheduling. Disabled tracks remain in your library but will not be scheduled automatically.
Tick the checkbox and select a date to make the track available for scheduling only from that date onwards. Before midnight (00:00) on the selected date, the track will not be scheduled.
Tick the checkbox and select a date after which the track should no longer be scheduled. After midnight (00:00) on the selected date, the track will not be scheduled automatically.
Tick this checkbox to ignore the year part of the Valid From and Expires dates so the track recurs every year between the same day and month. For example, a Christmas track set to be valid from 1 December and to expire on 1 January returns to the schedule each year automatically, without you having to update the dates. This option is only available while both Valid From and Expires are ticked, and is cleared automatically if you untick either of them.
Dayparting requires the Advanced Scheduling premium module.
The Dayparting tab allows you to restrict the track to specific days and hours. This feature requires the Advanced Scheduling premium module. A green indicator next to the tab shows that the module is licensed. If the indicator is red, click it to purchase or start a trial of the module.
The Dayparting tab with the hour and day selector grid.
Tick this checkbox to enable dayparting for the track. When enabled, the track will only be scheduled during the time slots selected in the grid below.
The grid shows days of the week as rows and hours of the day as columns. Select cells and press Y to allow scheduling during those time slots, or N to block them. Green cells indicate allowed time slots.
Reporting
The Reporting tab contains fields used for music reporting and royalty tracking. These values can be exported via Manage > Logged Tracks to report to licensing and royalty collection agencies.
The Reporting tab with ISRC and Record Label fields.
The International Standard Recording Code for the track. This is a 12-character code used to identify individual recordings for royalty tracking and music reporting.
The record label that released the track. This information is included in music reports.
Track Groups
The Track Groups tab shows which track groups the track belongs to. Track groups are used to organise your library and control scheduling rotation. Alongside the Listed Track Groups that you can add and remove, the tab also displays any Filtered or Grouped Track Groups that dynamically include this track. These dynamic memberships are read-only and shown for reference.
The list of Listed Track Groups that the track currently belongs to. You can select a group and press Delete to remove the track from it. Filtered and Grouped Track Groups that dynamically include this track are shown alongside for reference and cannot be edited from this tab.
Click Add Track Group to add the track to an additional Listed Track Group. A dialog will appear allowing you to select from available track groups.
Bulk Editing Tracks
You can edit multiple tracks at once using the bulk edit feature. This is useful when you need to change a shared property across several tracks, such as correcting an artist name or setting a genre.
Selecting Multiple Tracks
Open the Manage Tracks window, then hold Ctrl or Shift to select multiple tracks in the list. To select all tracks in the list, click any track and press Ctrl+A. Click Edit to open the bulk edit dialog.
Select multiple tracks using Ctrl or Shift, then click Edit.
Editing Shared Properties
The bulk edit dialog shows the properties of all selected tracks. Fields where all selected tracks share the same value display that value. Fields where the values differ are left blank.
Each field has a checkbox next to it. Tick the checkbox for any field you want to change, then enter the new value. Only fields with a ticked checkbox are updated when you save. Fields without a tick are left unchanged on all selected tracks.
In this example, several ABBA tracks have been imported with different spellings of the artist name. By selecting them all and ticking the Artist checkbox, you can correct them all to "ABBA" in one step.
Tick the checkbox next to a field to change it across all selected tracks. Here the Artist is being corrected to ABBA.
Bulk Analysing Cue Points
You can also bulk analyse cue points in the selected tracks by clicking the Analyse All button in the Bulk Edit dialog. This runs cue point detection across every selected track in one step, so you do not need to open and analyse each track individually.
Bulk Editing Tags
When bulk editing tags, you can choose how the tags you enter are applied to the selected tracks. Tick the Tags checkbox, choose an operation, then enter the tags you want to apply, add, or remove in the Tags field.
Three operation modes are available:
Overwrite: Replaces all existing tags on the selected tracks with the tags you enter. Any tags previously assigned to the tracks are removed, and only the new tags you specify are applied.
Add: Adds the tags you enter to the selected tracks without removing any existing tags. Use this to supplement the tracks' current tags with additional ones.
Remove: Removes the specific tags you enter from the selected tracks while leaving all other existing tags intact. Use this to clean up tags that are no longer relevant.
Click Save Tracks to apply your changes to all selected tracks, or Close to discard them.
Add New Tracks Wizard
The Add New Tracks Wizard guides you through importing new tracks into your PlayIt Live library. To open it, go to Manage > Tracks... and click the Add New button in the Manage Tracks window.
The first page of the wizard asks you to choose how you would like to add tracks.
The Add New Tracks Wizard showing the source selection options.
Select this option to add all supported audio files from a folder. When you click Next, you will be prompted to choose a folder. All audio files found in the folder will be imported.
Select this option to import track data from a CSV file. When you click Next, you will be prompted to select a CSV file containing track metadata and file paths. See CSV Track Import for details on how to create a CSV file and the full list of supported columns.
To generate a template CSV file, go to Manage > Tracks and export the current list of tracks using the Export track list to CSV button. You can then modify the exported file to import a new set of tracks.
Click Next to proceed to the next step. Depending on the source option you selected, you will be prompted to choose your files, folder, or CSV import file.
Click Cancel to close the wizard without adding any tracks.
CSV Track Import
PlayIt Live can import tracks from a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file using the Add New Tracks Wizard. This is useful when migrating track metadata from another playout system, a music scheduling tool, or a spreadsheet.
Before You Start
The CSV importer expects data in a specific format. If you are exporting from another system, you will almost certainly need to convert and reformat the data before it can be imported into PlayIt Live. This requires some manual effort and familiarity with spreadsheet tools such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
In particular, all duration and cue point values must be in decimal seconds. Formats like 3:45 or 0:08.5 are not accepted because they are ambiguous (they could represent minutes:seconds or hours:minutes). You will need to convert these values yourself before importing. See Value Formats below for details.
The best approach is to export a few tracks from PlayIt Live first using the CSV export in Manage Tracks. This gives you a template showing the exact column names and value formats that the importer expects.
Creating a CSV File
The CSV file must have a header row with column names, followed by one row per track. You can create the file in any spreadsheet application and export it as CSV, or write it in a text editor.
Minimal Example
At minimum, each track needs a file path and a duration:
Path,Artist,Title,DurationC:\Music\Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine.mp3,Katrina and the Waves,Walking on Sunshine,239C:\Music\Journey - Don't Stop Believin'.mp3,Journey,Don't Stop Believin',250.5C:\Music\Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody.mp3,Queen,Bohemian Rhapsody,354
Full Example
A more complete CSV file with timing and metadata columns:
Path,Artist,Title,Duration,Intro,Cue In,Cue Out,Genre,Year,TypeC:\Music\Walking on Sunshine.mp3,Katrina and the Waves,Walking on Sunshine,239,8.5,0,228,Pop,1985,SongC:\Music\Bohemian Rhapsody.mp3,Queen,Bohemian Rhapsody,354,15,0,340,Rock,1975,Song
Value Formats
Every column has a specific value format. Using the wrong format will cause the row to be skipped during import.
Decimal Seconds
All duration and cue point columns must be in decimal seconds using a dot (.) as the decimal separator.
Correct
Incorrect
239
3:59
8.5
0:08.5
228.75
3:48.75
0
0:00
If your source data uses minutes:seconds format, you will need to convert it. In a spreadsheet, you can use a formula such as =MINUTE(A1)*60+SECOND(A1) to convert a time value in cell A1 to total seconds.
Text
Text values (Artist, Title, Album, etc.) are plain strings. If a value contains a comma, the entire value must be enclosed in double quotes in the CSV file. Most spreadsheet applications handle this automatically when exporting to CSV.
Boolean
Boolean columns (No Fade, Sweeper, Disabled, Ignore Validity Year?, Gain Set Manually?) accept true or false (case-insensitive). If the column is missing or empty, the value defaults to false.
Date
Date columns (Valid From, Expires) accept standard date formats such as 2026-01-15. The time portion is ignored.
Decimal
Decimal columns (Gain DB, Loudness Target LUFS, Tempo Adjust Percentage) use a dot (.) as the decimal separator. For example, -3.5 for a gain reduction of 3.5 dB.
Column Reference
Required Columns
Only the Path and Duration columns are needed for a valid import. All other columns are optional. If a column is missing from the header, the field is left empty or set to its default value.
Column
Format
Description
Path
Text
The full file path to the audio file on disk. Used for playback and duplicate detection.
Duration or Duration (seconds)
Decimal seconds
The total duration of the track (e.g. 239 or 228.5).
Track Information
Column
Format
Description
Artist
Text
The artist or performer name.
Title
Text
The track title.
Album
Text
The album name.
Genre
Text
The genre (e.g. Pop, Rock, Jazz).
Year
Text
The release year.
Type
Text
The track type. Must be one of the type identifiers listed below, or left empty.
The out cue text (e.g. "and don't it feel good!").
ISRC
Text
The International Standard Recording Code.
Record Label
Text
The record label name.
Track ID
Text
A custom track identifier.
Track Type Values
The Type column must use one of the following values exactly as shown below.
Value
Description
Song
A music track.
Station ID
A station identification jingle.
Promo
A promotional announcement.
Commercial
A commercial or advert.
News
A news bulletin or clip.
Bed
A background music bed.
Station ID + Bed
A combined station ID with a background bed.
If the Type column is left empty, the type will be inferred automatically.
Cue Points and Timing
Column
Format
Default
Description
Intro
Decimal seconds
Not set
The intro duration. The point at which vocals or the main content begins.
Cue In
Decimal seconds
0
The cue in point. Playback starts from this point.
Cue Out
Decimal seconds
Same as Duration
The cue out point. The next track begins at this point.
Early Out
Decimal seconds
Not set
The early out point. Used to play a sweeper early.
Hook Start
Decimal seconds
Not set
The start of the track's hook section.
Hook End
Decimal seconds
Not set
The end of the track's hook section.
Playback Control
Column
Format
Default
Description
No Fade
Boolean
false
Set to true to disable the fade-out at the cue out point of the track.
Sweeper
Boolean
false
Set to true to mark the track as a sweeper and allow it to play over other tracks.
Disabled
Boolean
false
Set to true to disable the track from being scheduled.
Valid From
Date
Not set
The date at midnight from which the track becomes available (e.g. 2026-01-15).
Expires
Date
Not set
The date at midnight after which the track is no longer available (e.g. 2026-02-15).
Ignore Validity Year?
Boolean
false
Set to true to ignore the year part of Valid From and Expires so the track recurs every year between those dates. Only takes effect when both Valid From and Expires are set.
Audio Processing
Column
Format
Default
Description
Gain DB
Decimal
Not set
Audio gain adjustment in decibels (e.g. -3.5).
Gain Set Manually?
Boolean
false
Set to true if the gain value was manually configured rather than auto-detected by Loudness Analysis.
Loudness Target LUFS
Decimal
Not set
The loudness normalisation target in LUFS stored by the Loudness Analysis feature.
Tempo Adjust Percentage
Decimal
Not set
Percentage adjustment to the playback tempo.
Scheduling
Column
Format
Description
Dayparting
Text
Controls when the track is allowed to play. The value starts with Y (enabled) or N (disabled), followed by semicolon-separated day and hour pairs using the format DayCode|Hour. Day codes are Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr, Sa, Su. Hours are 0 to 23. For example, Y;Mo|09;Mo|10;Fr|14 enables the track on Mondays at 9am and 10am, and Fridays at 2pm.
Error Handling
If a row contains a malformed value (e.g. text in a numeric column), that row is skipped and the error is logged. The rest of the import continues.
Columns can appear in any order in the CSV file.
Extra columns not recognised by PlayIt Live are ignored.
If a value contains a comma, enclose it in double quotes (e.g. "Earth, Wind & Fire").
Add New Tracks Additional Options
After selecting your source in the Add New Tracks Wizard, the Additional Options page lets you configure how the import will be processed.
The Add New Tracks Wizard showing the additional options for a folder import.
Displays a summary of the source you selected on the previous page. For a folder import, this shows the folder path. For individual files, it shows the number of files selected.
When importing from a folder, tick this option to also scan all sub-folders within the selected folder for audio files. This option is only available when importing from a folder.
When ticked, PlayIt Live will analyse the silence at the start and end of each track and cue in and out points. This is recommended for most imports. The parameters for the silence analysis can be configured from Settings > General.
Controls what happens when an imported track has the same file path as an existing track in your library. This section is only available when your library already contains tracks.
Replace any tracks with the same file path: If a file is found that has the same path as a track in the system, it will be overwritten by the new track file.
Skip any tracks with the same file path: If a file is found that has the same path as a track in the system, it will be ignored and will not change the existing track already added to PlayIt Live.
Duplicate any tracks with the same file path: If a file is found that has the same path as a track in the system, it will be added again, resulting in two instances of the same track in the system.
Add New Tracks Progress
After configuring your additional options, the wizard begins importing your tracks. The progress page shows the status of the import as each file is loaded and processed.
The Add New Tracks Wizard showing an import in progress.
Shows the artist and title of the track currently being processed, as read from the embedded tag information within the file. If this information is missing, the artist and title are determined from the filename in the format Artist - Title.ext where ext is the file extension.
A progress bar showing the overall completion of the import, along with text indicating how many tracks have been processed out of the total. If any tracks were ignored during the import, the count of ignored tracks is also displayed. Tracks are ignored if they are not valid audio files, have no duration, or if the duplicate handling option is set to skip and a track with the same file path already exists in the library.
Add New Tracks Review
After the import progress completes, the wizard moves to the review page. Here you can choose which tracks to include in the import and review or edit each track's metadata before it is saved to your library.
The Add New Tracks Wizard showing the review page with a track selected for editing.
Displays all the tracks discovered during the import, listed alphabetically by artist and title. Each track has a checkbox that controls whether it will be included when you complete the wizard. All tracks are checked by default. Click a track to select it and view its details in the track editor panel.
Each track in the list has a checkbox. Uncheck a track to exclude it from the import. Only checked tracks will be added to your library when you click Finish. This is useful if some of the discovered files are not tracks you want in your library.
When you select a track from the list, the track editor panel appears on the right side. This shows the track's metadata as read from the file's tags, including artist, title, album, genre, year, and other fields. The fields shown here are the same as those in the Edit Track window, so you can set them up consistently before the track is imported. You can edit any of these values before the track is imported. Changes are saved for that track when you select a different track or proceed to the next page.
Add New Tracks Group
After reviewing your tracks, the final page of the wizard is the group assignment section. Here you can add the imported tracks to an existing track group, create a new group for them, or leave them in the All Tracks group. Click Finish to add the tracks to your library.
The Add New Tracks Wizard showing the group assignment options.
Select this option to leave the imported tracks without assigning them to a particular track group. The tracks will still appear in the All Tracks group.
It is possible to change the icon and colour of a track on the playout log on the main interface. When editing a track group, you can optionally select an icon and colour for the track group. There are a number of built-in icons but it is possible to add your own.
To add your own icons, go to the C:\ProgramData\PlayIt Live\icons folder on your computer. Please note that C:\ProgramData\ is a hidden folder, so you should type the full path into Windows Explorer or the Run window.
The built-in icons are 256x256 PNG icons with transparency. To add your own icons to PlayIt Live, simply add the images to this folder. PlayIt Live uses the filename without extension to store which icon is associated with each track group. Therefore you should not use the same filename with different extensions for different icons. You should also not prefix your images with playit-. Anything with this prefix could be removed or overwritten by a new version of PlayIt Live. Once you have added your icons to the folder they will be visible for use in PlayIt Live.
Manage Track Groups Window
The Manage Track Groups window lists all the track groups in the system. Open it from the Manage > Track Groups menu.
The Manage Track Groups window showing a list of track groups with their types and track counts.
A Listed Track Group lets you manually select a fixed list of tracks to include in the group. Select this option and then click OK to open the Edit Listed Track Group window.
A Filtered Track Group dynamically selects tracks based on filter conditions applied to track properties such as artist, genre, or year. Select this option and then click OK to open the Edit Filtered Track Group window.
A Grouped Track Group combines multiple existing track groups into a single group, letting you treat several groups as one. Select this option and then click OK to open the Edit Grouped Track Group window.
List of tracks not already in the track group. You can select the columns that are displayed in this grid by right-clicking the header and selecting Select columns.... You can right-click a track in the track list to show additional options, including the ability to preview the audio to hear what the track sounds like.
List of tracks in the track group. You can select the columns that are displayed in this grid by right-clicking the header and selecting Select columns.... You can right-click a track in the track list to show additional options, including the ability to preview the audio.
Tick the Colour box to show a colour for any tracks in this track group when they are displayed on the playout log on the main interface. Click in the colour box to change the colour.
Tick the Icon box to show an icon for any tracks in this track group when they are displayed on the playout log on the main interface. Click in the icon box to change the icon, and the Select Icon window will be shown. To add your own icons, see the Customising the playout log section.
The priority is used to determine which track group is used when displaying a track on the playout log on the main interface that appears in multiple track groups. The track group with the highest priority will be used when displaying the colour or icon.
Click Cancel to discard changes to the track group.
Edit Filtered Track Group Window
The Edit Filtered Track Group window allows you to create dynamic track groups using filters. For example, you can filter tracks by songs by artists that start with A.
The Edit Filtered Track Group window showing filter conditions and matched tracks.
The filter builder lets you define one or more conditions that tracks must match to be included in the group.
Each filter row contains:
Field Selector: choose the track property to filter on, such as Artist, Title, Genre, Year, or Type.
Operation Selector: choose how the field value is compared, such as Contains, Does Not Contain, Starts With, Ends With, or Is Empty.
Filter Value: enter the value to compare against.
When you have more than one filter row:
And / Or Selector: choose how to combine the conditions. And requires tracks to match both conditions. Or requires tracks to match either condition.
Open / Close Parentheses: use parentheses to group conditions and control the order of evaluation. Use the up and down arrows to add or remove parentheses.
Use the Add button to add a new filter condition and the Remove button to delete the selected condition.
If this checkbox is checked, the tracks in this group will be the inverse of the selected groups. That is, this track group will include only tracks that do not appear in the selected track groups.
Click Cancel to discard changes to this track group.
Move Tracks Window
You can use the Move Tracks window to easily move tracks from one Listed Track Group to another. Open it by clicking Move Tracks in the Manage Track Groups window.
The Move Tracks window showing two track groups side by side with move controls.
Select the track group you want to move tracks from. Select the tracks you wish to move and click the right arrow. You can select multiple tracks while holding the Ctrl key. You can also double-click tracks to move them to the other track group. Right-click the header and select Select columns... to customise the displayed columns. Right-click a track to show additional options, including the ability to preview the audio.
Select the track group you want to move tracks to. Select the tracks you wish to move back and click the left arrow. You can select multiple tracks while holding the Ctrl key. You can also double-click tracks to move them to the other track group. Right-click the header and select Select columns... to customise the displayed columns. Right-click a track to show additional options, including the ability to preview the audio.
Multiple Artist Splits define the text used to separate combined artist names in the Artist field of a track. Without splits configured, PlayIt Live treats a name such as Take That feat. Lulu as a single distinct artist, so artist-separation rules in Playout Policies will not apply to the individual artists within that name.
For example, adding a split with the text feat. causes PlayIt Live to recognise Take That and Lulu as separate artists. Playout Policies can then prevent either artist from being played too close together, regardless of whether the track credit is listed as the combined name or individually.
The text used to separate a Track Artist into multiple artists. Include spaces either side of the text if you intend to split by a word. For example, with on its own could match George Michael with Elton John but also Bill Withers.
Click Cancel to discard changes and close the window.
Related Artists
Related Artists are used to associate artists with each other so they are considered as the same artist when scheduling with playout policies. For example, you may not want a solo singer in a band to be played close to a song by that band, e.g. Robbie Williams and Take That. The order of the two artists in a pair does not matter, so there is no need to add both Robbie Williams / Take That and Take That / Robbie Williams.
Click Cancel to discard changes and close the window.
Monitored Folders
Monitored Folders can watch the state of a Windows folder (and optionally its sub-folders) for new, updated or deleted track files. Monitored Folders can be accessed via Manage > Monitored Folders.
When a file is added to the folder, it will be added to the PlayIt Live database if it is a valid track file. The track file can also be automatically analysed for cue points and added to a track group.
When a file is updated in the folder, it will be updated in the PlayIt Live database, updating the duration, cue points and any file metadata contained within the file, if desired.
When a file is deleted from the folder, it will be deleted from the PlayIt Live database, if desired.
If you delete a track from Manage > Tracks, but the underlying audio file still exists in a monitored folder, the track will be re-added to the database on the next folder scan. To permanently remove a track that belongs to a monitored folder, delete the audio file from the folder itself rather than removing the track from Manage > Tracks.
Monitored folders work by periodically scanning for changes in the folder, every 30 seconds. Folders with a large number of files or sub-folders will take longer to scan. For this reason, do not use C:\ as the folder to scan for changes to every file on your computer. This will likely never complete. Choose a folder where you know audio files are located.
Use Monitored Folders if you have dynamic content, e.g. news or weather, from a folder such as Dropbox. Create a Monitored Folder with a Path to the shared Dropbox folder to pick up changes automatically.