Fairlight Prodigy, Edit User Manual

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User Manual
Guide to AudioBase 2
AudioBase 2 is the networked version of AudioBase. In most ways its operation is exactly the same as AudioBase,
but its installation is very different. This is beyond the scope of this manual, but is covered in the AudioBase 2
Installation Manual. While AudioBase runs inside the Prodigy Editor, AudioBase2 runs on a separate PC, using a
commercial database called Microsoft SQL Server. Once installed, this behaves very much like AudioBase, but in
the following paragraphs some small differences are noted.
The AudioBase 2 SQL database can be accessed directly from an HTML browser running on the MediaLink Server
or any PC connected to the network. Several HTML pages provide functions to search and edit clips and files.
Several clips may be amended or deleted at the same time. These functions eliminate the need to export the data-
base as a text file, modify it with Excel, and re-import it as with AudioBase 1.
To export an existing AudioBase 1 database into AudioBase 2 type "exportab1" at the command line.
The two Softkeys "import" and "export" have been removed from the AudioBase file submenu. These functions are
no longer performed on the Prodigy Editor. See HTML interface.
There is a slight difference in behaviour between AudioBase 1 and AudioBase 2 in terms of the colour of the field
after a search has returned. In AudioBase 1 you will see the active fields (where you put search criteria into) as
either grey or blue. In AudioBase 2 they will always be blue.
New value "ANY" has been added to the criterion "LINE". When selected, the search routine does not check
whether the files containing the clips matching all other criteria are "On Line", (ie on machines which are on line at
the time of the search) or "Off Line". It is recommended to use this option if you know that the files containing the
clips returned by the search are on line as a search may take tens of seconds just to check the file "On Line" status.
NOTE: This option is also available in AudioBase 1
Found X of Y
AudioBase 2 is designed to service a whole network of MFX workstations, and is therefore capable of handling
very large sound libraries. When a search yields a large number of results, it produces very significant network
traffic to download all the information to the MFX workstation that initiated the search. To prevent this happening,
only the first group of 100 found records are downloaded, but as the list is scrolled, more records are found inside
the database and downloaded automatically, keeping the flow of information coming smoothly.
Alphabetic Sort
AudioBase 2 sorts all records alphabetically by name before downloading them from the server to the MFX
workstation, while AudioBase does not.
No Export
Because AudioBase 2 works in the PC environment, no export procedure is provided. The SQL database can be
interrogated and edited directly on the PC where it is running, using tools supplied with the AudioBase 2 package.
The Line Field
AudioBase 2 allows the Line field to have the value Any, which means records are found whether they are online or
offline. The reason for this is that, with the very large number of records that could be present in AudioBase 2, it
could take a long time to find out if each of them has audio on a disk somewhere on the network. This is particu-
larly true if you are searching for individual WAVE files, because each one's presence on the network must be
verified each time you search for it (otherwise someone else might have deleted since the last time).
If the value Any is entered in the Line field before the search, this verification time will be saved, and the search
results will arrive quickly. When the records are auditioned, any that is offline will not play, and an error message
will result.