Cloud Booth

Cloud Booth is a studio in a browser tab for CloudRadio One stations. You line up tracks from your Media Library in a queue, play them on two decks, fire jingles from a cart wall and talk over the music, then send the mix to your station as a live source. To go on air with a microphone only, see Go Live From Your Browser.

Everything in Cloud Booth works off air first. Until you click Go live, only you hear it.

Before you start

• A current version of Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer. Safari, phones and tablets are not supported yet.
• A wide browser window. Below 1,024 pixels the booth shows This window is too narrow for Cloud Booth. and starts when you widen the window.
• Headphones. You listen to the booth and to cue in them, and speakers next to an open microphone cause echo.
• A microphone, if you plan to talk.

What you get in the booth depends on your role:

See Scheduled DJs for how a DJ or Guest DJ gets either booth, and Users and Roles for what each role can do elsewhere.

Open Cloud Booth

1. Open your station in Studio and go to Live DJ in the sidebar.
2. In the Go live from your browser card, under Cloud Booth, click Open Cloud Booth.

The booth opens in a new browser tab, off air. The header is one line: the station's time, the time your show ends, what the booth is doing, the keyboard shortcuts and Power, with a green power icon while the booth is open, which closes the booth and returns to the Live DJ page.

What the booth is doing is the line next to the clock, for example Rehearse as much as you like: only you hear the booth., with a second line under it that says more. When the window is narrow they are cut short; hold the pointer over them to read them whole.

Under the header, the console holds the channels you work during a show: your microphone, Deck A and Deck B, with the transport buttons under the decks. Each deck's Cue lamp sits next to its track title. To its right are two cards:

• Main is what goes on air. It holds the Main meter, how many listeners the station has, Go live with Go live when it ends beside it (one above the other in a narrower window) and, while you are live, End broadcast. Its pill reads Off air. While you are on air, the card has a red edge at the top.
• Headphones is what only you hear, never on air: Headphone level and the line In your headphones, which says where that sound comes from.

Below them are the queue, the Library, Requests and Notes tabs, and the cart wall.

Next to the tabs, Start a poll opens listener polls in a window over the booth, if your role runs polls and the station streams in HLS. Your decks keep playing. Fill in the question and answers and click Start poll: the window closes and the booth says Poll started. While a poll runs, Start a poll gives way to a line under the tabs that keeps count as listeners vote, for example Poll: 12 votes · Yes 58% (the answer ahead and its share; on a tie, the votes only). Click it to open the poll with its full results, Close now, Keep open and Close and fix; On-air view opens the big results view in a new tab. When the poll closes, the line reads Poll closed with the final result for two minutes, or until you click the X at its end, then Start a poll is back. Press Esc or click the X to close the window; the booth's shortcuts work again once it is closed.

Any other link in the booth also opens in a new tab, so nothing you click takes you out of the booth. Only Power leaves it, and while you are live it asks first.

One booth at a time

Your queue is the same in every tab, so only one Cloud Booth works for you on a station at a time. If it is already open in another tab, browser or computer, opening it again shows Cloud Booth is already open instead of the booth. Use the booth where it is open, or click Take over here. If that booth is on air, the page says so, and Take over here first asks End that broadcast and take over?: End it and take over cuts that broadcast and AutoDJ plays until you go live again, Keep it there changes nothing.

When you take over, the other booth stops its decks, carts and microphone, leaves the air and reads Cloud Booth moved to another tab or browser, with Take it back to bring it back there. The booth you took over opens with the queue as it is now.

If the other tab closes, or its computer goes offline, the waiting tab becomes the booth by itself after a few seconds, without a reload. A short drop of your own connection does not cost you the booth: the tab that had it gets it back when it reconnects. Other presenters of the station each have their own booth.

Build the queue

The Queue is the list of tracks you plan to play, top to bottom. Add tracks one by one from the tabs next to it, or many at once with Fill:

• Library: type in Search title, artist or album, or pick tags under Filter by tags. Click Add to put a track at the end of the queue, or drag it to the place you want. Show more loads more results.
• Requests: the tab shows the song requests waiting on your station, with their number in the tab name. Click Add to put one in the queue. A request you play on air is marked as played for the listener.
• Fill, at the top of the queue: adds a whole block of tracks drawn like AutoDJ, from a playlist or from tags. See Fill the queue.

To change the order, drag a row by the handle at its left. The X at the right of a row removes it, and Clear removes every row still to play, once you answer Remove rows to the question it asks. Rows you have played move to the Played list under the queue.

The queue holds up to 500 rows. It is saved as you work and belongs to you: reload the page and it is still there, and other presenters on the station have their own.

Fill the queue

Click Fill at the top of the queue. The dialog shows what it will add before anything changes, so you can try settings until the block fits your show.

1. Under Fill from, pick where the tracks come from:
   • Like AutoDJ: tracks from where AutoDJ is drawing: the playlist of the show scheduled now, otherwise your weighted playlists (one picked by weight for each track), otherwise your whole library. The line under the choice names it, for example From the show's playlist: Morning Mix. A show's playlist is taken in its order from where AutoDJ is in it, and starts again from the top when the show loops it; a play-once show plays once, then the fill goes on from what follows it. When the show ends during the fill, the rest comes from what airs next. This is not a copy of AutoDJ's queue, and AutoDJ's own queue, rotation and shuffle are not changed.
   • Playlist: a playlist in its own order. Fixed tracks keep their place, and its tag and request slots are filled when you fill, with AutoDJ's rules. A playlist made of tag slots in sequence works as a reusable show clock. When the playlist runs out before the target, it starts again from the top. Shown to members who can manage playlists.
   • Tags: type in Search tags to add and pick one or more tags. In sequence takes one track per tag, in the order you added them, then starts the sequence again. Mixed takes each track from one of the tags, picked at random. The X on a tag removes it.
2. Under How much, pick Until the show ends (the time left before Show ends at, after the rows that stay in the queue), a number of minutes, or a number of tracks. A duration is reached and passed by at most the last track.
3. Under Where, pick After the last row, or Replace every row after the one playing to drop the rows still to play and start the block right after the current track.
4. Check the list under What will be added: each track with the time it is due to start, the total length and when the block ends, against your show's end time. Shuffle again draws a new set.
5. Click Add (it shows how many tracks). The rows appear in the queue and the show clock updates.

How tracks are picked

Every fill uses AutoDJ's own rules: your station's artist, album and track separation, tag airing windows, and what aired recently, including what you played in Cloud Booth in this session. A track already waiting in the queue, or playing, is never picked again, and a track is used once per fill, except when Like AutoDJ follows a show that loops its playlist: that playlist starts again from the top as it does on air.

When no track can fill a slot under those rules, the separation rules are relaxed for that slot first, and the slot is skipped only if nothing fits even then. The dialog says how many slots needed the rules relaxed or were skipped, and marks relaxed tracks with Rules relaxed. If a source has too few tracks, check Allow repeats in this fill: a track can then come back within the fill, still spaced out as far as the rules allow.

One fill adds up to 250 tracks. When the target needs more, the dialog says so: click Add, then fill again for the rest.

A request slot takes the oldest waiting song request. Playing it on air marks the request as played for the listener.

Choose how each row ends

Each row has a menu that sets how it ends:

The hand icon, Break after, also makes the booth stop after that row and wait for you. Use it before a talk break.

On a row with another row after it, the arrows icon previews the transition into the next row in cue, so you hear the mix before listeners do. While the preview plays, Earlier and Later move the moment the next track comes in, in steps of half a second and up to 5 seconds each way. Stop ends the preview.

Follow the show clock

Each row shows the time it is due to start. Under the queue, Ends at is when the last row will finish.

Set Show ends at to the time your show is over. The pill next to Ends at then reads how far the queue runs over or under that time, for example 2:10 over against 10:00. Add, remove or reorder rows until it fits.

The header repeats it next to the station's time: Show ends with the time, and the same over or under pill, so you can read it while you talk.

Play

Tracks load on Deck A and Deck B in turn. Each deck shows the track, its waveform, the time left and a state: Empty, Loading, Next, Playing or Paused.

• Play next starts the next row. If a row is already playing, it fades out from where it is and the next one starts. If a row is paused, it ends and counts as played. If the next row is still loading, the playing row fades out now, the line under the transport reads The next row is still loading. It starts as soon as it is ready., and it does.
• Pause holds the playing row, and Resume continues it.
• Stop stops the playing or paused track now, with a short fade, for example to talk over silence. The track counts as played. The next row stays loaded as Next and does not start, even with Auto advance on: Play next starts it. Stop does nothing to your carts or your microphone; Stop carts, on the cart wall, is for carts.
• Auto advance is lit and reads On by default: each row follows the one before it, the way that row is set to end. Switch it off to start every row yourself.
• Gain under each deck raises or lowers that deck. The slim meter above it shows that deck's own level, so you can see which deck is sounding.

When a track is playing and nothing comes after it in the queue, the empty deck warns you. With a minute left it reads Nothing next: add a track and pulses slowly in amber; with 30 seconds left it pulses faster in orange; with 10 seconds left it turns red and counts down: Nothing next: silence in 0:08 on air, Nothing next: stops in 0:08 off air. At 0:00 the deck stops. On air, listeners hear silence until you play something or open your mic, then the dead air rules apply. The warning goes away as soon as a track loads on the deck. The time left on the playing deck also turns red in its last 15 seconds.

Off air, click a deck's waveform to jump to that point of the track. On air this is off, so listeners never hear a jump.

The Main meter shows the level of everything going out. A limiter keeps the mix from distorting when a track, a cart and your voice add up.

Listen in cue

Cue lets you hear a track in your headphones before it plays. While cue plays it replaces Main in your headphones, so you hear only the cued track. Listeners never hear cue.

• Cue next plays the next track in your headphones, from the point where its deck starts it. The deck's label reads Cue, and its timer and waveform move with what you hear. The button reads Stop cue while it plays: click it to stop, and the deck goes back to its starting point. Before the next track is on a deck, Cue next plays the next row of the queue.
• The speaker icon on a row of the queue or of the Library plays that track in cue.

The Cue lamps on Deck A, Deck B and next to the Main meter show what you are hearing, and the Headphones card says it in words, for example In your headphones: Deck B, cue. They are not buttons: they light up amber, with a filled dot, on their own.

• Main, the mix that goes out to listeners, is lit when the booth opens: you hear the output.
• While Cue next plays, only the lamp of the deck that plays next is lit. The Main lamp goes off, and Main comes back in your headphones when the cue stops.
• While a row or a Library track plays in cue, no deck lamp lights and the Main lamp goes off until it ends. The Headphones card reads the track's name followed by preview.

Headphone level, in the Headphones card, sets how loud the booth is in your headphones. It never changes what goes on air.

Set up your microphone

The microphone is the first channel of the console, on the left of the decks. The line next to the round Mic button says where it stands:

• Click to set up: your browser has not been asked yet, or cannot say.
• Ready, with the microphone's name once you chose one: your browser allows it, and the microphone is off.
• Blocked in your browser: your browser refuses it. See The browser blocks the microphone.
• While it is on, what the music does under it, for example On, music lowered.

The first time, click Mic, or press M or Space. The window Set up your microphone opens over the booth; your decks keep playing, and nothing from your microphone goes on air while it is open.

1. Your browser asks for permission to use the microphone. Click Allow.
2. Under Microphone, pick the device if you have more than one.
3. Say a few words at the volume you use on air and watch Level. The bar shows each peak, the line under it your average, and a dashed box named Good level marks where your peaks should land. The line under Input level tells you which way to move it: Too quiet: raise Input level., Good level. or Too loud: lower Input level.
4. Under Sound, choose Voice for a microphone: the browser removes background noise and evens out your level. Choose Music or mixer for a mixer or an audio interface plugged into this computer: the input is sent untouched, in stereo. The (i) next to Sound says the same. Neither captures sound from other apps on this computer.
5. Click Done. Done always works; if no good level was heard yet, the line next to it says so.

Your choices are kept in this browser. The microphone stays off and the line reads Ready: the next press of Mic opens it at once, without the window. To open the window again, for another microphone or to set your level, click the gear icon, Booth settings, then Microphone setup. Esc or the X close it too.

Input level is also in the Mic column, for small changes during the show. The line under the small meter next to the Mic button coaches your level until it has read Good level., then shows the shortcuts again and the meter alone tells you your level, so a pause in your talking never reads as too quiet. It still warns Too loud if your voice distorts.

You do not hear your own microphone in the booth, because a browser plays it back late, as an echo. Listeners hear it.

Talk over the music

• Click Mic, or press M, to switch the microphone on. The button turns red and reads Mic on. Click it again to switch it off.
• Hold Space to talk: the microphone is on while you hold the key, and goes back to how it was when you let go.

Talkover sets what the music does while the microphone is on:

Press T to move to the next position. The line next to Mic reads On, music lowered or On, music at full level, so you can see what listeners hear.

• Duck level sets how far the music drops under your voice, from -3 dB to -30 dB.
• Voice processor cuts low rumble and evens out your voice, so quiet and loud words sit closer together. It is lit and reads On while it is working.

To check what a control does while you work, point at the (i) next to Talkover, Duck level, Voice processor or Auto duck, or move to it with the Tab key.

Use the cart wall

Carts are short sounds you fire with one key: jingles, beds, stings. A cart wall has 20 tiles per bank and up to 8 banks. A cart is 3 minutes at most.

The booth has two walls. Switch between them with Station and Mine at the top of the Carts card. The keys fire the tiles of the wall you are looking at.

• Station: shared by every presenter on the station. Everyone with the full booth can fire it. Only members who can edit the Media Library (owners, station managers and music controllers) can change it, so DJs see no Edit button on it.
• Mine: your own wall. Only you see it, fire it and change it.

If you cannot change the station wall and it is still empty, the booth opens on Mine.

An empty bank reads This bank is empty. To fill it in one click, click Fill from my jingles. The number on the button is how many jingles it will add. It puts your station's tracks of type jingle, 3 minutes or shorter, on the free tiles in title order. Tiles that already hold a sound are left alone, and a jingle already on the bank is not added twice.

To fill a tile yourself:

1. Click Edit on the Carts card, or Pick tracks myself on an empty bank. While you edit, the tiles wobble and a free tile shows +. The wobble is off when your system is set to reduce motion.
2. Click a free tile. The Library tab reads Pick the track for cart tile 3, then press Assign.
3. Find the track in the Library tab and click Assign.
4. Optional: click the tile again to open its settings (see below).
5. Click Done on the Carts card.

In Edit, clicking a tile that holds a sound opens its settings in a window over the booth, titled with the tile, for example Tile 3: Jingle. Your decks and carts keep playing. In it you can change the Name, set the Key that fires it, choose what happens When pressed and pick a Color; each change is saved as you make it. A new tile takes a color from its track's type: yellow for a jingle, blue for music, green for a voice track, pink for a shout-out, orange for anything else. The window also shows the tile's track: Change track closes the window and asks the Library for another one, as for a free tile. Move to and Move put the tile elsewhere in the bank, and Empty tile clears it after asking. Done, the X or Esc close the window and leave you in Edit. While it is open, the booth's shortcuts are off and Space works as usual in its fields.

You can also drag a track from the Library tab onto a tile of a wall you can change, with or without Edit: a free tile reads Drop to assign while the track is over it. A track longer than 3 minutes turns the tile red and reads Too long for a cart: 3 minutes at most, and letting go does nothing. A tile that already holds a sound reads Replace, and the booth asks first, for example Replace tile 3? with Jingle on tile 3 gives way to Down the river.; Replace tile puts the new track on it, and a tile that was playing stops. On a wall you cannot change, tiles take no drop.

Click a tile or press its key to fire it. Each tile shows its key, its name and its length. While it plays, the tile fills from the left and counts down. Several tiles can play at once. Stop carts stops every cart.

Auto duck lowers the music while a cart plays, by the amount on its slider. Click it to switch it off and play carts over the music at full level.

In Edit, the + next to the bank buttons adds a bank and Fill from my jingles fills the free tiles of the bank.

To rearrange a bank, click Edit, then drag a tile onto another tile of the same bank. On a free tile it moves (the tile reads Move here); on a filled tile the two swap places (it reads Swap). Without a mouse, open the tile, choose a tile in Move to and click Move. A tile keeps its name, color, When pressed and Key wherever it goes: a tile that got key 1 on the first tile still fires with 1 on tile 6. Tiles move only in Edit, so nothing moves by accident while you are on air.

Go live

1. Optional: open the Notes tab and type a Show title. Listeners see it during talk breaks. Each track shows its own title and artist.
2. Click Go live in the Main card. The pill turns solid red and reads On air at once: start your first row or switch your microphone on.
3. Listeners hear you about 20 seconds after you play or speak: your station holds live audio about 12 seconds, and their player adds the rest. AutoDJ's music carries on for those first seconds, and nothing you play is lost.
4. The card gets a red edge, and a timer next to End broadcast counts your time on air. The line next to the clock reads You are on air.

If your station's dashboard shows New version available, it holds live audio about 20 seconds until you update.

While you are off air, the Main card shows under Go live what your station is airing right now, for example On air now: Coldplay, Viva la Vida · 2:13 left. The time left counts down to the end of the song. When the station does not report a length, for example during another DJ's live set, only the title shows.

Go live when it ends, under that line, waits for the AutoDJ song now playing: the booth connects so that you land on air as that song ends. While it waits, that line reads Going live in 2:13 and counts down, and Cancel stops the wait. The button is unavailable when AutoDJ is not reporting a song.

What is logged

Each track you play from a deck while you are on air goes into your station's play history, the same way an AutoDJ track does. It appears in Statistics and in the exports you use for music licensing. A track hidden from the public is logged as hidden.

Carts are not logged. A cart you fire does not appear in Statistics or in the licensing exports, and it does not count as a play of that track. Your show title, which listeners see while you talk between tracks, is not logged as a song either.

On air means your station has put your booth on air. Nothing is logged while you are off air, while the booth is still connecting, or while another live input holds the air.

AutoDJ also counts what you played: when it takes the air back, its artist and track separation rules treat your tracks as recently played.

Dead air

If nothing goes out for 5 seconds while you are on air, the line next to the clock reads Dead air: nothing has gone out for 5 seconds. Play the next row or open your mic. and keeps counting.

To let the booth react for you, click the gear icon, Booth settings, and switch on On air, start the next row after 5 seconds of silence.

After 60 seconds of silence, AutoDJ takes over until your sound returns. See When a live input goes silent.

Keep the tab open

Closing the tab, reloading it or leaving the booth ends the broadcast, so the booth asks first while you are live:

• Power and your browser's Back button open the question End your broadcast and close Cloud Booth? in the booth itself. Click Keep broadcasting to keep going, however long you take to answer: the music and your microphone carry on meanwhile. End and close hands the air back to AutoDJ and leaves. Off air, Power leaves at once.
• Reloading or closing the tab shows your browser's own question. Chrome keeps your broadcast going while it is open. Firefox pauses the whole page, so listeners hear silence and AutoDJ takes over within about 20 seconds. Answer to stay and the booth reconnects by itself, with your decks and microphone as they were.

You can switch to another tab or another program: the broadcast continues in the background.

If the app needs to reload the page while you are on air, for example after an update, the line under the transport reads The page needs a reload. It reloads once you end your broadcast; you stay on air until then. It keeps saying so until you end the broadcast.

If you are signed out, for example from another tab, or you lose access to the station while you are live, the broadcast ends, AutoDJ takes over, and the page that opens says why, for example You must log in to access this page.

End the broadcast

Click End broadcast in the Main card. The line next to the clock reads Broadcast ended. Listeners hear your last seconds, then AutoDJ resumes. The decks keep playing for you, off air.

Scheduled DJs

A DJ or Guest DJ booked for a scheduled show opens Cloud Booth from My shows: in the Go live from your browser card, click Open Cloud Booth.

Which booth they get is set per member on the station's Users page. Each DJ and Guest DJ row has a Cloud Booth setting:

• Full booth: the member searches the station's library, listens in cue, plays tracks on the decks, fills the queue with Fill like AutoDJ or from tags, and fires both cart walls. It does not open the Media Library pages and allows no uploads, edits or deletions. This is the default for a DJ.
• Microphone only: the booth has the microphone, the Main card and the Notes tab, with no decks, queue, cart walls or Headphones card. With no music to lower, it has no Talkover or Duck level either. This is the default for a Guest DJ.

Members who manage users change it. The new setting applies the next time the member opens the booth. Changing a member's role puts the setting back to the new role's default.

With the full booth, you can open Cloud Booth at any time to build your queue and rehearse off air. Going live is the same for both booths: you can go live from five minutes before one of your scheduled shows until it ends. If you connect before the start time, the line next to the clock reads Connected. You go on air when your show starts with the time, and AutoDJ keeps playing until then.

Keep show notes

The Notes tab holds your script, links to read or names to thank. Notes are saved as you type, and only you see them.

Keyboard shortcuts

Click the ? icon in the header, next to Power, or press ?, to show this list in the booth.

The list in the booth also shows the key of every tile on the bank you have open. A booth with only the microphone lists M, Space and ?, the keys that work there. Keys do nothing while you type in a field or while the Fill dialog is open; there, Esc closes the dialog. Space always holds the microphone open, even on a button you clicked or reached with Tab: press Enter to use that button. In the poll window, in a question the booth asks and in Booth settings, Space works as usual.

If the connection drops

If your internet connection cuts out, the line next to the clock reads Connection lost. Reconnecting… and the booth reconnects on its own for up to two minutes. The decks keep playing, and listeners keep hearing the last seconds you sent. If the connection does not come back, AutoDJ takes over, and the booth asks you to go live again.

The message Your internet connection is struggling to keep up. means your upload is too slow at the moment. Close other programs that use the connection, or move closer to your Wi-Fi router.

Limits

• One booth per presenter. Opening Cloud Booth in a second tab shows where it is open, with Take over here. See One booth at a time.
• One presenter per input. If an encoder or another tab is already connected to your input, the pill reads In use and you cannot go live until it disconnects. Co-hosts in different places cannot join the same booth.
• Computers only. Safari, phones and tablets are not supported yet.
• Library tracks only. The decks and the cart wall play tracks from your Media Library. To play audio from another program, use a mixer with Go Live From Your Browser, or encoder software.

Troubleshooting

A track could not be loaded

The row reads Could not load and the booth moves on to the row after it. Check your internet connection, then add the track again.

The browser blocks the microphone

The line next to the Mic button reads Blocked in your browser, and the window Set up your microphone says so too. Click the icon at the left of the address bar, set Microphone to Allow, then click Try again in the window, or Mic.

The station refused the connection

The input is in use, or a station manager just took it off air. Wait a minute and click Go live again.

Related articles

• Go Live From Your Browser
• Broadcasting Live
• Going Live as a DJ
• Song Requests