"The Brain" DJ Software

"The Brain" is a rule-based expert system program designed to play mp3 music files and to generate play-lists of mp3 files that can be played by itself, Microsoft Media Player, Apple's I-tunes software, or other programs that read these formats.

The program allows you to catalog your mp3 music files and to add or edit information stored in the mp3 files.

The Brain reads the standard ID3 tags in the music files, genre, title, album, artist, etc. In addition, the brain allows users to add custom song information consisting of a rating and any number of "keys" (words that describe the song, such as "oldie", "yule", "slow", "folk",  etc.). These custom data fields are then used by the program and the rules to select music files to be played.

The rules are fairly simple, but the combined effect of the rules is very sophisticated.

The rules allow you to specify which genre may follow which genre, how many songs of each genre are to be played in a set, how many songs must be played before the genre can be played again, how many songs must be played before the first song of the genre can be played, a tool to keep certain types of songs from being played too often, and the capability of setting the minimum rating level for each genre individually.

To keep it simple, suppose you are setting the brain up to play Latin dances.

• You could set the default rating at two stars and above.
• You could pick genres Bolero, Rumba, Cha-cha, Merengue, Mambo, Salsa, and Samba.
• You could say you want three songs to be played before another of the same genre could be played.
• But you could say that you want five songs to be played between Bolero's, for example.
• You could set the minimum rating for salsa to 5 because you have lots of salsas.
• You could set counters on Salsa and Samba to 3 so that if either is played, 3 songs must be played before either of these is played again, thus insuring that very fast songs will be spread out.  (Ballroom would put quicksteps and Viennese waltzes into this situation with perhaps 5 or 6 as the number.)
• You also have the capability of setting up rules that say you cannot play the same genre twice in a row.  This is implemented with simple checkboxes.
• You can even say that a bolero must be followed by a Merengue or a Salsa (or any other combination). (using the checkboxes).
• Every one of these rules is programmable using a fairly intuitive user interface with pop-up tool tips for each programmable option.

Once you have the rules setup, you can save them and recall them in the future.  You can save any number of different rule sets.

With a set of rules defined, you can generate multiple play lists, or you can tell the brain to play the songs live. You can also select songs manually, and you can request a song to be inserted.  The brain will choose the right place to fit the song in at the next opportunity that the rules allow.

The brain also allows you to use pre-recorded announcements that will announce not only the current song, but the next one or two songs the brain has selected (or none), including requested songs.  You can use pre-recorded announcements for standard genres, and you can use your own announcement recordings.

Once the songs are cataloged, rated, and keywords added, they can be incorporated into the catalog files.  Catalog files can be created for different drives, and they can be saved in user specified locations.

The brain also has a number of additional features.

• The tempo can be adjusted up or down and saved with the song as the settings for future play.
• The volume can be adjusted up or down and saved with the song as the settings for future play.
• The brain has a sophisticated tool for measuring the beats per minute and measures per minute.

The software also allows searches of the database to find any song, artist, album, keyword, genre, etc, and the songs can be queued for playing right from the search results listing.  All song data can be edited from both the searchable catalog as well as the song being played display.

The brain will also keep a record of all songs played that can be used for statistical analysis as well as to go back and get the name of the song a listener want to know.

This flexibility for searching catalogs and history gives a professional DJ an instantly responsive assistant and data monitor.  The rule system allows not only DJ's but ordinary users to produce play lists that are balanced according to any criteria they can think up and write into the rules.  You want all waltzes for teaching? You want all smooth dances only? You want just swing and foxtrot, and you want them to alternate?  It's all doable using the brain.  The brain comes with a sampling of songs that are categorized and rated, and a pre-programmed catalog and rules, and it will start up playing in demo mode just by plugging it in.

Although the program was originally designed to generate play lists for ballroom dancing, it can be used for any kind of dance.  It can also be used to play any music files.  It can even be used to play non-music audio files, and to generate fixed sequences or random sequences.

You provide the audio files, and you can use the brain to generate, play, and keep a record of which ones it played in sequence in its history data files.  You can create custom pause files as well as custom announce files.

Want to generate a sequence of simple math drills for grammar school classes?  And insure a balance of the genre's add, subtract, multiply, and divide?  You record the voice files, and the pause files, and you can turn brain into a test proctor giving specific delays between verbal problems.  It announces each problem, using the recorded files plays each problem file, it records the problem file name it used, and it waits as long as you want before proceeding to the next problem.  The possibilities are really up to your imagination. Use it to generate menus after feeding it the recipe file names. (Of course the recipe files would not actually be played, but the generated "play" list would be a sequence of menu combinations to give to the cooks and to publish in a weekly menu plan.)

As a music DJ the brain provides the ability to manage and administer a library of music as well as to generate intelligent play lists, or to play "live", and record the history. It can be used to run a dance, back up an instructor, or just to play one's library at home. As a rule-based expert system for organizing and executing audio files, it has far greater flexibility and potential use than that for which it was originally created - to allow a bunch of dancers to get together and dance to a balanced sequence of dances without having to have an expensive professional DJ.

The Brain retails for $1000. It comes on a secure USB jump drive and is supported under Windows XP. It includes a serial number dongle, so it  requires 2 USB ports.  Extra songs that have been categorized and have keywords added can also be purchased.  The song files are coded to the Brain's registered serial number, and the value added information is only useable by the Brain with the same serial number, so song packages are not interchangeable with different brains.

For more information Tom Trimarchi.

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