LunarCaster

I'm always open to freeware.  I'll check it out.

Before I decided to be a Beta tester and supporter of NextKast I did try Lunar Caster and if I remember right it requires a separate plugin to stream on the net. You can use the Shoutcast DSP or Icecast one for Icecast. I forgot the names I think it was Altacast or something like that as I’m not talking about the stand alone one called B.U.T.T.

If you use B.U.T.T you have to find out where Lunar Caster stores the Audio text file in order to send the metadata to the Internet. That was one minus for me.

Speaking of minuses another major minus for Album Rockers is that this app does not have ANY compressor/limiter which is bad for Hobby on air broadcasting as well as Internet because your volume is constantly changing. You can use a plugin like Stereo Tool (Not Free) or try one of those FREE winamp plugins which again is simply an AGC similar to an ALC on those portable cassette decks you’d buy back in the early 70’s for about $40-60. It will not keep your volume steady.

With Lunar Caster you’d need a separate playlist generator to generate a playlist for you as from what I saw this app does not have a clock wheel option making 24/7 operation difficult. Although live asist and attended operation can be done for those that don’t operate 24/7 or who have some sort of playlist generator.

Now this could have changed with the newer versions of this app but from what I see in the pic not much has changed with it as far as the GUI. The app is easy on the resources for those who have those 4 GB RAM systems I don’t recommend for Radio station use. But if your on a budget and have a computer less than 8 GB RAM this may work for you. If however your looking for a solid Radio automation system that is great for Album Rock or non top 40 or Rap oriented you’ll want professional Radio automation software such as NextKast, SAM(Though there is issues with this and you still need Stereo Tool) or other program that does have good audio processing and a rock solid random playlist clock wheel system.

Try NextKast

http://nextkast.com

Tell Winston The Legacy cent you and maybe he’ll work with you if you have any issues.

Speaking of Altacast, that was what I had been using to encode my streams before switching to the Shoutcast plugin in Winamp (for AAC support).

IIRC EdCast became Altacast, I use it at the full power with no problems.

As far as RAM goes, I know Zara runs smoothly on as low as 512 MB of ram on an XP machine. It seems like I've had it run on a 98 with 128 MB.
Some automation software can be a massive resource hog, lookin at you Simian, not sure where Lunar falls on the scale. Funny you mention SAM, I have always hated and I mean absolutely hated SAM Broadcaster. They did make a great standalone/winamp stream encoder however.

Currently, and for the next few months the only computer I have on hand is a Surface RT tablet, so I can't install any radio automation program to test. But based on the described features to address your comments, I can say this much; First off, not having a built-in encoder really has little if any bearing, and since I've only used free programs I didn't even realize that any of the had built-in limiter/compressors, but that's just ignorance on my part, and I prefer hardware proccessing anyway.

Nextcast looks real interesting, but it cost $200 to activate it's full capabilities. LunarCaster is free, so were kinda talking apples to grapes. When it comes down to it, I'll probally stick with ZaraRadio anyway..

But as for LunarCaster:

It's fully compatibile with Shoutcast1, Shoutcast2 and Icecast.

Has its own equalizer built in.

Both auto and manual crossfade between playdecks.
Supports up to 3 soundcards.
Playlist is standard but also include a dynamic search feature and history of played songs.

Supports multiple streamservers and encoders simultaneously.
Simple control of the server connections, and when connection is established a red OnAir will light.

Displays current listener count.
Title updater with capablity to alternate the song titles with station name (or whatever) back and forth at your set time intervals.
Live dj feature with separate volume controls to mic and music.

Supports plugins, although not all plugins have been tested for compatabilty.
The "SoundFX feature is just a sound effects and jingles player

Lunarcaster is not an installed program, it simply runs from the folder that contains it.

Of note:

Although it has an events handler, I see no mention of it being capable of time or weather annoancements or pulling in an external stream like newscast.

Also, I thought it was finished, but evidently the author does still consider it to be in beta stage.

I plan to toy with it, but I'm probally going to stick with Zara.

Zara does not run right on this Windows 7 Toshiba Satellite. I have reinstalled it three times. The START/PLAY button fails. Audio skips...maybe it's this computer. This sucks.

Doug

I continue to use a Windows XP machine exclusively for the station. Rather then finding an alternative to Zara, you might want to consider picking up an old pc with XP on it from the thrift shop or ebay (if you don't already have one). It would cost you next to nothing, or you probally could find one for free. You don't need much processing power or ram, just put in a good soundcard or use a good external usb card and your in business. Dedicate the XP for Zara and use your existing computer for whatever else you want.

XP is IMO much more stable and plenty capable for most station operations. Beleive it or not, even now most of the ATM machines in operation still rely totally on XP operating systems, and so do most jukeboxes.

I had Zara running on a Toshiba Netbook and it had occasional problems, it could very well be your computer at fault. I 2nd RP's idea of finding any old clunker XP and running Zara on it. Zara will just about run on anything, maybe even a toaster. Otherwise I have Zara running flawlessly on a Win 7 Pro machine, honestly for the price and features nothing compares to Zara or really holds much of a candle to it.

Yes, that is correct, Zara will run on a toaster, the only cavet is that it requires a toaster receiver to hear it

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/slideshow/328210/10-totally-ridiculous-combo-gadgets/?image=6

"LunarCaster is fully compatible with Shoutcast1, Shoutcast2 and Icecast servers currently being offered by our friends at YOUSERV! Tested and compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 und Windows 10"

Not that it doesn't look great but i detest Microfluff er i mean soft.

I run RadioDJ as my programming software and have run it on an older win7 laptop (Toshiba).  It does very well, and even with 2 streams of encoding (I usually encode with a separate laptop so I can do voice announcements etc), it usually doesn't use much processing power.  Without the encoding it idles at about 17% processor power used, and will peak slightly when loading a track or tracks into the playlist rotation.

That being said, stuttering can occur if you have windows updates set to automatic download and install.  You will see proc power exceed 75% and even peak at 100% during those times.  I just turn it off and manually update when I need to.

Recently I found an old HP desktop in one of my closets that had a nice dual port sound card that runs Vista.  For giggles I cleaned it up and did a fresh install.  I am now using it as a primary and have had no problems with stuttering.  I use external usb drives for my music tracks and redundancy.  Having dual sound available lets me cue on the same PC without it going over the air.  I almost feel like a real station at times (I am easily amused) :>

My take is that, if RadioDJ will run on Vista and be stable, it can't be bad.  I have used Zara on XP with no problems and still keep a very old laptop available as a standby with Zara if the other two mysteriously die. I just never did master all the rotations and events I wanted with Zara.

My longest run time on the win7 laptop with RadioDJ was about 70 days without a reboot.  It was still stable, but I had someother things to do and I rebooted.

I do have time announcments with RadioDJ.  I haven't tried to get automated weather to run with it.  But it does have external streaming abilities and a host of things I still haven't tried.

Was Intrigued until "LunarCaster is fully compatible with Shoutcast1, Shoutcast2 and Icecast servers currently being offered by our friends at YOUSERV!

Not exactly clear what point your driving at there, but think you are reading to much into it.. I'm not sure who YOUSERV is - or rather was, because they don't even exist anymore, but suspect they were just a fly-by-night service who had at one time made arrangements with him in some kind of partner deal.. But all that line is saying is that YOUSERV was available as a streaming server option, not that you are somehow required to use their service. It's obvious you can use any streamer service that supports the shoutcast or icecast streaming.

So if that line is what squashed your interest, then you misunderstood.. you can use any streaming server you want, or I suppose even set up your own.

I just did a quick google to make sure what I said about XP still being the primary sytem running most ATMs and jukeboxes was still valid, and it still true..

95% of all currently operating ATM's, POS systems and jukeboxes in the world still use windows XP today.. it's a 'nested' version of xp. Look it up. 

I've too ran Zara on Windows 7 and never experienced any problems, but it was on a Dell laptop and only ran for about 6 hours a day on weekends on the pavilion during summer months, so it wasn't running 24/7. But several other stations on this forum have also confirmed it has worked fine for them on windows 7, 8, and even 10 I think. So it seems the problem expressed with Zara and windows 7 is an isolated case related to that particular computer.

It doesn't really matter much if you choose Zara, or RadioDJ, Sam, LunarCaster or whatever.. it's all a matter of what you're most comfortable with and what your budget allows.. Myself, I prefer free, and so simple to comprehend, so I've have been using Zara all along and will most likely stick with it because I've come so accustomed to it over the last 10 years and don't particuarlly want to face an unneccessary new learning curve. Zara has always accomplished everything I wanted to do and more.. LunarCaster looks pretty simple and straight foward too, but at first glance appears to lack a few features that Zara has.. but I don't know that for sure, which is why I asked if anyone had actually took it for a spin.

I don't like Windows from Mircosoft and i have no idea what Youserv was or is.
I only kept the first two parts of that paragraph because i didn't want to edit it all out to leave just the part about the Windows OS that Lunarcaster would run on.

But to be fair, i have Windows Xp running on a Linux box if i ever need it.