Right now (1300-? dec 8 arizona time) you can hear my station in action. Present configuration, for testing purposes is:
ZaraRadio -> console -> transmitter ---> radio receiver ->BUTT (on same PC that's running Zara) So, if you listen you will be hearing an actual "aircheck" as the stream audio is actually the received radio signal.
Don't expect to be dazzled by the programming, however. Just a music playlist with simple quarter-hour IDs. I'm running it mostly as a load test for the computer to ensure stability of the system, end-to-end. Please give a listne and tell me what you think -- THANKS!
EDIT: Silly me forgot teh URL! http://afterburn.caster.fm/
The quality is very high, so I'm guessing FM.
The idea of streaming a received radio signal is very appealing, and if it were an AM broadcast the listener could "DX" for tell-tale signals bleeding through from other stations on the same frequency, hear carrier sound at times, and catch the carrier going off and on.
We could even stream an unused channel and hear far away stuff.
I want to do the same thing, and will call it the MrNaturalAZ Method.
Thanks for the compliment on the quality. Actually, that was AM (the original HiFi broadcasting mode). My TR-20. The choice to stream the received signal was more the result of convenience than actual planning - is was easier to get the radio tuner's output into the computer than the console's.
I dunno if I'll ultimately continue with the "streaming aircheck" - more likely the stream will be directly fed eventually.
While waiting for Winamp to disappear on December 20th, which has been formally announced, nothing definite has changed involving the future of Shoutcast, the most popular streaming directory on the web, co-owned with Winamp (by AOL).
Watching the Shoutcast Forums has given a blurred picture, because the admins have been seemingly "in the dark" on any future of the service, apparently not "in-the-loop" as far as the corporate level above them and, co-incidentally trying to solve a rash of unexplained system glitches frustrating many regular users. Businesses which depend on Shoutcast V2 for commercial streaming have no direct connection to an executive level office and depend on the Forums as their only communication pathway with Shoutcast.
Meanwhile, checking with associated 3rd party forums, including Icecast, Edcast, StereoTools, AIMP and others, development has been at a standstill for awhile and one detects an underlying hint that copyright issues are being battled out below the surface.
It seems that the rights to MP3, the most popular streaming format, belong to Technicolor Corporation, and rights payments are due for all commercial users of the MP3 codec. In similar way the emerging AAC codec is ALSO copyrighted, in this case (I think) by Orban Corporation.
For a college education on streaming, listen to THIS WEEK IN RADIO TECH PROGRAM 193
http://thisweekinradiotech.com
This news release is re-printed with permission from kdxradio.com -
December 12, 2013 -- SHOUTCAST IS METAMORPHIZING -- During the Winamp Era, ending December 20, it was possible to set up an entirely free streaming station with directory listing at the Shoutcast site. In fact, Shoutcast, co-owned with Winamp by Nullsoft and AOL, provided two free software add-ons which turned Winamp into a Shoutcast Server Version 1. But as of now, those free Shoutcast utilities are no longer available.
Version 2 of the Shoutcast Streaming software requires registering, purchasing an MP3 license with recurring fees, and becoming "authorized."
Streaming stations utilizing Version 1 Shoutcast software are still being listed on the Shoutcast Station Directory but it remains unknown what changes are yet to come.
I certainly hope those of us using the Ver. 1 FREE to STREAM stuff are grandfathered in. I'd hate to think we have to start paying to use the format.
Does this Pay to Play fee apply only to MP3?
So far as I've been able to decipher from the Shoutcast Forums, the Registration is free, and serves to give them a database of exact individuals behind "authorized" Version 2 streaming. The MP3 fee is required for streaming in the MP3 format, although there are free formats, like "Ogg" and a few others.
The now unlinked free Version 1 software is probably going to remain usable, just to guess.
My concern about V1 is whether the SC Directory will continue to list it.
But, as you said previously, being listed with 59,000 radio stations may not be very significant.
Something else to think about is whether the MP3 enforcement brigade will seek out independent users of that format. Legally the Technicolor Corporation might want to stop free use.
One commenter said that non-commercial use of MP3 streaming is not liable for patent fees, but I wonder if that's true.
Can you really license the generic MP3?
I know that Divx attempted to license their video codec a while ago, and independent software developers just went ahead and developed their own free codecs that were compatible (such as xvid).
The latest edition of TWiRT (This Week in Radio Tech) is all about codecs, and the guest, from Orban Corporation, said that MP3 is licensed by Technicolor Corporation.
He probably also talked about how and why MP3 is already being used everywhere for free. I'll have to listen again.
On the subject of Zara, I just tried to download Version 1.6.2.2 using the link posted up above, and I got the biggest tangle of all kinds of things trying to be downloaded, my Avast warning of Malware, but never did get Zara.
Getting downloads seems harder these days.
I was able to download that. Time permitting I'll change the link on my webpage to make it available there.
I compared 1.6.2 to 1.6.2.2 and find that while 1.6.2 has four aux players, 1.6.2.2 has only two.
Currently I have ver. 1.6.2 available on my website.
Do we know what improvements 1.6.2.2 has over 1.6.2?
I'll wait to hear comments before I change the link on my webpage:
http://mram.50webs.com/index_files/page4.htm
It's going to be a Zara weekend, as I've installed 1.6.2 from MRAM's website.
I'd tried unsuccessfuly to download Zara from several sites that came up in a browser search, but all of those loaded me with odd downloads with no Zara ever appearing. I was very thankful to find the MRAM source for Zara.
Doing without the Stereotool Plugin will hurt, and so far it appears that the Standalone Version of Stereotools requires having a soundcard installed.
Since the old version of Zara works with plugins, I may try that next week.
I'm also curious what the latest version of Zara offers, but I was unable to obtain it.
I got my copy directly from zarastudio.es
Here's the link to download free edition: http://zarastudio.es/en/descargargratuita.php
It will ask for your email, to which it will send a link to the actual file. I've gotten no spam or anything from them, but if you're especially concerned, just give 'em your "other" email address (you do have one, right?) that you keep only for registering on sites you don't trust.
After fiddling with all kinds of toy streaming players, I spent today with Zara 6.2 and my station will be running it until Monday, December 16, when we next sign off for oil change and tire rotation.
This is it! Zara is big city radio and I've canceled a date so I can study Zara all night.
Both manuals have been printed out, including v 1.4, and I finally have that important feeling as if I'd won a Nobel Prize. Now we're going for an Olympic Gold Medal.
MRAM 1500 personally translated the V 1.4 Manual from Spanish to English!
Zara is obviously designed by broadcast professionals. It has features that stand well above using a common player for playlisting audiofiles.
After studying V1.4, which allows Winamp Plugins, and V1.6, which does not, I have an idea why Zara dropped the plugin capability.
The strength of Winamp, now passing into history, is its ability to "side-chain" a number of processing events without needing to use the player's audio output for any more than simple monitoring. By using MULTIPLE DSP PLUG-IN it was possible to have STEREOTOOL PLUGIN and STREAMING ENCODER PLUGINS all on the Plugin DSP Sidechain.
But figuring out how to do that was up to an individual user, and was not published anywhere. And I truly feel that most people I talk to about the importance of Winamp as a streaming tool were unaware of the full convenience of the DSP Plugin Scheme that I just described.
Even "insiders" seem unaware of the true nature of the change now underway. For example Hans von Zutphen, author of Stereotools, in his forum responded to the end of Winamp by mentioning that other players also support plugins, such as AIMP and Foobar. Well, not exactly.
Testing the AIMP player I discovered that Stereotools could indeed be attached as a plugin. But AIMP does not like the Mutiple DSP Plugin, and so will not support stacking several DSP plugins together.
Foobar has plugins, but they seem to be exclusive to Foobar and there seems no way to use Winamp Style plugins, not even Stereotool.
Now with Zara V1.6 being the glorious Radio Automation Tool that it is, it becomes very tricky to interconnect various processing tools.
When the Zara audio output is assigned to a streaming encoder, there is no way to hear that same output on the monitor speaker, nor a convenient way to add an audio processor.
Stringing a maze of utilities like Virtual Cable, Audio Repeater, an extra soundcard, and the many complex ways some operators have managed to rig it up, creates a computer load equal to running a nuclear power plant, nowhere near the ease and simplicity afforded by Winamp.
But the day is not over, and geniuses will arise to solve little problems.