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It suddenly occurred to me while I was trying to determine the order of my airchain that a second computer is going to be required to stream to the interet.. right?
It suddenly occurred to me while I was trying to determine the order of my airchain that a second computer is going to be required to stream to the interet.. right?
Most of the audio source, (with exception to the microphone and phone patch) will be coming from the computer, thru the airchain, and out to the transmitter… SO evidently I need a second computer to feed a leg off for streaming.. am I correct?
Total posts : 45366most likely you will need a separate computer, unless you can feed it back to the main PC via line in, and configure the streaming software to take the line-in audio.
Total posts : 45366I have always streamed with one computer, but MRAM says he has a whole group of computers, but I’ll let him explain what they all do.
This computer sends a continuous stream over the internet and out the “gizout” (term coined by Marshall) to the transmitters. The radio programs are all mp3 files playlisted on Winamp.
Because my motherboard sound circuit has two audio sets, I am also able to input and record from my mixer board without interfering with the stream, and then I playback the audio for editing on that separate audio set and the stream is totally safe.
I can watch TV on Hulu without messing up the stream and can do all browsing, e-mailing, and every other type of application without disturbing the stream.
The only reason I’d need a second computer would be for backup in case the first one breaks.
Total posts : 45366Virtual Audio Cable, or VAC, lets you make virtual cable connections inside your PC like so:
From the manual:
“Virtual Audio Cable can be used to Connect two or more audio applications into a chain where each next application receives an audio signal produced by a previous application. For example, you can connect a player application to an audio processor and then connect a processor to an analyzer or a meter application to investigate the audio signal.”I have and do use this app and it’s a really remarkable tool, a bit of a steep learning curve but my experience with streaming has been that the devil is in the details 🙂
Total posts : 45366Because my motherboard sound circuit has two audio sets, I am also able to input and record from my mixer board without interfering with the stream, and then I playback the audio for editing on that separate audio set and the stream is totally safe.
I’m trying to grasp what you’re saying. — Is this to say that I can add an additional sound card to one of the desktop pc slots.. and have my first sound card outputting, and then basically pigtail back in the pc via the second sound card in order to feed an internet stream?
???
?
naaa
Total posts : 45366Hi scwis, you came in while I was typing..
Yes I became familiar with virtual cable a couple weeks ago while experimenting on getting a stream going.
But, correct me if I’m wrong…1.Zara feeding audio out of pc, and into mixer.
2. Microphones and phone patch, etc – tapped into mixer.
3. Mixer output into to air chain.
4. Air chain out to transmitterSince my mic and phone patch audio originates outside the computer, I don’t see where virtual cable is any assistance.
Total posts : 45366RichPowers
Your description of the audio chain as you picture it was helpful for me to understand that you are only planning to feed audio to a part 15 transmitter, and are not also streaming over the internet.
The way you described it will work, or, there is another way.
You could start with your audio mixer at the very beginning of the line, with microphones, tapes, CD player and all your audio sources. You would plug your mixer output into the input of your computer soundcard, and set Zara to accept a line input. Also, Zara would allow you to play .mp3 sound files which could be mixed with your incoming mixer sound, all within the computer. Finally, the output from Zara would come out of the computer’s sound output and go to your transmitter input.
Total posts : 45366RichPowers
The “Another Way” entry I just made needs this added comment.
The reason for doing it this way would be that while it’s all inside the computer you could record your completely mixed program if you wanted, all within the same computer.
Total posts : 45366They are making it way more complicated than it should be.
Here is a sure and easy way to stream,
all you’ll need is
A Radio
a 2 way headphone cordTake your radio and tune it to your station.
plug its headphone jack into the computers Line in or mic input.
Mute the playback of the inputs but not the recording.Set your streaming software to pick up the feed from line in or mic in.
(shoutcast can and does do this using the line-in plugin in winamp)
all you’ll need is one computer, no fancy software, and no confusion.Zara now has a file called currentsong.txt
you can use that to upload to some server somewhere to display somewhere on your website what song or file is currently playing, thus keeping you legal with DMCA.
And by doing it this way you don’t have to change a thing.
Total posts : 45366Now wait a minute.. that makes too much sense! –
So..
1. Mic & external audio into mixer
2. mixer into pc
3. pc out to processing equipment
4. processing to transmitterCan’t believe someone had to tell me that. Must be overloading my brain working on to many things at the same time.
Question; is there any drawback to the mic’s analog audio being digitized in the computer, only to resort back again to analog before hitting the processing chain?
Like with duplicating photo’s or audio tape; each generation of a copy is of lower quality than the original.. So in this case it’s as if the microphone output is going through two generations…
Am I contemplating this wrong?
Total posts : 45366And yet another sensible option Crow. Didn’t think of that either
Total posts : 45366Is that you can check your stream to make sure your transmitter is working OK even outside of your broadcast range 🙂
Regarding degradation, depending on the impedance and levels of the outputs and inputs you use, you should be able to find a good combination.
With inexpensive USB sound cards like this one:
It’s simple to add more resources, too.
Total posts : 45366At Rhemaradio, we use one computer for streaming and transmitter audio. The transmitters use the sound card line out audio to a stereo distribution amp (one stereo output is summed for AM mono) and the stream is encoded by the automation software to convert and send the stream audio to the broadcast server. The line “in” on the transmitter’s sound card is fed by the broadcast mixer which controls all of the out-board audio inputs, including an auxiliary input from the DA for live assist and live broadcasts.
The station computer runs two sound cards: one for transmitter audio and the other for a system cue circuit. I suggest you add the best “studio grade” sound card to broadcast computer that you can afford. If the sound card has surround sound or other toys (for gaming), I suggest you keep looking. The sampling rate and the bit rate are very important, the higher, the better. These boards even make AM mono sound better.
Rhemaradio has been built, from the beginning, on the automation software from Spacial Audio, SAM3/4. It has audio processing, scheduling, program automation, streaming encoders (including MP3, ACC and others) and other features very handy for the online radio station. The software also works well with SQL databases for PHP services. DRS2006 is another program that can accomplish much the same tasks.
The stream is hosted by Audio Realm and costs 23-bucks a month. It’s very stable and rarely goes down. And when it does, SAM knows to automatically reconnect when everything comes back up.
The station also uses Music1 scheduling software to put tighter controls on day-parting and scheduling special recurring and one-time programs. Music1 works in concert with Music Monkey, an MP3 tag editor which makes managing the music data base much easier. The stations music database runs about 2400 songs at the moment.
The best part is that it runs entirely on one computer. The computer is on a Schneider APC UPS to keep everything from crashing and to eliminate AC main power problems. The APC has operating software on-board the computer to systematically shut the station down in case of a major power outage.
You will get what you pay for, for the most part, with software and hardware. Make the best of it.
Rhemaradio: http://www.audiorealm.com/play/115602/Rhemaradio
Total posts : 45366The short answer is NO, one computer may be enough, with caveats. Here are my solutions:
1) You have an account with a broadcast outfit like SHOUTcast, in which case …
2) If you have a PC with an external CD player or other external audio source, you can us the free broadcaster BUTT (Broadcast Using This Tool) from: http://butt.sourceforge.net/
…otherwise
3) You can use the Winamp player and the SHOUTcast Winamp player plugin: http://www.shoutcast.com/download.…. that allows you to play music/sound from your computer’s onboard files. Together with my headset/mic combo, that’s what I do when we have a power outage when I’m using my little ACER netbook, same one I use for remote broadcasting (I use Clearwire USB modem to get on the ‘net, works on 4G and 3G from almost anywhere).
At the moment, and, yes, another USB modem connection (but that doesn’t really matter in the studio) I’m using an iMac with Nicecast and my SHOUTcast connection, because of multiple listener bandwidth …. Nicecast offers a direct connection, but bandwidth is restricted to maybe 6 listeners, depending on resolution.
If my antenna was right outside (it isn’t … you know I have my TX on my boat in the marina), that’s all I’d need.
If it weren’t for the internet STL I wouldn’t need another computer. Nicecast has a an application crossfader. It means I can crossfade between Garageband (which I use in static mode from my mixer and Presonus interface) and iTunes. Right now, it’s playing my All Locals playlist from iTunes, but in a few minutes (3:30pm PST), I’ll go live on the mic for ferry update and announcements. But it could just as easily be a live performance in my studio, or whatever.
Nicecast has some AppleScript capability, which I can write into SuperCard. I’ve been using one to customize the live widget on my website, to show special broadcasts, like live events or external sources. For example, I select “NOAA Puget Sound Weather Scanner” in the list, which posts that to the onscreen widget when I turn the station over to weather overnight, instead of showing iTunes song data. When I want to revert back to iTunes cue, I click the “DE-activate”
I also keep the front page HTML code and a very fast little FTP’er (also written in SuperCard) to update my front page.
I can also do all that remotely. I’ll tell about that some other time, though.
OOPS! I’m late! Gotta go!!
Total posts : 45366“With inexpensive USB sound cards like this one”
Yeah … I’m always looking for new devices. If your computer’s sound (card) inputs are creating noise, that might be a good solution, converts the signal to digital before it gets inside. On my little ACER netbook, I haven’t heard much noise from its sound input, but it might still be better.
How about monitoring?
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