Slashdot Mirror

Mr. Coward
Interesting concept, running two mono channels into a single stereo stream, but not quite what I'm looking for here. The two streams are totally independent, and that would be confusing to say the least (at least to most listeners). The listeners have been e-mailing me for two weeks asking my why they can't connect, when I've posted, at the top of the page, in boldface, that the server is temporarily down. Call me an elitist, but if they can't read that, I sincerely doubt they'll pick up on instructions to adjust the balance control. Good thinking, though; I hadn't even considered that sort of solution.

bofhkentucky:
Two separate channels, feeding two separate streams; mixing them would be bad. It'd be like trying to listen to two radio stations at the same time. While pilots do tend to step on each others' transmissions (frequently), I'd rather not make it worse.

adolf:
Lots of good points in your post; thanks for the good response. To clarify a few things:

• While it works, I'm not particularly happy with what I have. I can't daemonize WinAmp, and I can't separate it from the display, and I can't control it via Remote Desktop (on 'doze), so I have to start it manually at boot time, and leave the machine logged in (locked, of course); I also have to leave VNC running in case I need to remote-admin it. It works, for very small values of "works."
• I'm probably going to go to ALSA + two sound cards, but I expect to have trouble. Sound cards and I just don't get along under Linux. I just spent about four hours getting ALSA to (mostly) work under Linux on a different machine, and it's still missing a few things (like OSS emulation; mpg123 doesn't work at all, though the ALSA plugin for XMMS is working great).
• I'll go ahead and increase the bit-depth; I don't know what I was thinking at the time, I should have known better. The machine had plenty of capability, too. Blarg.

seann:
I'm trying to avoid XMMS and other programs that want a display. Daemons are good here. That said, what's Output Stacker? I haven't heard of it, and I've poked around quite a bit.

Rob (and everybody):
I have a box that can handle it, if I can get the software working. I looked at Darwin Streaming Server, and it appears to be comparable to SHOUTcast and IceCast. I'm not having trouble finding a server, the problem lies in the source; I can't find a good program to connect the line-in to the streaming server. LiveIce appears to do what I want, but I don't know how it would handle multiple instances on the same machine, being fed by multiple sound cards (adolf: I'll have a look at the .confs/sources). When I said hardware, I was thinking of a dedicated device. The only one I found was the Telos Systems Audioactive live MP3 streamer, but at $2800 a copy, it's a bit out of my price range (we don't spend that much on aircraft radios!). I was looking for something that's a dedicated, single-purpose, plug and play device; configure it once, and that's the last I see or hear of it. I'm a lazy admin--the less I have to touch it, the happier I am. I didn't mean to imply that I was looking for special computer hardware, but for a standalone audio device.

All: thanks for the suggestions. At the moment, it looks like I'm going to stick with Linux + two cards, if I can figure out how to get IceCast working (I've been having a bear of a time getting it to play nice; I honestly believe I'm cursed when Linux and sound are involved). If anybody else has any thoughts, I'd certainly love to hear them.

Live webcasting is what I do. Check it out at the WRUW page. MP3 is definately the way to go. We have a 300 (clocked to 450) celeron and 128mb ram. It's on a dual board, so if we ever need more power, it'll be real simple. we've got a SB Ensoniq PCI soundcard that we feed our signal off or our airboard. We run Linux (duh :-),lame with some magic with named pipes and netcat and apache and we have as many streams as we want.

We also have an AudioActive hardware MP3 encoder, that the folks at Telos/Audioactive were kind enough to donate (They ROCK!). It encodes one signal (56kbps) and our server encodes another (24kbps).

I discovered that to the sound quality of 56k is comparable to a normal FM broadcast, so you really don't need a higher bitrate. The 24k stream is mono for modem users.

The biggest bottleneck is definately your bandwidth to the rest of the world. We are lucky enough at CWRU to have one of the worlds biggest ATM LANs. The 155MB/s of oncampus bandwidth is denfinately nice to have. We were on ethernet, and I was dreading possibility of crashing our Ethernet segment. Now with ATM, we can have unlimited on campus listeners (because more Case students have computers than radios :-) and our off campus bandwidth lets us have about 150 listeners from elsewhere. If you have more questions, please don't hesitate to email me. It should be pretty obvious as to what my email is :-)

At WRUW-FM Cleveland, our campus/community station here, we're using an overclocked Celeron running Linux to encode our 24kpbs stream (using lame and a cheap sound card) as well as serve web and email.

Our higher-quality 56kpbs stream is generated real-time by a hardware MP3 encoder from Audioactive. The encoder is a really nice solution, because we can always crank up the bitrate later as the available bandwidth of the universe expands. Since we're non-commercial and Audioactive was feeling generous, they donated the encoder to us free of charge! With the encoder removed from the equation, our total cost was under $900.

We don't have a ton of people listening yet, but the response we've received so far has been very positive. If you have any questions, feel free to send email.

For ripping from CD to .wav, I use Easy CD-DA Extractor 3 (homepage). Easy CD-DA uses CDDB, so you don't have to type in names of tracks. It also allows you to format the output names of the files you rip (for example, %a - %n would be Artist Name - Track Name). With a 32x CD-ROM, I regularly rip audio at 7x (at least).

For encoding MP3s for quality, I have found that Audioactive Production Studio (homepage) is hard to top. I usually make my MP3s at 160kbits/sec, and the difference in sound quality over 128kbits/sec with this program is incredible. Although it takes a while to encode (plan on encoding your files while you're sleeping), the sound quality is well worth it.

I hope this helps you find the software you're looking for.

Hell yeah, there's a streming MP3 player for macs!

Check out AudioActive. Click on ".mp3 player"

They rule. They donated a realtime HARDWARE encoder to my school's radio station, WRUW-FM.

I am a programmer (not a DJ, programmers program their show, DJs just play what they are told to play) at my college radio station, WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland. I am in charge of Webcasting. In a few weeks we will have a live MP3 stream courtesy of AudioActive. We have an OC3 onto campus so we can serve literally THOUSANDS.

The key to enjoysing radio is to find something different than the mainstream. I totally agree that most stations out there play nothing but crap. They only play what the record companies want them to play, the last "Big Hit" from prepubescent whiny boys to vapid pop jingles. Listen to noncommercial radio. Whether it is NPR or a college station, since we are not concerned with make money from all the 12-year-old tinnie boppers, we can play GOOD music. And I know that not all college stations sound great, but there are some out there that do put a decent amount of effort into their offerings.

WRUW's main objective is to provide a REAL altrenative to the Cleveland community. We, and other noncommercial stations , pride ourselves on being different (and I think better) from commercial stations. Variety is imperative. We have classic jazz shows, "avant" jazz shows, Ska, punk, Classical, indy rock, country (real country), blues, industrial, metal, and freeform (a wonderous mix of all of the above). Every programmer puts effort into into their show, not because they are paid ('cause we're not), but becasue we care.

I know I sound like an evangelist, but I truly believe what I am saying. In high school, I listened to the latest "modern rock" station. It was crap, and I was a willing participant. I listend to all the bands they told me to. I bought the CDs, too. Yes, I have Greenday's Dookie, REM's Monster, the Cranberries, I use them as coasters now. Now I know better.

So in conclusion kids, Varitey is the key, and noncomercial radio provides it. And some stations ever webcast this stuff to everyone, so don't dispair.

Moshe Katz-Hyman (Mo Katz)
The Shape of Jazz to Come
Programmer and Webcasting Director
WRUW-FM Cleveland 91.1

-- A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."

I suspect it's an ever-dwindling list. My hometown station WABC is no longer listed, and KFJC's server was down when last I checked.

What's the URL for the list of sites?

Try here; there's probably a few more out there, like hr-XXL and WVTC, that use mp3 or Audioactive for their streams.

--