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Live streaming through winamp for new djs!
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| Krysta_101 |
Okay, so I am a regular soulseek user. While talking to some of the many djs on there, I ran across Pete West whom sent me a file that tells you how to run live streams through winamp. This also allows you to dj live sets and basically make your own radio station. You use your IP address and have others connect to it on winamp by typing ctrl L and then typing in the IP address. You also will get featured on the shoutcast website. I will explain it no longer and now actually post the text document that will tell you how and what to do, and where to go to get the proper programs. This may be a tad long, but whaaaatever.
shoutcasting
for
dolts!
(a primer)
By Acyd
Introduction: You want to DJ online too? That’s Just Great...
Once someone told me, "Spinning records through Yahoo is like playing a record through the telephone to a retarded person." And you know what, it's true. But there is hope for you square pegs. If you have Winamp (WWW.Winamp.com) you can broadcast in fantastic quality sound and be the envy of all the peons who have no choice but to try to hold down a mic in some chat room and fight off booters at the same time! If you have Winamp and a fast connection you can broadcast in fantastic quality sound. If you don't have Winamp you must be living in a cave, have red sores on your skin, and have a rock named Ed for your only friend. And if you are still using dial up, for Christ's sake get cable or at least DSL. If you are stuck with dial up technically you can still shoutcast but the reality is that you will only be able to broadcast in marginal quality sound to a handful of listeners. By that I mean it will sound like you are playing a record through the phone to a retard. Like one or two retards and that's it. If you are lucky enough to have something faster, like T1 or OC3, then you can rock out for real, supporting many hundreds of listeners at CD quality sound.
Part One: Feed Your Audio Hungry PC. Feed It!!!
So, let's get our hands dirty already. You can either broadcast from your soundcard input, which is what you would do if you had decks and a DJ mixer, connected to your PC, or you can send the output of Winamp directly, which is only good if you plan to broadcast nothing but the audio files that reside on your computer (yawn.) To connect a DJ set up, meaning decks, a mixer, etc...you will need a connecting cable that has on one end a pair of RCA cables and a 3.5mm stereo plug (like a walkman headphone type jack) on the other end. These are sold at Radio Shack and electronics stores, and they are invariably too short, so you are going to have to use double female RCA's and an additional RCA cord. Don't be afraid to buy a long one; you will be amazed how short 10 feet is. Find an output from your DJ mixer that you can find to go to your pc, some mixers have 2 main outputs, or a 'zone' or 'sub' output would work. This you will connect to the LINE IN input of your computer's soundcard.
On your soundcard there are most likely jacks, output, line in, and microphone in. The line in is usually black or maybe blue. Not green, not red. There might be picture of a circle with an arrow pointing in. If you can't figure out which is which you'd better look it up on your soundcard documentation. It will depend what kind of DJ mixer you have as to how to send the signal to your PC, you may have to turn up the 'sub' or 'zone' volume to actually 'hit' the sound card. Please be careful, you could burn out your soundcard with a super hot signal and then where would you be? Huh? Screwed, that’s where.
Part Deux: Recording Controls
See the little speaker icon down by the clock? No? If not, you'd better look harder. Windows will hide the unused icons so try clicking those little arrows in the system tray to see all the icons down there. If it's still not there then you have to go into start menu, control panel, sounds and audio devices, and in there you can choose to make the volume icon appear in the system tray. Got it? If you can't figure that out you'd better quit now.
Now double click the speaker icon and the volume controls will come up, a collection of volume sliders for various outputs. The actual layout will vary depending on your soundcard but there should be one labeled Line In. Mute that. This is to prevent any feedback loops that may result, if you have your computer's audio output running to your DJ mixer. If you don't have the computer audio going out to your DJ mixer, don't worry, it won't make any difference.
Still on the volume controls mixer window? Find the menu in it that says Options, and choose properties. This window is where you choose your Mixer Device at the top drop down menu. If you have more than one soundcard or audio input device, choose the soundcard that the signal from your DJ mixer is connected to. If there is any other device you may have to disable it, for example a web cam with a built in microphone will screw you all up, people will hear you in the background coughing and talking and totally make fun of you, and you won't even know why. Such a device would be disabled by right clicking on the My Computer icon, choosing properties, click the Hardware tab, choose device manager, and then from that list of devices choose sound video and game controllers. Find the offender, right click and disable it.
Back to the Properties. You should have chosen your mixer device, now select where it says adjust volume for Recording with the radio button and hit OK. Look, a whole new mixer window!! But note that this one says Recording Controls at the top. Now check the box under Line In and put the slider very near the bottom, like below the second bar on the slider. Minimize (don't close) this window for easy access later. If you are familiar with Yahoo then you know that every time you enter a new chat room or Instant Message, Yahoo Messenger resets the volume control to Microphone input, forcing you to manually change it back to Line In. Got it? Damn you're good.
Part Three: What's a Plug-In? Dhur.....
To answer your question, a plug in is an add-on program that enhances another program. Photoshop, Sound Forge, all kinds of programs use them. But never mind all those. You are after a specific Plug in for Winamp that will allow you to stream audio. It can be obtained at http://www.shoutcast.com/download/broadcast.phtml. Find this: Download the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Winamp 2.x
and download and install it. Even if you have Winamp 5 it will still work. For some reason the last two people I tried walking through this couldn't get the plug in to install which first filled me with disgust, because it’s basically a simple,4 mouse click operation. Then someone else had the same problem, but eventually they fixed it. If you can't get the Plug-In to install then again, you need to quit now because it's only gonna get harder. Got it? Fantastic! Now it's time to get the second file, which is the Server.
http://www.shoutcast.com/download/serve.phtml has the file you need: Download the latest version of SHOUTcast Server
Download this and install it. Remember where you install it to. It will most likely be C:\Program Files\SHOUTcast. In fact, let's go there now before you screw this up...
Part Fo’: Don't Fear the Gear
You should now be in the folder that you installed the sc_serv files to. you will see a thing that looks like a notepad with a gear on it and it will say sc_serv configuration settings. Now for the most part any files with the gears on them are not to be toyed with because they can mess up your programs bad if you start monkeying around with them.
But I got you this far didn't I? So, open it up and we're going to change a few things. Near the top you will see a paragraph that says Maxuser=. Read it and then look where it says Maxuser=32. Now you are going to have to think for yourself how many listeners you think you can support based on your connection speed and what kind of quality you want to broadcast in. For now set it to something lower, if you feel froggy later, then leap on up. Change the 32 to lets say, 08. So it will read Maxuser=08. Next paragraph is password, change where it says CHANGEME to your very own password, and don't forget it. Next paragraph is Portbase. No one really understands what this means. By default it is set to 8000. You might have to change this later on, if you have another program using that port and get errors. For now leave it to 8000, save changes and close.
Still in the shoutcast folder? Find the icon with the lightning bolt that says sc_serv. Right click and send to desktop, making a shortcut for that on your desktop. This is the Server; it will work together with Winamp to broadcast. Close this folder after you make the short cut to sc_serv.
Part Fever: Heating Up
Now double click that shortcut you just made and behold the server box that cometh up. On its menu you see where it says Edit Config? Click that. Look familiar? It should. It’s the sc_serv configuration settings and from now on you can get to it right from here if you need to change things. I made you do it the long way first so you would understand more and retain the knowledge. :)
Basically, this server window just has to be open and running when you shoutcast. It will tell you if you are up and running and how many listeners are connected and their IP addresses (snicker). There is a hide monitor command which will minimize this window to the taskbar if you get tired of staring at it, and who wouldn’t. And the Kill server is pretty self explanatory. If you are lucky enough to be able to broadcast to someone else’s server you won’t need this up and running.
Part Six: I’m Tired of Playing With You.
OK, playtime’s over. Let’s freakin do this thing already. Start up win amp. Hit ctrl+P and go into preferences, under Plug Ins choose DSP/effect. Choose shoutcast source. The plug In window has 4 tabs: Do them in this order. First Input. Here's where you will pick soundcard input unless you are just playing your computers MP3’s (lamer), in which case you would leave it set to Winamp. Input settings should be set at 44100Hz, stereo. Next, Encoder tab. You are going to have to think a little bit here. What kind of connection do you have? How many listeners? Are you connected to another server or are you connecting directly to other listeners with the sc_serv program, which makes you the server? It’s all about bandwidth here. The more you have, the higher you can set your encoder to. If people are constantly complaining about your signal breaking up, and they will, you will have to lower it, or drop listeners, or they need to get a faster connection. The more listeners you have, the lower you have to set it.
Try starting out at 96 kbps, 44100Hz, stereo, which is decent quality (way better than Yahoo voice) and adjust up or down as needed. Next, Output. This is actually 2 tabs in one. Status will be not connected, output should say output 1. In the address blank, if you are broadcasting using sc_serv, type ‘localhost’ - exactly like that, and then fill in your portbase, which I said to leave at 8000 unless you have to change it. Enter your password as well and leave the time out thing set to 30 seconds. Now click where it says Yellow pages. Leave it as a public server unless you have a reason not to. Under description type something imaginative as a name for your station. You must also put something in the genre field; otherwise you will not be able to broadcast. You can also put something fun in the track title update fields down there too. This will come up on your listener’s Winamp.
If you are connecting to someone else’s server instead of ‘localhost’ you would type in the IP address of that server and the port base and password the server administrator provided you as well.
Part Seven: It’s On Like Donkey Kong
Ready to rock out?! For this example, we are going to assume you are your own server, using a soundcard input from an external DJ mixer. If you are going to be on Yahoo, sign in now. Start a record playing, sending the signal to your PC. Open the recording controls as described above. open sc_serv. Open Winamp and the Shoutcast source plug in. Under the Main tab in the plug in window you should see the volume meters moving as your signal hits. If not, check your connections and volumes. Make sure you have the cable going into the Line In jack and that’s what’s selected in Recording Controls. If you entered a chat room or IM window remember that you now need to change it back to Line In. Now go to output tab and hit connect! If not check the following.
Yes! It’s working! You’re the man!
Skip right to part 8.
Or
No! I must have screwed up something earlier! Let me go ask my mommy to read this thing to me…
No, try again! Go step by step. Figure out what the problem is.
1. Is your portbase, password and ‘localhost’ all set correctly?
2. You didn’t open Volume Controls instead of Recording Controls did you?
3. Did you type something into the genre box?
4. Is the cable modem (or whatever) turned on?
5. Do you have Winamp or Soundcard selected from the Input Tab on the shoutcast plug In?
6. Check the sc_serv window and see if it’s giving you an error message.
Part Eight: Dude, where’s my station?
Good Question! You’re broadcasting but how is anyone going to find your station? Two ways. You should now be listed on www.shoutcast.com somewhere, if someone does a search on whatever you named your station (under description in yellow Pages, remember). This might take a little while though, as the website has to refresh its list and you won’t show up right away. The other way is to make a link directly to your computer. For this you need to know your IP address, which you can fin by going under the start menu, choose run, then type ‘cmd’ in the box that comes up. You should get a black window that says something like windows system 32 cmd exe at the top. Type in there ‘ipconfig’ and you will get a list of information. Look where it says IP address and copy it down. Now close that window out.
You now need to type this out someplace and then you can cut and paste it and give to people. The format must be exact:
http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:8000/listen.pls
Replace the X’s with your IP address. Some places might have 2 digits instead of 3, that’s OK. See the 8000? That’s your portbase. If your port base is something else because you had to change it, change it there too. The listen/pls part tells your listener’s computer to open it in Winamp, and then they will be linked right to your computer. You can cut and paste this into your Yahoo status if you want. There can be danger in putting your IP address out there for all to see, so if you are some kind of helpless victim for booters, hackers, and script kiddies, you might want to think twice before handing that address out to strangers.
OK That’s it! I hope this helped some of you out there. This article can be copied and reprinted freely but if you are going to modify it make sure it’s the right information…
See you this summer…
Acyd
WWW.Inthegrooveproductions.com |
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| CSniper |
| The limitation of bandwidth is a bugger, if i was a server i would only be able to host 8 people at 24kbps |
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| Krysta_101 |
=/
Yeah, it's only for those with highspeed, generally 512k methinks. |
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| CSniper |
i have a bad deal on my internet broadband
1mbps connection from Blueyonder, 1024 download 128 upload.:whip: i have problems just being a DJ for internet radio stations above a certain bandwidth |
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| MrMarcellos |
i have 8mbit down and 1mbit up but still there can only listen 10 people with a normale cd quality ( 128kbs )
Mr |
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| CSniper |
| exactly. internet radio is possibly the best way to eat bandwidth. I actually hired 20 spots on a server for £4 a month at 24kbps, thats how i got round the problem |
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| Hooje |
Get to www.LoveTheWeekend.com. Free shoutcast server that relays your stream to your audience (there's no limit yet on the number of listeners..).
click the signature below to hear what we sound like. |
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| jam.iii |
| looks cool hooje... :D is that your site? if there is anything open i would like to play a slot for you, i'll check the schedule on your site. so (what i've gathered from the forum there) you guys are running a shoutcast (or similar) DNAS server on your end, and all the DJ has to do is connect his mix upload stream to your DNAS server using the shoutcast (or similiar) DNS encoder right? or do the DJ's send an actual mix in mp3 form and thats what gets broadcasted (in other words, its not live, its just a pre-mixed mp3 broadcast) |
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| jam.iii |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krysta_101
This may be a tad long, but whaaaatever. |
;) if i'm not mistaken you are trying to help the newbies get streaming right? just to add to this, if you go to the shoucast website it is a little bit easier because they walk you through it and tell you what you need to download for the purpose you need. most of the newbies will have to run their own DNAS server and connect their stream to it on "localhost" unless they plan on paying to connect to a host elsewhere. the broadcaster section is located here:
http://www.shoutcast.com/support/docs
one more quick tip... i used to use the shoutcast dnas + dns via winamp but every now and then it started to get quirky and do weird things like stop broadcasting mid-set, lock up the computer, or just simply not work. this was a big no-go when i was trying to stream live. so another tip for you newbs is to check out SAM2 broadcaster (google it). It is an excellent program, very reliable too. On the page there is a large full feature version, and then there is just the standalone DNS plugins for winamp. The DNS plugins are all you need, the big version is rather complicated for most regular uses. Also, they make a neat little stats relay program that piggybacks the DNS plugin and it shows in realtime who is listening, when, and for how long. If you are experiencing trouble with shoutcasts DNS, try the SAM2! |
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| Hooje |
| quote: | Originally posted by jam.iii
looks cool hooje... :D is that your site? if there is anything open i would like to play a slot for you, i'll check the schedule on your site. so (what i've gathered from the forum there) you guys are running a shoutcast (or similar) DNAS server on your end, and all the DJ has to do is connect his mix upload stream to your DNAS server using the shoutcast (or similiar) DNS encoder right? or do the DJ's send an actual mix in mp3 form and thats what gets broadcasted (in other words, its not live, its just a pre-mixed mp3 broadcast) |
Thanks man :), and yep it is.
Cool, just have a read of this thread for how to get on the air..
http://www.lovetheweekend.com/forum...wtopic=246&st=0
And no, DJ's mix live shows (real time) on the station, we utilize shoutcast technology to do so. It works great with 128K being the common bitrate DJ's use, from all over the world. :toocool: |
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| Eric Foard |
Good stuff here. Thanks. I just recently did all of this somehow on my own. Now I’m trying to find stations that I can link on to live. Broadcast through their servers and not my Home computer. Finding the much larger audience, compared to 2 people from my home.
If anybody knows where I should start looking, it would be much appreciated. I spin Trance, Hard Trance, and Breaks. |
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