M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Id really like to find out how to use this, it seems like a nice automation too for free, but it isnt user friendly at all.. How do you use it.
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Basically:
Create a playlist using IMS http://playitmyway.me.uk/ask/index.php (or some other method)
In Zara:
Set Output to desired soundcard
Set play mode to Normal or Repeat
Get Edcast Standalone: http://www.oddsock.org/tools/edcast/
Create and configure your encoder(s)
Point it at the soundcard selected above (what you hear)
Point it to your shoutcast dnas or icecast server
There's TONS more than that to it, but that should get you started on your way. You can create events for shows or liners/jingles or the next day's playlist. It's pretty flexible. The one major gripe I always had is that the auto crossfading in it is crap. You can tag each audio file with a ~2.3 in the filename, to tell Zara to start fading manually at 2.3 seconds from the end of the track.
Hope that gets convo going here. Sad that Zara closed up their forum.
Create a playlist using IMS http://playitmyway.me.uk/ask/index.php (or some other method)
In Zara:
Set Output to desired soundcard
Set play mode to Normal or Repeat
Get Edcast Standalone: http://www.oddsock.org/tools/edcast/
Create and configure your encoder(s)
Point it at the soundcard selected above (what you hear)
Point it to your shoutcast dnas or icecast server
There's TONS more than that to it, but that should get you started on your way. You can create events for shows or liners/jingles or the next day's playlist. It's pretty flexible. The one major gripe I always had is that the auto crossfading in it is crap. You can tag each audio file with a ~2.3 in the filename, to tell Zara to start fading manually at 2.3 seconds from the end of the track.
Hope that gets convo going here. Sad that Zara closed up their forum.
a bad pit fall is mixing up the recording and playback mixers in windows. make sure you're in the recording mixer when you look for "what you hear" shoutcast shuld be showing the audio going into it anyway, so you know you're feeding your station's program audio into the encoder to send it out.
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Thnks for the help anyway,, I got Zara to work already but I dont like having to load the schedule backwards, and I couldnt get it to daypart. Since my station doesnt require dayparting anyway I just use winamp,, I just loop the playlist cause the Shuffle on Winamp sucks.
Has anyone here tried or used RadioDJ from http://www.radiodj.ro/ it is a free automation package as well runs on MySQL and seems pretty nice from initial peek at the page.
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Never Heard of it X.
since i only do live shows two nights per week, i haven't been interested in some sort of automation software..but i am considering letting the stream run 24/7 now..i use OTS AUDIO bedroom pro..mainly because i like the old school turntables..the software is so good at predicting the EXACT place to fire the next song,spot or jingle..it's amazing how it knows..i've been in radio for over 40 years..and it's just like a live jock at kicking them correctly..OTS also has a wide selection of schedule software, and the product has never burped once in the six years i've used it..BUT NOW..i would be interested in a schedule software as some of you have mentioned..i had ZARA..but never could quite get the hang of it..i'll take a look at the radiodj thing and see if it looks user friendly to an old analog jock like myself... 
ok guys just downloaded RADIODJ..but it asks for MYSQL server..which i downloaded and installed...but when i open the RADIDJ software it says the MYSQL is not running..and then closes out..what am i missing here i like the looks of the RADIODJ software,,and would like to test it can someone help me out?? thanks...chuck lundi
I am more than satisfied with Zara automation. I edit every single file to have >this close< to zero blank space heads and tails.
I set the overlap and fade to both 1 second and everything runs as tight as an impatient board op on a pot of espresso.
Once in a great while I hear something too tight, and tack on a half second to the end of whichever element gets
"crowded" by the following element. I grew up listening to WCFL and WLS, both of which seldom ever paused for a breath between elements.
If I ever decide to run a stream, it will run on a totally seperate computer, fed from a tuner with live air signal, because the stream from the computer is 'dry'. I add reverb on a side chain AT the transmitter, into a seperate input from the main audio.
The only way to ever hear the whole signal is on an actual radio. I guess I could tap out the audio at a point where they're both there, and dispense with the tuner/monitor step. Wouldn't be too hard. Certainly easier than the idea of paying money to a
hosting service, which is, to me, a bigger problem. I've been running this pt 15 for over 15 years, and the laws of physics
haven't sent a bill once, nor have there been any outages. Now if I only had a whole watt of power..
I set the overlap and fade to both 1 second and everything runs as tight as an impatient board op on a pot of espresso.
Once in a great while I hear something too tight, and tack on a half second to the end of whichever element gets
"crowded" by the following element. I grew up listening to WCFL and WLS, both of which seldom ever paused for a breath between elements.
If I ever decide to run a stream, it will run on a totally seperate computer, fed from a tuner with live air signal, because the stream from the computer is 'dry'. I add reverb on a side chain AT the transmitter, into a seperate input from the main audio.
The only way to ever hear the whole signal is on an actual radio. I guess I could tap out the audio at a point where they're both there, and dispense with the tuner/monitor step. Wouldn't be too hard. Certainly easier than the idea of paying money to a
hosting service, which is, to me, a bigger problem. I've been running this pt 15 for over 15 years, and the laws of physics
haven't sent a bill once, nor have there been any outages. Now if I only had a whole watt of power..
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Im having the same problem as delta, and not to sound dumb, but I dont know what my SQLSERVER means?
ok got the mysql server running when you open it under all programs there is a small window and you enter your prechosen password..then its on..got the "radiodj" page working now..looks cool..got my 17,000 song play list loaded..now trying to figure out the rest of it..lol...i will doodle with it in my spare time as i am not in a hurry to bust out 24/7 just yet...
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Let me know when you get the bugs worked out, cause I must run 24/7, and it requires dayparting which I have to be home to pre load manually, and I have stuff I need to do to where i cant set home and play the ONLY ONE on AIR jock I have,,,,, Although I run specialty shows with other DJs, but im the only OPP,,,Also in a few weeks im going to be running 2 stations, both of which will have shows that need Scheduled.. If anyone knows any easy program that a Dumbie like me can use for scheduling, and im talking pre school style set up,, let me know.. i wouldnt even mind buying something as long as it is easy and wont crash, or do stupid crap like corrupt my files, or skip songs. Oh.. people dont realize how hard it is for us hobbyists just to run a non for profit station. Its more than loading songs into your automation and flipping a switch.. Also, people probably dont know how much bandwidth is,,,, 38 bucks a month for 15 slots, and thats without royalties.
interesting about radio DJ.....I've downloaded it and will play with it a bit. there are a # of automation systems out there, they start out as beta then once tested, you have to pay, so it's possible that might happen with this one, especially since the GUI looks a lot like the more professional mediatouch and wide orbit often used in commerical radio stations.
I can see zara giving problems with dayparting, but I see no use for dayparting so it's not much of an issue with me. I rotate decades on a daily basis however, so I just create playlists for each day of the week with a transition at midnight eastern..and away with go. If you want certain music say in midday, then put it in a folder, and create a playlist from that folder to run 10 am to 2 pm only. it's not that hard. I let zara pick the music individually. I don't have the time and patience for music schedulers for an internet stream. It is too much extra work for little advantage. I have upwards of 30,000 to 40,000 music files which doesn't exactly help either.
I can see zara giving problems with dayparting, but I see no use for dayparting so it's not much of an issue with me. I rotate decades on a daily basis however, so I just create playlists for each day of the week with a transition at midnight eastern..and away with go. If you want certain music say in midday, then put it in a folder, and create a playlist from that folder to run 10 am to 2 pm only. it's not that hard. I let zara pick the music individually. I don't have the time and patience for music schedulers for an internet stream. It is too much extra work for little advantage. I have upwards of 30,000 to 40,000 music files which doesn't exactly help either.
deltas69 said:
Need to make sure that your MySQL is running as a service on Startup...
Mid West Clubber said:
shop around for bandwidth....I have a $9.95/deal with myshoutserver.com for 25 slots at 128kbps stereo. there are better deals, but it's pretty stable, so I stick with them.
as for royalties, I'm covered technically for my home country, canada with SOCAN. They contacted me recently about complying with the canadian copyright act....so after all was said and done, as no revenue is generated, I paid them $100/yr and now i'm licensed. The rep said she really couldn't answer what it covers outside canada, which doesn't surprise me, as the medium is so new, it's still very much a grey area full of bully's who really should work for a reasonable compromise for us with no revenue coming in.
dayparting isn't a hard thing with zara...but requires planning. with me, I let zara program the music on a individual track basis. I get it guidelines though. I have 3 catagories usually, hits, non hits and country. these are all in separate folders on the hard drive. with this, I can create playlists in zara and add whatever amount I want from each folder, save the playlist and schedule it for whatever hours I want.
In your case, you could daypart the music in specific folders, create playlists and schedule those playlists for that particular daypart. a list loads hourly for me, so it's easy to schedule songs in a specific hour if I wanted.
for syndicated shows, I have folders for each show, and it it has say 4 segments, I have a folder for each and load the folder in the playlist. This way, when you rotate the weekly show, all you do is load the mp3 audio into the folder for each segment.
you can't get much simpler then zara....
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