I also use Sam if I go Live and FileZilla for FTP files. However, my difference on programs is that I use MP3 Gain for normalize, and I use Audacity for all of my trimming and editing needs.

I use MegaSeg Pro 5 & Nicecast when I go live. Insanely happy with the performance. For production I use Soundtrack Pro.

I use Adobe Audition to trim and normalize tracks, and make any station id's.

Cuteftp for any file uploads

Station Playlist Studio Standard and Station Playlist creator Lite. Cost for both $156.00. Can be bought on a 6 month payment plan. The accept Pay Pal, or credit card.

I started out webradio life very cheaply.

The set up was Winamp, Shoutcast Source, Squaresoft Compressor/Limiter, and the station's custom .apf file which raised db levels....When setting everything up, it was recommended that the dj's set the system volumes so that music and microphones peaked at -3db....Everything ran on a 1.8 ghz PC with 1 gig of RAM and a SoundBlaster Audigy soundcard.

Now I use MP3Gain to normalize and SAM Broadcaster using the Lame codecs.

Someday I hope to upgrade the PC because this one is old and has already had three rounds of hardware failures in the last year.

Radioboss and SAM broadcaster...Radioboss is getting much better for me anyway.

So loudcaster has no broadcaster software?

Not yet. But there is a Loudcaster version of RadioBoss.

I use MegaSeg Pro 5 & Nicecast. I only broadcast in "live" mode. Megaseg is a fantastic piece of software with excellent support and frequent updates. For production I use Garage Band.

Yes indeed RadioBoss is very easy and works very well. I've been an early beta tester of the official Loudcaster version and if you want to hear it in action my station uses it. I also use Screaming Bee to change the voice for the ID's and Fairstars Mp3 recorder to record my voice.

If you need help with RadioBoss i'll try and help. Plus I believe Brandon has a video out on it now, but indeed very simple and with the latest update very stable. Hint for Win7 in the Mic/Line imput set it to not use Windows. This will use RadioBos's driver instead and will clear up a lot of issues with announcing.

Real Album Rock
http://thelegacyrocks.24ex.com
An original Loudcaster Beta Tester.

MP3 Gain, MJ playlist maker, Tabascco's ammazing clockwheel, EDCast (Jaramondo Radio Version), Winamp, SOMETIMES a program from sourceforge called BUTT (Broadcast using this tool).

At one time I used SAM3 but I recently had so many stability problems with MYSQL I had to drop it. I currently run ZARA Radio 1.6, EDcast and Simplecast (just the statistic relays part). For audio editing I use my old trusty copy of Cool Edit Pro and sometimes I'll use Audacity.

For some reason I can't stream +AAC without it being distorted and over modulated. I'm thinking the all in one motherboard I am using isn't up to snuff on some multimedia uses (or MYSQL for that matter).

Ravishal....You said you use Zara Radio 1.6. I too have that and it's EXCELLENT but how do you use it and for what?. Live broadcasting? Playlist making?. Just what do you use it for if I may ask?....Thanks (Doc) :)

I use it for Live broadcasting. I was at first concerned about the audio quality but the built in AGC does a good job at keeping the levels consistent. I create the playlists in Winamp so as to not tie up Zara.

Just a few issues I've noted with Zara; Even when used in Random mode it plays the very first song on the list. My solution was to create a very short, blank file and place it at the top of the list. With the 3 second overlap I use you never notice it. Strangely enough with over 4,000 tracks in a playlist I have heard the same song twice in a row. This is even when I have the "delete song from playlist when played" button checked. I have my system set up to launch all my necessary programs when Windows starts in case of a power outage. Zara seems to forget the above mentioned button and it sets the volume level to %100 which is too high for me. If anyone knows if there is an argument I can add to the executable file let me know (like Zara.exe -vol=75).

I have heard about stability issues with Sam, but it usually was because of the Firebird database. Most people recommend MYSql for use with Sam. Go figure.

I have tried most of the software mentioned here, including I downloaded Zara yesterday, but I could not find any way to connect ZARA to LoudCaster.

Being old fashioned, I like software that has the look and feel of an actual mixer. I tried RadioDJ, but there is no Mic support. I settled on using VirtualDJ PRO-basic ($99). It has Mic support, can utilize multiple sound cards and channels, has 12 preloaded tracks for drops, effects, jingles, ID's, or whatever, has an integrated connection to the server, and lots of effects such as wah wah, phaser, reverb, echo, etc. There are a lot of skins, showing 2 or 4 turntables. You can map your keyboard for various functions, select various codecs, and adjust performance. It has video and iphone features that I don't use. For $10 a month you can get over 8 million songs on the fly from netsearch (but you can't save them to disc). For live broadcasting, this is probably a lot cheaper than buying the songs. There is a feature to broadcast from your own computer using songs from netsearch, but you are limited to 4 listeners. If you are broadcasting dance or club music, it has pitch control on each turntable to sync the BPM. The simulated master VU meter overlays two channels and you can zoom in or out. Each turntable has it's own VU and indicates total time, remaining time, etc. It has a compatible song feature that will find songs compatible to the one that is now playing. You can search the library and use the typical sort patterns, see what is the most played, etc.

There is a free version that you can use as a trial. All of the pro features can be used, but they are time limited to 10 minutes or so. Without a subscription, the NetSearch songs only play the first 30 seconds.

Ravishal....So HOW did you connect to Loudcaster to broadcast LIVE?. I have used Zara and don't see anywhere you can use it for live broadcasts to another party such as Loudcaster. If I recall, you CAN use Broadwave (as an example) and launch from your website using your PC, BUT then you are not covered for royalties to anyone. So, what did you do to be able to use Zara for broadcasting your Loudcaster stream and still be compliant???

Ravishal...again, how did you connect using Zara Radio? Where did you insert stream info for broadcasting?

Sorry for the delay. I use Edcast to encode my stream. Zara outputs every song to a text file showing artist and title which Edcast uses to stream the ID3 metadata

Ravishal, how do you get Zara to send the album information? As far as I know Zara uses a file called CurrentSong.txt which only contains Artist - title. I haven't been able to get Zara to send anything else.

When you enable it to read ID3 tags just add the argument - $ALBM . That will enable Album info to be uploaded.

That's great for Zara but how do you transfer that info to Edcast? When I tried it Zara put the album information in the 'On Air - Now Playing' window (top left) but that info doesn't get into the CurrentSong.txt file. Consequently Edcast doesn't even know about it. Loudcaster just gets the Artist - Title info.

OK, looking at the contents of the CurrentSong.txt file I also only see Artist and title, but on my Loudcaster page it does show album info, which is present in my ID3 tags.

You have to tell Edcast where to find the file. Click the EDIT button next to Metadata. Then select the "FILE" method. Assuming a typical install you want this path:

C:\Program Files\Zarasoft\Zararadio\CurrentSong.txt

I set my interval at 20 seconds. Since you're a 50s station your songs tend to be shorter so you may opt for 15 seconds.

Hmmm... That's exactly what I have done however the Album data seems to be ignored. I'm live right now (Oldies Alternative) and the album name isn't being shown. I guess that's the best i can hope for. BTW what's the name of your station?

Actually I just noticed that the data that shows up in the Loudcaster page (and in the Edcast metadata block) is really the actual filename & not the metadata. ???

OK, I finally was able to get Zara to send the information to Loudcaster to display the Artist - title - album BUT it has nothing to do with the tags. Zara saves the now playing song in a file called CurrentSong.txt. This file gets it's data only from the filename so in order to send the proper data from Zara to Edcast & therefore on to Loudcaster, I had to change the filenames as: Artist - Title - Album.

Is that how you have your files set up Ravishal? It's the only way I could get mine to work.

Correct 50's 4 ever. Zara only does filename. What I have seen done is someone created a little php script that took the data from the song, and. then patched the software so it sent it to the app, app sorts it by ID3, and Edcast stand alone reads off that instead. I dont know where it is, but Im guessing its on my dead laptop... :(

similar to DSJ's old "Cast-it" script.

Thanks for the info Brutish.
So are you saying that the script runs on your PC, and that the PHP script patches itself into Zara?
The castit script is still out there but I'm not sure I would know how to use it.

Oi vey, Brutish is correct. If you can track that PHP script down we'd appreciate it. Otherwise I think the only solution would be to rename the files to include the album name on the end.

Which is what you'd have to do, correct!

This is going to suck. renaming the files will break all my playlists. I have over 10,000 tracks to categorize again. **facepalm**

Ravishal, what do you use for categorizing and creating your playlists? Tag&Rename is a great MP3 tag editor. It works great on batch tagging and renaming. All I had to do was batch rename in a few different folders which I use for categorizing & then run the playlist maker again.

At first I used SAM to create the categories then exported them as play list files (.m3u). Now I am using Winamp to create new .m3u files when I add new songs to the 3 main play lists I use. With some 4,000 plus songs in two of the lists renaming the files is going to break them. Will this Tag&Rename load a playlist, rename the files, then allow you to save that playlist?

I'll let 50s4ever confirm this, but YES it will. Should be no problem. Make your playlist simply a FOLDER. I used Tag & Rename last night on a specific folder and nothing changed within the folder.

Tag&Rename won't actually load a playlist. But if you can put all the files from the playlist into a folder, as Doc mentioned you can add all the files from the folder into Zara & save it as your new playlist. I keep my files in folders based on the year. so I had to rename several different folders. But then I created new playlists. If you need to keep the playlists intact, I'm not sure how you would do that.

I use Station Playlist Studio Standard and Station Playlist creator standard. Works like a charm. FileZilla for FTP uploads. Looking for a good file normalizer, also use AUDACITY for editing tracks. Where can I get some good quality GOSPEL music for download at a great price.Thank you all

WJCIL: I sent you a private email but I am not sure if it was delivered, so check your inbox and let me know.

Hello Jack, thanks for the reply. Please send again.

MP3Gain works great for normalizing.

WJCIL: I sent it again. Click "INBOX" at the top of this page and it should be there.

Does anyone else use the private messaging feature here? I have no idea whether it works or not? Some features here have been a little bit in question.

Worked for me a few times :)

I ran across this if anyone's interested:
http://proppfrexx.radio42.com/v3/index.html

I use Radiodj which is a free program . Its right up there with sam , station playlist etc
radiodj.ro

Radiodj looks like an amazing program that is free.

It is very similar to SAM & I agree it's an excellent program. However I did try it for a while & it ocasionally crashed. It's quite possibly due to my system though.

I ran across this if anyone's interested rich
http://proppfrexx.radio42.com/v3/index.html

Fixed it for you, Doc. :)

OK, revisiting this issue with streaming metadata. Looking at the help page it only mentions the uploaded songs to the DJbot requiring album information. It does not mention requiring album information at all on the live streams. While you can stream artists, title and album via shoutcast streams you cannot do that with Icecast2. Whether you stream Ogg or MP3 there is only a check box for streaming metadata and that's only for artists - title. Therefore I see no need at all invest in new software to stream album tags when it's not required.

These are the reporting requirements as requested by SoundExchange:

1. name of the service making transmissions (including call letters if relevant)
2. Identification of the transmission category from one of eleven choices
3. name of the featured artist
4. sound recording title
5. album title and marketing label OR International Standard Recording Code (”ISRC”)
6. actual total performances
7. channel or program name

So technically it is required that it is reported.