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Showing posts from August, 2020

You're Using A Pirated Version Of SAM Broadcaster Pro?

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A SAM Broacaster user is having issues with his SAM Broadcaster Pro activation. The user Tweeted that he was having issues with his SAM Broadcaster Pro Key @spacial explain to me why I emailed eight different people with an issue I have with SAM PRO They all keep telling me my product code key is invalid? I paid $300 for this P.O.S Spacial Audio have come back with this response. Did you purchase your product directly from our website? If not, then there is a possibility that this could be a crack license I can't wait to see what reply the user comes back with @spacial You don't accuse customers of running pirated copies of your software when they aren't. Its why I hate paid for software that has keys or activations the support for those products is DIRE! The Spacial Audio helpdesk aren't the only ones to accuse users you used to get accused by the SVS Volunteers on the Spacial Audio forums. The Spacial SAM Broadcaster Forums have been ...

SAM Broadcaster Pro Touch Aborted Message

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If you're a SAM Broadcaster Pro user then you will probably have seen this message in the event log. 15:41:42 [TOUCH] Warning Touch aborted. Please register your station at AudioRealm.com This messsage lets Spacial Audio know just who is using their software without registering for their Audiorealm service. You can disable that message by unchecking a box in the setup options. IF you're using an illicit version and you've not unchecked that box Spacial Audio will have details of your IP address. Which to me means the software technically contains SPYWARE. I'm certain there are other ways SAM Broadcaster Pro lets Spacial Audio know just who is using it. SAM Broadcaster is NOT a good piece of software as its known to Crash & Burn all the time. Software such as RadioDJ has NO spyware because it doesn't have 3rd party websites tracking usage. ...

Firebird Database Sam Broadcaster Pro

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SAM Broadcaster Pro comes with Five different options of database to install (MySQL and MariaDB are practically the same thing) Firebird - MariaDB - MySQL - PostgreSQL - MSSQL Firebird appears to be the most unstable database of the options you're given. SAM Broadcaster 2020.2 on Firebird has been crashing every 2-5 days I regularly see users having stability issues using SAM Broadcaster Pro with the Firebird database. I installed SAM Broadcaster with the help of a software engineer We used the Firebird server That worked well for a few days Then SAM wouldn't restart SAM fails more and more now to the point where it crashes at least once/twice a Week Its taking the fun out of my hobby We often see users complaining that Firebird in SAM Broadcaster Pro has crashed on them and that they've lost all their data. I tried installing Firebird for SAM Broadcaster Pro but it didn't work Firebird only allows you to load a maximu...

The Best Free Radio DJ Software? (RadioDJ)

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Recently saw someone search for The Best Free Radio DJ Software when I looked at the stats on Google Analytics. By now they'll hopefully be using the best free music automation program of them all. RadioDJ is the best radio playout software IMHO Built around the .NET framework (at least 3.5 & 4.6.1) and a MySQL database its pretty reliable and stable. Q: Is RadioDJ really free? A: Yes its 100% free for use by any DJ or radio station, anywhere in the world. Despite claims by other software developers RadioDJ is a great starting point to start your own Internet radio station. RadioDJ doesn't rely on massive amounts of CPU it can run on a system with as little as 1GB RAM and least 1000 MHz CPU. Your system should have more power and processing, You can pick up computers with decent specifications cheaply these days. A new user of the software recently said this about RadioDJ. I'm new to RadioDJ it is bett...

Spacial Audio Support (What Support?)

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When you pay hundreds of $$$ for a piece of software you would at least expect some form of support from the Vendor of that piece of software. Wouldn't YOU? Unfortunately Spacial Audio the developers of SAM Broadcaster Pro/Studio do NOT Know the meaning of the words CUSTOMER SUPPORT Spacial Audio like to play big corporate with their support team who don't appear to have used the software @spacial Sam Broadcaster tech support is consistently absent! @spacial where help is absent following crashed software They take your money and make it difficult to get support @spacial I'm very disappointed after 20 years of being customer I love SAM Broadcaster. But @spacial Customer Support makes me feel more like a victim, than a customer The Customer service manager is often RUDE towards people making complaints The activation/registration requirement in SAM Broadcaster Pro NEVER works properly. SAM often loc...

Setting Up An Encoder (Streaming Media)

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A user on the RadioDJ forums was asking for help setting up his encoder. Most encoding software tends to be similar to setup and run. Whether that be a stand alone encoder or a built in one. Its not difficult setting up an encoder. Most of the encoding programs rely on several bits of information in order for you to connect to Shoutcast or Icecast. Server or IP address : Tends to be the address your streaming provider emailed you it will look something like this. e.g: 184.154.145.114 or fred.myshoutcastprovider.com (Without the http:// part) Server Port : This will be the port number you or your provider set for you when you setup or signed up for the server. e.g: 8015 Server Type : You have different options when it comes to streaming this will usually be Shoutcast, Shoutcast v2 or Icecastv2 If you need to stream to another service such as Live365 You may want to ask their support team to help you with any connection issues Encoder Password : This will be...

Sound Empire Caster Stable

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I've tested lots of encoding software in all the years I've been into Internetradio. Oddcast, Edcast, Altacast, MB Recaster, BUTT, SAM Cast (Simplecast) & Various Winamp DSP Encoders. Most encoding software has been OK but a couple of the programs I tried to stream with caused buffering on my stream(s) The Shoutcast DSP plugin for Winamp was one of the worst encoders I tried my stream would often cut out and buffer The SAM DSP/Simplecast encoders would also buffer and cut out. SAM Cast can't handle title streaming so if you use that your listeners wouldn't know what you were playing on your stream. The encoding software DSP solutions I was trying and testing 18 years ago weren't much KOP. Fast forward 18 years and I think I've found the most stable piece of encoding software ever Sound Empire Caster I've been testing it for quite some time now and I haven't had to deal with any buf...

Sam Broadcaster Pro EULA Licence

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Did you ever wonder what restrictions that Spacial Audio place on users when it comes to using SAM Broadcaster Pro? Spacial Audio updated their EULA (End User Licence Agreement) on the 10th of April 2017 It would appear Spacial Audio want to Dictate what you can and cant do with their software in the SAM Broadcaster Pro EULA Licence The Software may not be used in a manner that infringes, violates or misappropriates the rights of any third party; in a manner that violates any applicable local, state or national laws; in a manner that violates the privacy of any person or entity, or in a manner that is otherwise illegal or promotes illegal activities, including, without limitation anything that may be considered obscene, libellous, defamatory, or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity So if you're thinking of using the software to stream an unlicensed station (Pirate Radio) then you may not use SAM Broadcaster Pro You can only run 1 station per licenc...

Sam Broadcaster Pro Unhandled Exception (Not Enough Storage)

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Seen this topic on the SAM Broadcaster forums: SAM Broadcaster Unhandled Exception (not enough Storage) It seems a user was getting this error message in Event log as he was trying to add large amounts of music into SAM. This user only managed to get 58,000 tracks out of 88,000+ imported into SAM Broadcaster before the program wouldn't let them add anymore. The user has even tried a computer reboot and still cannot get tracks imported into SAM Broadcaster without the program crashing on them. I added a few more tracks SAM Froze again then rebooted my PC now I cannot do Tools->Maintenance->Verify songs as SAM Freezes part way through Apparently the Gurus on Stack-overflow say this is a Delphi problem with Heap Size exceeded The storage referred to is NOT hard disk storage but the heap memory available to the SAMBC.exe process It's not system-wide memory exhaustion, but a process limit Not sure if there are any other scenarios where this might happe...

Sam Broadcaster Pro Not Built For Relaying A Stream?

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SAM Broadcaster Pro Not Built for Relaying a Stream? So even though the program is called Streaming Audio Manager It's not actually built for relaying a stream through? SAM Broadcaster buffers while relaying a stream and takes forever to move onto the next queue item when the stream drops. That's even with the silence remover/detector active. I tried relaying a stream through SAM Broadcaster way back in v2.7.9 and had issues with it buffering and breaking up. I saw this nugget on a the SAM Broadcaster forums recently SAM Broadcaster Pro is definitely not made for rebroadcasting a stream Not much of Streaming Audio Manager if it can't relay an online radio stream. Another issue people run into while trying to rebroadcast a stream via SAM Broadcaster is the title streaming SAM doesn't relay the now playing information to the encoders. This is a design problem with SAM Broadcaster The titles that show on the player are t...

The Only Way To Get Help With SAM Broadcaster PRO

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The support department at Spacial Audio are an utter shambles when it comes to how they operate. It transpires Spacial Audio support will only reply to your support ticket if you have a valid licence key or registered email address on their system. I couldn’t receive assistance due to a licence key discrepancy They actually implied I wasn't telling the truth, now they are no longer answering support requests I'm now getting 'this ticket is now closed' replies The SAM Broadcaster Pro activation/registration component never works properly. @spacial My husband's license key is not valid although his account is paid The only way to contact the Help Desk is to have a valid key This isn't the 1st time this happened more than 7 times the key arbitrarily invalidates Because it doesn't require registration keys or online activations! Here's the thing that's the email I used. On customer-facing side I'm getting requests f...

I've Had To Shut My Radio Station Down (Sam Broadcaster Pro)

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I looked at the Spacial Audio's social media feeds recently and couldn't help but notice an angry user venting about issues with SAM Broadcaster I have SAM Broadcaster Pro on two laptops neither will work because of constant crashing issues I cannot DJ because your software keeps letting me down I have had to shut my radio station down I can sympathise with the user venting his frustrations. I used SAM Broadcaster for over 10 years and had nothing but headaches with constant crashing/buffering & freezing issues. When SAM Broadcaster Pro crashed it would take the database with it. As there is no way to backup or restore the database in SAM Broadcaster you have to prat around reinstalling everything. This user shouldn't have to stop running their radio station They just need to use more reliable radio automation software They wouldn't have any of these crashing/stability issues if they switched to RadioDJ to...

Running A MySQL Database Along Side RadioDJ Needn't Be Scary!

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So you think its going to be scary installing a MySQL database alongside RadioDJ ( Hint: It isn't difficult) What are you scared of? Running a MySQL database server need not be scary and it needn't be a hassle. With MariaDB its easy to Install It should also install a tool called HeidiSQL which is where you do your basic maintenance on your MySQL server. The last time I rebuilt my RadioDJ song database from scratch was June 2014. I take daily backups of the database so I don't lose all my hard work or changes to my song database! How To Install MariaDB TIP: If you've previously tried to install MySQL server you will need to follow This Post about removing the service first. If you followed the simple tutorial you should have MariaDB setup and running within 5/10 minutes. Right click on the taskbar and select task manager & look for the service mysqld.exe or MariaDB in task manager. Once you have MariaDB working I'm going to su...

Sam Broadcaster Pro Crashes

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I recently thought I'd install & see if anything changed with the latest version of SAM Broadcaster Pro SADLY IT HADN'T I started SAM Broadcaster after I configured it connected it to Shoutcast pressed play and off it went or so I thought. I got called away to help a neighbour with something & I was only gone from the computer for 10/15 minutes IF that. When I came back my stream was silent NOTHING was playing just dear air. I looked on the computer & an error message said SAM Broadcaster had STOPPED WORKING you know, that really annoying error! I had it on a clean and fresh install of Windows 11 only Sam Broadcaster was installed After testing SAM Broadcaster Pro it froze displaying the usual critical error (Unexpected Exception Occurred) After 20 years those SAM Broadcaster problems should be a thing of the past Nothing has changed with SAM Broadcaster It's still prone to crashing without warning Why do people s...

Sam Broadcaster Pro High CPU Usage?

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Q: Have you ever noticed the amount of CPU that SAM Broadcaster Pro uses? Users have reported that they cannot run SAM Broadcaster Pro without it taking up the computers CPU & resources. I'm running a machine with 8GB RAM and SAM Broadcaster Pro is taking up most of the Memory and the CPU is up at 70%-80% making the PC sluggish Users shouldn't be having those sort of issues on newer machines with that amount of RAM. Ever since the early days SAM Broadcaster Pro has always required huge amounts of the CPU and Memory. SAM Broadcaster locked up in the middle of a radio show it would always max out my CPU when I least wanted it or needed it too Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro requires a restart after it locks up and freezes. I often had to use task manager to exit the software Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro is a very system intensive piece of software. It requires a lot of the systems time and resources Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro has been known to slam the CPU ...