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Showing posts with the label Spacial

25 Years Of Being Into Internet Radio (1999-2024)

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Its dawned on me I've been into Internet radio since 1999. It all started with me using a friends computer and I tuned into a LIVE365 station. Cyndi Lauper All Through The Night was the first song I heard on the stream It was 2001 before I was able to afford my first computer and I set about learning How To Stream on the Internet. I've lost count of how many different bits of software I've tried in 25 years some of them were GREAT some of them were PANTS Oddcast, Edcast, Altacast, Jazler, MB Recaster, BUTT, Zara Radio, SAM Broadcaster & Winamp with DSP Encoders Early versions of certain software would Crash if you tried adding a large folder of music to it. Some software just didn't have great stability which was Sad because the software looked promising. I lost a position on an Internet radio station because of software issues. I spent a LOT of time FIGHTING with software just t

8 Reasons To Not Use SAM Broadcaster Pro

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I can think of a few reasons WHY you might want to choose an alternative to SAM Broadcaster Pro or Studio 1) Lousy Customer Support: When SAM Broadcaster goes wrong (and it will) don't expect to get much help from Spacial Audio: Even the forums and social media accounts were staffed by people who didnt really care about the software. People have even taken to Social media to vent their frustrations at not getting much in the way of support. @Spacial Audio are the worst software company I have EVER come across I really feel cheated because I never expected @Spacial Audio to be so Deceptive I don't have to make Spacial Audio look Incompetent they manage to do that all by themselves Spacial Audio's parent company must be so Proud of the way they operate? IMHO: Triton Digital need to put Spacial Audio out of business. Update March 2023: Spacial Audio have made the Support forums a READ ONLY resource. Limiting your opti

A Fool And Their Money Are Soon Parted!

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Most people know I dislike a program called SAM Broadcaster Pro made by Spacial Audio Solutions LLC I gave SAM Broadcaster all the chances in the world over a good 12 year period. SAM Broadcaster went wrong on different computers it wasn't just confined to One computer. Please let me explain a little as to why I hate that piece of software so much: I discovered Internetradio in 1999 when I first started using the Internet Although It was 2002 before I got the chance to DJ online Early versions of Streaming Audio Manager v1.3 required Winamp as a backend player and it was absolute pants. SAM Broadcaster wasn't great when you went to add a music folder It would crash & lockup before it imported all of the songs. In 2002 one of the stations I listened to was advertising for DJ's so I signed up & I ended up with a regular weekly radio show. They supplied SAM Broadcaster v2.7.9 & the keys to the software which I presumed

Streamlining Our Services (Spacial Audio)

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The usual bullshit email from Spacial Audio dropped into my email yesterday. They start off the email by saying news letters will be a quarterly thing rather than a monthly thing. Then they go onto say they've made the support forums a read only resource. (I reckon) They've done this to Scupper my blogging so I cant see customers blowing their stack at Spacial support. This isn't Spacial Audio Streamlining Its Spacial Audio finding even more ways not to SUPPORT users Spacial seem to have ditched most social media but I still see pissed off SAM Broadcaster users posting somehwere every now and then. If I didn't know better I'd say Spacial Audio are struggling for sales of their SAM Broadcaster Pro software. I guess if they're "Streamlining" that means they'll probably have laid off support staff. YET MORE REASONS NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH SPACIAL AUDIO

Turn Your Firewall Off?

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Read a Tweet from another user having issues getting support from Spacial Audio They've told this user to switch their Firewall & Security off. My radio station has been off for 3 weeks I contacted Spacial customer service They told me to switch the Firewall and Security off Thats dangerous advice from Spacial Audio the Firewall & Security protects a users computer. As to why their SAM software doesn't play nicely with the Windows Firewall is anyones guess. The CODE of SAM Broadcaster Pro/Studio is Awful at best and still crashes time after time. RadioDJ FREE radio Automation doesn't require the Firewall or Security to be switched off. Spacial Audio Support really do NOT know their Arse from their Elbow

Spacial Audio Fired Us!

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Yes its another post about how Lackluster Spacial Audio Support are. I've been watching a thread on Twitter where a user was simply told to go find another service by the Support desk at Spacial. His Crime? Asking Spacial Audio Support for help. We were *trying* to work with @spacial but when we asked them for help @spacial "fired" us! Seriously? If Spacial keep pissing customers off they'll soon have no customers to support. Spacial Audio have recently found another way not to give help. They've made the SAM BROADCASTER forums READ ONLY. Spacial do not help you their website is not working there is no links for tech help Why anyone does business with Spacial Audio is beyond me They LIE, They Cheat and the support desk doesn't help anyone. I really hope they go out of business one day Spacial Audio Solutions LLC are a STAIN on the Internet Radio Community

Spacial Audio Are Taking The Piss AGAIN!

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So its a new year and I've just looked at the SAM Broadcaster Read Me for 2022 To all intents and purposes Spacial Audio have done BUGGER ALL to their SAM Broadcaster software in 2022. All the while Spacial Audio are still taking money for their software. The developers at Spacial Audio have always been lazy They're allowed to get away with blue murder When a new release of SAM does appear its usually BUG FIXES for things they screwed up in a previous release. There doesn't seem to be any passion from the Spacial Audio developers they're lazy and overpaid IMHO. Spacial Audio are seen as something of a JOKE by a lot of broadcasters. I saw this tweet on Twitter a couple of years back now about Spacial Audio & it didn't surprise me to be honest. They don't give refunds once you purchase SAM Broadcaster related software. When SAM Broadcaster goes wrong (and it will) don't expect to get

You Won't Get Support And You Certainly WON'T Get A Refund

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Theres a SAM Broadcaster user kicking off on Social Media about not being able to get a refund from Spacial Audio. Not happy with the evaluation of service? TOUGH! Spacial Audio will take your money and give you Zero support You can Shout, You can Scream, You can talk to a Brick wall BUT YOU WILL NOT GET A REFUND People are unable to get a refund on a product they purchased In GOOD FAITH Spacial Audio won't answer messages asking for money back It says in the EULA that If you have tested the demo they assume you are satisfied. We DO NOT offer refunds because of our 14-day free trial version which allows users to try the product for free and make sure they are satisfied with it Even when we purchased SAM Broadcaster in 2010 there was a NO REFUND policy. Its why Software companies sometime SUCK and its another reason I now avoid paid for software. Spacial Audio don't like giving support after they've taken your MONE

Spacial Audio Disreputable?

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Spacial Audio Solutions LLC is ran and managed by people who just DON'T CARE about $$$ paying customers. I saw this tweet on Twitter a couple of years back now about Spacial Audio & it didn't surprise me to be honest. We've been trying to tell people this for years now. Once you buy software from Spacial Audio you won't get help when something goes wrong and Spacial software does go wrong. @spacial very very disappointed after 20 years of being customer Your customer service is so poor! The support team appear to send the same old canned replies that aren't usually of any help to the person having the issues. That's IF you're lucky enough to have your support ticket answered. @spacial please answer our emails, or dm's or just let us contact you somehow. please. we just want to talk Don't even bother with the support forums either they're just as bad. IF YOU cancel any Spacial Audio service keep an eye

I Guess It Leaves Me With NO Other Option (SAM DJ)

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I look at the Spacial Audio SAM Broadcaster/SAM DJ forums regularly. I witnessed a post from a user whom it appears is having subscription issues with SAM DJ (Formerly SAM PARTY DJ) I guess it leaves me with no other option then. Seeing that I paid for my copy of Sam DJ I really feel cheated because I never expected Spacial Audio to be so Deceptive This is not the first time Spacial Audio have been called out for being SHYSTERS The subscription model that Spacial Audio use is AWFUL at best and the activation servers keep locking genuine users out. I don't like software that has online activation requirements or keys. This user could do worse than use RadioDJ it has a better crossfade & stability than SAM DJ. IF I were still doing discos I'd probably be using RadioDJ to run my set with. There is better software than SAM DJ well better than anything SPACIAL AUDIO CODE. 1) Mixxx (FREE) 2) Virtual DJ 3) Traktor

Sam Broadcaster Crossfade Problems

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As hard as I tried I could never get SAM Broadcaster to transition smoothly between songs. I'd either end up with a few seconds of dead air or a complete car crash of a crossfade All my files were ripped properly and volume levelled so that wasn't the issue. It happened with every version of the software from v2.7.9 through to the newer versions. So it's not just a problem confined to one version of SAM Broadcaster but every single version of it. The default settings would cut the end of songs off & jingles and station ID's would never fade/play properly. I even tried settings suggested by Festerhead on the SAM Broadcaster forums but that only made the issue worse. We think Spacial Audio ripped off a Winamp DSP plugin called SQR Crossfade to make the fadeout feature in SAM. I need a little help with cross-fading when there is a voice-track or Station ID SAM Broadcaster cuts off the last second of the track Where would I deal with that? Can

You Shouldn't Have To Keep Reinstalling Software (SAM Broadcaster Pro)

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One of the BIGGEST bug bears I have about SAM Broadcaster Pro is that when something goes wrong it goes BADLY WRONG. When SAM goes Boom & Bust you have to prat around uninstalling and reinstalling the software just to get it to function. Almost ready to go LIVE again SAM Broadcaster reinstalled Database rolling and adding music files & Jingles AGAIN I witnessed SAM Broadcaster do a disappering act many a time in my 10+ years of using the software. Because SAM Broadcaster Pro doesn't come with a database backup tool you have rebuild your song database and categories. Googling the error suggests a Delphi problem SAM is written in Delphi The fact it is still happening in the 2021 versions should be sounding alarm bells to anyone thinking of purchasing SAM. This little nugget was recently shared on the Spacial forums: SAM Broadcaster Pro crashed after four hours of use Just for the record the record Uptime for Radio

Memory Leaks Are An Inherent Problem SAM Broadcaster Pro

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As the title of the post SAM Broadcaster Pro suffers with Memory Leaks. More so If you are running PAL = Playlist Automation Language Scripts. Memory Leaks are an inherent problem of how the PAL engine is designed If you design bad PAL scripts you get memory leaks It's easier to design a bad PAL script than to design a good one It's not like Memory Leaks were an unavoidable problem They've had years to get the code in SAM Broadcaster Pro BUG FREE give or take a few GUI changes its the same as it was 20 years ago. When I first tried running PAL scripts in 2002 SAM would regularly do a disappearing act or it would stutter and FREEZE. This is a from a user who is having issues with the latest 2021 version. [CORE] Unhandled exception (Out of memory while expanding memory stream) I stopped some of the scripts and the problem still occurred The memory leak PAL Script crashed SAM Broadcaster The PAL Scripting inter

Can I Transfer A SAM Broadcaster Pro Licence To A New Email?

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This was a question posed by someone on the Spacial Audio SAM Broadcaster forums after their station manager left the radio station. How do I go about transferring our SAM Broadcaster Pro 2021.4 license from our old station manager to a new email account? AFAIK: You cannot swap someone elses registered email address for yours. Its not as simple as that. This is the KICKER! Spacial Audio will most likely tell this user that they need to purchase a whole new SAM Broadcaster licence. Which means paying out $$$ just so they can broadcast with SAM Broadcaster If this user switched their station and DJ's over to RadioDJ then they wouldn't need to pay any money. Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many categories & subcategories yo

The Perils Of Activation Servers (SAM Broadcaster Pro)

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Since December 2007 Spacial Audio have required users to activate SAM Broadcaster Pro and all their other software. However the Activation Servers can sometimes have issues with how many active activations a user has. When I try to reinstall SAM I am getting an error message stating I am over the allowed number of activations. I only had it installed on one machine Hundreds of SAM Broadcaster users have had the same issue since the activation requirement was hard coded into the software You are entitled to 1 license for this program 1 licence = 1 registration key which activates the program You are permitted to activate the program on different 3 systems You can only run 1 copy of SAM Broadcaster Pro per licence and you CANNOT run multiple copies. Its another reason that SAM Broadcaster Pro sucks the way Spacial Audio LIMIT usage of their software. The SAM activation server has a nasty habit of locking users out of the software, sometimes as t